I haven't played the original, so I was excited to give this one a shot. I'd like to know what your experience has been like so far.

Unfortunately, I'm not really enjoying it because of the interface. I can play songs like The Trooper or Blood and Thunder from past experience, but when trying to actively follow along to this I just get lost and confused. I was playing Cold Company and had a hard time following along, so I figured it out by ear and looked away with more success.

If you've played the last edition, does it just take several hours to get acclimated? Have you been able to learn complex songs with this? Is it just a matter of instantly recognizing which color is which string?

And for guitar veterans, do you think this is an efficient way to learn? I don't like sight-reading via a note highway so far, and find written tabs or Guitar Pro to be a lot more effective because you can see ahead.

Personally, I've been playing for a dozen years but have been having far more fun in session mode. Seems like a feature-rich game, with all sorts of tools and side activities to dig into. But it's been two hours and the main mode of play has been bumming me out.

Have you tried inverting the strings? With the first Rocksmith, I found myself very confused until I inverted the strings to match TAB layout. It didn't take me long to associate the colors with the strings.

Although some songs are never gonna be easy to sight read, I find the note highway much easier to sight read than doing the equivalent sight reading by pressing play in Guitar Pro, because you don't have to read numbers.

For the more difficult songs, you really need to use the riff repeater to learn each section properly. You can't really expect to sight read dense passages.

Basically, use the riff repeater to learn the song, and use the normal mode to practice it.

Haven't played 2014 yet, but there was definitely a learning curve to the original. And don't worry too much about the "main mode", I (as a beginner) have a lot more fun just picking a song or technique and going on my own.

@shagge: Rocksmith 2014 doesn't have the old "main mode" (Journey Mode). You're right, it was pointless.

Like you said it is just a matter of getting used to. After that anything you may be having problems with just becomes second nature.

I ended up inverting the strings, which helped a bit.

I'm thinking my problem is that I'm playing on a laptop. Everything gets jumbled together due to a lack of screen size.

And my laptop shutdown yesterday, apparently from overheating in session mode. I should get on that whole gaming PC train.

I played the first Rocksmith quite a bit. My first impression is that this game is much improved. The user interface in the original was horrible. Finding the songs you want in 2014 is much easier and quicker, the songs load faster, and it's a snap to pop in and out of riff repeater to work on a section. I feel like there's less emphasis on this being a "game," as evidenced by them dropping the journey mode. This version is more stripped down to get you comfortable playing the guitar.

Oh, really? Cool. I always felt like it was nagging me to progress before I had a technique down. I adore Rocksmith, but it has a habit of putting the cart before the horse.

@csl316: I'm about 4 hours into 2014, was a couple of hours off 200 in the original. I've played guitar off & on for about 15 years but my ability to play has improved more since I picked up the original rocksmith than it had since I picked up a guitar due to mainly the motivation to keep playing & practicing techniques. I can't remember having an issue with the interface, initially when starting a new song it's probably not as easy to follow as a tab but saying that once you have an idea of the song & what will be coming up it's a faster way of learning.

Are you going into each song and cranking the note density all the way to 100%? The interface does take awhile to get accustomed to so you may be better off turning the "leveler" on and starting slow at first.

I've been playing it with a bass and i find that the game doesn't seem to handle an open E string on a bass very well.

I do have to say the way they reworked the guitarcade games and gave them objectives to push for really make them even more valuable practice tools than they were in the previous game. The other big improvement is in the lessons portion, which now are more in depth containing video along with more of an explanation behind the techniques. It really makes for a good package for anyone either just beginning or someone who is experienced.

The way the game throws you into the full version of a song after 100% mastering a bit of it on the riff repeater is horrible.

When are we going to see Vinny's quick look?

well I tried to pick it up from a local shop but no luck, they didn't get a shipment. Got the PS3 version coming on Tuesday.

I kind of want this but I don't want to drop 60 bucks plus whatever the little dongle thing costs. Did the first one ever go on any sales?

@buneroid: You can probably get the first version for cheaper nowadays.

I own both on Steam and I think the first went on a steam sale at some point.

If you have a guitar already its a good pruchase. Considering its effectively the cost of one guitar lesson.

@buneroid: I had the same feeling about the price of the first one, which came out around Black Friday if i am remembering right and was part of the Amazon sales soon after release, so history might repeat itself and the same deal might happen for you. Either way as said before $80 for the game and cable is a good deal when compared to paying for lessons.

Are you guys having any trouble with lag in this one? I have the first one on PC and didn't spend much time with it because there was about half a second delay from when I play a note to when I hear it.

I looked all around the internet at the time and tried everything I could find to help. I'm using DVI to my monitor and my speakers are plugged directly into my PC. I'm super keen to check this one out but don't want to drop the money on it if I'm just going to have that same experience.

@lego_my_eggo: @samfo: True I didn't think of it like taking a lesson. Still might wait just a bit though..

Are you using the Rocksmith adapter?

I've put a few hours into this now and I can't decide if I love it or hate it. A lot of the mini-games / exercises are really useful, but being thrown into songs and told to sink or swim is a terrible way to go about learning to play something (assuming your end goal is to be able to play it properly).

Teaching yourself to play something incorrectly but at full speed (ie. stripped down) is about the worst thing you can do, because you are training your fingers to do something you will eventually have to unteach them and replace with the correct way of doing it. In the long run I think it's actually detrimental for the game to throw you at a song like that (though no doubt this way does give it more of a 'game' element to it). It is much, much easier to just teach your fingers the correct / full version in the first place but at however slow a pace you need to go to get it right. Basically any time you learn anything on a guitar, you should be learning it slowly but cleanly, rather than fast and sloppy. You don't help a kid learn to tie shoelaces by giving him velcro shoes and asking him to do it quickly.

It is possible to use the riff repeater to to take this 'slow but correct' approach to learning, but if this is truly intended to be primarily a learning tool, that should be the game's first approach, not one you have to fiddle about with menus to use. It could use a mode where, instead of just carrying on without you if you mess up a few notes, it automatically stops you, rewinds and takes you back through the section step by step until you have it right. Even stop dead at each note and wait for you to find it before continuing.

I sort of agree. I think it's really more of a song to song issue though. Some of the stripped down versions of songs are actually really clever and can give you a pretty good idea of where to place your fingers while eventually building up into the real thing. Some of them are terrible though. For example the solo on The Trooper has quite a few sections where you are playing the same few notes (let's say 5) in the same order for a couple of seconds. In my mind it would be logical for them to build up the pattern by having you play 1 in every 5 notes, then 2, then 3 etc. as you get better. Instead they have you play the first group of 5 notes, then you play 2, then 3, then 1.

I've been testing the game out on my brother who is a complete beginner and it seems like he was having fun playing the stripped down versions of songs then slowly building up. I personally think it's very important for someone who is just starting out to be playing something, even if it's only vaguely recognizable as a song, so they don't get bored of playing within a week.

I agree the riff repeater could use some work. I hate having to do large sections of a song over and over because I keep messing up on the last 6 or 7 notes.

So far I'm really liking it. Had the first game but the long menus and tuning every single time just ruined it for me. Plus how I couldn't just keep playing the same thing over. Pretty much got all the changes I wanted on this. So far I've relearned a few chords and can move between them easily, and can get through a few songs at about 60% without errors so I'm slowly improving. And unlike the first Rocksmith I'm actually playing the game every night, even for a few minutes and only a song or two. Something I didnt do before because of the loadtimes

@khann: Yep. I'll probably wait for this to go on sale and buy it anyway to see what its like though. But the lag was really bumming me out because from what i've read my setup was basically ideal.

Well, it's been a couple weeks and I just discovered session mode's brilliance. First time it overheated my computer, but I tried it a bit more and I'm starting to feel it out.

Here a sample I put together. Takes a bit to sort of "lock in" with an AI band (since the rhythm just sort of figures itself out on the fly) but it works pretty well!

I honestly gave up on trying to learn the Rocksmith teaching method, although I may fiddle around with some of the mini games when I get a chance. I've mainly been sticking to E Aeolian in session mode but I can already tell it'll help me learn to adapt to different chord progressions and such.

So Rocksmith is cool for that reason, at the very least.