FeedFresh look at the 360
by Mellow on Feb.24, 2009, under Opinions, xbox 360
You may have noticed that I haven’t uploaded any blogs lately. I’ll get part 6 of Game balance up soon, I’ve got it written out but I’m just too lazy to copy it to my computer. The main reason why I haven’t done anything is because I moved past week. After the moving itself you have to do a multitude of things: Putting together Ikea wardrobes, hanging lamps from the ceilings, etc. And of course, getting your internet to work. That took quite a while. Sadly.
Another reason is because I just got an Xbox 360. My father had gotten one some time ago, but then he realized he never used it, and gave it to me. Awesome.
However, he’d forgotten to give me the games he had as well. So I had to enjoy my 360 without any games. Luckily, it’s not too hard.
When I first booted up my 360 I had to make an avatar for the new Xbox Live thing. Took a picture, etc. Then I decided to try and recover the Windows Live account I used for the Dawn of War 2 beta. Luckily, it worked. But I had to make a new avatar. I couldn’t find the eyes I used for the first time, and I suddenly looked like a complete faggot. Nice. I did find some better eyes later on.
So what do you do on a console with no games? Download demos of course! Luckily the downloads were quite fast, but they were humongous as well. Seriously, 1.5 gigs for a demo I’ll play for less than 30 minutes? I was also annoyed by the demo setup of some games. For example, Universe at War had a tutorial that explained the controls… But didn’t explain the actual game mechanics. So when I tried a skirmish I had no idea what to do.
I found the new Xbox Live experience quite clunky. It took me quite some time to find things (and I found out that the menu you bring up by clicking the big X is actually much quicker and more efficient), and it took me a long time to get a list with demos only.
And while we’re talking about lists, the listing on genre is terrible. Since when is The Orange box a Strategy and Simulation game? There’s a LOT of games that are incorrectly labelled, which makes it hard to try and find games of the actual genre.
Tomorrow I’ll get the games from my father, which are some racing game (One of the need for speeds, no idea which one) and Halo 3. Has anyone got any suggestions on what games to get?
February 24th, 2009 on 8:55 am
Not sure where your interests lie so I’ll just throw out a few
XBLA:
The Maw, Braid, Geometry Wars, A Kingdom for Keflings
Community Games:
Carneyvale
Retail:
Fallout 3, Prince of Persia, Mass Effect, Fable 2, Ninja Gaiden 2, Bioshock, DiRT, Eternal Sonata, Left 4 Dead, any of the Lego games, Skate 2, The Orange Box.
Rock Band 2 is a great game, but has a fairly steep entry cost.
There a bunch out there, but that will give you a variety of games to choose from. Many of them have demos on the Marketplace.
February 24th, 2009 on 1:17 pm
A few more suggestions for XBLA
Castle Crashers
Rez
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Soul Calibur
Banjo Kazooie
Alien Hominid
Galaga Legions
Pac Man Championship Edition
As for disc games:
Saints Row 2 (I know it’s all gangsta but really, way more fun than GTA4)
Dead Rising
Dragonball Z Burst Limit
Fallout 3 (but only if you don’t have a PC you can play it on)
February 24th, 2009 on 5:01 pm
Thanks for the suggestions. Most of them are sadly also on PC, and I’ve played the majority of them. I also have no access to a credit card so XBLA is pretty hard for me. I enjoyed the Skate 2 demo, I may look into that, and I was already planning on getting one of the music games.
February 24th, 2009 on 5:16 pm
Ah, I didn’t realize you were looking for exclusives.
Don’t need a credit card for XBLA, head out to your local retailer and pick up a points card. Easy peezy.
Anyway, finding a 360 exclusive that isn’t also on or coming to a PC is a little more difficult.