Rocksmith 2014
55 new songs from Aerosmith (Walk This Way) to The Who (My Generation) and lots of indie artists.
Rocksmith DLC transfers without a glitch (for me of course). You must own Rocksmith and you have to buy a $10 tool for the license transfer of the content from the original game.
Within the game:
1. There are three tracks; Lead Guitar, Rhythm Guitar, and Bass. You use the Ctrl key to change tracks which changes the available arrangements (PC of course).
2. Learn a song - Brings up the available songs on your track. Some will have an 'X' to show there's no arrangement for that track. The option lets you play the song and have it gradually improve the notes. You can hit 'Space' to drop right into Riff Repeater and make lots of lots of mods including (as I understand as I haven't tried it yet) slow down the entire song. As you improve, the notes will disappear (fade away) as you master sections. The notes will come back if you have problems with it.
3. Guitarcade - There are three sections here:
a. Technique Challenges - Several cheesy looking games that help you get better at the listed technique. Cheesy is excellent though. I've played the slider game on Bass where you have to slide from fret number to fret number which correspond to poles on a landscape. I also played the new ducks game. You hit a fret for the identified string to hit the duck like the old one, but there's a wall coming your way. You hit a rainbow duck flying across the top to change strings and reset the wall. I also played the Castle of the Chordead. You're walking through a graveyard and as zombies pop up, you are prompted to play a chord (Em for instance). You'll be prompted over and over again until you pass that section (it is all automated so you're not really 'exploring'). Eventually you'll have three chords you've been playing and you'll meet the end game monster which is killed by variations of the three chords.
b. Score Attack - This is the list of all the songs you saw on Learn A Song. The ones you received as part of the game or bought as DLC. Each song has four levels. Easy, Medium, Hard, Master. The levels are hard set to match the level. So they won't get better or worse as you play. This is a game and don't forget. You get points for correct timing. You can also get dinged for Missing a note. Too many dings and you get a big red X in the upper left corner. Three big red X's and the game ends with a fail. If you succeed, you get either a Bronze pick, a Silver one, a Gold one, or a Platinum one depending on how you did. As you succeed in hitting the notes, a counter increases on the right. After a certain number of points, the multiplier increases by one to a maximum of 99. There are checkpoints at 5 points, 10, 25, 50, and 99. When you 'Miss' a note, the multiplier drops down to the closest checkpoint and you start over at that checkpoint. Scores are kept track of on a 'Leaderboard' but there is no overall score.
c. Leaderboard Challenge - Basically Rocksmith 2014 lists several things for you to do to improve. For example, a leaderboard challenge might be to improve your score on a song or to play one of the games or any of several other options.
Session Mode - This is your Improvisational Mode. You are presented with four blank spots. These spots can be filled in with various types of instruments or you can load a preset 'band'. Next you have a selection of configuration options for the session. The mode (Minor Pentatonic for instance). Speed. The setting and other bits. When you're ready, hit space and the band sits there idle. You have the scale on the screen (upside down though
) and you just start playing. As you play, the band picks up and plays along with you increasing tone if you play louder and dropping away if you start getting quieter.
Continuous Play - Here you can select a series of songs to put in a set list. When you start, it goes from song to song with a short break between songs and you just play the song that you picked. You can play the set list over and over again and you can modify the list.
There are a couple of other bits like the tone designer that lets you create your own special settings. As you play songs, you unlock bits. Mostly things like customizable inlays for your virtual fret or songs or amp covers. There is a specific list of unlocks and they are unlocked in order. Towards the end, you actually get the Rocksmith tune as an unlockable song.
I think that's the main stuff. I have a wiki I'm working on to try and document some of this stuff but this will be the most complete info I have right now
Carl
