3. Rehearsal Modes Train You On Individual Songs
In case those of you reading at home haven't figured it out by now, I'm a pretty huge fan of Rocksmith. I've enjoyed it more than any other video game I've ever bought, World Of Warcraft not withstanding (if you can count screaming at your computer as enjoying something). Most of the reasons I've listed so far probably aren't all that impressive. Sure, Rocksmith sounds like a great game, but not the epic end all be all of gaming that I originally claimed. Well, it sounds less than perfect, because I've yet to touch on what really sets it apart from anything else I've played: the game is the best guitar teacher I've ever had. The first method of teaching that Rocksmith takes you through is one designed to improve your skill with a specific piece of a song: a riff. The Riff Repeater section of the game prompts you to play a short riff (maybe 40 seconds) over and over again at increasing levels of difficulty. You might start out being able to hit 100% of the notes in the riff, but by the 5th time through, you'll be struggling. If you can keep up with the increasing difficulty, you get to keep playing all the way until you are playing exactly what the original guitarist was playing. However, if you start flubbing notes, you start losing lives. Lose too many lives and you're done. But not done forever, mind. Once Rocksmith has figured out exactly what difficulty level you're capable of playing that riff, it will let you play the same riff at a slowed down tempo. The slower tempo is, of course, easier to play. But, in the accelerator game, the tempo increases from whatever you started at until you're playing it at 100% speed. To be clear, the game learns what difficulty is too much for you, then slows it down for you, so you can handle it. Then, speeds it up bit by bit until you can play something you couldn't play 15 minutes ago. Having a guitar tutor do that for you costs $100/hr. Trying to do it at home is free, but feels a lot more like banging your face against a brick wall than learning anything.