Friday, November 1, 2013

The 'Rocksmith' 60-day challenge

According to Ubisoft you "can now learn to play guitar in just 60 days" with "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" by spending just one hour a day with it. Examiner's David Leavitt is putting that claim to the test over the next couple of months. Bookmark this page and check back often to follow his progress.

I took two semesters of acoustical guitar lessons during my junior year of college. Life happened, and priorities changed. My guitar's been collecting dust in a closet since. When the original "Rocksmith" came out two years ago I picked it up, however annoying menus, constant tuning, and load screens kept me from "playing" it for any extensive amount of time. Finding myself more annoyed than relaxed, I gave up on the software after just a couple of weeks. Can the sequel do any better?

Day 1 Nov. 4, 2013
After selecting the novice difficulty and choosing to play the rhythm guitar one thing was immediately clear: New menus with literally no loading screens. Such a huge improvement to the franchise. Less time spent on tuning and sitting around waiting means more time spent actually learning how to play the guitar. Color me impressed.

Tuning: You strum the highlighted string and "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" tells you to adjust it up or down. Some songs require you to change the tuning. From the song selection menu you can see what tuning each song is, so if you want to play five songs all in drop d in a row instead of bouncing back and forth from standard tuning you'll be able to save yourself some hassle.

Colored notes fall down a runway like past "music" games you may be familiar with, corresponding with the appropriate guitar string for you to pluck. Numbers indicate which finger should be holding down the indicated string on the fretboard.

"Rocksmith 2014 Edition" constantly challenges you. The software's difficulty changes dynamically during play. For instance, while playing "Love That's Gone" by La Sera at first I was strumming just single notes. After the game recognized that I was hitting the notes it inserted more notes. When I missed a few it lessened the amount, but still had more than originally. Then multiple notes to hit at once. Then full chords. After each time you play a song, "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" offers advice on how to improve the areas you're struggling with.

Tip: Unless you're going to jump around songs, choose a track that you and everyone else in the room enjoys. That's because you'll need to play it over and over again in order to truly learn it. My girlfriend literally threw a book at my head after playing "Love That's Gone" by La Sera six times straight ("A Game of Thrones" in case you were wondering).

I played non-stop for four hours, bouncing all over completing "missions," which were suggestions by "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" that show off the many features of the game. I didn't stop until my fingers were raw.

Day 2 Nov. 5, 2013
The new Riff Repeater is a key feature that makes learning every song much easier. When you're stuck on a particularly difficult part you can immediately jump into this mode before completing the song. From the Riff Repeater you can choose a specific section of a song that's troubling you, adjusting the speed and difficulty of the track. You'll be finding yourself in this mode fairly often.

Time played: 1 hour. Total time played: 5 hours.

Day 3 Nov. 6, 2013
Started today with diving into the Lessons mode. Each lesson in "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" tackles a specific aspect of playing the guitar with a video segment and then a practice segment. The first few lessons are pretty basic, such as how to connect your guitar strap to your guitar and the proper ways to hold a guitar standing up and sitting down. I progressed up to and through learning how to slide. The neat thing about the lesson mode is that if you don't accomplish the task it'll repeat it twice slowing down each time. If you're still not getting it right, there's a different video that explains in more detail what to do.

From Lessons mode I jumped into Learn A Song, and played the recommended song tab, each song once until my fingers hurt.

Time played: 3 hours. Total time played: 8 hours.

Day 4 Nov. 7, 2013
I was just enjoying a well-earned nap in a hammock on a deserted tropical island well all of a sudden a giant gush of water lifts me up into the air. Now I'm surfing on the back of a humpback whale, dodging killer seagulls and floating islands taken straight out of "Avatar." I won't ask questions. Instead I'll collect as many of these bananas as possible, even though I don't have a bag to put them in. I've "Gone Wailin'!"

A video game within a video game! And the only way to stay alive is to play music. "Gone Wailin'!" is one of several "Gutarcade" mini games featured in "Rocksmith 2014 Edition." In this particular mini game your aim is to score points by chaining together bananas, rising higher in the air off water spouts from a whale by strumming your guitar loud. You'll have to quickly fall down and avoid birds by muting the guitar string.

Like "Jetpack Joyride," "Gone Wailin'!" is essentially an endless runner. At every point in time there's three quests, such as collecting 1,000 bananas or touching 14 islands in once game, that once complete will earn you a star. Five stars will level you up, multiplying your final score by your level. Four hours later I'd finally reached level ten and scored some 20 million plus points, securing 14th place on the online leaderboards.

Total time played: 14 hours.

Day 5 Nov. 8, 2013
Continued with "Learn a Song" mode, completing two "Rocksmith Recommends" after each first play-through and then repeating the song a second time before switching titles. I noticed that chords have started appearing much more frequently than before.

Total time played: 16 hours.

Day 6 Nov. 9, 2013
More "Learn a Song." Chords are all over the place, and bends have started to appear. Really digging "Spirit of the Radio" by Rush and would have to say that "Stone" by Alice and Chains and "Say it Ain't So" by Weezer are my two other favorite songs to play so far. Still haven't gotten 100% on any track yet.

Total time played 19 hours.

Day 7 Nov. 10, 2013
I've only been playing "Rocksmith 2014 Edition" one week, for a total third of the 60 recommended hours and have progressed farther than I did when I took guitar lessons over six months. Granted I had some minor previous experience playing guitar, the game quickly outpaced what I already knew and continues to challenge and slowly improve my skills at every point.

Total time played: 22 hours.

Day 8 Nov. 11, 2013
Dived into a few lessons. Having a bit of difficulties doing palm mutes. Hammer-ons and hammer-offs aren't as hard as I'd though they'd be. Slides are fun!

Total time played: 23 hours.

Day 9 Nov. 12, 2013
More "Learn a Song." While playing, I noticed that notes started to fade away and disappear and a "master mode" popped up on the screen. This is really neat, as the game tests your knowledge and commitment to learning the notes to memory. After I screwed up and the notes reappeared on the screen.

Total time played: 24 hours.

Day 10 Nov. 13, 2013
Spent an hour plying "Say it Ain't So" by Weezer in the "Learn a Song" mode, diving into the riff repeater several times. Still only at a "Mastery Level" of 47%.

Total time played: 25 hours.

Day 11 Nov. 14, 2013
Played "Ninja SlideN," one of several "Guitarcade" mini-games. In this one, you'll slide from tower to tower slicing ghosts with your sword trying to stay ahead of an electrical surge that'll fry you. Each tower represents a different fret you'll need to slide your finger to. It's a very clever way of practicing, especially as it slowly increases in speed and makes you switch strings.

Total time played: 26 hours.

Day 12 Nov. 15, 2013
Despite not even mastering a single song yet or having played through them all, I decided to pay the $10 to import the tracks from the original "Rocksmith." Because you had to unlock the songs in the first game, I never had the chance to actually play through half of them as I'd given up on the software. This time around I'm thoroughly enjoying myself. $10 seems a little high compared to the fee for importing tracks in other "music games," however seeing as I'm actually going to learn the songs instead of mash colored buttons on a plastic guitar I feel it's well worth it.

Total time played: 27 hours.

Day 13 Nov. 16, 2013
More "Learn a Song." Up to 67% mastery on "Good Enough" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Total time played: 28 hours.

Day 14 Nov. 17, 2013
Went mission crazy, diving into the tone designer. The tone designer allows you to create custom tones, changing everything from your foot petal and amp to rack set up. As I'd only previously taken acoustic guitar lessons, I didn't know anything about all the gear guitarists use to create specific sounds. Each of the missions have you swap in and out different audio equipment, teaching you the difference between say, an echo and delay. One of the options in the tone designer it to can load authentic tones from any of the songs in the game. Whether you load a preset tone or create your own, you'll be able to assign it to one of four spots on the d-pad so that you can quickly change between them while playing.

One unfortunate thing that I noticed though was that even if you're using a custom tone to play a song in the learn a song mode it'll end up switching the tone back to the original band's tone in the middle of the song with a "clean switch." This kind of defeats the purpose of creating a tone doesn't it?

Total time played: 29 hours.

Day 15 Nov. 18, 2013
More "Learn a Song." Up to 60% mastery on "Stone" by Alice in Chains

Total time played: 30 hours.

Day 16 Nov. 19, 2013
Continued with "Learn a Song," this time playing each of the songs with the tuning of drop D a few times.

Total time played: 31 hours.

Day 17 Nov. 20, 2013
Attacked "We are the Champions" by Queen in the Riff Repeater. I've found that setting the Riff Repeater to level up and speed up with a low error tolerance is much easier to learn a song than actually playing in the learn a song mode. Up to 70% mastery.

Total time played: 32 hours.

2 day break (This thing called the Xbox One came out...)

Day 18 Nov. 23, 2013
Finally played through every song in the game at least once. Because I choose rhythm guitar for my "path" and have been more or less following the "Rocksmith Recommends" suggestions, I didn't even notice that not all of the songs included on disc have a rhythm guitar accompaniment. You'll have to change your "Path" to lead or bass in order to play the other songs (if you choose rhythm like I did).

Unfortunately you can't see your progress with all instruments on any given song on the same screen. You'll need to switch back and froth under the path menu, sitting through a loading screen (even when the game is installed onto your Xbox hard drive).

Total time played: 34 hours.

Day 19 Nov. 24, 2013
Hit the Session Mode today. Here you can choose any instrument, along with several others to create a "band" of AI players who'll play along with your improvisations. There's a lot options to choose from, so that you can fully customize the sound of your band. You can choose preset band or create a custom one. You're able to change the root, scale, tempo, and more. Spent an hour completing missions, which basically show you the ropes of how to use the Session Mode. This feature seems more geared towards experienced guitarists who're looking to jam or those who want to play their guitar through the game as an amp (you can create just about any tone, without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on actual equipment).

Total time played: 35 hours.

Day 20 Nov. 25, 2013
More "Learn A Song." Up to 80.5% on "High and Dry" by Radiohead.

Total time played: 36 hours

Day 21 Nov. 26, 2013
"Scale Warriors" is another of several "Guitarcade" games within "Rocksmith 2014" that help you master guitar techniques. "Scale Warriors" pays homage to the Nintendo "Double Dragon" (Related: Review of "Double Dragon Neon"). In this particular mini game you'll be controlling two characters on a quest to save a damsel in distress from the goons who stole her. Playing scale notes corresponding to where on the screen an enemy is standing will make one of your characters hit them. As you're playing the scales will shift up and down the neck, which'll make you remember where all the scales are located on the fret board the more you play.You'll need to string scale notes together in rapid succession in order to take down bosses who'll be able to break out of your combos. "Scale Warriors" is my favorite "Guitarcade" game, and it's easy to get lost in time playing it practicing your guitar skills.

Total time played: 37 hours

Day 22 Nov. 27, 2013
Over the past week I've also been playing this game's competitor, "BandFuse: Rock Legends" (check out my review). The differences between the two are night and day. While that other title's a bit flashier with official music videos and will teach you tabs, I feel that it's easier to actually learn songs using "Rocksmith 2014." The Riff Repeater is better by leaps and bounds than using the practice option from the competition. Look for a comparison in the coming weeks after extensive time with both titles.

Continued in "Learn a Song."

Total time played: 38 hours

Day 23 Nov. 29, 2013
Up to 81.2% on "Well OK Honey" by Jenny O.

Total time played: 39 hours

Day 24 Nov. 30, 2013
"String Skip Saloon" is another "Guitarcade" game, this time a throwback to the 1983 classic "Root Beer Tapper," which you can find on "Midway Arcade Origins" for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. In "String Skip Saloon" a brawl errupts in a western bar, and you'll need to strum the correct string to shoot a neverending onslaught of color coresponding thugs running at you through one of six doors which represents one of the six strings on a guitar. Some enemies require multiple shots to be taken down. Missing one and they'll jumpo over the bar and get you.

"String Skip Saloon" helps your guitar playing skills by getting your muscle memory to remember where each of the six strings are so that you don't have to look. As the game progresses enemies run quicker out of numerous locations, and you'll find yourself picking strings at an ever increasing speed. This minigame can get pretty frantic, and as you get better you'll also be faster. "String Skip Saloon" makes a great tool for those looking to level up their shredding skills.

Total time played: 40 hours

Day 25 Dec. 1, 2013
Continued with the lessons. Learned about legato, harmonics, and accents. Hopped back into "Learn A Song" and bounced around my favorites.

Total time played: 41 hours

Day 26 Dec. 2, 2013
In the "Score Attack" mode, your aim is to earn the highest score. There's three difficulties for each song (easy, medium, and hard), which will affect more than just the note arrangement you play. Each song is split up into phrases that you can conveniently practice in the "Riff Repeater."

Depending on which difficulty setting you're playing on and how many notes there are in a phrase missing a certain percentage will fail the phrase - resulting in a giant red X appearing on the screen. Three strikes and you're out. By not missing any notes you'll go on a streak. The longer your streak lasts the higher your multiplier will go, allowing you to rack up a record number of points to compete in the online leaderboards.

I tackled the "Score Attack" mode on a mix of easy and medium.

Total time played: 42 hours

Day 27 Dec. 3, 2013
Popped into the "Lessons" today. Took Chords 202 and learned more about strumming, and how you can form different rhythms based off whether you use upstrums, downstrums, or both. Your hand always moves the same way, what changes is if your pick is touching the strings.

In Chords 203 you'll learn how to play base notes alongside strumming patterns. This was something I'd be struggling with while playing in the "Learn a Song" mode, doing improperly by picking the individual note rather than keeping my fret hand in the proper chord position the whole time. Where was Captain Obvious when I needed him?

Syncopation 201 teaches how some rhythms work against a beat. Still can't manage to conquer get palm muting done correctly.

Total time played: 43 hours

Day 28 Dec. 4, 2013
More "Learn a Song" today. Decided to switch it up an focus on the lead guitar instead of rhythm in order to build up the speed of both my pick hand and how fast I change chords.

Total time played: 44 hours

Day 29 Dec. 5, 2013
Played "Scale Warriors," and "String Skip Saloon" a few times each then jumped over into "Score Attack." One annoying thing I've noticed is that when you fail a "Guitarcade" game or "Score Attack" you always have to wait 20 seconds or so while the game checks the internet to just bounce back with a "Failed Leaderboard Challenge." You'd think we'd already know that if the score isn't higher than one we've already made, especially if you've failed immediately. While it's only a short wait it adds up the more you play the minigames.

Total time played: 44 hours

Day 30 Dec. 6, 2013
Skipped around in "Learn a Song," completing the three "Rocksmith Recommends" each before moving away to another title. One peculiar thing is that sometimes when the software downgrades the difficulty because you missed a couple of notes it significantly reduces it and you may end up playing the song a couple more times to get back to where you were before.

Total time played: 45 hours

Day 31 Dec. 7, 2013
Hit up a bunch of the missions, which mostly had goals reaching the next level in many of the "Guitarcade" games. One of them was to play for 20 minutes in "Session Mode" with chord tones. Basically, the software wanted me to play multiple strings in a specific scale at the same time.

Total time played: 46 hours

Day 32 Dec. 8, 2013
In the "Guitarcade" mini-game "Scale Racer" you're in a car that's being pursued by cops down a highway of lanes that correspond to different frets. You'll need to strum the correct scale notes in order to change lanes and avoid crashing into other automobiles. Unlike "Scale Warriors" the notes don't go all over the place, instead they're simply up and down in order. The focus here is on building the speed at which you can play all of the notes in a particular scale, as each time you've successfully played through all of the scale notes your car increases in velocity, making you play faster to keep from getting into a car accident.

Total time played: 47 hours

Day 33 Dec. 9, 2013
Played several songs in the "Score Attack" mode in the easy difficulty setting today. Didn't fail any of them. Progress. Medium's still quite the challenge for some songs, despite having 60% to 80% mastery on almost all the songs now.

Total time played: 48 hours

Day 34 Dec. 10, 2013
The "Guitarcade" mini-game "Harmonic Heist" is probably the most challenging of the mini-games. This game is all about hitting Harmonic notes, which you can learn about in the "Lessons." In short, slightly touching the string instead of pressing it down at certain points of the fretboard result in a different noise, and this mini-game helps you build that skill. "Harmonic Heist" doesn't require you to be significantly fast, instead the focus is on accuracy. You're a thief who's stealing jewels from a museum. Playing the correct harmonic note will make your character sneak to the next jewelry exhibit. You'll have to watch out for night watchmen who're patrolling. Hitting the incorrect harmonic note creates noise, resulting in them coming to investigate and catch you.

Total time played: 49 hours

Day 35 Dec. 11, 2013
Continued following the main three "Rocksmith" missions, which had goals such as 30% mastery in "Everlong," complete "Everlong" in Score attack, and reach level three in "Scale Racer." Finished seven of the missions.

Total time played: 50 hours

Day 36 Dec. 12, 2013
Played several songs on score attack easy and am up to skill level ten in "Gone Wailin'!"

Total time played: 51 hours

Day 37 Dec. 13, 2013
More lessons today. Shifting 201 and Chords 301. Up to level three in "Harmonic Heist." This particular mini-game is particularly challenging for me, despite going back to the Harmonics lesson several times.

Total time played: 52 hours

Day 38 Dec. 14, 2013
Having a lot of fun on the song "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones and am at 40.5% mastery on it after playing just four times. Also up to skill level ten in "String Skip Saloon."

Total time played: 53 hours

Day 39 Dec. 15, 2013
The "Guitarcade" game "Ducks ReDux" is a variation on the Nintendo classic "Duck Hunt." This mini-game was in the previous iteration of the "Rocksmith" franchise, and here your goal is to shoot ducks as they float away from you. The ducks are color coded, corresponding to the correct string you'll need to strum and are in different positions on the screen that align with spots on the fret board.

In the first level you'll need to shoot three ducks in a row for a special color-shifiting duck to appear at the very edge of the screen. Successfully hitting it will change the string you're on and move back a wall that's continuously moving closer to you. Every time you switch strings you'll need to hit one more duck in a row without missing in order to get the color-changing duck. Some ducks have shields, which require you to hit them three times in a row before they're destroyed.

Up to skill level seven in "Ducks ReDux."

Total time played: 54 hours

Day 40 Dec. 16, 2013
Following the missions, and reached 78% Mastery on "Gobbledigook" by Sigur Ros on lead guitar. Am also up to skill level ten in "Ninja Slide N."

Total time played: 55 hours

Day 41 Dec. 17, 2013
Wow. "Return to Castle Chordead" is hands-down the best mini-game on "Rocksmith 2014 Edition." It's a first person shooter on rails where you'll be destroying zombies, bats, vampires, and demons by playing chords on the guitar. Think "House of the Dead" or "Time Crisis" with a guitar instead of a plastic gun.

The best part about "Return to Castle Chordead" is that you don't feel like you're practicing the guitar. It was so addictive that I finished all three levels of progression in "Return to Castle Chordead," learning several chords including F5 and G in the process, and didn't realize three hours had gone bye. Absolutely love it and will be coming back to this mini-game often.

Total time played: 58 hours

Day 42 Dec. 18, 2013
Missions completed today:
Reached level four in "Scale Racers."
Reach 50% mastery on three songs on lead guitar ("Take Me Out" by Ferdinand, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard, and "Boys Don't Cry" by The Cure).
Play Session Mode for 20 minutes using scale notes.

Total time played: 59 hours

Day 43 Dec. 19, 2013
In the Guitarcade game "Star Chords" you pilot a spaceship during the middle of an epic battle, shooting down other fighters, taking out turrets, and ships by strumming the appropriate chords. Just like in "Return to Castle Chordead" there's a limited window of opportunity to shoot enemies before they fire upon you. Taking out multiple targets without being hit yourself will earn you a score multiplier. Some ships have shields or simply require more than one shot to take down, usuallly of varrying chords. Unlike "Return to Castle Chordead" though, chords aren't presented to you to learn before being used. New chords simply appear randomly, and there aren't any checkpoints. While the order of enemies seems pretty much a constant each time you play, "Star Chords" shakes things up by giving you different chords to master every time you play. It's certainly a fun min-game

Reached level six in "Star Chords". Also unlocked the song "Monochromic."

Total time played: 60 hours

Day 44 Dec. 20, 2013
Missions completed today:
Up 23% mastery on "Now" by Paramore
New high score in Score Attack on easy for "Everlong."
Achieved skill level seven in "Star Chords."

Total time played: 61 hours

Day 45 Dec. 21, 2013
Missions completed today:
Achieved level four in "Harmonic Heist."
Achieved skill level four in "Scale Racers."
Get a 50 note streak (on "Everlong" by Foo Fighters).

Total time played: 62 hours

Day 46 Dec. 22, 2013
In the GuitarCade mini-game "Temple of Bends" you're an Indian Jones-type archeologist searching for treasure. After finding a prized jewel, the ceiling (which is filled with deadly spikes) starts to descend, and the only way to live is to climb down vine ladders which you create playing bends. The jewel that's taken at the beginning of the mini-game is color coded to the string to play on, and each platform has a number representing which fret you must bend to and from. As you desparately try to escape, there's opportunities to plunder more jewels. Each time you do, you'll reverse direction, now climbing from a rising pool of flesh eating piranhas or back down from yet another falling ceiling. For those who've been having difficulty with bends, "Temple of Bends" will significantly increase your speed and accuracy.

Achieved skill level four in "Temple of Bends."

Total time played: 63 hours

Day 47 Dec. 23, 2013
Missions completed today:
Brilliant performance on "Song 2" by Blur on rhythm guitar, up to 85% Mastery.
Play Session Mode for 20 minutes using scale notes.
75% accuracy on "House of the Rising Sun" by Animals.

Total time played: 64 hours

Day 48 Dec. 24, 2013
Today's accomplishments:
New high score in Score Attack on Easy for "Everlong" by Foo Fighters
Unlocked the achievement "Ernie Ball's long streak special" (250 note streak over multiple songs)
75% Accuracy on "Now" by Paramore.

Total time played: 65 hours

Day 49 Dec. 25, 2013
Today's accomplishments:
Play two new songs on lead guitar: "Well OK Honey" by Jenny O. (up to 34.7% mastery) and "When I'm with You" by Best Coast (up to 45.7% mastery).
Play Session Mode for 20 minutes using scale notes.

Total time played: 66 hours

Day 50 Dec. 26, 2013
Spent quite a chunk of time using the Riff Repeater. Hit several favorites in Learn a Song mode. Many of them are up to over 80% mastery, however playing them several times and using the Riffi Repeater to get down the more challenging parts are really the brunt part of gameplay at this point. You can continue to just keep playing the song, however when it's already at 100% difficulty the only real way to improve at this point is to slow it down. Playing the same part in Riff Repeater for some 20 minutes with error tolerance set to none and three repetitions can become a bit tedious. Afterwards, going back and replaying the song in its entirety will yield a slight gain of one to two percent. There's just ten days left in the "Rocksmith Challenge" and I've yet to 100% master any one song, however I'm certainly getting close.

Total time played: 67 hours

Day 51 Dec. 27, 2013
New high score in Score Attack on medium for "Everlong" by Foo Fighters
76% Accuracy on "Now" by Paramore.

Total time played: 68 hours

Day 52 Dec. 28, 2013
Hit level five in "Scale Racers."
Played a little Return to Castle Chordead"

Total time played: 68.5 hours

Day 53 Dec. 29, 2013
Level seven in "Ducks ReDux.
Up to 47% on "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones .

Total time played: 69.5 hours

Day 54 Dec. 30, 2013
83% Mastery on "Gobbledigook" by Sigur Ros.
Up to level level five in "Harmonic Heist."

Total time played: 70 hours

Day 55 Dec. 31, 2013
Played Session Mode for half an hour doing more scale notes.
82% on "Everlong" by Foo Fighters.

Total time played: 71 hours

Day 56 Jan. 1, 2014
89% "Well OK Honey" by Jenny O.
Played some Star Chords.

Total time played: 72 hours

Day 57 Jan. 2, 2014
86% on "Everlong" by Foo Fighters. The section that slides up and down the neck of the guitar keeps giving me trouble.
More "Harmonic Heist."

Total time played: 73 hours

Day 58 Jan. 3, 2014
92% Mastery on Song 2" by Blur. Really improved on this one.

Total time played: 74 hours

Day 59 Jan. 4, 2014
94% "Well OK Honey" by Jenny O.
More Star Chords.

Total time played: 75 hours

Day 60 Jan. 5, 2014
89% accuracy on "Now" by Paramore.
91% on "Everlong" by Foo Fighters.

Total time played: 76 hours

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Will you become good enough to play in a band after 60 days? No. You will learn how to play a few songs without looking at the notes though. The game certainly did raise my skill level, and I'll be keeping at in the monthes ahead. Although I haven't acquired a full 100% mastery on any one particular song, it's good enough get away with on an accoustic at parties with friends.

When you compare the cost of professional guitar classes, the result is a no-brainer. Even if you have just a casual interest in learning guitar or bass we recommend you pick up "Rocksmith 2014 Edition." It's absolutely worth the purchase, not to mention fun to play.

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May 2014 Retrospective: In the following six months I've cut back to about one to two hours a week, focusing on just one song at a time instead of being all over the place. I also ended up purchasing the Smashing Pumpkins DLC pack. I'm very happy with the money I've spent porting the original game content over to the new version, and even after spending half a year with the game there's more content to master here without having to buy more.

For more about the game visit www.Rocksmith.com.

Please note that this article is based off a free "no cable" version of "Rocksmith 2013 Edition" received from Ubisoft.
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