Can Rocksmith 2014 turn you into a fully-fledged guitarist?

I could well be alone in this, but I sorely miss the Guitar Hero fad. It seems like an eternity ago when the height of entertainment was strapping on a plastic guitar and windmilling drunkenly around the living room, until flatmates would walk in and point out what a prick I looked. Happy days.

Now those peripherals are rotting in a cupboard and everything's gone super-serious, with distant relative to Harmonix's series Rocksmith insisting you learn how to play an actual guitar. It's actually an impressive learning aid that's a useful accessory to anyone who's already handy on a fretboard, and it's probably one of the most painless ways of picking up a guitar and starting from scratch. Ian Higton's spent a few hours in the company of latest instalment Rocksmith 2014 and seems impressed, even if some of the noises he's making with his axe suggest he's got a fair way to go. I think I'll stick with my plastic guitars for now, though.