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[DrBo42]

Hey, this is out now on current generation consoles, PC & MAC in the US. Rest of the world the 24th I guess?

What the fuck is Rocksmith 2014?

Well friend, it's Ubisoft SF's latest iteration of their guitar learning software/game Rocksmith.​

Okay, is this more plastic instrument crap?

Nope. You plug a real guitar or bass into your console or computer with their 1/4" to USB cable.​

Setlist stolen from TheRiffRepeater:

Aerosmith – Walk This Way
Alice Cooper – No More Mr. Nice Guy
Alice in Chains – Stone
Arctic Monkeys – R U Mine?
Avenged Sevenfold – Bat Country
B’z – Ultra Soul
Bob Dylan – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Boston – Peace of Mind
Bush – Machinehead
The Dear Hunter – Stuck On a Wire Out On a Fence
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar on Me (2012)
Deftones – My Own Summer (Shove It)
EarlyRise – Wasteland
Fang Island – Chompers
Foo Fighters – Everlong
Gold Motel – Brand New Kind of Blue
Green Day – X-Kid
Iron Maiden – The Trooper
Jack White – Sixteen Saltines
JAWS – Stay In
Joe Satriani – Satch Boogie
The Kinks – You Really Got Me
KISS – Rock and Roll All Nite
La Sera – Love That’s Gone
Magic Wands – Black Magic
Mastodon – Blood and Thunder
Minus The Bear – Cold Company
Monster Truck – Sweet Mountain River
Muse – Knights of Cydonia
Nirvana – Heart Shaped Box
Oasis – Don’t Look Back in Anger
Pantera – Cemetery Gates
Paramore – Now
PAWS – Sore Tummy
The Police – Every Breath You Take
Queen – We Are the Champions
R.E.M. – Losing My Religion
Radiohead – Paranoid Android
The Ramones – Blitzkrieg Bop
RATT – Round and Round
Red Fang – Wires
Rise Against – Savior
The Rolling Stones – Paint It, Black
Rush – Spirit of Radio
Screaming Females – Rotten Apple
The Shins – For a Fool
Slayer – War Ensemble
The Smashing Pumpkins – The Chimera
Splashh – All I Wanna Do
System of a Down – Hypnotize
Tak Matsumoto – Go Further
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Mary Jane’s Last Dance
Weezer – Say It Ain’t So
White Zombie – Thunder Kiss ’65
The Who – My Generation

Bonus Songs:

Hail The Sun – Eight-Ball, Coroner’s Pocket
Karawan – Desolate Motion (UPlay Exclusive)
More to be announced!

Pre-Order DLC:

The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock (North America)
Tame Impala – Elephant (Australia/New Zealand)

Improvements from the original Rocksmith:

1. Loading is gone
2. Riff Repeater (The ability to slow down a sequence, change difficulty, work on a specific phrase or section of a song) is instantly available with a press of a button
3. Interface re-haul - Indicators will now appear for which finger you should use for each fret in a chord - Bends and vibrato show exactly how much should be applied -

   

4. Menus have been completely streamlined, no more scrolling through endless menus trying to find what you want
   

   

5. Guitarcade more fun and useful
6. More in-depth lessons and video instruction on vital techniques needed as a guitar player - When you mess up the game won't just tell you you're wrong, it will attempt to fix your technique

   

New Features:

Session Mode - Jamming with AI musicians that adapt to your playing

Partnership with Orange, Marshall and Eden gear for increased accuracy to their specific tones/product offerings
- "The game features a range of Orange Amps including the Rockerverb, Tiny Terror, AD and OR series amps plus speakers such as the PPC412 and OBC810."

Reviews:
IGN - 9/10
Gaming Trend - 90/100
Worth Playing - 8.8/10
Gamespot - 8/10
gamesradar - 4/5
Game Reactor (Denmark) - 7/10

NOTE - Original game tracklist can be imported to Rocksmith 2014 for $9.99. All your DLC can be imported free of charge.

Used to tablature? - You can flip the board vertically to be more like a tablature layout. (Options -> Play Settings -> Invert Strings)

*Colorblind GAF, you can play too. You have not been forsaken

PC Requirements:

Min:

Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 or 2.0 GHz AMD Ahtlon 64 X2 3800+
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: 256MB DirectX9 / GeForce 8600 or Radeon HD 2600 XT
Hard Drive: 12 GB

Recommended:

Processor: 3.1 GHz Intel Core i3-540 or 3.3 GHz Athlon II X3 455
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 512MB Nvidia GT 240 or 512MB ATI Radeon 5670
Hard Drive: 12 GB

 

[DrBo42]

DLC - Updated as info comes in

Title | Artist | Release Date | Pack

The Sky is Crying | Albert King | 2013-10-22 | Single

25 or 6 to 4 | Chicago | 2013-10-22 | Single

Hate to Say I Told You So | The Hives | 2013-10-22 | Single

Ho Hey | The Lumineers | 2013-10-22 | Single

My God is the Sun | Queens of the Stone Age | 2013-10-22 | Single

Cherub Rock | The Smashing Pumpkins | 2013-10-12 | Single

Elephant | Tame Impala | 2013-10-12 | Single

Mind Eraser, No Chaser | Them Crooked Vultures | 2013-10-22 | Single

Today | The Smashing Pumpkins | 2013-10-29 | Single/Pack

Bullet with Butterfly Wings | The Smashing Pumpkins | 2013-10-29 | Single/Pack

Disarm | The Smashing Pumpkins | 2013-10-29 | Single/Pack

Tonight, Tonight | The Smashing Pumpkins | 2013-10-29 | Single/Pack

Aces High | Iron Maiden | 2013-11-5 | Single/Pack

2 Minutes To Midnight | Iron Maiden | 2013-11-5 | Single/Pack

Fear of the Dark | Iron Maiden | 2013-11-5 | Single/Pack

The Number of the Beast | Iron Maiden | 2013-11-5 | Single/Pack

Run to the Hills | Iron Maiden | 2013-11-5 | Single/Pack

 

[Roflobear]

Downloading now. So pumped for this!

 

[Canis lupus]

Damn I still haven't really started the first one.

 

[Roflobear]

Damn I still haven't really started the first one.

You should really start with this one anyway. This one appears to be miles ahead in terms of beginner-friendliness

 

[DrBo42]

You should really start with this one anyway. This one appears to be miles ahead in terms of beginner-friendliness

100% yes. Please people, do not buy the original unless you want it to import the original track list. (Actually we need to confirm the original is needed to do that)

 

[saunderez]

I GUARANTEE if you buy Rocksmith 1 the menus will piss you off in approximately 5 minutes. So much time wasted navigating shitty slow menus that I could've been using to play the freakin' guitar. Also, so jealous of people already downloading.

 

[Schlomo]

The first was almost unusable because of loading times, endless saving messages and menu transitions. Will probably get this for PC, but I'm a little worried about audio lag because I've never played rhythm games on PC and use audio via HDMI normally.

 

[DrBo42]

The first was almost unusable because of loading times, endless saving messages and menu transitions. Will probably get this for PC, but I'm a little worried about audio lag because I've never played rhythm games on PC and use audio via HDMI normally.

They've said it's been improved but we'll have to wait until feedback is available.

 

[saunderez]

They've said it's been improved but we'll have to wait until feedback is available.

From videos I've watched of the 360 version it's absolutely been fixed. I watched a hell of a lot of a 1.5 hour stream of some of the worst guitar playing I've ever heard.

The first was almost unusable because of loading times, endless saving messages and menu transitions. Will probably get this for PC, but I'm a little worried about audio lag because I've never played rhythm games on PC and use audio via HDMI normally.

HDMI is fine for video but you'll probably need to use onboard sound. I was getting a touch too much lag with sound via HDMI. I use a set of headphones while I'm playing so I can ramp the volume late at night.

 

[R1CHO]

The original on pc wasn't that bad either, talking about loading times.

 

[saunderez]

The original on pc wasn't that bad either, talking about loading times.

True, scrolling through the song list over and over sucked though. It was completely ridiculous it didn't return you to the song you just played after completing one. A lot of the time I'd quit the song just before it finished so I didn't have to do that.

 

[Rapstah]

Cherub Rock is the pre-order song for Europe too if you want to add that to the OT. It doesn't have a release date on the European store page though and there's no pre-load button:

Says it's releasing in October on the store page so I'm assuming the 24th.

 

[hamchan]

Damn I want to start playing now but the 24th....

 

[DrBo42]

Cherub Rock is the pre-order song for Europe too if you want to add that to the OT. It doesn't have a release date on the European store page though and there's no pre-load button:

Says it's releasing in October on the store page so I'm assuming the 24th.

Still waiting for it to release here in the states on Steam as well.

 

[saunderez]

Still waiting for it to release here in the states on Steam as well.

Yeah it's definitely a worldwide release, give it 8 hours or so.

 

[R1CHO]

Yeah it's definitely a worldwide release, give it 8 hours or so.

I hope you are right.

 

[Huggy]

Is anyone here using this to learn the guitar? From scratch I mean.

 

[saunderez]

Is anyone here using this to learn the guitar? From scratch I mean.

I am. Well I used the first one anyway. Started shortly after the PAL release. I'm definitely over the beginner hump and will be starting 2014 in either Intermediate or Advanced depending on how it scales difficulty. Rocksmith motivated me in a way that learning off the internet and attempting to play tabs could never have done. I took the training wheels off quite a while ago (fret numbering stickers on my guitar) and can now zip around the fret board without thinking. Chords are still the bane of my existence, fast chord changing is taking me a long time to get right.

 

[hesido]

I seriously need an ultra low latency TV set. I'm betting they have reduced audio latency too. Currently these games are unplayable on my LG due to the audio latency.

How does Rocksmith tackle the latency? If there's auto calibration and I get my sounds from my own amp, then the latency of the TV will not matter, both video and audio, as both the visuals / audio output of original song and performance evaluation can be adjusted to the latency. If I'm hearing the sound from the TV, I won't be able to play this.

 

[saunderez]

I seriously need an ultra low latency TV set. I'm betting they have reduced audio latency too. Currently these games are unplayable on my LG due to the audio latency.

How does Rocksmith tackle the latency? If there's auto calibration and I get my sounds from my own amp, then the latency of the TV will not matter, both video and audio, as both the visuals / audio output of original song and performance evaluation can be adjusted to the latency. If I'm hearing the sound from the TV, I won't be able to play this.

You can do the sound through the amp, I used to have my 360 route analog audio to the amp because as you said my LG TV introduced too much audio lag in my setup. HDMI video and analog audio is the preferred setup for all versions of the game as far as I know.

 

[DrBo42]

Here's some footage of someone intending to break the strings going through the start of the game. Assuming he has never played a guitar before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cAuVib9zVQ&t=16m15s

 

[hesido]

You can do the sound through the amp, I used to have my 360 route analog audio to the amp because as you said my LG TV introduced too much audio lag in my setup. HDMI video and analog audio is the preferred setup for all versions of the game as far as I know.

Hmm, so you actually receive the whole output of the console from the amp. Much like what I did to play RockBand, I connected el-cheapo speakers with 0 latency, but it requires me to go behind the TV, connect the necessary cables etc. which acts like a barrier for my play, and the sound was horrible compared to the TV or my Home Theatre. A quality guitar amp would be better but the whole experience would be mono.

Are you talking about a home theatre amp btw? So I'm assuming the game adds the necessary distortion, flange, chorus etc. effects to the vanilla guitar sound?

 

[Card Boy]

NOTE - Original game tracklist can be imported to Rocksmith 2014 for $9.99. All your DLC can be imported free of charge.

Should be free like RB.

 

[saunderez]

Hmm, so you actually receive the whole output of the console from the amp. Much like what I did to play RockBand, I connected el-cheapo speakers with 0 latency, but it requires me to go behind the TV, connect the necessary cables etc. which acts like a barrier for my play, and the sound was horrible compared to the TV or my Home Theatre. A quality guitar amp would be better but the whole experience would be mono.

Are you talking about a home theatre amp btw? So I'm assuming the game adds the necessary distortion, flange, chorus etc. effects to the vanilla guitar sound?

Yeah I'm talking about an AV Receiver. The game is its own effects pedal. You're free to use a guitar amp for the sound too, I used my Yamaha THR-10 on the clean setting, though the Yammy has the advantage of having a stereo sound in port for MP3 players etc.

 

[saunderez]

Should be free like RB.

It's not a clean transfer, all the songs have been updated to support 2014 features such as auto tone switching and additional techniques.

 

[Card Boy]

Some dude is selling Rocksmith 2014 for $27 on Steamtrades.

It's not a clean transfer, all the songs have been updated to support 2014 features such as auto tone switching and additional techniques.

Makes sense i guess.

 

[saunderez]

Makes sense i guess.

Well yeah obviously I'd rather it be free but music licensing is all kinds of messed up and its likely they only licensed these songs for 1 game too. DLC is a bit different since different since it's portable from the outset.

 

[BeekleMatter]

Kudos to the inclusion of Hail The Sun and The Dear Hunter in the soundtrack. "Eight-ball, coroners pocket" is not an easy song though so glhf everyone.

 

[rvy]

Pantera – Cemetery Gates

I can feel the pain in my fingers already.

 

[Vintage]

NOTE - Original game tracklist can be imported to Rocksmith 2014 for $9.99. All your DLC can be imported free of charge.

Does it matter if I own original game or not?

 

[DrBo42]

Does it matter if I own original game or not?

I believe you have to own the first but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[Baldwin_the_First]

Just found out there were no PS4 version for Rocksmith 2014 coming out. Really disapointing.

 

[DrBo42]

Just found out there were no PS4 version for Rocksmith 2014 coming out. Really disapointing.

Yeah, just current gen + PC/MAC.

 

[saunderez]

Just found out there were no PS4 version for Rocksmith 2014 coming out. Really disapointing.

They're a really small studio (26 people I believe), I reckon if they are planning on releasing next gen versions they will start work on them after the initial release.

 

[elfinke]

Whoah, wasn't expecting an OT for this! After moaning about wanting to learn to play guitar for, oh I don't know, forever, I went and bought a guitar and bought this for PC last week. Unfortunately it doesn't unlock for another a day or two here in Australia, but I'm super excited to jump on in when it does.

Can't wait!

 

[saunderez]

Whoah, wasn't expecting an OT for this! After moaning about wanting to learn to play guitar for, oh I don't know, forever, I went and bought a guitar and bought this for PC last week. Unfortunately it doesn't unlock for another a day or two here in Australia, but I'm super excited to jump on in when it does.

Can't wait!

It unlocks 3-4 in the morning for us mate, hope you don't have to work tomorrow

I do

 

[Raysoul]

Question: I have a Zoom G5 Multi-Effects Pedal. Can I use the Guitar->Effects->PC setup or does the game force you to use its own AMP/Effects simulator?

 

[saunderez]

Question: I have a Zoom G5 Multi-Effects Pedal. Can I use the Guitar->Effects->PC setup or does the game force you to use its own AMP/Effects simulator?

The effects pedal is going to mess up the tone detection I think. If you wanted to go that way you should use a Y splitter and turn the guitar volume down in game. Then you could pipe the pedal to your amp the still have the in game music coming out of your PC.

 

[hesido]

Yeah I'm talking about an AV Receiver. The game is its own effects pedal. You're free to use a guitar amp for the sound too, I used my Yamaha THR-10 on the clean setting, though the Yammy has the advantage of having a stereo sound in port for MP3 players etc.

My AV receiver adds a whopping 110ms, more than my LG. It's a Samsung. People should stay away from such abominations.

I really have no idea how I should buy my next a/v receiver. I wish there was an app of some sort that would allow me to test the latency at the shop.

 

[parappatherapper]

anyone know the cheapest option to pick up a cable in the UK? May get 2014 on Steam but probably cheaper to just go out and by the PS3 version of Rocksmith with a cable!

 

[elfinke]

It unlocks 3-4 in the morning for us mate, hope you don't have to work tomorrow

I do

Neat. It'll be the first boxed game for PC I've bought in years - maybe since Morrowind expansions - and only because I need the cable.

Quick question - does the retail box edition have a Steam key? Cos I don't have a disc drive in my PC, so installation will be a problem if I can't just plug a key into Steam and download it!

 

[backbreaker65]

Just found out there were no PS4 version for Rocksmith 2014 coming out. Really disapointing.

It wouldn't be the best experience, because both systems are HDMI. They will need to figure out how to reduce the lag on HDMI before moving to next gen. I want touch it RockSmith until then.

 

[Chili]

Will retail copies activate on Steam? The Steam copy apparently uses Steam Achievements and Leaderboards so is it both Steamworks and Uplay?

 

[Terbinator]

Is it actually any good at helping you learn guitar from scratch?

I might jump in and lend an electric off my uncle.

 

[amnesiac]

People who played guitar before this game - how easy is it?

 

[Vintage]

People who played guitar before this game - how easy is it?

What is easy? This game or playing guitar?

 

[saunderez]

Is it actually any good at helping you learn guitar from scratch?

I might jump in and lend an electric off my uncle.

Yes it is. I had zero experience prior to Rocksmith.

 

[Raysoul]

The effects pedal is going to mess up the tone detection I think. If you wanted to go that way you should use a Y splitter and turn the guitar volume down in game. Then you could pipe the pedal to your amp the still have the in game music coming out of your PC.

Oh, thanks a lot. Will get this game once I have the proper resources (Mainly new PC) so I can get back to rock and roll.

 

[Vintage]

Question: I have a Zoom G5 Multi-Effects Pedal. Can I use the Guitar->Effects->PC setup or does the game force you to use its own AMP/Effects simulator?

From developer Q&A:
http://youtu.be/_PWORXxRkuY?t=1m10s
You can use pedals, but it isn't officially supported. Imho tone detection should be fine, but if your pedal affects volume, the game might not hear you.