Rocksmith 2014 First Impressions & Gameplay / Setup

Yes, I know, I look like a rock god already, don't I? Having had the chance to have a look at the guitar, get it out and take a good look, I really like it so far. It's got nice black, glossy, body there. The fretboard all along there is a real nice clean mahogany style boarding at the back. Its looking good. A nice bit of weight. I got the cable out. The cable is around about three and a half metres long so if you've got a big distance from your TV to your guitar and where you play then its not bad at all. I've looped it around, under the strap and in because that's how I've seen all the rock gods do it before. In the actual packaging, in the case, we have the usual Rocksmith 2014 manual. Again; "the fastest way to learn guitar". Its just got 'setting up', it's literally four pages. The days of instructions inside an instruction book are pretty much gone. You also get a set of stickers which you can put all along the top of the fretboard which will tell you the corresponding things on the screen to where your fingers need to be on the fretboard. That's really interesting and I'll probably put that on because, lets face it, need all the help I can get! There is a little instruction sheet of where to put them all on so you know exactly where they go. Also, we have, in German, and in English we have an "experiencing audio lag" - a little instruction sheet that tells you the ideal set-ups. So the ideal set up is from a PS3 using HDMI to your TV and an A/V cable to your audio receiver and speakers. Set up two of an ideal set up is your PS3 to a component cable going to your TV and your audio receiver. And ideal set-up number three is a component cable again going to your TV but this time with a 'Y' cable going into some headphones too, so you can play using headphones. So here we go! The very first time of using Rocksmith 2014. Lets hit the button and load her up! So, whilst that is loading up what I will say is that I will invariably do things wrong. If you're an expert in guitar and you think "James, you're doing that wrong" then just let me know in the comments and what would be nice as well is if you could click the like button and also subscribe and then we can see this 60 day challenge as it completes out. But yeah I will invariably do things wrong so let me know saying "James, you're a pudding. Get it right next time!" Rocksmith 2014: "To make sure you get the most out of your Rocksmith experience, we're going to have you answer a few quick questions, first have you played Rocksmith before?" JAMES: Straight in with a "have you played Rocksmith before" question - no, I haven't! so lets hit 'no'! Rocksmith 2014: "Welcome aboard. Now, how experienced would you say you are at playing guitar or bass? Think mostly about the one you want to play first, today." JAMES: Right, so "How well do you play guitar or bass, answer based on the instrument you are about to play" "Beginner: I've never played before" There's options for "Novice: I play simple things OK," "Average: I can fake my way through a decent number of songs," "Experienced, I play most material very well," and "Very experienced: I can play anything better than most, go ahead and try me." I'm obviously a beginner. I've never played before. Rocksmith 2014: "Alright, so lets now choose what kind of parts you want to play. You can scroll through the options to find out a little more about each one." JAMES: So which path do you want to start with? You've got the options of Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar and Bass Guitar. Lead guitar: "If you want to be out front with flashy riffs and shreddy solos then lead is for you. You'll still hold down a groove with some chord changes from time to time but when the guitar is out front, you'll be playing it". There's rhythm guitar as well. Rocksmith 2014: "to play more of a supporting role with your guitar, you might want to go with rhythm. You'll play the chords and riffs that hold the song together and back up the rest of the band. JAMES: Nice that the voice guy introduces it for us as well! So, a rhythm guitar is for a supporting role with the guitar and then we've got... Rocksmith 2014: "This one is pretty self explanatory, pick it if you want to play your bass" JAMES: Bass guitar for bass! I'm going to go and start with lead guitar. Rocksmith 2014: "Do you plan on playing right handed or left handed?" JAMES: Do I want to play right-handed or left-handed? Right handed is to play the strings with your right hand and hold the next with your left hand. Now, I am left-handed, but I play air guitar this way around so I'm going to give it a right-handed go! Rocksmith 2014: "Give this one a shot" JAMES: It says "What does your head stock look like?" I'm guessing its that bit. Three-plus-three means that your head stock has six tuning pegs with three pegs located on one side and three on the other. Six-inline, I'm guessing, is when you've got the longer head and all the notches on the same one. I'm going three-plus-three. Rocksmith 2014: "Awesome!" Rocksmith 2014: "Lets get this show on the road and play some actual notes!" "So this is a note. Its yellow, which means the 'A' string. Remember the A string is the second thickest one. Now, its coming down the second lane so you're going to play the second fret. That means you put your finger right here two-space up. Lets start from the head stock and count the spaces between the metal strips. One, two, and thats where your finger goes. When the note gets all the way down to the front of the screen pick the string to play it. Now, you give it a shot Press your finger down on the second fret of the A string. When the note reaches the bottom of the screen, play the A string. For now, the note will wait there for you until you play it. Great job! You can also just play the string without pressing anything down. That's called an open note. Check out the horizontal line coming down the screen, that means you play the open string. Its yellow again so this is an open A. Lets go ahead and play that open A, like before, we'll wait for you to find the right note. Nice! Now, lets try playing a few notes in a row. A run of notes like this is called a Riff. Don't worry if you miss a note, we'll wait for you to find the right one. I think you're on the wrong string there. Sweet! Sounds like you're getting the hang of it. Now you're ready to take on Rocksmith! Conditions help guide you through the game and by completing them you earn points towards some really cool prizes. JAMES: Ok, so what I've learnt so far is that we've got a tuning mechanism that helped me tune the strings. As a complete novice I had absolutely no idea how to do that so that's all welcome! Then it just gives a little guide on how to hit certain notes and just getting used to the way that the, I guess is called the highway, how the fretboard looks on the screen and how you translate that to the actual guitar itself. It all seems pretty straightforward so far and looks like a little bit of fun! Okay, so here we are on the main menu, on this is all the different options that you get to play the game I little newswire thing as well - I guess that comes up when your online and it tells you that you can download Smashing Pumpkins songs! My mate little-Rich will be very happy with that. I'll probably give those a go myself at some point. Down on the left hand side there's a few different sessions; there's 'Learn a Song', 'Session Mode', 'Non-stop play', 'Lessons', 'Guitarcade' now, I've seen the guitarcade online on videos and it looks like fun, a lot of 8-bit style games where you get to control things on the screen using the guitar strings. There's 'Multiplayer', I'm guessing you can have like two people on at the same time as long as you have both got a guitar or a bass and a cable each. 'Tone designer', I'm not sure about that, we'll find out about that later. There's a 'Shop' and then there is 'Uplay' which is Ubisoft's online game shop and things like that. I'm a bit wondering what to go into at the minute to be honest, I may just try 'Learn a song' just to kick it off! ROCKSMITH 2014: "Rocksmith adjusts the level of the song whenever you need it. The more notes you get right the closer you get to playing the 'master-level' version of the song." JAMES: So that is very interesting. I saw this on one of the demo videos that Ubisoft have posted. Rocksmith adjusts the level of the song as you need it. The more notes you get right, the closer you get to playing the actual master level version of the song - so as near as damn it to what the actual players play. So that's really interesting from what i've seen it looks like if you're missing notes then it will adjust the level, take some notes out, make it a bit easier for you, perhaps slow the song down or something until you get into it, and then as you get better It'll add the notes in, speed it up, whatever. So really interesting. I guess that it is probably a good way to learn, lets see! So an interesting selection of songs here. Got Sheffield boys Arctic Monkys there with 'R U Mine', that'll be a fun one to give it go. Lets have a look at some of the others that are on there; The old 'Blitzkrieg Bop', which used to be the run-out song for the second-half of Sheffield Wednesday games. That'll be an interesting one for me to learn! Jewel 'Stay In', 'Hate to say I told you so' by The Hives, The Deer Hunter, La Sera, Jack White, The Who.. Muse is always a good guitary one, I used to love this on Guitar Hero. We've got The Lumineers, Splash, White Zombie, The Kinks, Def Leppard - another set of Sheffield boys - the wrong side of the city football-wise though, we'll wash over that because of the good music that they do. The Shins, Magic Ones, The Rolling Stones... So there's a good selection of songs on here. I'm going to go right back up to the top and I'm going to give the Arctic Monkeys a try and completely ruin it... Sorry lads! Okay, so far what I've learnt is that I'm ok on the second fret, but moving around at the minute is probably not the best for me right now! Okay, so I've done my first song, the Arctic Monkeys 'R U Mine'. Things that I've learnt are that the screen looks really good, you get the highway on screen which shows you the relation of the fretboard to the notes. What it does, it knows that I'm a beginner so it just offers a note every so often which is really good for me. What I found for myself is that I'm probably not particularly good at moving up and down the fretboard just yet, going from fret number two to fret number five and whatever, it confused me and my brain isn't automatically tuned into that at the minute so I'm looking down them all and thinking 'which one is five', although I haven't put the numbers on yet so it is probably a little bit harder for me to find the numbered frets - especially at the end when it went right up to number fourteen and I was like "oh my god where's that!" So, at the end of the game it also gave me a little summary which said that I'd hit six-percent the notes I think it was... Obviously that's not a lot but you know, first time out and all that! It also tells you what 'streaks' of notes you got, so how many notes you got in succession. It's been really good so far! Time for the 60-day challenge then, I'll start that from tomorrow and I will do, you know, a video every so often often when I can and I'll put them up so if you subscribe you'll be able to see my 60-day challenge and see how I get along and see if it is for you. So far I am liking it! I hope you are too! Subscribe to my channel to see the 60 day challenge and whatever other silly videos I put up, and also if you can hit me in the comments below your feedback let me know what you think so far, and also if you could just click the little like button that would be really good! And so, that's day one of Rocksmith 2014 - or even day zero of Rocksmith 2014! That's the new Epifone Les Paul Junior Guitar, the unboxing, we've seen the game. we've seen the cable, we've seen the guitar itself, we've seen how rubbish I am on one first track - lets see how we go for the rest of the 60 day challenge! See you next time!