Yes, according to Ubisoft, while developing Rocksmith 2014 they’ve accidentally gone and grown a guitar teacher inside the game; one who, even through the thick glass of the computer screen, will respond to your mistakes and correct you. That’s sort of good, though I’m not sure how I feel about a game telling me off.
The new and improved version of Rocksmith also comes with three times as many video lessons as the last release.
This genuinely sounds pretty cool. If you’re wanting to learn the guitar some of the things Ubi are adding to the game could be helpful.
“In the original Rocksmith we aimed to make our lessons interactive by showing a video of a specific technique, then pairing it with a “play-along” where the user would practice the technique they just saw in a small riff,” writes Michael Madavi, Ubisoft’s senior community developer. “While it’s definitely helpful to practice what you’re learning right after you’ve seen it, we felt that the interactive portion didn’t provide specific, useful feedback. Yes, Rocksmith would tell you when you didn’t do the technique correctly, played too early, hit the wrong note, and more, but it didn’t offer a solution to each player’s unique mistake.
“In Rocksmith 2014, Lessons will be much, much more dynamic and responsive: Now we’re not just telling you that you made a mistake; we’ll tell you what the mistake is and how you should adjust to correct it.”
And, if you’re struggling with a particular technique, the game, sensing you’re a little slow in the old learning department will “pull you out of the interactive portion of the lesson and give you further instructions – this time with additional camera angles and tips.” Sort of like when a teacher takes you aside and says maybe knitting isn’t for you and tells you to sit at the table at the front and work on threading a needle.
Madavi claims that, with these changes to their lesson mode, “Rocksmith has grown to become a fully responsive personal teacher”. And, considering they’ve also tripled the number of lessons in the game “you’ve got an all-inclusive, thorough learning curriculum”
If Ubisoft pull it off then they’ll have made something remarkably impressive. Even if it was just something you could use to supplement actual guitar lessons, anything that helps people practice is a good thing.