Rocksmith 2014

[LedRush]

Has anyone played this game? I love the concept but the lag issues in the first one were horrible. Anyone know if the lag is better this time?

[Narps]

Did CGI develop this game?

[LedRush]

Did CGI develop this game?

 

Ubisoft made both.

[USB Connector]

I have the original. I thought it was horrendous. Great proof of concept, but it felt like they just decided to release the tech demo they showed to their CEOs with whatever artists they could license on a tiny budget.

 

That being said. The new one is pretty great. It fixes every single complaint I had with the original (and believe me, there were tons of them). They understand that this is a tool, not a game so they did away with the career mode that resemvled rock band. So now Guitarists are free to learn at their own pace. Everything is faster, smoother and better designed.

 

I love the session mode. It's not perfect because you can't tell your band to just keep playing that way (it adapts based on what you play) which is a pain because if you stop for a few seconds to think they'll slow down. There is also no record feature for it, which I find to be silly because they emphasize how you should use it to practice everything outside of a closed environment of the lessons or songs to make your own riffs.

 

My major complaint is the goals, they seem to guide you along to show you the game at first, but then you get all the goals for arcade, all the goals for making tones, etc all in one shot. As if the game is saying "hey, forget about everything else for the next few hours, focus on this". Which if you're like me and you like to aim for the goals the game gives you, makes it seem like a massive grind at times.

 

The riff repeater is integrated into playing songs. You can stop and redo anything at any time, and you have tons more options to control. You can also use it to turn on all of the notes right away and then just continue the song with the real note chart on your first time playing. This really does make it so that you can learn any song at your own pace.

 

Guitarcade is actually fun now even after the novelty wears off. I'm not a huge fan of the multiplier system they applied, but that's pretty minor.

 

Song choice is the best I've seen on disc for a music game since the original rock band.

 

Lessons are more fleshed out and you do get more of an idea of how to use the techniques outside of the game. Still not perfect but it's a massive improvements.

 

Beginners will get an excellent starting tool, intermediates will get a decent tool. Anyone who has been playing guitar for more than a few years will probably get nothing more than the session mode, some tabs and a fun way to practice and do warmups. Like the first one, this should be used as a supplement to learning guitar, not a substitute. The game is almost aware of this as it warns you about developing bad habit while playing but there is no way for it to check if you are.

 

This is the version of Rocksmith the original should have been. The lag issues are greatly improved on but the main problem with lag is the hardware, not the software. I use headphones on my PC and the lag is almost unnoticeable. But if you're expecting to put this through an HDTV at 1080p and a home theater system with an amplifier expect lag because it does take time for information to travel through all that and be processed by the console, TV and amplifier.

[LedRush]

I have the original. I thought it was horrendous. Great proof of concept, but it felt like they just decided to release the tech demo they showed to their CEOs with whatever artists they could license on a tiny budget.

 

That being said. The new one is pretty great. It fixes every single complaint I had with the original (and believe me, there were tons of them). They understand that this is a tool, not a game so they did away with the career mode that resemvled rock band. So now Guitarists are free to learn at their own pace. Everything is faster, smoother and better designed.

 

I love the session mode. It's not perfect because you can't tell your band to just keep playing that way (it adapts based on what you play) which is a pain because if you stop for a few seconds to think they'll slow down. There is also no record feature for it, which I find to be silly because they emphasize how you should use it to practice everything outside of a closed environment of the lessons or songs to make your own riffs.

 

My major complaint is the goals, they seem to guide you along to show you the game at first, but then you get all the goals for arcade, all the goals for making tones, etc all in one shot. As if the game is saying "hey, forget about everything else for the next few hours, focus on this". Which if you're like me and you like to aim for the goals the game gives you, makes it seem like a massive grind at times.

 

The riff repeater is integrated into playing songs. You can stop and redo anything at any time, and you have tons more options to control. You can also use it to turn on all of the notes right away and then just continue the song with the real note chart on your first time playing. This really does make it so that you can learn any song at your own pace.

 

Guitarcade is actually fun now even after the novelty wears off. I'm not a huge fan of the multiplier system they applied, but that's pretty minor.

 

Song choice is the best I've seen on disc for a music game since the original rock band.

 

Lessons are more fleshed out and you do get more of an idea of how to use the techniques outside of the game. Still not perfect but it's a massive improvements.

 

Beginners will get an excellent starting tool, intermediates will get a decent tool. Anyone who has been playing guitar for more than a few years will probably get nothing more than the session mode, some tabs and a fun way to practice and do warmups. Like the first one, this should be used as a supplement to learning guitar, not a substitute. The game is almost aware of this as it warns you about developing bad habit while playing but there is no way for it to check if you are.

 

This is the version of Rocksmith the original should have been. The lag issues are greatly improved on but the main problem with lag is the hardware, not the software. I use headphones on my PC and the lag is almost unnoticeable. But if you're expecting to put this through an HDTV at 1080p and a home theater system with an amplifier expect lag because it does take time for information to travel through all that and be processed by the console, TV and amplifier.

 

I got so excited until that last sentence. I've never had any lag on any rhythm based game, but the lag on Rocksmith was so bad it rendered the game unplayable. It seems like this may be the case again.

Edited November 3, 2013 by LedRush

[USB Connector]

I have the original. I thought it was horrendous. Great proof of concept, but it felt like they just decided to release the tech demo they showed to their CEOs with whatever artists they could license on a tiny budget.

 

That being said. The new one is pretty great. It fixes every single complaint I had with the original (and believe me, there were tons of them). They understand that this is a tool, not a game so they did away with the career mode that resemvled rock band. So now Guitarists are free to learn at their own pace. Everything is faster, smoother and better designed.

 

I love the session mode. It's not perfect because you can't tell your band to just keep playing that way (it adapts based on what you play) which is a pain because if you stop for a few seconds to think they'll slow down. There is also no record feature for it, which I find to be silly because they emphasize how you should use it to practice everything outside of a closed environment of the lessons or songs to make your own riffs.

 

My major complaint is the goals, they seem to guide you along to show you the game at first, but then you get all the goals for arcade, all the goals for making tones, etc all in one shot. As if the game is saying "hey, forget about everything else for the next few hours, focus on this". Which if you're like me and you like to aim for the goals the game gives you, makes it seem like a massive grind at times.

 

The riff repeater is integrated into playing songs. You can stop and redo anything at any time, and you have tons more options to control. You can also use it to turn on all of the notes right away and then just continue the song with the real note chart on your first time playing. This really does make it so that you can learn any song at your own pace.

 

Guitarcade is actually fun now even after the novelty wears off. I'm not a huge fan of the multiplier system they applied, but that's pretty minor.

 

Song choice is the best I've seen on disc for a music game since the original rock band.

 

Lessons are more fleshed out and you do get more of an idea of how to use the techniques outside of the game. Still not perfect but it's a massive improvements.

 

Beginners will get an excellent starting tool, intermediates will get a decent tool. Anyone who has been playing guitar for more than a few years will probably get nothing more than the session mode, some tabs and a fun way to practice and do warmups. Like the first one, this should be used as a supplement to learning guitar, not a substitute. The game is almost aware of this as it warns you about developing bad habit while playing but there is no way for it to check if you are.

 

This is the version of Rocksmith the original should have been. The lag issues are greatly improved on but the main problem with lag is the hardware, not the software. I use headphones on my PC and the lag is almost unnoticeable. But if you're expecting to put this through an HDTV at 1080p and a home theater system with an amplifier expect lag because it does take time for information to travel through all that and be processed by the console, TV and amplifier.

 

I got so excited until that last sentence. I've never had any lag on any rhythm based game, but the lag on Rocksmith was so bad it rendered the game unplayable. It seems like this may be the case again.

 

Here's the thing with other rhythm games: the input is already midi. There is no processing. The games know exactly what you did the moment the information reaches the system. There is no processing to be done, it just says "is this what we expected to be played right now?" and the reacts accordingly.

 

In rocksmith the input is audio. The game needs to break down the information and analyze it in such a way that it figured out what string/fret you played, if the string was bent, how bent it was, if the note was a harmonic, if it was the right chord etc. That's a lot of possibilities it has to account for.

 

From what I've read on reviews overall lag has been reduced significantly, but I haven't tested it on my TV.