The Rocksmith Diaries: Part One

Last year Ubisoft released its rhythm-game-cum-guitar-tutorial Rocksmith. As an avid guitar player of the last 10 years, I was incredibly excited to get my hands on it, particularly as--unlike with Rock Band--I could make use of guitars I already owned. But thanks to some nasty legal issues, the game never made it over to the UK.

Thankfully, those issues appear to have been resolved, and Rocksmith is due for a release in the UK this September. To celebrate the launch, Ubisoft has challenged journalists from across the UK to pick up a guitar and learn some killer riffs from the game. At the end of it all, we'll be putting our new skills to the test in front of a live audience to raise money for charity.

Now, I'll admit I have somewhat of a head start here, so over the next few weeks I'm really going to be putting Rocksmith through its paces to see if it's not only a great tool for beginners, but also a great way for longtime players such as myself to learn a thing or two.

You can check out part one of my Rocksmith video diaries above, and I'll be back again in a few weeks with an update on my progress.