Rocksmith 2014 Edition

Compared to this year’s edition, the first Rocksmith was only a soundcheck. This version has all the quirks and bugs sorted out and brings a perfectly balanced tool for anyone who’s too shy to take guitar or bass lessons. [Issue#237]

Rocksmith transforms the boring process of learning how to play guitar in a fun, engaging and useful game. If you already know how to play guitar, you can always polish your technique and hear new songs.

Rocksmith 2014 is hands down the best music game I have ever played. It turns honing skills and learning an instrument into an incredibly enjoyable game which constantly feeds you positive feedback. You'll be coming back again an again, not just to play your favorite songs, but also to jam around with the virtual band.

Whether you’re looking to learn guitar, brush up on your existing skills or looking for something to practising your current skills with, Rocksmith 2014 scratches all of the guitar-based itches you could possibly hope for.

Due to missing feedback in certain situations Rocksmith is still not able to replace the teacher, but if you have basic knowledge of using a six-string you will get a lot out of this. And it is darn fun, too!

We learnt Paint it Black note-for-note in about an hour this morning; that definitely wouldn't have happened without Rocksmith. [Issue#142, p.111]

If you are into rock music you will love the track list. And as a bonus Rocksmith 2014 truly teaches you to play the guitar or bass. Just don’t expect to be held in the hand if you are a total beginner or challenged if you are an experienced musician.

Rocksmith 2014 is a fantastic learning tool. Capitalizing on the learning aspect and laying aside the restrictive "level up to better venues and whatnot," from the previous was a great move by Ubisoft. RS14 now allows the player/ aspiring muscian to choose the path they wish to pursue (rhythm, lead, bass) and guides them along a recommended path. Whether you go their route or choose your own method is entirely up to you. The biggest and most important changes to RS14 are the much needed fixing of riff repeater and the addition of session mode. Both modes will massively help new players in getting the basics of two important aspects of playing. With riff repeater, the player has far more control over the speed, difficulty and duration of what they wish to focus on. Want to do the pre-chorus at 60% speed and 75% difficulty? Done. Want to play the whole song that way? RS can do this too. As you correctly play through whatever section you choose, the game smartly ups the speed, while maintaining the difficulty Once you master said section, the speed decreases to the point you started, but adds more notes, until you are eventually playing the whole song, lick for lick, at full speed, and it feels Amazing. Next is session mode. For many players who play tabs or play along with music, but have never played freestyle and just cut loose, there is a lot to love. You pick the tempo, style, and back ups for your fake band, they keep the beat and you get to explore your sound. As talked about by other critics and users, the selection of music is a strong variety spanning decades. There is something for about everybody ranging from Bob Dylan to Slayer. Day one DLC had some suprising choices like brand new Queens of the Stoneage and Them Crooked Vultures (YES!). RS is smart about pointing one of their many Lessons to help recommend areas where the player could use brushing up, once again, if they feel the need to. Everything from chords 101 to special techniques like double tapping are covered. For people who are more interested in the gaming aspect, the guitarcade has many updated and actually fun games teaching fundamental skills which translate into skills you may not know need improvement. The big going theme of Rocksmith 2014 is easy of use and it's quick streamlined menu system. Long load times are not an issue. Setting up your system for play still requires a specific sort of set up, but can be done within five minutes. The lag issue is only present for those who do not take the time to properly set up their audio setup. If there are any complaints it is generally due to the player's laziness. Which brings us to the end of this review. Rocksmith 2014 is the best learning tool I've seen for people who do not have access to traditional methods of learning, and makes the process very approachable. Please keep in mind learning a musical instrument takes years of practice and patience. Rocksmith can start your path to improvement, and for many people like myself, who have no intention of trying to become Eddie Van Halen, it is exactly what we're was looking for. Highly recommended.

I'll keep it short and sweet: Pros/Changes: 1. Session mode is an awesome addition, there is a plethora of instruments to choose from and the band reacts accordingly to what you are playing, TONS OF FUN. 2. Mini-games are actually fun this time. 3. Interface is A MILLION times better than the original, clunky and unintuitive design. Cons: 1. This is not a substitute for guitar lessons, no matter what the ads tell you. You will at least need a couple of irl lessons to teach you proper picking, positioning etc... . 2. The session mode is a bit simplistic, in a sense that there will be ONE preset ABCDEFG chords that the band will play at a time. I personally haven't found anything that would top this in terms of being fun and simultaneously be educational.

The Original Rocksmith got me started. Rocksmith 2014 is leaps and bounds ahead! Seems to be Re-Written from ground up. On Xbox360 and PC versions I've had ZERO Lag. Very fast to get where I want to go. Songs that I played in Rocksmith 1 were brought over to the 2014 and there's even more to some of these songs, now that the new engine can recognized flourishes, chackas and other things that the original couldn't. Almost have to unlearn some of what I've learned prior to play even better. What blew me out of the park was playing "Carry On My Wayward Son". Having mastered it in RS1, the 2014 version was more indepth and the nuances I was missing from RS1 has arrived! PLUS it went from Distortion to Clean and back to Distortion RIGHT when it needed to without me having to do anything. OMG!! LOVE THIS GAME and GENRE!! MORE MORE MORE! Also, I can finally say I want Rythym, Solo or sometimes even a mix, instead of trying to cover all in different areas, which is what sorta irritated me with RS1

First off, I love this game. You would think it odd that given this review. Let me explain. The first major hurdle you run into when playing this game are the frequent game freezes (or lock ups) that occur. At first, it was every other day, now I can't get through 3 songs without having the game lock up. This requires a mandatory reboot of the entire game. This can take 5 10 minutes to get all the way back online, logged in, and back to a song you want to play. I played for an hour yesterday, had 4 freezes that cost me about 15 minutes of my life. I talked with ubisoft tech support, each time they took 48 hours to get back to me. I have had other companies respond in hours. Their first response was unload all rocksmith files and installs from the xbox harddrive and re-install. This is turn your computer off and then on again support. An hour later not very surprised that their advice didn't work, but I suppose that may fix some issues. Then they ask to unplug all usb accessories. I do and no surprise it locks up again. I feel that this is as bad as it can get and just try to play through the pain because the game really did help me learn guitar and it is FUN. In non-stop play I hit "skip song" and get a message that, my file is corrupted, losing 122 hours of game play/ranking up in the songs. So as great a teacher and fun as it is the frustration level is through the roof! If you can deal with the constant freezes and an occasional complete loss of all achievements, and have to deal with a clueless and uncaring customer service department this is the game for you. BTW, they have been talking about a 'patch' for a few weeks now. Game has been out 3 weeks, no patch. No offer from company for free song dlc, partial refund or anything else. No, I did not ask for anything, but come on man. Here is tech support response today. Note no mention of a patch coming anytime soon: “I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. Thank you for reporting this issue. I will be forwarding this issue up to the development team for further review. That is all I can do at this time, as we have no further information. If any additional information becomes available, it will be detailed on the game's official forum at **** and our Support Website (****).” So, basically stop emailing us.

Game totally ****, waste of money. How frustrating it is to try to learn guitar when a.) You know your guitar is in tune, but the game disagrees, and b.) it won't read half the notes you play, so it basically tells you you fail everything. waste of money. Use Youtube to learn guitar, or take lessons, but this is worthless.