The downside of being very good at Guitar Hero is that it doesn’t make you very good (or indeed any good) at the guitar. You simply become very good at pressing buttons on a game controller, in the same way that totally mastering Pro Evo somehow fails to make you any good at football.

But those days are gone, thanks to Guitar Rising from GameTank. It lets you actually plug in a real electric guitar, and then takes you through various levels by following on-screen cues. Plus – you have a real guitar! You can play actual music!

A decent second-hand electric guitar costs about £75. Activision’s Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock Stand Alone Les Paul Guitar Controller costs £69.99. You know you want to…

(Image: from robertnelson’s flickr stream)