• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Rocksmith |OT| While My Guitar Gently Weeps

H

HarryHengst

Member
HammerOfThor said:
Hey guys! I'm finally ready to buy Rocksmith! But I figured I'd buy the game and guitar separate.

What is a solid guitar I can get? I'd prefer nothing over $200.
Click to expand...
Under $200 is pretty hard to find something you can use longer than like 6 months. They also suffer from less than good build quality and things like high action on the neck, which makes playing it a lot harder than a slighly more expensive guitar. I would seriously consider stretching it a bit to $300-$350 for a lot more quality.

If you do:

a Yamaha Pacifica 112(v) is a great starter guitar, usually goes for around $300.

Fender has released a pair of awesome guitars under the Squier brand, the Classic Vibe 50's telecaster and the Classic Vibe 60's stratocaster. Both usually go for $350. But everything i've read about them, and i've one friend living across the country who owns a 60's stratocaster who confirms it, says that they are seriously great guitars and easily compete with 500-600 dollar guitars.
 
E

exhume

Member
HammerOfThor said:
Hey guys! I'm finally ready to buy Rocksmith! But I figured I'd buy the game and guitar separate.

What is a solid guitar I can get? I'd prefer nothing over $200.
Click to expand...

Craigslist, bro. (or secondhand in general) Epiphone, Squier* and Danelectro are all good brands that you shouldn't have too much trouble finding for cheap, as long as you're not precious about dings in the paintwork.

*but don't buy anything trademarked "bullet" and you probably want to avoid anything "affinity" too
 
O

Onemic

Member
Stimpy said:
Thom Yorke is here to help.
Click to expand...

My head is so full of fuck on this one....How do you play individual notes when constantly strumming?


exhume said:
Craigslist, bro. (or secondhand in general) Epiphone, Squier* and Danelectro are all good brands that you shouldn't have too much trouble finding for cheap, as long as you're not precious about dings in the paintwork.

*but don't buy anything trademarked "bullet" and you probably want to avoid anything "affinity" too
Click to expand...

I have personal experience with this one. Got a used one for $100 off of craigslist(total rip off) Action was ridiculously high, sounded terrible, not to mention it was just a pretty ugly looking guitar too. I ultimately gave it away to the new guys moving into my student house, left it in my bedroom as a present.
 
J

jgkspsx

Member
onemic said:
My head is so full of fuck on this one....How do you play individual notes when constantly strumming?
Click to expand...
Your hand should be in the same shape for strumming as for picking. Did you level the song up in the leveler? That should help a lot.

Then again, for the end (the "no no no no no" bit), I just can't make my fingers do that with any amount of practice.
 
O

Onemic

Member
jgkspsx said:
Your hand should be in the same shape for strumming as for picking. Did you level the song up in the leveler? That should help a lot.

Then again, for the end (the "no no no no no" bit), I just can't make my fingers do that with any amount of practice.
Click to expand...

It is, but when you strum you're doing a downward motion with your wrist, usually to hit multiple notes at the same time. This is the first song I've seen where you strum to hit individual notes.....I'm gonna try and see if I can do it right now, but watching that video is like a mind fuck to me. :/ Originally, I leveled the song up in leveler but it was all through a combination of picking and strumming, I would strum the double stops and pick the individual notes. The ending part is actually pretty easy to me compared to the riff.

EDIT: Just tried it....Ya can't do it for the life of me. I mean I can do it, but since I'm now strumming instead of picking the individual notes I'm strumming those notes along with random open strings. How would you get it to the point that you can just strum the individual notes without hitting the other strings and not resort to picking them?
 
T

toymachine

Member
onemic said:
And question to those that have Bodysnatchers DLC, how do you play the main riff at 100%? It seems like some crazy mix of strumming/picking that I can't even begin to wrap my head around.
Click to expand...

lol wait till you see the outro on Single Note
Johnny :bow
 
A

adamsappel

Member
HammerOfThor said:
Hey guys! I'm finally ready to buy Rocksmith! But I figured I'd buy the game and guitar separate.

What is a solid guitar I can get? I'd prefer nothing over $200.
Click to expand...

http://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar.html

Choose the style of guitar you like. I'm a Telecaster style man foremost, but I'm coming around on Stratocasters. I really don't like the Les Paul look, although I acknowledge this is just a personal failing. These guitars have nice bodies and necks, the hardware can be upgraded separately once you become a bit more proficient and can discern their limitations.

If you really want a name brand, the Squier Classic Vibe series that HarryHengst mentioned are indeed very good.
 
D

DrBo42

Member
bloodydrake said:
Ya I own an Ultra III. I'm enjoying it..tho I don't use the nanomag all that much with Rocksmith. I usually just plug game cable into the stereo magnetic pickup jack and bypass the nanomag.

I've noticed some fret buzz since getting the setup done after purchasing it..I've been meaning to take it in to a local guitar Lutheran to get a fret dressing and more thorough setup(the one i got as free one with guitar was obviously a quick and easy only).

Other thing I noticed that wasn't listed in this patch.
When you get a new set list and start practicing songs if you fail to meet the score needed to qualify after around 3 tries it will ask if you want to lower the qualify value.

This to me is a great addition to keep the fun game factor going since I found once I hit 7th and 8th level the difficulty level ramped up to much for my skill level to keep up with.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input.
 
O

Onemic

Member
Now that I'm level 9, I'm at the point where I need to spend a good few days practicing a specific song to even qualify, I've been practicing the same two set lists for the past week non stop and I'm still not ready to perform it yet.
 
J

jgkspsx

Member
Welcome to my last month and a half. It wants me to play Cousins virtually perfectly. I knew I shouldn't have bought that track.
 
O

Onemic

Member
jgkspsx said:
Welcome to my last month and a half. It wants me to play Cousins virtually perfectly. I knew I shouldn't have bought that track.
Click to expand...

song is impossible. The skill level needed to play that song at 100% would take me months to achieve
 
S

Stimpy

Member
The fact they didn't include the ability to set your own speed in the accelerator is really annoying, I actually stopped playing around christmas because of the many problems they had with the riff repeater.

I've played with it a bit again since the patch and I'm just finding it to much of an annoyance, practising a riff at say 90% and nailing it then having it bump you up to 100%, it's just to much of an increase, if it takes them another 3 months to fix this I think I'm done with the "game" that's if they ever do add the ability to set your own speed which I'm starting to doubt they will.
 
F

Falagard

Member
onemic said:
It's my guitar!(plus a floyd rose)

Honestly, Ubisoft needs to realize that the core of this game is Accelerator and they should work on improving it.

Ubi has to stop seeing this game as a "game" and more of a learning tool. The lives aspect is just stupid and needs to go away. Ideally they should have accelerator as it is now and the manual speed/infinite lives option in the system settings as well.
Click to expand...

I agree completely, you should be able to use the Accelerator to try any difficulty at any speed, for as long as you want. It should be used as a practice tool, not a mini game.
 
D

Drakken

Member
Did the patch fix the issues with it taking forever to do anything? I haven't played it in awhile, but I remember the menu interface being extremely clunky.
 
Z

Zeliard

Member
The stuff they do to make it more like a game is silly when it gets in the way of practicing. Imagine if you were practicing guitar normally and you had artificially limited attempts before you mastered some chord progression. Or where you were automatically forced to "level up" to a tougher pattern before you have the previous one down comfortably.

The biggest aspect to practicing guitar, or really anything, is repetition. And the idea is to repeat what you know until you have it down cleanly, before moving on to something more complicated. So putting any barriers on those things seems to defeat the point of a practice tool.

Ubi finally had enough sense to increase the amount of lives substantially, but they should have just gone all the way and made it unlimited, as well as allowed for the user to manually select when to level themselves up in a song or riff. It should be asking you if you're ready for the next % level, and allow for the option to remain at a particular level until you personally feel comfortable, rather than when the game thinks you are because you managed to hit most notes on an attempt.
 
A

alazz

Member
I can't believe this isn't out for PC yet. :(

How's the game if I'm actually good at guitar and just need something to make playing the same things over again fun. I don't have anyone to jam with so all my experience kind of pales in the face of isolation and turns into boredom.
 
L

LOVE & TRUTH

Banned
Zeliard said:
The stuff they do to make it more like a game is silly when it gets in the way of practicing. Imagine if you were practicing guitar normally and you had artificially limited attempts before you mastered some chord progression. Or where you were automatically forced to "level up" to a tougher pattern before you have the previous one down comfortably.

The biggest aspect to practicing guitar, or really anything, is repetition. And the idea is to repeat what you know until you have it down cleanly, before moving on to something more complicated. So putting any barriers on those things seems to defeat the point of a practice tool.

Ubi finally had enough sense to increase the amount of lives substantially, but they should have just gone all the way and made it unlimited, as well as allowed for the user to manually select when to level themselves up in a song or riff. It should be asking you if you're ready for the next % level, and allow for the option to remain at a particular level until you personally feel comfortable, rather than when the game thinks you are because you managed to hit most notes on an attempt.
Click to expand...
I agree with you completely.

It's funny that Rocksmith was touted as an edutaintment software to help complete beginners gain some guitar skills, yet with an ususable Accelerator this "game" is not for beginners at all, but for advanced guitar players. Who are, in their turn, annoyed with the "gamifying" aspects.

Still, I'm glad I supported this attempt - I think it goes in the right direction and I'm eagerly looking forward to the Rocksmith 2... while taking guitar classes. :) Playing guitar is really fun!
 
B

Bl4ckSunsh1n3

Member
alazz said:
How's the game if I'm actually good at guitar and just need something to make playing the same things over again fun. I don't have anyone to jam with so all my experience kind of pales in the face of isolation and turns into boredom.
Click to expand...

I'm kind of in a similar situation and I enjoy it. I don't have many people to jam with and it is fun to rock out on.
 
O

Onemic

Member
LOVE & TRUTH said:
I agree with you completely.

It's funny that Rocksmith was touted as an edutaintment software to help complete beginners gain some guitar skills, yet with an ususable Accelerator this "game" is not for beginners at all, but for advanced guitar players. Who are, in their turn, annoyed with the "gamifying" aspects.

Still, I'm glad I supported this attempt - I think it goes in the right direction and I'm eagerly looking forward to the Rocksmith 2... while taking guitar classes. :) Playing guitar is really fun!
Click to expand...

I'd say it's more of the reverse. As a beginner guitar player when I started out, the game didn't give me that many problems with the accelerator, as it usually didn't take me more than a few tries to level up a section and complete an event. Now that I'm level 9 and I'm pretty much playing the songs 100% as they were intended, accelerators been a huge pain in the ass, as I have to practice a section exponentially more than I had to before when I first started.
 
B

blackflag

Member
Rocksmith is 30 dollars off at GS. Very tempted. I've played since I was 12 (37 now) but I haven't picked my guitars up in a couple years now.
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
I just gotta say since the patch I'm playing Rocksmith more and having more fun doing it.
The dlc in setlist resetting every time you restarted the game as well as general overall lag in the interface after installing any songs had really frustrated me.

I love the 3 tries then reduce the difficulty to the max score you've achieved has made it fun again. I'm not getting better at anyone song by a large degree but I'm slowly getting better at all of them now and have more variety to the songs as you go.

Mid way thru level 8 before the patch a song would probably take me a couple hours to qualify for..now after a couple hours ready to do the event and can expect a new setlist the next day.

That said they need a blacklist from setlists feature.Or the ability to delete songs out right you dislike that aren't dlc.
They also need a better way to scan thru the songs..its terribly slow and clunky to pick an alternate track atm.
 
T

toymachine

Member
The dynamic difficulty was changed to assume you're really good until you make a mistake. So if you start a new profile, and only play songs you're perfect on, the game is going to assume you are an expert, and continually have new phrases start at a very high level. The dynamic difficulty heavily relies on the rate of improvement. So when you start a fresh profile, since you already know many songs, even though you level back down, if you still have 3+ songs you know really well and then play them perfectly, it's going to assume you can maintain that type of improvement.
If you make mistakes, then there's no change in how the dynamic difficulty works. It should behave just as it did prepatch.
If you didn't start a new profile, the only difference you should notice is how difficult new songs start. If you continually sightread badly, then sightreading will get easier overtime, but the system needs to learn that.
-Matt

----

We aren't prioritizing experienced guitarists over beginners. The change helped make it easier for experienced guitarists to level up more quickly. If you can, give a little more faith in the dynamic difficulty system. Since you restarted a profile, it's going to be a little tougher if you are playing songs you've already leveled and learned before you reset your profile. It's going to take longer for the system to adjust since it no longer has the history of how long it took for you to get to that point - which is key to the system. Once the system notices that it's constantly giving you too hard stuff, it'll slow down a lot after that point.

---

Badly enough is hard to explain, as the dynamic difficulty system heavily relies on rates of increase and decrease. If you just leave the game on, and level everything down, it won't necessarily 'rejigger' the system, because once you start playing again, it'll see you're leveling everything up really fast, canceling out the huge rate of decrease, since you just gained a huge rate of increase. The 'rejigger' will happen, when you constantly fail without doing well immediately afterwards.
Click to expand...

Dynamic Difficulty has changed post-patch

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/659032-Difficulty-post-patch
 
P

PhoncipleBone

Banned
blackflag said:
Rocksmith is 30 dollars off at GS. Very tempted. I've played since I was 12 (37 now) but I haven't picked my guitars up in a couple years now.
Click to expand...

Picked it up this weekend with the Gamestop sale. Yeah, I have no coordination on the real guitar, but it sure is fun. I can feel I will be playing this for a while to come, mainly for the exercises so I can finally learn how to play the guitar my wife bought me four years ago.
 
R

Raiho

Neo Member
Ran head-first into a wall when the game started introducing more complex chords. I have a Strat and my small hands just don't like the scale. I almost want to give up the Strat in favor of a Jaguar, but I'm sure I'm being naive in thinking that will help my problems.
 
X

xptoxyz

Member
I still don't have this, one of the reasons being waiting to see if it comes out in my region, but want to ask smething ahead of time.

On the setup section, Optical/TOSLINK isn't mentioned would this be an option for no audio lag, or is it a matter of being a digital connection?
 
T

toymachine

Member
In response to "implement manual speed settings in Riff Repeater"

We have many musicians on the team, and we constantly play the game ourselves so we very much understand these struggles. We hear your concerns, and I will ask our team to reevaluate our current priorities to see if we can squeeze something in. Remember we are a small team, and are still working on the PC port, and Bass Expansion.
Just to get a sense where our thinking was throughout development and even now, is that to us Rocksmith needs to be fun first. If Rocksmith isn't fun, no one will want to practice guitar. Being able to manually set speed (and a whole lot more) was originally envisioned for the practice/riff repeater element of Rocksmith. Just because it didn't make it into what's on the disc now doesn't mean we still don't want it.
Click to expand...

Ubisoft Forums
 
S

Strummerjones

Member
xptoxyz said:
I still don't have this, one of the reasons being waiting to see if it comes out in my region, but want to ask smething ahead of time.

On the setup section, Optical/TOSLINK isn't mentioned would this be an option for no audio lag, or is it a matter of being a digital connection?
Click to expand...

From my own personal experience playing on PS3 with an Onkyo receiver (set to direct audio mode), using a TOSLINK digital connection DID result in small but noticable audio lag. I think the only way to play this game properly is via analogue out.
 
X

xptoxyz

Member
Strummerjones said:
From my own personal experience playing on PS3 with an Onkyo receiver (set to direct audio mode), using a TOSLINK digital connection DID result in small but noticable audio lag. I think the only way to play this game properly is via analogue out.
Click to expand...

Thanks, will see what analogue solution better suits me then.
 
T

toymachine

Member
432200_302471983143818_151544094903275_819903_639924257_n.jpg


I'll let you guys guess the song for fun
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
Bl4ckSunsh1n3 said:
I like that they listen, try, and communicate. The dev team is human too so everything can't and won't get done but, at least we know that they try.
Click to expand...

I agree and I can appreciate there are limitations to what they could get implemented before they shipped.

If its been profitable enough I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the larger changes requested will simply have to wait for a Rocksmith II.. tho I hope they can continue to implement minor improvements
 
L

Lach

Member
Finally got my new guitar yesterday (Epiphone Sheraton II) and played some rounds on rocksmith (which has been on my shelf for a month or so).

Any tips on how to purchase the dlc from europe? Do I need a US-PSN account?
 
S

Strummerjones

Member
Lach said:
Any tips on how to purchase the dlc from europe? Do I need a US-PSN account?
Click to expand...

I'm in the same situation. You have to make a US PSN account (there are loads of guides how to do this on youtube), and then buy US PSN cards off of ebay (UK debit cards are not accepted on US accounts). Redeem your card(s) on your US account, and load up the game on that account and the DLC will appear in the shop (of course you can also get it directly from PSN without loading the game as well). Buy what you like and install, and then log in as your UK account to play, and all the DLC will be there for that account too.
 
bloodydrake

bloodydrake

Cool Smoke Luke
well that's fantastic.. glad to see a small dedicated team find some success when it seemed the music game genre was dead.
 
S

Strummerjones

Member
toymachine said:
• Rocksmith generated $40 million in North America, and Ubisoft is pleased. There will be more Rocksmith.
Click to expand...

Maybe now they'll employ more than 5 people to work on it in that case. Comments from the devs on Reddit and Twitter are littered with remarks about stuff being left out due to not enough time/money/staff, and the PC version is of course still in limbo for the same reason (on the back burner until the bass expansion is done, which will likely be bleeding ages based on them taking three months just to make the PS3 version work properly). Wasn't there also a comment that there were only two Pearl Jam songs in the latest DLC release as basically they didn't have enough money for the usual three? I love the hell out of this thing, but its clear every expense has been spared by Ubisoft in making this game (probably due to the aforementioned nervousness over the plastic instruments market collapse). Even the PR on their forums is days behind fansites.

I guess if the new DLC is Blink 182 (urgh) it's good news for them as the abysmal Three Days Grace song was one of the strongest selling tracks.
 
B

Bl4ckSunsh1n3

Member
I'm glad to see it do well. I always like new IPs, especially those that are taking a unique approach, to succeed. I especially wanted this to succeed because I have a blast with it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Rocksmith 2014 Remastered will be delisted in October
21
2K
toymachine replied
PSVR2 PC gaming adapter reviews
5 6 7 8 9
434
26K
nemiroff replied
Rock Band 4 weekly DLC will cease after 8+ years of support
31
4K
Quasicat replied
Activision Boss Bobby Kotick Hyped About AI, Suggests It Could Be Used In A New Guitar Hero
Opinion Business Game Dev
21
2K
Impotaku replied
Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope DX (Ultimate Edition) Announced
News Trailer
0
578
Draugoth replied
Top Bottom