10 Video Games That Actually Taught Us Something Useful

8. Rock Band - How To Play the Drums

The Rock Band and Guitar Hero games might endure fair criticism for largely failing to teach guitar-playing skills that can be applied to a real guitar (though an attempt was made to fix this in Rock Band 3, even if the game's sales bombed), but right from its inception, the drum portion of these games has been uniformly excellent. Sit down at the drum kit - especially the full-kit "premium" version - and the drums have the intuitive feel of an actual kit, such that playing along with the drums actually requires the same facets of timing and co-ordination that a real set does. It's said if you can play the Hard setting of the game that you'll probably have a decent shot at playing the drums for real, and this is a rare instance of a game providing a strong practical challenge and actually encouraging players to rise to it well.
 
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.