I first heard about Rocksmith a couple of years ago before they made their console debut. They were (imo) pushing their system very hard and appeared in all the gaming websites that I frequent.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band were extremely popular at the time and rhythm games were popping up left and right, riding that wave. The question however always remained... if you put as much effort and time into learning a guitar as one did playing Guitar Hero, how far would you get?
I became interested in Rocksmith because it attempts to answer that very question. Alas, it was not meant to be. Rocksmith was only introduced for the consoles and I had transitioned a couple years prior to be a pc gamer only. After investing my money into building a gaming rig, I wasn't going to go out and shell out more money just to play this one game.
Unfortunately, I think Rocksmith ran into several problems right off the bat. First was the rather large monetary requirement to get into the game. Not only did you need to buy the game and the cable, but you also needed to buy an electric guitar (or at least a guitar that you can plug a 1/4" jack into). That's a hefty sum of money. Another problem is that Rocksmith was released near the end of the rhythm game craze. It seemed to slowly fade away until the last I heard was that it was likely a dead end game (meaning no sequels, no further support).
To my surprise, Rocksmith was released on Steam a few weeks ago. This time, I didn't have any real excuse not to buy the game. I already had an electric guitar collecting dust in the corner from when I bought it in an attempt to self teach myself the guitar (which failed miserably). The game was now available for pc via Steam. Now, all I needed to do was to buy the Rocksmith Real Tone cable. I ordered one from Amazon... but soon became impatient. I decided to give the local Best Buys and Gamestop a chance. If they had the cable, I will buy it from them and cancel my order.
I went to Best Buys and after looking around the game section, all I could find was the cord bundled with the console game. After asking for help, the guy told me to check out the instrument section. I looked and no Real Tone cable. They had a 1/4" to usb cable though for $10 more... Hmm... Did I want it THAT quickly? Maybe. But will it even work? I whipped out my smartphone and searched. As far as I could tell, no it wouldn't. That was a close call.
When I went to Gamestop, I didn't find it there either. When I asked the guy at the counter, he told me quite pompously that the cable ONLY came with the game and no one sold it by itself. Oh really? Then I wonder what it was that I ordered from Amazon... Or the fact that I read about people buying the cable by itself at stores on the forums. Or the fact that after I came home and looked up their website, it listed the cable as well (albeit it said online only). Gamestop really has to train their staff to look stuff up before opening their mouth. Reminded me why I don't shop at Gamestop...
It seemed that buying the cable from a store was not meant to be. My cable arrived a few days later. Now time to install the game and give it a try.
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