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.

My kids are nuts about a game called Minecraft, so Santa brought them a new Xbox 360 and Minecraft for Christmas. While perusing Amazon I noticed an interesting game where you plug your guitar in and play along with the game and it claims to teach you how to play, plus there were some pretty awesome songs listed that you could learn to play. Being the novice guitar player that I am, I figured this would be a win/win situation so I purchased the game. I waited patiently for Santa to deliver the Xbox so I could play the game... Well the day arrived. So I setup the Xbox and let the kids have at it on Minecraft. Well after the three hour Minecraft marathon I finally pried the controllers away from their greasy little fingers. I cued up Beethoven's Symphony No. 9: Ode To Joy on the home audio and opened the Rocksmith 2014 box, unbound the cable, hooked it to my guitar, plugged the other end of the cable into the Xbox, pressed the button to open the disc tray, laid the disc on the tray ever so lightly, and then pressed the button and watched the tray slide so smoothly back into the Xbox. Then I stared at the screen...waited...waited...then all of a sudden Beethoven's Symphony came to a screeching halt when I saw "disc unreadable" in bold letters across my screen. My heart skipped a beat as I muttered some bad words under my breath. I quickly opened the tray, took a look at the pristine underside of the disc and placed it back on the tray and loaded it again. Still, disc unreadable...http://smile.amazon.com/review/guidelines/product-links.html Later in the day I came back to the Xbox to try again and by some kind of Christmas miracle the Xbox read the disc. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9: Ode To Joy miraculously started blaring out of the home audio. I calibrated my guitar, then tuned it. explored the main menu and then explored the lessons. After a lesson or two I was ready to learn a song. Blitzkrieg Bop has to be easy so I started with that one. The note highway came up and notes started to come towards me and I heard "hey ho" and saw it written on the upper left of my screen but then everything froze. I thought to myself that this must be some Ubisoft programmer's sick joke. Hey ho? Really? So I restarted the Xbox and tried to learn another song but within a minute it froze again. After five times of this I just gave up. Then to add insult to injury, after researching some troubleshooting ideas I go back to the Xbox but now I get "disc unreadable" again. I really wanted to take the disc out and bend it in half, light it on fire, and then stomp the living hell out of it by this point but the more mature side of my overruled, so I put it back in its nice little box and wrapped up the cable and returned it whence it came. Update: 01/30/14 I ended up purchasing again and received a good disc. This game is fun, now that it works. Some of the lessons irritate me because it seems like the guitar does not register clearly on some of the chord lessons. But Learn A Song and Guitarcade are fun. I am even thinking about purchasing a Bass so I can pretend to be Geddy Lee. I would give this 4 stars but since I had so much trouble initially, I will give it 3 stars; better than the 1 star I initially gave. Update: 01/18/15 I have had this game for a year now and I am still playing it. I ended up purchasing a bass and I am having fun on bass. I'm not quite Geddy Lee yet, but getting better every day. The game did have some kind of save glitch so I had to restart my path, but I can live with it. I give it 4 stars!

Our household has two people using Rocksmith 2014 - myself with 19 years experience (albeit a very interrupted 19 years) and my 13 year old son with less than one year experience. Rocksmith 2014 works great for both of us. The difficulty adjusts on the fly depending on the skill displayed by the player. It can also be adjusted manually. The '101' training lessons are great ways to learn essential guitar techniques and include training tracks with feedback, increasing difficulty, and scoring. Learning songs consists of applicable '101' lessons, replaying of certain song sections and riffs, and the familiar graded accuracy and note streaks. The variety of songs that ships with the product is excellent and many more high quality songs are available as DLC (I've bought a few already). The DLC songs are of the same great quality as the included songs. Rocksmith 2014 offers bass, lead guitar, and rythm guitar. We have not tried bass, but my son plays lead while I chose rhythm and those definitely are very different from one another. The guitar tuning can be picky at times, but once you figure out how to tune the way the program likes it, it ceases to be a problem. The difficulty of songs scales very well for both lead and rhythm. A beginner rhythm player would start out with chord root notes played every measure or every other measure and slowly work their way up via power chords, A5 chords, complete chords played once per measure, and then increasing in frequency until the song is played in full difficulty. A beginner lead player will start out playing just one or two lead notes per measure, working up to combined notes and more advanced techniques such as slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc. The songs have good variety not just by music, but also by difficulty. I found it relatively easy to master "Blitzkrieg Bop" rhythm guitar at 100% difficulty. However, trying to master "Don't fear (the reaper" is considerably more difficult. My only gripes are the sometimes difficult tuner, the rare freezing of the program, the frequent buzzing present in the included cable, and the weird way the program presents its version of tabulature. Bottom line, Rocksmith 2014 is no substitute for real lessons and dedicated music theory study, but it is a damn fine and exceptionally fun training tool for players of all skill levels. I have started/stopped playing quite a few times in the past 19 years, but I have never developed the callused finger tips as quickly as this time around - Rocksmith 2014 is so much fun to play that I have probably spent 10 hours practicing in just one week.

I ordered this "game" from Amazon and awaited it's arrival with great anticipation. Right out of the box, My X-Box 360 was unable to read the disc. I did notice a minor surface imperfection on the disc, and I figured that was the problem. I contacted Amazon for a replacement, and received it promptly, but again, my X-Box 360 could not read the disc, and this disc was completely free of blemishes. With both discs, after several attempts, I did manage to access parts of the "game", but attempts to access other aspects would just result in my X-Box freezing. I also made several attempts to install it to my X Box hard drive, with no success. I will tell you that the parts I was able to use seem pretty cool, and this could have easily earned 5 stars from me, based on what I saw. I did a little on line research, and found out that this is a fairly common issue with Rocksmith. The forum attempts to make it sound as if it's a problem with the gaming system, but I have had zero problems with any other game, and the fact that others are having problems tells me that this is a faulty game, but I am certainly not a tech expert. Obviously, based on other reviews, this "game" works just fine for many people, and I'm not advising anyone not to give it a shot, but be prepared to be disappointed. I guess I have the option of purchasing the download and installing it directly to my hard drive through Microsoft, but the price is significantly higher ($59.99) than what Amazon is selling it for, and then I would still need to purchase the "Real tone cable" for an additional $26 or so. I know that I really would have loved this game had it worked for me, but there's only so much that I am able or willing to spend.

I can't say enough positive things about this product. Someone said it best on here before me, but I will reiterate - if you want to pretend to be a rock star, play guitar hero, if you want to actually BE a rock star, play this game. In reality, I wouldn't even call this a game. I have taken several years of lessons, attended a couple different guitar classes, all in an effort to get better at guitar, but all with no vast improvement. My personal problem is that practicing can get boring - I know that you're supposed to go through scales and chords, go slowly through songs, blah blah, but I would stick to it for a few months and then lose interest. This is COMPLETELY different. This game challenges you to try different skills through missions, learning the shapes of minor and major pentatonic scales, chord progressions, and note by note song learning. It starts you off very simple, and builds upon your skills as you improve. It's constantly adjusting to help you figure out those tricky spots. I really like the "riff repeater", where you can choose a certain section of a song to play over and over again at slower speeds, until you get it right, then return right back into the song. It also has so many fun features, where you can add effects, jam with an AI band, and play little mini arcade games. The arcade games can be fun because they appear like games, but are really tricking you into working on valuable skills that otherwise might be boring. Last thing I need to mention is that you can play songs that you actually WANT to play. There's a wide variety and you can even download more to add to your collection. This was also a big problem for me in the past - I had teachers that wanted me to play classical pieces or 3 chord oldies songs, and I hated it, I just wanted to play songs by my favorite artists, even the hard ones. Overall, this game has something for everyone and compared to the cost of taking guitar lessons, is well worth the investment if you really want to learn guitar. Take the 60-day challenge and see yourself improve light years ahead of where you were when you began, I promise!!

I'm an intermediate acoustic guitar player, and I have always wanted to break into lead and rhythm electric. The most difficult part is I don't play in a band, and the books out there are either too basic or too advanced. I'm also the type who learns best by seeing since I'm untrained. Here's my plug. Lately, I've been realizing that of all the gadgets I have, very few of them actually improve something in my life. Most of them take away. This is something that is helping achieve a goal. It is an absolutely fantastic trainer. The Good: 1. It starts you very basic with the root note of a chord as you play through the song. With each time you play, it will add additional parts of the chord as you get better. It helps train you. 2. It makes recommendations about specific lessons to visit based on your playing ability. This may include learning the "A5 chord" or bending strings or whatever. 3. The music is fun and the guitar sounds are really good. This makes the entire experience enjoyable. The Bad: 1. Sometimes it does not pick up the correct note, even when you play it. I have a Gibson (almost same as cover) and have messed with the settings but cannot get to perfection on some songs as it says I'm not playing a note that I am playing. 2. There's no Jimi Hendrix. How can you have something with rock and not have Jimi? I realize he may be difficult to emulate, but still...bring some Jimi. 3. If you were brand new...never played, you will struggle with some techniques related to picking. maybe I overlooked this lesson but there needs to be more for the right hand. Everyone else should thrive. Improvements: The ultimate improvement would be a world where people could input songs themselves and share them with others online. I realize this would not have lyrics and may be limited on the drums, but how cool would that be. Conclusion: If kids spend half of the time on this that they waste on Halo or Minecraft, we are going to have an entire generation of electric guitar players. Worth every penny. I would have spent double on this and will purchase any future additions. I also plan on purchasing additional songs once I work through the included selection. Bottom line, this is more than a game, and it is lots of fun.

When I was in my twenties, I only had one problem: Which guitar to use that night. I have two SGs, a Howard Roberts, a double-neck and my Washburn. Those were the days. As I grew older, the guitars were put away and I went on to other things. I stopped even so much as fiddling with them, because I had lost so much over time it was repulsive to me. I saw Rocksmith and thought, well, it's good for a brush-up, so I bought it. I was blown away by it! As someone who had to carry a guitar on two busses to go take lessons, I could not BELIEVE what was in this thing! It isn't Rock Band, but it's along the same lines, but it's actually TEACHING you. I knew most of it, but speed and accuracy had become an issue, but this thing was great to just play with. It covers guitar from the basic levels on up to solos, and if you're truly interested in playing, and it is great to know. Once you learn, your guitar will become your best friend. Mine carried me through some very tough times. Get this. It makes it fun, unlike when I started and the repetitions got tedious, and it's intuitive, so the better you get, the more it will push you. And if you're not getting it, it will slow down for you until you DO get it. If you want to play, or have a child who does, as an old guitar player, I suggest this: Buy this, then go to a music store and buy a Fender or Ibanez Starter pack, which is a guitar, strap, picks, sometimes a small amp, and they only cost about 100 dollars, or a little bit more and you're set. And if that sounds like a lot of money, it's nowhere near what you'd be paying for enough lessons to get you to where Rocksmith can take you. I would also suggest you get the one "WITH CORD" because it takes a special guitar cord with a normal male jack for your guitar and a USB end for your XBOX. And everything I said it does for you with a guitar, it also does for you with a bass! Good luck, future shredders! NOW GRAB THAT AXE!!!!!!

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.