Steam 2013 Summer Sale

[Kelly G]

Start camping the site now and post up any good deals you run across that may be of interest to others.

I know we are all starving for games as there is *nothing* to play but good deals are always a gift to the wallet.

Cheers!

[F1Fan07]

Thanks for the heads up! I've been waiting for Rocksmith and Euro Truck Simulator 2 to go on sale

LOL, the Steam Store is crushed under the load right now.

[F1Fan07]

Store is back up. ETS2 for $19.99 and Rocksmith for $19.49. Done and done Well, almost done... I went to add the Rush song pack for Rocksmith to my cart before paying and the store went down again.

[zedarchitect]

How is Rocksmith for someone who's never picked up a guitar but wants to learn?

[F1Fan07]

Jul 11, 2013 10:18:17 GMT -8 zedarchitect said:

How is Rocksmith for someone who's never picked up a guitar but wants to learn?

I don't know if I'm the best to comment. I only got it because Helios had mentioned it.

I played a little bit when I was young (my Mom had an acoustic guitar) and took some music theory courses in university so I have a little knowledge. I just bought a guitar a few weeks ago and I'm basically starting from scratch. After playing Rocksmith for about a week I feel that I need to take some lessons to learn the basics of finger placement then revisit Rocksmith.

The game doesn't tell you anything about finger placement so you're on your own the sort that out. I really don't want to develop bad habits at this stage.

Also, I feel that the dynamic skill level is advancing me too fast. I don't want to move forward to the next song with only 65% accuracy. Also annoying is that it's hard to learn parts of songs with the dynamic difficulty because it'll throw different notes at you the next time.

That said, it's a fun game and I'm getting introduced to a bunch of new music.

Be aware that if you get the Steam version you'll have to order the interface cable. I got the cable with the Xbox version and it works with PC. I'm only buying the Steam version so I can play upstairs at the PC when the g/f is using the Xbox or watching TV.

Also:

1) When not playing the game, if you're using tabulature to learn songs you'll want to go into the game settings and flip the fret board to match the string layout used in tabs.

2) If you're colour-blind you may or may not have problems with a couple of the string colours. The game uses some other clues to help you locate strings though. I read that there's a chance that the new version of the game (due in the fall) will have options for string colour.

[helios16v]

I've got Rocksmith for the PS3, and enjoy it...and that is coming from someone that had never picked up a guitar before. You can start out w/ single notes and move to full chords. There are also lots of "exercise games" for learning misc techniques. I paid $60 for mine and it was worth it. I still enjoy it.....speaking of which, I need to pick it up again this weekend, it's been a little while.

[zedarchitect]

Thanks, gents. Learning the guitar is on the bucket list. And not just Stairway to Heaven

[F1Fan07]

Despite what I said above about my challenges with the game, for $20 I'd go for it. Spend some time trying to find the cable cheap on Ebay or Amazon... you can save a lot if you look around.

[oldslowfred]

I have been wanting to get Rocksmith ever since I first heard of it over a year ago.
However I would need to buy a guitar also so the total cost has generally stopped me from going ahead
But every time I hear about this game I get the itch again to try learning to play the guitar...

[helios16v]

Keep your eyes on CL. You can find MIM Strats for fairly cheap. Hit up pawn shops too, just to get a feel for them. Different neck finishes and shapes can make a huge difference. Epiphones are pretty reasonable for not a lot of money. Hit up Cotter too if you get serious, he can probably point you to some other options as well.

I'm actually getting ready to take the clearcoat off the next of my Strat. I haven't felt a neck that feels better than my oiled Birdseye Maple neck on my Wolfgang. I would do it to the LP too, but the Mahogany neck of the LPs don't take very well to a bare finish (too porous).

[F1Fan07]

Jul 11, 2013 10:53:00 GMT -8 oldslowfred said:

I have been wanting to get Rocksmith ever since I first heard of it over a year ago.
However I would need to buy a guitar also so the total cost has generally stopped me from going ahead
But every time I hear about this game I get the itch again to try learning to play the guitar...

Do you have Future Shop out there? The locations that sells musical instruments will sometimes put old stock on clearance but prices vary on the age of stock.

When I saw clearance tags last month on the Stratocasters the discounts ranged from $1 to $150. I had the sales guy go through his stock listing to find the model I wanted at the price I wanted. In the end, $500 guitar for $350 but the poor guy had to dig through the warehouse to find that exact serial number which turned out to have been shipped to the store in 2010 (thus the deep discount).

[oldslowfred]

Jul 11, 2013 12:13:10 GMT -8 F1Fan07 said:

Jul 11, 2013 10:53:00 GMT -8 oldslowfred said:

I have been wanting to get Rocksmith ever since I first heard of it over a year ago.
However I would need to buy a guitar also so the total cost has generally stopped me from going ahead
But every time I hear about this game I get the itch again to try learning to play the guitar...

Do you have Future Shop out there? The locations that sells musical instruments will sometimes put old stock on clearance but prices vary on the age of stock.

When I saw clearance tags last month on the Stratocasters the discounts ranged from $1 to $150. I had the sales guy go through his stock listing to find the model I wanted at the price I wanted. In the end, $500 guitar for $350 but the poor guy had to dig through the warehouse to find that exact serial number which turned out to have been shipped to the store in 2010 (thus the deep discount).

oh yeah, Future Shop is here. They are coast to coast, probably even have them in Newfoundland
Best Buy is also here for a few years now.
I know one of the Best Buy locations has a very large musical instrument section, but I didn't realize Future Shop would carry some also.
I will have to check this out, good idea, thanks

[Knight of Redemption]

The Squire range is one I would recommend, essentially these are Fender guitars made under license in Japan, using Fender parts. Epiphone as has been suggested also good, and Ibanez have a great range to cover all budgets. To be honest it is quite hard to buy a bad guitar, compared to when I started the range of budget choices a beginner has is amazing.

[F1Fan07]

Another great starter guitar is the Yamaha Pacifica series. The ones I've handled (my Mom has one!) are well built. Yamaha has a long history of instrument making.

Come get some! Duke Nukem 3D is $3.39 for the next 15 minutes. This is the classic version with some expansion packs, not the crap remake.

I spent many, many hours playing DN3D on my Pentium 75 PC

[zero7159]

I would probably buy something from the Steam sale, except the site has been locked up every time I went to it. I also have had trouble accessing Steam via my Android phone using the Steam app. I will try again tonight via the Steam desktop client.