Wednesday 6 November 2013

VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Rocksmith 2014 - Ubisoft

Release Date: 25/10/13
Publisher:  Ubisoft

SYNOPSIS:

Rocksmith 2014 Edition allows players to plug any real guitar or bass directly into their PC or Mac to begin their musical journey.

With a completely redesigned interface and all-new features, Rocksmith 2014 Edition is tailored to better teach the key elements of guitar playing, and to make learning faster and more fun than any other method. A new fully customizable "Riff Repeater" lets players select any section of a song they want to play, and adjust the difficulty and speed on-the-fly. A new "Master Mode" makes playing by memory more approachable and new "Guitarcade" mini-games have been created to hone specific guitar skills. With these flexible and deep practice tools, it’s never been easier for players to play their favorite songs on guitar or bass.

You can also experience "Session Mode", a groundbreaking technology that enables players of any skill level to play guitar with a virtual band that jams along with them. Players can select the style of music and the particular instruments they’d like to accompany them and the rest happens dynamically, adapting live while they play.


REVIEW:

Having begun my journey with the guitar over a quarter of a century ago, help is always welcome along the way and whilst this title is initially aimed at the beginner, its a great way to brush up on not only your basics but also to learn with songs you've been loving for years. Whilst this is the second release in this series, they've updated it with some new features.

What they've added are quite a nifty. For example it tracks the your progress with the songs and recommends exercises to help you improve not only your pick up rate but also so that the tricky bits get the attention deserved so that you have a fuller education. Its quite a cool way of doing things and whilst its going to be something that takes quite a lot of time to learn, its a great way to help build up auto memory for certain patterns so that you can concentrate on something else.

Add to this other things like a tuning feature (which on the original I loved as it helped keep things sounding pretty good, an instant riff repeater at the touch of a button alongside a solid chord book with session modes all round made this a whole heap of fun to spend time with.

Furthermore, getting to have fun rocking out with tracks like:
Areosmith - Walk this Way
Joe Satriani - Satch Boogie
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
The Rolling Stones - Paint it Black
to name just a few, has really made it a whole lot of fun. No expense has been spared with songs available from multiple genres to help find something for everyone’s tastes.

Finally throw into the mix a great way to use this a guitar tutor and the sense of accomplishment when you get close to perfect really does give you not only a glowing feeling but will help provide you with enough encouragement to keep on working hard on your journey. Great stuff.



No comments: