Over the years since the inception of the guitar game, we've pretty much mastered the plastic guitar - from Guitar Hero II to Rock Band 3, we've played them all, and spent more money on them and their plastic axes than we'd like to admit. But although pushing buttons in time with prompts is all well and good, we often wished there was something that'd let you have a go at playing the real thing instead, just to see if you could do it - and with last year's Rocksmith game, our dreams came true. Letting you plug in any real electric guitar, in Rocksmith, you weren't just playing along with the tunes - you were actually playing them yourself. With a familiar enough interface, and a gradually-incrementing difficulty level, Rocksmith has helped many along the way to learning how to play an instrument - and based on an official sounding study, the original game's been dubbed the fastest way to learn guitar, whilst another group reported that 95% of players thought the title helped improve their guitar skills. And now it seems Ubisoft are back for a second round with Rocksmith 2014 Edition, promising more songs, improved guitar tuition and of course, more fun.
Taking a similar sort of approach to the last game, Rocksmith 2014 looks set to bolt on a number of new features to help make learning guitar that much more fun. At their recent conference at giant gaming show, E3, Ubisoft showed one of the game's new features, called Session Mode, live on-stage with the help of Alice in Chains' guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Navigating the menus using his voice (presumably a Kinect exclusive feature), Jerry demonstrated the new session mode, which lets you play along with an AI backing band that have been designed to make whatever you're playing sound cool. After picking a few instruments to play along with, all you have to do is start strumming, and your accompaniment will follow in suit, changing to a louder, more aggressive beat as you get heavier, tapering off if you switch to something more melodic, or even giving a dramatic pause for effect on a long held note.
A number of other features have been introduced to make things easier to get the hang of, too, including the much needed ability to select and slow down any section of any songs in the improved Riff Repeater practice mode, and an upgraded Guitarcade, where mini-games will help you hone specific guitar skills - such as the one in the previous game designed to help you get used to the position of frets by shooting virtual ducks.
With over 50 songs promised, along with a huge downloadable catalogue of tracks, and the ability to transfer across songs you already own from the previous game, Rocksmith's already looking set to provide a killer line-up of tunes. So far, Ubisoft have only announced a handful of the songs that'll be on the disc, but there's some pretty heavy hitters amongst them:
- Alice In Chains - Stone
- Aerosmith - Walk This Way
- Bob Dylan - Knockin' On Heaven's Door
- The Smashing Pumpkins - The Chimera
- Oasis - Don't Look Back In Anger
- B'z - Ultra Soul
With no definite release date set, potential rock gods will have to hold off on their plectrums until this October, when Rocksmith 2014 will launch on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. Keen guitarists can pre-order Rocksmith 2014 Edition at selected retailers and nab themselves a free bonus song - Cherub Rock by The Smashing Pumpkins, downloadable from the game's store on launch day - or, if you already own last year's game, you can put a pre-order down for a cheaper, "no cable" version of the game, that'll save you a substantial chunk. In the mean time, why not check out the trailer below:
