Rocksmith 2014 Edition - Xbox 360 (Cable Included)

I think I'm the typical American male. I've owned a beautiful Fender Strat for over 15 years. I've got an amp to go with it. Sitting in an office, the set looks damned-impressive. Like too many typical American males, though, I can only remember about 3 riffs and one chord. If I only had three more chords, I could form a band!! My beautiful black guitar has collected dust for most of the 15 years I've owned it. Before Christmas, I started looking for new Xbox games to request as gifts. I stumbled upon the Rocksmith games. I read many of the reviews. Most of the reviews sound exactly like me--people who have always wanted to play guitar, but have never devoted the time necessary to actually play anything but a few select riffs. Riffs are cool, but they won't get you through an entire song. I've always felt that if one is going to actually "play" a guitar, one ought to be able to at least play a song. Right? Anyway, the concept of Rocksmith appealed to me. After seeing kids play Guitar Hero or Rock Band, I always wondered what would happen if you could plug a real guitar into the game. Well, UBI Soft has done exactly that! So, on Christmas morning, I found Rocksmith 2011. Using some gift cards, I also purchased 2014. Instead of pressing color bars on a fake instrument, you have to press the correct fret and string on a real guitar! If I miss a note, helpful arrows nudge my finger in the right direction to find the correct note next time. Like Hero, you get to play along with actual songs from the actual artists. Even better, Rocksmith lays in the appropriate effects pedals/amps to mimic the correct sound. Tom Scholz of Boston spent much of an Engineering degree developing his "Boston crunch" sound, but when it is time to play that part of the solo, Rocksmith lays in the correct sound and I get all of his work for the price of a video game! This is true of all songs in the Rocksmith catalog. If Pearl Jam played it that way, you get to sound that way, too! The beauty of this "game" is that when you choose to learn a song, you are presented with a small portion of the total notes and techniques needed to play the song from start to finish. If I am able to play the majority of the notes presented, the next time I play the song, the "game" will add in an additional small percentage of notes, increasing the difficulty. Usually, the difficulty doesn't jump so far that you get nervous, but occasionally, I find that it jumps me a little too far ahead and I start fumbling. When this happens, though, the "game" will readjust the difficulty the other direction until it learns that I am back in the groove of the song. This feature, alone, would make the "game" useful as a guitar trainer. However, there are so many more features. Based upon my play, Rocksmith suggests lessons or "Guitarcade" games that help to improve the techniques I am fumbling. These even include video lessons with an instructor demonstrating a bend or a slide, along with what that technique looks like in the "game". Then, it challenges me to try what I've just been shown, providing instant feedback on whether I "nailed it" or not. Many segments will keep rewinding the riff until I can play it perfectly. Then, it takes me back to the song where I can try my new-found skill. The "Riff Repeater" is another amazing tool. I can select the phrases that cause me pain or difficulty and slow them down (like Slow Downer apps) and can adjust both the speed and difficulty of the riff. I can keep replaying the segment, increasing both the speed and the difficulty, until I've mastered 100 percent of both. At that point, I'm playing the phrase note for note with the actual band. There are many more tools and I've only scratched the surface of either trying them or describing them to you. The big question: Does it work?? Yes. Yes it does. Since Christmas morning (I am writing this on Jan. 21) it has been almost a month since I first plugged in the Rocksmith cable to my Strat. In that time, I have played the game well over 100 hours, and have only skipped ONE DAY of play as I was out of town. I try to get a minimum of 30 minutes of play in every day, but most-often find that I've spent 90 minutes or more. I was surprised to see an achievement pop up indicating that I had surpassed 100 hours of play after only 2 weeks. I have continued with an hour each night since then and am probably closer to 120 now. Does it work? Let me repeat: I have played my guitar (remember, the one that sat around for 15 years) for nearly 120 hours since Christmas morning. I am nowhere close to being tired of playing either the game, or my neglected guitar. I am probably annoying my friends with how much I rave about my experience and how rewarded I feel in finally being able to play my guitar. Last night, I decided to re-enter some of the songs that I tried, but decided they were way over my head. These are songs that I'd only been able to play 6-8% of the difficulty upon first attempt. Using the skills I have developed through playing other songs, I was able to improve all of these to between 35 and 60% of difficulty. That is phenomenal growth in my skill and ability in only weeks. Oh, I should probably mention that I am 49. Being a rock star has been a closet ambition of mine since I was 9. I took some lessons from a friend's mom in high school, but never had the fun I needed or the improvement to keep at it beyond a few months. It only took 40 years and an amazing video game to make me feel like I could actually join a couple of friendly hacks and make a go at playing a few real songs in a real garage. That, my friends, is the best testimonial to the power of this tool. If I can do it...you can too. I even have the callouses to prove that I am now a guitar player. Maybe I should grow my hair...hmmm...

I don't normally review products but I am so in love with this "game" that I have to write a review. First, if you ever wanted to learn how to play the electric guitar this is the way to go. I never played a guitar of any type before buying this. A friend gave me an electric guitar that was sitting in his closet. This game has so much packed into it I spent the first week just exploring all the different features. I play this one to two hours every evening. I started out with the lessons and in just over one week I went from knowing nothing about playing guitar to getting through the "101" lessons with at least 90% accuracy and completion on each one. From slides, bends, and hammer-ons (I didn't even know what that was until I started this game) to tremolos, chords, and harmonics I got through all the basic lessons. After a few in game lessons I tackled my first song. This is where Rocksmith 2014 really shines. It dynamically adjusts the songs to your skill level. So at my level it might only throw every 8th note at me as the song is playing. It breaks the songs in riffs or segments so if you do good at certain sections it will increase the difficulty of those sections to keep challenging you. You can also use the "riff repeater" to focus on one or two sections at a time and play them over and over until you get them perfect. As it levels you up you eventually get the to "master" level where you are playing the song exactly how it was written. By using this dynamic level up system it keeps you from getting overwhelmed or frustrated and gives you manageable goals to attain as you improve your skill. Just a few days ago (about 8 days into my experience with Rocksmith) I checked out the "guitarcade" section of the game, which is basically simple video games that use the guitar to control the action on the screen. These games are great, and now I play them for at least the first fifteen minutes of my playing every night. They help you learn chords, accurately finger the right frets, pick the right strings, all using the pretense of a video game. They are so good that my 4yr old has been playing them with me and last night he played Rocksmith on his own using this guitar: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005M4X1HI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1 He is loving it and already learning to play. The guitarcade grabbed his attention and now I say, "Do one lesson or play one song and then you can play anything you want in the guitarcade." He doesn't even realize that he is learning to play the guitar. To him its all just fun. I have enjoyed this game so much that I bought a second copy of it for my PC. Now after hyping it up I will say there are a few things that I would like to see (and maybe I just haven't found them yet). For example, I have turned to youtube for lessons on speeding up my picking and fret fingering. You find out quickly that songs playing at full speed require you to move you fret fingers fast. That just takes practice but a series of exercises in the game would help that along. I have tested my skills using an amp and I don't sound as good as I do in the game so I think the game is cleaning up your sound for you. I think maybe because I am at a very low level the game is more forgiving, which again is good so us beginners don't get discouraged, but I would recommend that once you get some practice done in the game you plug into an amp and play outside of the game as well. As a beginner with exactly 13 days of experience so far I can't recommend this game enough. Buy it, enjoy it, and learn to play the electric guitar. If you buy this you should also buy the colored strings that work great with this game: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ECAOT3I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I bought several sets of strings and they match up great with the strings on the game to help you see the right colors before you have memorized them.

Este "juego" me pareció una excelente opción para practicar la guitarra, especalmente para aprender solos y requinteos. En lo personal sé tocar guitarra desde hace tiempo pero más que nada es Guitarra Rítmica: acordes, rasgueos, tocar canciones completas, etc. Por lo que la parte de las canciones tal vez no me resultó tan atractiva, sin embargo, el Modo Sesión es genial! En el modo Sesión puedes escoger de diferentes tipos de banda: Blues, Rock, Metal, etc, y cada una de las opciones viene con varias características lo cual determinará los instrumentos que te acompañarán, así como el sonido de tu guitarra. Igual puedes escoger manualmente qué instrumentos quieres. Puedes escoger también el tipo de escala, para que te muestren las pisadas que deberías hacer, la velocidad del ritmo, etc. Lo más genial de todo es que la banda que te acompaña no solamente toca acordes y sonidos fijos sino que es interactiva, entre más fuerte o rápido tocas, la "banda" se acelera contigo, el volumen sube, el baterista comienza a hacer redobles y en realidad se siente como si estuvieras tocando con un grupo de fondo. Para mí, esta experiencia sola vale el costo del "juego". Otro aspecto que me gustó es que tenía mi guitarra eléctrica arrumbada desde hace tiempo, para la cual no tengo ni amplificador ni pedal de distorsión. Con Rocksmith me los ahorré porque para mis propósitos que es tocar solo en casa es más que suficiente. El sonido solo de la tele me funciona de maravilla para practicar. Por supuesto puedes añadir aditamentos como un Home Theater para un sonido mas envolvente si gustas. O también puedes usar los audífonos si no quieres molestar a la familia. Como comenté al principio, para mis propósitos de aprender y practicar requinteos, Rocksmith es todo lo que hubiera deseado. Para el caso de aprender a tocar guitarra desde cero, creo que es una manera también divertida de hacerlo, pero pienso por experiencia que si realmente tienes el deseo y el tiempo lo puedes lograr sin necesidad de este "juego". Hay muchas maneras de hacerlo en internet, de hecho yo soy de la era "pre-internet" y aprendí a tocar solo, usando solamente cancioneros con acordes. Todo es cuestión de PRACTICA. A esto no se le puede sacar la vuelta, si no practicas no sirve. Rocksmith es completamente recomendable!

Es una de las mejores maneras de disfrutar de la música que te gusta y al mismo tiempo aprendiéndola a tocar. Lo bueno: - Trae muy buenas canciones para jugar/aprender - El cable que incluye el juego es muy largo, lo suficiente para no estar pegado a la consola Lo malo: - Al momento de tocar la guitarra se reproduce en la pantalla con un ligero desfase, es necesario adquirir otro cable que reproduzca el audio aparte. Lo anterior es recomendación del propio juego. - En mi caso el cable, el juego de xbox y la caja del paquete llegaron sellados pero la caja que contiene el juego y cable llegó abierta. Desconozco si el juego pasó por alguna aduana. Pese a los aspectos malos considero que es un excelente juego. ¡Altamente recomendable!

A mi me gusta los video juegos y cuando descubrí que podría aprender a tocar guitarra jugando no lo dude, nunca había agarrado una guitarra, y llevo casi la semana con este juego y se me ha echo retador y divertido, se adecua a tu ritmo de aprendizaje, me divierte y aprendo con esta metodología, al principio se siente raro, pero al par de días esta uno sintiéndose realmente cómodo...

El juego me parece una excelente manera de iniciarse en el mundo de la música, no hay queja con el sistema de aprendizaje, me parece genial. Sin embargo no le doy 5 estrellas por la sencilla razón de que para poder tener una experiencia adecuada tienes que invertir en algunos cables, más allá del que viene incluido en el juego. Yo conecto (como seguramente la gran mayoría de la gente lo hace) mi Xbox 360 a mi pantalla porla vía HDMI, sin embargo tuve que invertir en un convertidor de audio para separar la salida de audio del HDMI. Lo encontré barato y junto con un cable RCA que se convierte a un jack de 3.5 la inversión final fueron alrededor de 500 pesos mexicanos extra a lo que ya había invertido en el juego. Ojo sin esta inversión no podrás tener una experiencia adecuada al jugar, ya que si solo conectas tu consola vía HDMI el juego mostrará un delay lo suficientemente incómodo para que jugar sea una mala experiencia. Cuando conectas tu consola de manera "óptima" para que el juego no tenga ningún delay, tu experiencia será muy buena. Espero que este consejo le sirva a alguien que vaya a invertir en este gran juego/sistema de aprendizaje musical.

Excelente videojuego que ayuda a aprender a tocar la guitarra con juegos y canciones. Muy recomendable.