Xbox 360 Games Recap

Author: jawapro
Date: Fri 09/11/2007 08:40 AM




 

Ok, so I’ve had an Xbox for a couple of weeks now, so I guess its time to let you all know what I think.

 

Well, firstly, it didn’t come with any games. Apparently there are still some coming – but I’ve had to buy some games initially to make use of it.

 

Which is a story in itself really. I went to EBGames where they had a sale on. If you bought two 2^nd hand games, you’d get another free.

 

So I bought myself Lego Star Wars 2 (because the first one rocked on PC), LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth 2 (because I like LOTR and strategy games), and NFS: Most Wanted (because it’s a fun racer).

 

Now, Most Wanted was the cheapest game, so it should have been free. But instead they rung it up as NFS: Carbon – which was $10 dearer than the LOTR game, which was the one I Should have paid for, and got free instead. So I was $10 down, so I took them back the next weekend to see if I could get it sorted.

 

Well I think the guy at EB must have been confused, because he ended up giving me a refund for the difference between Most Wanted and Carbon – instead of Carbon and the LOTR game.

 

So I ended up with more of a refund than I’d expected, but had to spend it there – so I got a Crash Bandicoot game. It’s an original Xbox game, but works on the 360 as well.

 

And I bought Oblivion on Ebay because I’ve seen other people play it and it looks good.

 

Ok – so now for the roundup.

 

Lego Star Wars 2 is great. I only played it for a few hours and finished a lot of levels – so it might not last long, but it’s a blast while it does. And the controls work fine.

 

Crash Bandicoot is also a heap of fun. Platformers like these work well on consoles.

 

Unfortunately strategy games don’t.

 

I haven’t taken the LOTR game back yet, but I’m tempted. I don’t know if it’s just not a very good game, or if its just the console. I should have realized that strategy games without a mouse would really suck – but some people had said that the new LOTR game was a lot better than older console strategy games. I’m just glad I never came across a bad one then.

 

For those of you who have played Dune II – the first real time strategy game, you’ll remember how clunky the interface was. You had to select a unit (one at a time), then select a command from the side menu (such as move or attack) and then select a destination (or target). This was before you could drag around multiple units or just click to move.

 

But the thing is – that very clumsy interface is still FAR better than trying to play a modern RTS (real time strategy) game on a console. It just can’t handle it.

 

Anyway, enough of a rant from me. Just don’t buy a strategy game for a console – you have been warned.

 

And the last game is Oblivion. This is a really good RPG – or so it seems so far. I haven’t really had much of a chance to give it a proper whirl yet.

 

But sadly, I miss my mouse here too. And I also really miss the party elements from Baulder’s Gate. And I mean party as in ‘group of travelers’, not as in birthday. In Oblivion it’s just you. In BG it was you plus 4 or 5 other interesting characters who followed you around. Makes all loner RPGs feel a little lame after that.

 

And the last thing to mention is X-box live.

 

Yes, I set up an account. But I don’t play online – partly because I don’t have any games where that would be much fun, but mostly cause I don’t have the time.

 

But I have downloaded a few demos using it – which is why I set it up. It’s been a long time since I bothered with demos for my PC – but for the Xbox they work really well. You just download it, and then play. No installing, no worrying about your system not being up to the task, etc.

 

And the single best game I’ve demoed so far would have to be Colin McRae Dirt. That’s a fantastic game. Maybe not quite up to the graphics standard of the PS3’s latest GT game – but it’s not bad. WRC, hill-climbs, Dakar, what else could you want?

I just need to save up to buy a copy.



Comments: 11

 

Comment: 1

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Fri 09/11/2007 02:47 PM




I seriously doubt a console would be able to handle and FPS either. They need mice, but people insist they are good to play. Odd really.

I know you used to be able to get a mouse for the original PS stuff, is it possible to do it with the XBox 360 as well? And if it has USB ports, surely its worth a shot. I mean, it is a M$ product, so they will probably have included drivers for stuff like that. I know I can use our PC's steering wheel with the USB ports on our PS2.

Honestly, I do think that games like CM-D would be very well suited to console. Racing games generally are. As they are for PC... And which Crash are you playing? The original is said to be worth a fair bit on eBay if you can get your hands on it. We've got Wrath of Cortex (which from the pic I think yours is) and Nitro Cart. Both good games. Very well suited to the console platform.

But I have another question. Seeing that a fair percentage of games are not good for consoles, why would you buy one rather than a PC? Except the GT series or course, which is PS only. I'm going to have to buy a PS3 just for GT5. Ah well, stuff happens!

 

Comment: 2

Author: jawapro
Date: Fri 09/11/2007 03:20 PM




Simple answer.

I wouldnt.

But as I was given mine by Microsoft - that's a different story.

And it is nice to be able to buy any Xbox 360 game an now have to worry about specs.

And the idea of having a friend over and having a quick match of two-player something is nice. Sure you can do it on some PC games, but a console suits that sort of thing better.

But on the whole, the Xbox hasnt managed to convince me that consoles are the way to go. I'd still buy a PC over a console - even if gaming was the only consideration.

And my Crash Bandicoot is "Wrath of Cortex" indeed.

Consoles are great for racing and platformers - and fighting games if you're into that sort of thing (apparently MS are sending me Dead or Alive 4) - but I'm not convinced about any other genres. FPSs are said to be good on consoles - but having played a big of COD on a something a while back (I cant remeber what console) it was highly disapointing. The clumsy way you have to look and walk is very annoying - and you wouldnt last more than a few seconds against any half-decent PC player.

Apparently MS are sending me Halo 3 though, so I'll get to try FPS on consoles soon enough. I might even buy a 2nd hand copy of Halo 2 to see what I missed since I played Halo 1 on the PC. Still struggling to see why it's considered such an impressive game though.

 

Comment: 3

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Fri 09/11/2007 08:27 PM




Hmm, you really can't bag anything that you got for free! Except when it costs you so much on games, but thats a different story altogether!

I do agree that the console is so much better for 2p gaming, but that is only because the later motherboards in PC's can't deal with any more than about 4 inputs at a time on a keyboard. Very annoying if you ask me. I would prefer to game on my old P3 because of this. It never locks the other player out when turning a corner or something. Mind you, just get yourself a game pad and you will be fine. We've got one, picked it up for something stupid like $10 and its great, although it does cane your hands if you use it for too long. Ergernomics aren't good when something is that cheap!

If I had to buy either a console or a computer, I would always go for the computer. I find that they are so much more useful (inputs are better, outputs are better, graphics are better assuming your computer is actually half decent, and I don't even want to consider hitting a word processor on a console!) and, well, I was going to say more, but then I wrote it all in my brackets instead. Oh well, that fell flat!

Either way, a PC is so much better. But I do still see the point of the console in some respects. You are right, 2p gaming is so much better, but then again, more than 2 and it starts to suck. LAN parties would never work with consoles! Never would it be good. This is a PC only technology! And they HAVE tried to get console on the Internet, but (and I can't really comment here) I doubt it would be very useful! But I still don't know, I haven't used one for it.

The way a console works with FPS's is VERY annoying. Admittedly my only time I have played them it was a Nintendo 64 emulator and I was playing Golden Eye (classic game) but it was still so annoying. Maybe with the correct controller (rather than a keyboard) it would have been better, but somehow I doubt it! The only effective way I can think of a console working well is if it used an aimbot, and us PC users call that cheating! Not cool.

The Wrath of Cortex is a good game, you should enjoy it. I hate the way the constantly change the perspective though! So frustrating, but it does make it much harder! Tiani has almost finished all the levels, she just has to beat the final boss. Currently we're (3 of us play the one save, taking turns) time trialling and gemming stuff. Good game though.

Anyway, I think I'm  trying to make this reply longer than the initial post, so I'll stop now!

 

Comment: 4

Author: Nifen
Date: Sat 10/11/2007 12:19 AM




I've got Dirt for PC if your intrested.

I'll be back in 3 weeks. :)

 

Comment: 5

Author: omnimors
Date: Sun 11/11/2007 04:19 AM




[fanboy]
What?!?  No Halo!?! How can you have an XBox without Halo?!!!  You may as well be gaming on a Mac you n00b!
[/fanboy]

Sorry, I couldn't resist. 

You'll have to let me know how the Lego Star Wars 2 goes.  I played the first one and really enjoyed it and would love to play through the second. 

I understand about the RTS on a console.  You need a 2-button mouse and at least 12 buttons for hotkeys.  That's just not possible on a gamepad. 

Depending on the FPS, a console can do fairly well.  Something simple like Halo, Doom, Serious Sam etc. works (or would work) well, but if you get any more complicated like Jedi Academy, Deus Ex, Max Payne, etc. then you need more options that only a keyboard and mouse can provide. 

 

Comment: 6

Author: Nifen
Date: Sun 11/11/2007 07:00 AM




Hey Omnimors,

I think Halo is coming with the free games that is being given to Rob when mircrosoft actually gets around to sending them. I'm assuming microsoft hasn't worked out how to use the postal system yet. But i'm sure when vista Sp1 comes out, that they would have worked out how to use the postal system :)

hehe...

 

Comment: 7

Author: jawapro
Date: Mon 12/11/2007 09:20 AM




Nifen is correct. MS are apparently going to send me the following:

Project Gotham Racing 4
Dead or Alive 4
Halo 3
Some un-named game they havent decided yet.

Apparently the hold up has been getting their hands on a copy of Halo 3.

 

Comment: 8

Author: Nifen
Date: Mon 12/11/2007 09:45 AM




um.... hard to get hold of game they made... erm i hate to think of what else they cant do

 

Comment: 9

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Mon 12/11/2007 07:08 PM




Make a good operating system. And I hate mac's, for the record.

 

Comment: 10

Author: Nifen
Date: Mon 12/11/2007 07:34 PM




but still doesn't help them to find a halo 3 copy.

don't get me wrong. goooo microsoft. (or at least there engineers which are great.)

but its 1 copy. Only thing i can be thinking here, is they have a stoor room which is full of crap.

The cleaner is slowly cleaning it working its way through trying to find the lost copy of halo 3 which was lost in there while the programmers were playing hide and go seek.

 

Comment: 11

Author: turkeybrain
Date: Wed 14/11/2007 11:12 AM




They probably spend more time playing hide and go seek than actually programming. That would explain the inefficiency in their code! Goodness me.

And how hard can it be to find a copy? Surely if they were desperate they could just go down to their local shop and buy a copy! Its not that complex.