Xbox360 thread

[jameso]

I buy shed loads of games, but I don't really talk about them as it's always seemed to be Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo on each of the various Hubs. But with a fresh new place...

Currently playing:

The Darkness - brilliant, urban, gritty comicbook adaptation. One of those first person view games where for once you aren't a space marine with a laser rifle. Highly recommended.
FIFA 08 - best FIFA ever. Very satisfying. Probably the best modern footie game since Pro Evo 4 which must have been in 2003 or thereabouts.
Overlord - imaginative fantasy adventure from Codemasters. Hard to explain, you play a central figure who orchestrates a horde of demons around you to kill things and gather resources. Seems very original to me, but there might be some predecessors.
Flatout Ultimate Carnage - racing game in the Burnout series. Mix of races, causing damage and party games using a car. Great fun.

Probably won't be playing:
Star Trek Legacy - bought it cheap. Played for 5 minutes. Impenetrable controls. Bad voice over from Quantam Leap man. Poor show.

[Cullen]

This isn't about Nintendo! Get out!

Seriously though the Game forum has always been for any games not just Nintendo ones.

[jameso]

Yes, but no replies to any non Nintendo threads!

[legios]

I'd have replied to this thread except for the slight sticking point that I can't afford a 360 at the moment. I am still back in black-box land at the moment.

That said, I do quite fancy getting a 360 at some point when I can afford it (likely to be the middle of next year at this rate), mostly because the latest "Ace Combat" game has come out on it and I do fancy a swing at that. Like the sound of "Mass Effect" as well so I shall probably pick that up whenever I get a 360.

(Also fancy playing "Halo 3", more out of a morbid interest in actually completing the trilogy than any huge attachment to the franchise - "Halo 2'"'s lack of a proper ending has left me more than a little ticked off there).

Karl

[Cullen]

Yeah I'd like to play Mass Effect and a couple of other games. I reckon I'll succumb and get a 360 within the next year or so.

[jameso]

Have you been keeping track of the rpgs on it, John? At a guess, I'd say Eternal Sonata would be right up your alley, but I haven't plated that myself. I've got Blue Dragon, but only played it very briefly, what I played was good, though. There's another recent one called Two Worlds which looks good, but one magazine I read absolutely slaughtered it. There was also one called Enchanted Arms which I bought but it licked balls and I sold it.

Doubt I'll get Mass Effect, but I have heard good things. Doubt I'll bother with Halo 3 either.

[Cullen]

I'm not too hot on Japanese RPGs these days. The days when I can sit through a 100 hours of bland unchanging gameplay and poor writing just to see some pretty cut scenes have gone. Please tell me JRPGs have changed and I might pick one up.

Mass Effect however - sign me up? I'm surprised you don't want to get it as its made by Bioware who made the original Knights of the Old Republic.

[jameso]

cullen said:

I'm not too hot on Japanese RPGs these days. The days when I can sit through a 100 hours of bland unchanging gameplay and poor writing just to see some pretty cut scenes have gone. Please tell me JRPGs have changed and I might pick one up.

Even the DS Final Fantasy 3?
I haven't played any of those games to say if they are doing anything radically new, but, well, I doubt they are to be honest.

I didn't realise Mass Effect was Bioware, I think I just dismissed it as another shooter. I'll have to look into it.

[Cullen]

Well the DS Final Fantasy III is just a remake of the original. Essentially its exactly the same grind-fest but with prettier graphics. This year I have played Final Fantasy VI for the GBA which is my 3rd favourite game ever. It still has the magic - in many ways its more advanced in terms of characterisation, plot, pacing and difficulty balance than most modern JRPGs.

[Deleted]

A workmate of mine got an XBox 360 late last year and he was harping on about how great it was for about five months until it suffered the 'Red light of death' syndrome. If nobody here knows what that is then I'll tell you. It's when the console breaks down and the green light on the front of it turns to a red light and refuses to even turn on. My workmate sent his 360 to the Xbox service team to be repaired under guarantee and he got it back about a month later - only for it to suffer the same fate as before within a fortnight. After that he gave up on the console and brought a PS3.

[Hero]

Smackdown VS RAW 2008 on Xbox 360 is magnifico!

[Mark_Stevenson]

Hi, occasional gamer here, occasional reader, first-time poster etc.

Mass Effect owns my ass right now. I can't get enough of that jaw-jaw shooty-shooty thang. Also really enjoying Portal from the Half-Life Orange Box. Mind-bendingly good fun.

Um, that's about all I have to say.

Mx

[karla]

Bioshock is my fave game on x-box!

[KnightBeat]

Game are having a big sale on Xbox and 360 games. The first wave of games that were released, including Perfect Dark Zero can be bought for around £7. They are also selling off the remainder of their Xbox titles for £2-10 each. I recommend the awesome Outrun 2006 for £3.98.

[Deleted]

Rock Band!

That is all.

[Deleted]

I read last week that the 360 Elite is now suffering from the fabled 'red light of death' and its going to cost Microsoft over 500 million quid. With a problem as big as that I can't see another Xbox hitting the market anytime soon.

[geoff]

I just caved in and bought myself an xbox 360 for my birthday... anyone have any good game suggestions?

[legios]

Aug 19, 2008 21:49:08 GMT geoff said:

I just caved in and bought myself an xbox 360 for my birthday... anyone have any good game suggestions?

It would probably help folk make suggestions if you indicated what sort of genre of games you tend to enjoy. No point in folk recommending shooters if that isn't your kind of thing.

Karl

[legios]

However, in the interests of venturing some recommendations blind - and from very limited experience:-

"SoulCaliber IV": If you like one-on-one fighting games then this is a good one. In a lot of ways it feels like a shinier, tweaked version of "Soul Caliber II" which was the last of the franchise that I played. I'm not sure it is quite as well balanced, but in terms of gameplay it is definitely a very solid game. The only downside is that a little green muppet waving a glowstick about has crept in from the "Star Wars" franchise. Yoda in my sword-fighting game I needed not. Apart from that however it is pretty darned good.

"Mass Effect" is a cracker - an unholy hybrid of third person shooter and adventure game, except with a superb conversation tree system that actually nods in the direction of actual roleplaying. Pretty much everything I had hoped "Jade Empire" would be far more playable (as far as I am concerned) and in a space opera setting. A decent story, and character interaction stuff that is genuinely entertaining in its own right. (I get almost as much fun out of talking to some of the party members as I do out of doing the actual quests).

"Ace Combat VI": Those who know me would not be surprised to see an aircraft game get in here at some point. "Ace Combat VI" is a really good blend of styles - arcadey enough to be accessible and entertaining, but at the same time having enough nods to realism as to make things interesting. The control layout is great, giving you pitch, yaw and roll control rather than mucking around with "left-stick-turns-your-plane" or any nonsense like that. Very accessible but with a good veneer of actual air combat tactics to consider. It is also a very, very pretty game. I just had to go back and replay the first mission without enemies just to enjoy flying over a city-scape and out across the bay (and to swoop down under King's Bridge - a big suspension bridge in Golden Gate style was just to tempting not to be flown under).

Karl

[geoff]

so far i have Mass Effect, Halo3 (both were bundled with the xbox) Bioshock and i am waiting patiently for starwars force unleashed as i downloaded the demo and liked the look of it... i prefer platform type games such as lego Indiana Jones puzzel games and RPGs, not so much into shooters or driving sims and games like GTA just leave me cold.

[jameso]

If you like Lego Indiana Jones and Star Wars, then Lego Star Wars: Complete Saga is a total no brainer!

There's plenty of rpgs on the 360 but if you already have Mass Effect you've probably peaked already. Blue Dragon is very good though. And Oblivion, though I personally haven't played that much.

[Cullen]

Christmas has been and gone and I'm now a proud 360 owner! My gamertag is Optimus Cullen and I need some friends.

Got Mass Effect and Soul Caliber IV so far. I doubt I'll play SCIV too much (it was free with the console), as I didn't really engage with SCII. Shame as I played the hell out of Soul Blade on the PS1.

Really looking forward to getting into Bioware's latest. I'll also be downloading some Live Arcade titles like Braid and Rez HD as soon as possible - it was the arcade that finally sold me on a 360.

On a negative note I'm still angry at the amount I had to pay for my wireless adapter. I managed to get it for £45 in the Game sale but that's still £45 more than I should have paid. Wireless is built-in in the Wii and PS3 - I would have thought the console with the best online would have included it as standard too. The 1m long ethernet cable that came in the box was a joke too. Grrr!

[Gav]

I found that Soul Calibur IV impressed initially, but i got sick of it pretty quickly. Mass Effect is great, but i felt the cutscenes and conversation options slowed the pace to a crawl at times.

I'm currently playing through Fable II and Dead Space. Arcade wise, I'm loving Geometry Wars II and Castle Crashers.

Add me up - my gamertag is BigHairyInvader

I got my wireless adapter for my birthday, and couldn't believe how much my mate had paid for it - made me feel pretty guilty let me tell you.

[jameso]

Excellent to hear that you have an xbox Johnny!

xbox 360 gamertags:

James O - Darth James O
Jaymz - wilsonjim
Alan - Swoop PK (may or may not have a space)

Feel free to add us!

[Cullen]

Nice one James. I've added you all. Check out my gamercard:



Fear my 30 point gamerscore!

I had my first real fiddle with the 360 last night. Overall the experience was very, very positive. In particular the marketplace was a joy to browse. I really liked how you can download trials of all the arcade games (Nintendo take note!), and demoes of a lot of the full games. And that these download in the background while you get on with other things. I'll have Mirrors Edge and Banjo to check out when I get back. However anytime I wanted to enter text was like being thrown back to the dark ages. I guess I've been spoilt with the IR pointer on the Wii. I'll be getting a wireless USB keyboard ASAP to relieve the pain.

I can see myself spending a lot of cash on the arcade. Downloaded Rez HD last night and boy does it look good in 1080p. Going back to playing Animal Crossing after playing the 360 for a bit was like being poked in the eye - so blurry! However I did notice after 5 minutes of playing in HD or standard definition it just became 'normal' again.

I'm still unsure about the gamerscore. The additive aspect of it was worrying for me, but generally I support what MS have done in insisting every game must have achievements. I don't want to get like my friend Chris (check out DieHardChris on my friend list) who has almost 90,000 points and often buys shovelware games like Me and My Horse 2 which have easy achievements to boost his score. I think he's ranked 150 in the UK and 1500 worldwide which is insane.

I think the best thing though is the friend list. Its like a breath of fresh air compared to Nintendo's Friend Code bullshit.

[Cullen]

Also I liked the avatars. There seems to be a lot more options for customising your character than with the Mii's but it seemed pretty impossible to get the avatar to look like me. Leanne had the same problem.

[legios]

Dec 30, 2008 11:08:57 GMT Cullen said:

I'm still unsure about the gamerscore. The additive aspect of it was worrying for me, but generally I support what MS have done in insisting every game must have achievements.

Now I'm the exact opposite on this front. The Gamerscore doesn't appear to do anything as such or tell me anything - it has no particular relationship to how much enjoyment I have had and might as well be a random number for all it impacts on me.

I actually find achievements break my immersion in a game and actually detract from my enjoyment too. Good example - Mission 12 in AC6, after an infuriatingly difficult dogfight against Estovakian Ace Emil Pasternak I finally down him only for a big caption to pop-up across the bottom of my HUD saying "Defeated Pasternak". Uhh, yes - I know this already, I have the elevated heart-rate to prove it, have heard his dying words and dipped my wings in salute to a noble adversary. I'm not sure having a green banner popping up to tell me this adds anything to my sense of achievement in this task. But I'm a bit of an oddity in that sense, I don't find I have a particularly strong competitive streak when it comes to games, whether video or otherwise, as long as I am having fun that is what counts. Different strokes for different folks and all that.

And in terms of games that I have played recently I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying Far Cry 2 - a surprisingly open environment for a console game, with a nice relaxed and sand-boxy approach to the gameplay (compared to something like Rainbow Six:Vegas or Gears of War which feel more like puzzle games with a single optimal solution to each firefight). Makes up for how dissappointing the original Far Cry was on the X-Box really.

Karl

[Cullen]

Like I said I'm still unsure. In more arcadey games the achievements pop-up was quite nice. I'll have to see how it works in Mass Effect.

Are you online Karl? Care to add me as a friend?

[legios]

Dec 30, 2008 12:24:00 GMT Cullen said:

Are you online Karl? Care to add me as a friend?

I'm afraid I'm not online with it. I did consider it, but it meant another cable running across the living room, sorting out ICS on the laptop and fiddling around with ports and what-not on the firewall..... Felt too much like hard-work to be honest, and I am rather too fond of the quiet life.

Karl

[Cullen]

Tried out linking my PC to the Xbox last night and I was very pleasantly surprised that I could watch all my recorded TV from the Broadband Channel (cough) without much trouble at all. This means I won't have to encoded them to MP4 so I can put them on my iPod to watch on the telly. I think I've I'd explored all the features of the 360 previously I wouldn't have waited this long to get one. Although perhaps I'm taking advantage of 3 years of incremental updates.