Where to Buy Rocksmith - Xbox 360

Description

Rocksmith - The first and only game that plugs into any guitar Introducing the next stage in the evolution of the music game. Rocksmith, the first and only game where you can plug into any real guitar. Featuring gameplay that automatically adjusts to your personal ability and innovative game design that makes playing music visually intuitive, Rocksmith will engage experienced musicians as well as those who have never picked up a guitar in their life. You'll be able to choose from a large catalog of songs in different styles including: Best Coast – When I'm With You Blur – Song 2 Cream – Sunshine of Your Love Dan Auerbach – I Want Some More David Bowie – Rebel Rebel Eric Clapton – Run Back To Your Side Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out Incubus – I Miss You Interpol – Slow Hands Jarvis Cocker – Angela Jenny O. – Well OK Honey Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way Little Barrie – Surf Hell Lynyrd Skynyrd – Sweet Home Alabama Muse – Unnatural Selection Muse – Plug In Baby Nirvana – Breed Nirvana – In Bloom Pixies – Where Is My Mind? Queens Of The Stone Age – Go With The Flow Radiohead – High And Dry Rapscallions – California Brain Red Fang – Number Thirteen Sigur Ros – Gobbledigook Silversun Pickups – Panic Switch Soundgarden – Outshined Spoon – Me And The Bean Stone Temple Pilots – Vasoline Stone Temple Pilots – Between The Lines Taddy Porter – Mean Bitch The Animals – House Of The Rising Sun The Black Keys – Next Girl The Black Keys – I Got Mine The Boxer Rebellion – Step Out Of The Car The Cribs – We Share The Same Skies The Cure – Boys Don't Cry The Dead Weather – I Can't Hear You The Horrors – Do You Remember The Rolling Stones – (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction The Rolling Stones – Play With Fire The Rolling Stones – The Spider and The Fly The Strokes – Under Cover Of Darkness The White Stripes – Icky Thump The XX – Islands Titus Andronicus – A More Perfect Union Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Good Enough Velvet Revolver – Slither White Denim – Burnished Yellow Moon Band – Chimney Product Features Track Your Progress!
Rocksmith adapts to your personal ability, and makes suggestions to you along the way based on your particular skill-set. Build your own progression line and become stage-ready in no time. Single notes: Start simple with one note at a time, or shred like a pro. Whatever your skill-set, Rocksmith will challenge you to play the real lead guitar parts as they were meant to be played: on a real guitar. Chords: Ready to play some rhythm guitar? Rocksmith has you covered. Choose from an amazing library of tracks that range from simple to complex chord structures, or head over to the interactive chord chart to refine your craft. Guitarcade: Play a variety of different mini-games designed to hone specific guitar-playing skills such as scales, bends, tremolo, harmonics, and much more! Every copy of Rocksmith will include a revolutionary 1/4 inch to USB cable that turns the guitar's signal from analog to digital, allowing it to be recognized and played through video game consoles for the first time. By plugging into your console, you'll develop real skills and real styles while playing absolutely real music.

And you'll experience it all with an honest-to-goodness guitar. Nothing compares to playing a real guitar. Except playing Rocksmith. Quickly and easily compare the different versions of Rocksmith to determine which one is right for you.
Rocksmith 2014 Edition Rocksmith 2014 Edition - No Cable Included Version Rocksmith Guitar & Bass Rocksmith Summary All-new version of Rocksmith. Also available for the first time on Mac. All-new sequel, but without the required Real Tone Cable. Intended for players that already have the cable. Original version plus support for bass guitars. Also available for the first time on PC. Original version of Rocksmith. Available October 2013 October 2013 2012 2011 Platforms Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC/Mac Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC/Mac (download only) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 Rocksmith Real Tone Cable Included Yes No Yes Yes Compatibility Electric guitar, bass guitar Electric guitar, bass guitar Electric guitar, bass guitar Electric guitar Note: All versions and platforms of Rocksmith are compatible with the Real Tone Cable. It is a required 1/4-inch audio jack cable necessary for Rocksmith to detect and respond to your guitar playing. All versions of Rocksmith include the Real Tone Cable in the box, except downloaded versions and the Rocksmith 2014 Edition "No Cable Included" Version.



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Features

• When we say any guitar we mean any guitar. Whether it's the guitar sitting in your attic, your cherished faithful steed, or the guitar you have yet to buy, Rocksmith lets you plug any guitar into your Xbox 360 system.
• Difficulty settings that adapt to your ability. You love a challenge, but hate being overwhelmed. Rocksmith understands this, and knows exactly how far to push to keep you entertained and addicted.
• Lots of music. Lots of styles. One of the most satisfying moments for any guitar player is hearing yourself play your favorite song for the first time. Rocksmith has amassed an amazing library of songs from different music genres.
• Play songs instead of just learning them. You want to play new songs, but you don't want to labor through tablature or cringe through poorly produced videos. No problem. Imagine that. A video game that'll get you stage-ready.

Customer Reviews

From a beginner
M. Elliott

I thought I'd give a review from the point of view of someone completely new to the guitar, for those of you out there like me who are wondering if this will really teach you or if it'll be a frustrating waste of money. First off, I'll say that it isn't easy. As someone completely unfamiliar with the frets and the strings, I had a tough time starting out - very slow and clumsy. BUT, you'll see improvement REALLY quickly. I've only been playing for about two hours and although I still suck, I'm having a great time and I'm already loads better than I was when I started out. The only reason I stopped was because my finger got sore from holding down the strings. So far, for someone who's wanted to learn and either never had the time or money to take lessons, or found practice to be tedious and dropped it, or just doesn't have a mind for reading music, this is a definite recommendation. If anything changes as I get further along, I'll update this review. But as of now, I love it!UPDATE 10/21: The good news first - I'm still absolutely loving the game and steadily improving. I'm only able to play about one to two hours a day, but even though that's all the time I'm able to put in, I'm already to the point of being able to play along with a song. But (here comes the downside), with my improvement audio lag has become a real issue. Before I was so horrible that I couldn't hit the right notes at all, let alone on time, so it didn't make much difference. But now that I've improved, it's a problem. To be fair, they warn you about this in the form of a pamphlet inside the game box, so it wasn't out of nowhere. I was just hoping that since I wasn't using HDMI, the lag wouldn't be too horrible. Wrong.For those of you out there with a stereo or home theater system, you'll be fine as long as you run the audio directly from the xbox through that. But since I have neither, I was stuck. I ended up bringing down my old CD player from my bathroom, just to see if that would work. SO much better. But since I didn't want to leave that ugly thing sitting under my TV in my living room I went out and checked around for speaker prices. After the money spent on the game and the guitar, I didn't really want to put too much more money into this. I ended up with a Turtle Island headset for $40. It seems to be doing the trick. Just be prepared for this extra expenditure if you don't have an external speaker system in place. Read more ›

Be A Rock Legend In Your Own Living Room!
James K Polk

As others have said, this game is not a replacement for a human guitar teacher. The advantage here is that you get to jump in and start playing songs right away, and let's face it, that's the reason alot of folks give up on their "regular" lessons early on. Nobody wants to spend five days learing how to tune their guitar even though they should. Nobody wants to spend another fifteen days learning how to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" even though they should. People want to pick up the guitar and play "Sunshine of Your Love" in ten minutes, and Rocksmith lets you do that... sorta.Rocksmith won't teach you to play any song you want on the guitar in a week's time, but what it does is get you used to holding the instrument and what to do with your hands. The first time I ever played Guitar Hero, I think I might have hit a total of ten notes in the song. But eventually my left hand learned which button was which and how far apart they're spaced, to where now I can play alot of songs on 'expert' without looking at the controller. Same concept here. Within about an hour my left hand learned how far apart the third and fifth fret were and I could transition between the two with a fair amount of success without looking at the guitar. If you want to learn the guitar, Rocksmith is a great jumping-off point. Play around with it, get familiar with the instrument, then take some professional lessons or buy the self-instructional DVD's if you want to learn the nuts and bolts of what it is you're actually doing. If you don't want to take it that far, play the game for a few months and impress your friends next time you go over to their house by picking up that old acoustic guitar sitting in the corner and busting out some Nirvana Unplugged for them.Long story short: I bought a guitar, I bought the books, and I bought the DVD's. Nothing was more boring or frustrating than sitting in my living room by myself with a book open in front of me or a DVD playing, trying to teach myself the guitar. I learned nothing. Rocksmith is fun... end of story. If I learn to play the guitar when it's all said and done then great! If not, it's still a ton of fun. Analyzing the reviews out there and most importantly who wrote them should help you make your decision. Gamers are rating it low and musicians are rating it high, that should tell you exactly what you need to know. I'm not saying one group is right and one is wrong, just that one is viewing it as a "video game" like Guitar Hero or Call of Duty, and one is viewing it as an interactive instructional tool for beginners and/or a fun diversion for professionals. If you're a gamer looking for a game, pass. It's too expensive and there aren't any guys with funny accents for you to blow away with an M16 or quests for dragon's balls. If you're a guitarist or a wannabe guitarist who also happens to own a video game console, it's a must buy.** UPDATE ** Now that I've had and played the game for a week or two, I'd like to expand on my review a bit.Before I bought Rocksmith I could not play the guitar. I mean it, I could not play a single chord or make any sound that resembled any part of any song in the known universe. Now I can play through "In Bloom" and "Sweet Home Alabama" with relative success every time. Herein lies both the benefit and the drawback of Rocksmith. Yes, I can play both of those songs I mentioned (among others) as long as I'm playing along with the game, but I haven't truly learned the songs. I don't know what notes I'm playing and I cannot apply what I know about playing "In Bloom" to any song not in the game.When a human guitar teacher teaches you, you learn that placing your left hand here and strumming the string(s) like this is called G-sharp, or E-flat, or the G-chord or whatever. Rocksmith simply shows you that putting your left hand here during "In Bloom" and strumming these strings with your right hand during "In Bloom" will make the proper sound for that part of "In Bloom." I haven't truly learned what it means to play those notes, only how to play them. I don't see how the lessons learned would transfer into being able to read, play or understand any song not in the game.That said, am I changing my review or my recommendation? Absolutely not! I stand by what I said originally: Rocksmith shows you how to hold the guitar, where to place your hands, and how to play notes. It allows you to play songs right away without trudging through days/months/weeks of music theory or just playing one chord over and over until your fingers bleed. If you want to know the "nuts and bolts" behind why when you place your left hand here and strum with your right hand there it makes the sound it makes, buy some instructional books or hire a human teacher. I guarantee you'll be a step ahead of where you would have after playing Rocksmith than you would if you hadn't.The only thing I feel really needs improvement before Rocksmith 2 comes out is the on-the-fly difficulty needs more fine tuning. For example, after playing "In Bloom" on what was surely the lowest setting the game offers, I felt like I was getting the hang of it and wanted more notes to come at me. It took a while before it thought I was worthy of more notes but when it finally did, it threw them at me fast and a-plenty! Only after failing miserably two or three times in a row did it slow it back down for me, but even then it slowed it down too much. Finally it hit a happy medium with me and I felt comfortable with the pace, but that was after playing the song through four or five times either too slow or too fast. It's a great concept and amazing technology but it has much room for improvement.Overall I stand firmly behind my day-one review. Rocksmith may not be the best teacher in the world, but it's a helluva fun game and it took this guy - somebody who'd barely even held a guitar - and turned him somebody who can actually play the guitar... to a certain extent. But I am getting better!** UPDATE FOR MY UPDATE **This game's been out for about a month now and I can say I have some serious time into it. It's still fun and I still like it, but I'm demoting it from my original 5-star review to 4-stars based on some shortcomings I can't ignore. I know my review's already so long most people haven't even read it, so I'll keep this short lol!1) The adaptive difficulty feature needs some serious refinement. I touched on this earlier, but it switches between "Eric Clapton Mode" and "Chimp Holding a Guitar Mode" too often and never at the right times. When I start to ge the hang of a song, it triples the single notes and throws all the chords at me at once. When I screw that up as I invariably do, it takes me back down to what must be the lowest possible level and it throws me off.2) There should be a section where you can practice chords as long as you want. As it is now, you can play these short little songs consisting of a few chords repeated, but once you've finished the song you're done. The mini-game "Dawn of the ChorDead" is (or should I say "could be") awesome, but they should let you turn off the scoring and just play as long as you want. It's alot of fun and I felt like I was learning, but when you get eaten by the zombies you have to start all over again. Which leads me to one of my biggest gripes...3) LOAD TIMES! They're inexcusably loooong and are honestly ruining the entire experience for me. I'm a beginner. I never played or barely even held a guitar before this game came out. I need a section where I can just practice chords, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and all that other stuff over and over again until my fingers bleed. Sure, there are a couple different sections where you can practice all those techniques now... for a few minutes, then you have sit through a load screen for feels like an eternity if you want to do it again. If I could play the Riff Repeater 100 times in a row like I want and not 5 times like it makes you, or I could play "Dawn of the ChorDead" for as long as I want and not only until I miss 2 or 3 chords and get eaten by the zombies, then the load times wouldn't be an issue to me whatsoever.I still like this game and I still play it often, but it's not perfect. Hopefully Rocksmith 2 will have the necessary improvements. Read more ›

Great tool, but there are some kinks
Tim

If you want to feel like a rockstar (now) play Rockband, if you want to (eventually) be a rockstar play Rocksmith.This game has a very specific target audience that must have patience and dedication. It won't make you Dave Navarro, Stevie Ray Vaughan, or Jimmy Page over night but it will certainly get you pointed in the right direction. There is a lot of commitment involved with this game because you are actually learning a real instrument, which is never easy.I'm a self taught bass player with a handful of 6 strings that I've fiddled with on and off for the past several years. The fact that I can plug my PRS, which I don't deserve at all, into my Xbox and start playing songs is an amazing thing all by itself. I really enjoy this game and think it has tremendous potential as a teaching tool, but there are some kinks that need to be worked out. I would still recommend it to anyone seriously interested in learning guitar.One of the trickiest parts about learning to play songs on your own is getting the effects right, which can be tough even if you own the same equipment that the song was recorded with. Rocksmith takes care of that for you and if you do well enough on a song you unlock that setting in "Amp" mode. In amp mode you get to play around with your sound and add different effects or play through different amps/guitars with no song requirements just like you would in your basement. I haven't played with it much yet but it seems to be a really cool tool if you have the patience and like to tinker with effects.As everyone has stated, you start each song at the very root level until you've hit a required percentage of notes to move that section up in difficulty. While this is great for begginners it's frustrating for those of us with some experience. I would like the option to start at higher difficulties and adjust down if need be. Occasionally you will complete the appropriate percentage and get bumped up just to get kicked back down while trying to figure out the additions in the rift, which can again be frustrating.While I'm talking about frustrating I have to mention the "Riff Repeater" mode which is where you can practice sections of the song. This is absolutely infuriating and a terrible way to be forced to practice specific sections. There are three modes you can choose from, one designed to progress you through the levels until you are playing the song note for note and the other two are just to practice the section. For all of them you are given five chances to play perfectly, or at least a requisite percentage correctly, and then it kicks you at just to start over if you don't perform to standard. The two modes that are not designed to level you up stop each time you miss a note, which is frustrating because it messes up your timing and doesn't give you a very clear picture of which note you missed. I will be doing my best to stay away from these two all together and probably use the leveling mode rarely due to the aggravation and headaches they cause.On top of the difficulty of learning to play an instrument, there's a bit of a learning curve with the symbols for techniques and sometimes being able to tell which fret you're supposed to be on. If you're familiar with tablature notation you shouldn't have much problem figuring what technique it wants you to use after a couple trys. If you're not familiar with tablature I would recomend checking if there are any technique tutorials before beginning a song. The tutorials are helpful, for example I learned how to palm mute better, and you can skip straight to the exercise if you already know how to execute the particular technique.In order to play a gig you have to qualify on each song in the set list. It recomends songs for each gig and has a minimum score that you must meet in "Rehearsal," which is not the same as "Riff Repeater." You can add or remove songs from your set list as long as you dont go above/below the min/max number of songs. Unfortunately you have to qualify for every song your going to play for every gig even if you've played it at a gig before. The number of points required to qualify on a song already played at a gig seems to be exponentially greater than the initial time.The last complaint that I have about the actual gameplay is that it doesn't always register up strokes in some faster sections. For example, "Go with the Flow" by Queens of the Stone Age is full of fast notes that are much less tiring to play if you alternate up and down strokes, but when I do that the game tells me I've missed a large portion of the notes. When I only use downstrokes I hit 100% of the notes... I tried turning my tuning knobs a hair tighter and it helped a little but it's still an issue.The game, on an ascetic level, is extremely dull and boring. The venues are bland, the crowd is the same three or four people cloned over and over, the intro video puts me to sleep and the menus are dark and simple. The load times are a good bit longer than I would like, but at least you get to play guitar during them.What I would like to see in the future:A lot of DLCPractice mode with adjustable timing and no livesBass guitar supportNotes, especially start/stop points of slides, that are more easily identifiableThis game is a great learning tool and intro to guitar. It's always fun to play your favorite songs and maybe add some new favorites to your library. It's a good way to practice and much easier than trying to teach yourself songs with shaky tabs pulled off the internet. Be warned that this product teaches ZERO music theory, so aspiring musicians will be left in the dark when trying to play with other musicians, but that's easily rectified by supplementing this tool with boring, but necessary, books.All in all I'm very happy with the $80 I spent on this game and am looking forward to playing more when I get home. I will continue to support this product and hopefully some good DLC will come out soon and Rocksmith 2 will have the kinks worked out and be even more enjoyable, and therefore sucessful, game that will introduce many many more aspiring musicians to the joy, and woes, of playing music. Read more ›