7. Rocksmith’s Song Library is Amazing
Raise your hand if you liked Guitar Hero: Green Day. As of my typing, I’m pretty sure no one raised their hand. There’s a reason for that: Green Day just hammers the same 6 power chords again and again. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. Hell, I own Dookie (their third album). But it certainly doesn’t make for a very interesting guitar game, because there isn’t much in the way of variation.
The makers of Rocksmith weren’t having any repetitive, boring chord hammering in their game, though. The 50-strong song library includes everything from Nirvana to Muse to The Black Keys to Titus. Sure, there are some songs that give you the chance to just hammer on your guitar, but that’s because hammering on your guitar is a skill.
Well, sort of. But it is absolutely a technique worth practicing. And just like hammering your guitar into pieces, Rocksmith provides songs specifically chosen to practice specific skills. There are blues songs to practice your scaling and hammers. There are metal songs to practice your crazy solos. There are some more off-beat things to play around with your um… off-beating? I could go on, but you get the point.
Rather than just choosing a ton of popular tripe to sell the product, Rocksmith chose songs that are both enjoyable and varied enough to give you the most out of your game. Those songs aren’t just a bunch of crap either. I hadn’t heard many of the bands on the soundtrack, but I can tell you right now that I’ll be looking them up and buying to their next show near me. And, if you simply aren’t satisfied, there are dozens of songs available for download.
GTA V: 9 Facts That Will Blow Your Mind
10 Outrageous Sexy Moments Hidden In Video Games
10 Video Game Endings With Disturbing Implications
8 Crazy Video Game Fan Theories That Actually Improve Games
10 Things Today’s Gamers Wouldn’t Understand
100 Greatest Video Game Villains Of All Time
10 Most Insanely Difficult Video Games Ever Made
10 Things You Should Know About Dating A Gamer
Want to write about the stuff you're passionate about and have your work read by an audience of over 10 million a month? Click here to become a contributor.
17 Comments
Yep. It is a lot of fun, and I am learning something with the addictive qualities of a good game. Just wrapped up a session… Only a song or two, I thought. Two hours later I realised it was time to knock off for the day. It’s a winner in my book.
Great game, great article, good mix of music.
I also agree that it has increased my interest in bands
That I never even heard of. I also have purchased songs
from those bands.
Any chance of a Van Halen pack becoming available.
Thanks
Dave
I think you need a top 8 list. The tuner is a fantastic bit of tech, sure we all have tuners at home but it’s so quick and easy with Rocksmith, you’re always in tune and ready to jam and it makes replacing strings a breeze as well.
Rocksmith is a great game for anyone who is interested in playing the guitar. For more experienced players Rocksmith is a rutt breaker. It makes you play different songs, patterns and styles. Much fun, while developing your skills… is there a better game?
Rocksmith is the ONLY game I play on our PS3. It is a fun challenge and works at the level of the skill you have makes it better.
I’ve been less than impressed with this game.
The notes come towards you at an angle. Until I figured out which string was what color, it caused problems. Then, I’m not really happy that the places where notes “land” is not perpendicular to the floor.
You have to learn three songs in a set. You get the first one in good enough shape to get to the second one. That song is nearly forgotten while you work on song two. Song three makes you work hard enough to forget songs one and two. Then, you get to your venue. The songs you’ve forgotten are now actually harder because your skills have increased. So, you get to play a concert and can’t play it with any proficiency. Songs, in the library, are organized alphabetically. There’s now way to search for them by proficiency.
If you’re new, it would be helpful if you knew what fingers to use or even have ready.
There’s not a rehearsal mode for the challenges. I enjoyed these as much as the songs but, when I struggled, it was either feast or famine. I got all the notes available to me or just a few.
It’s a good game but the interface leaves a lot to be desired in the case of navigation and use.
I upgraded my TV and had to move to a HDMI interface. I’ve heard that the digital signal causes some lag so I’ve not even tried it. I thought about switching to a new platform (my PC using steam or my PS3) but I have some downloadable content and I don’t want to buy it all again.
Not the greatest game ever. Has lots of possibility. I’m curious about Bandfuse. I’m hoping that it’s a little more user friendly.
Stephen
Though I do love this game. I agree with a few of your complaints. The menu interface is definitely clumsy and the songs need to allow you to organize them how you like. I’ve also been burned by getting good at one song, only to have it increase the difficulty on another just before a venue, and I haven’t rehearsed that song in that difficulty.
However, digital lag is not an issue, you calibrate it before hand just like any high end game and your done. Try hooking your hdmi up to your tv but hook your other PS3 cable directly to a sound system to get rid of sound lag.
I took some group lessons last year then bought a bunch of books and watched a bunch of You Tube videos and signed up for a bunch of daily emails and found myself totally scattered in trying to learn to play. Rocksmith forces me to focus on one thing at a time and rewards me for practicing. I’m playing more often and enjoying it a lot more. Not ready to take my guitar out of the house yet, but it doesn’t seem as unlikely as it did a couple months ago!
Rocksmith is an amazing game.
This article about it dissappoints me because it assumes that girls aren’t playing it. Why wouldn’t we? I am a woodwind musician and recently picked up bass guitar. With no prior bass knowledge this game makes it fun and easy to play music and build technique.
Couldn’t think of anything to add to the article. This pretty much sums up everything I love about this game.
Love my Rocksmith! I would have spent hundreds of dollars on lessons to reach the point I am at today from playing this “game”.
I bought a guitar after having surgery to repair my shattered wrist. Loved playing but sucked terribly. Got rocksmith looking for a party game to play with friends and havent pulled the disk out of my 360 since i put it in. Tons of fun
Damn straight about Rocksmith on all accounts. I just started using the amp section in my home studio recordings, they sound really good, great tone. Now I have all the bass models I’ve always wanted.
I had never played a guitar or bass at all other than Rockband and Guitar Hero. I have 7 or 8 of those games total. I played drums, so I loved Rockband 3 pro drums. I still get on my Roland drum kit and play it quite often. I wanted to learn a little about playing the guitar so I tried this game. I bought a Fender Squier Strat and hooked it all up to my PS3. I played an hour or two a day and many hours on weekends for a very long time. I was addicted! When the new version came out with bass added, I went to Best Buy, traded in the original version and bought the new one. I ordered a Fender Squier P Bass and it all started again. By the way, you can play the bass on your guitar in a simulation mode. It just uses the top four strings of your guitar. Have you gotten the impression yet that I love this game? If not let me say this, I absolutely love this game. I have learned so much and have had a blast learning to play these instruments. No I do not consider myself to be a good guitarist, and I have no aspirations or playing in a real band, but I have learned a lot about chords and some techniques, that I never would have learned as I would not pay someone else to teach me. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn the guitar at your own pace without having to pay a lot of money. I also think you will have a lot of fun learning to play a real guitar if you ever enjoyed Rockband or playing an air guitar. Who hasn’t?
Loving Rocksmith. I have 800+ Wii games and about 350 Xbox games…all for the grandkids. I am 68 years old, and waited patiently for Bass capability to be added. What fun! I am spending 2-3 hours a day pounding away at it, and know my skills are improving every time I play. Easier and more availability of repeats of songs should be something to consider. I have found that occasionally the computer won’t allow me to tune unless I turn off Standard Bass, swith to emulation, then go back to standard bass. Love the program. Well worth the wait for Bass!
you forgot one of the most fun things I have found and that is hooking up a USB microphone and having someone sing along while you play, then watching and listening during playback ….. great game lots of fun … never played guitar before, been playing ROCKSMITH since October 2011 when it was released, still playing everyday ! Enjoy
The game is awesome, but those who haven’t played it should also be aware that it has a lot of annoying quirks. The menus are kind of clunky, and some of the choices are “hidden”. Like for example, sorting options for songs are to the left and not easy to see they’re there, and they don’t stick, you have to re-choose to see only performance songs or to sort by artist, etc. Then there’s a number of lazy programming items, such as the annoying re-tuning before each thing you do or when tuning it suggests you’ve mysteriously started playing notes on your guitar that only a bass guitar can do, as if you’ve decided to switch instruments. Sometimes the detection is off in the games, which can get annoying. Big Swing Baseball is particularly annoying because it is so picky about when you play and what note you play.
But the review is right on, and aside from some implementation or hardware limitations, is a way awesome game.
One question is if they’ll fix all the annoying things (which seem to clearly stem from the different programming groups that worked on this game) and if they’ll make the set list even better next time. (Rather than like the Guitar Hero and Rock Band releases, which in general got worse each time overall.)
Either way, Rocksmith is one of the best teachers I ever had. Doesn’t even get annoyed when you scream at it and turn it off. :)