• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

360 launch: Where are the duds?

So here we are with a fairly good look at the launch list of the 360. One month away, and so many good to great looking games.

But the odd thing that sticks out to me is - where are the duds? Where are the games that are obviously horrible from the get go?

Where are the Fantavision's?
The Cel Damage's?
The Shrek's?
The Blue Stinger's?

Even if you're not a big fan of the hi-res current gen ports like Tony Hawk and Gun, they sure don't look like utter shovelware like Mad Dash Racing for the xbox 1's launch. At the very least, they will be equivalent to their current gen builds.

This could very well be the only launch with zero absolute crap offered. Even the roller coaster that is Perfect Dark Zero looks to be a solid bit of gameplay with decent to good visuals (depending on the day) - surely not a Dark Summit.

Hell, the PSP had the sub-par Ape Escape mucking things up. And that was arguably the best launch yet.
 
Errr....wait until a few weeks after launch. Pre-launch everything looks cool and gets hyped, even Fantavision.

papercut said:
When you have to budget that much money for a game, chances are you're going to make it at least decent.

So you're saying there will be no bad games next-gen despite about 80% of games this gen being sub-decent quality?
 
Pen Pen tri-ice-lon
July
Godzilla
Seventh Cross
the shitty f1 game...

Blue Stinger was WAY beyond all these games - it won't win any awards (well, it didn't) but a dud? come now - it was an above average game - especially at the time.
"Errr....wait until a few weeks after launch. Pre-launch everything looks cool and gets hyped, even Fantavision."

LEAVE FANTAVISION ALONE. I don't want to have to go and buy more shells for the shot gun....
 
OK everyone gay for Blue Stinger...pretend I said "PenPen Tricelon"

The best part of Blue Stinger was the highly homoerotic bath scene.

Now stop defending sub-par titles and get on with the thread. I'm glad I didn't put That's So Raven now. :lol
 
matthew-perry.jpg
 
The games you seek are called GUN, THAW, and Amped 3.

But surely none of those games are horrible, maybe just mediocre.
 
Well, play the games before you judge them. Then wait one year and see what the system can REALLY do.

The system's launch lineup will seem pretty bad then.


The defense that Gun & THAW2 "live up to current gen standards" is pretty fucking weak too!
 
Even if you're not a big fan of the hi-res current gen ports like Tony Hawk and Gun, they sure don't look like utter shovelware like Mad Dash Racing for the xbox 1's launch. At the very least, they will be equivalent to their current gen builds.

But that's the exact definition of shovelware...
 
Every single launch game will be great. Until a few months into next-gen, when they're all rendered mediocre/irrelevant by games which actually showcase what next-gen gameplay can be, and then they'll be in 4.99 bins. Like all launches.

That said, 360 does have a few games that are sure to leave lasting impressions. I believe Oblivion is definitely up there.
 
"Every single launch game will be great. Until a few months into next-gen, when they're all rendered mediocre/irrelevant by games which actually showcase what next-gen gameplay can be, and then they'll be in 4.99 bins. Like all launches."

Indeed. the thing that i'm worried about is every game just throwing hundreds and thousands of characters on screen without thinking about the game play implications.

KONAMI WINNING ELEVEN 14 - HOMOLOGATION EMALGAMONONON RAPE EDITION OF THE 65000-A-SIDE EURO CUP REPLICA CONCEPT SPECIAL DELUXE FINAL INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Scores from this week
0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0 (match abandoned, bent pitch), 0-0, 0-0

Anyways, not sure many games companies have had a proper think about what they can do with the power.
 
Unison said:
Well, play the games before you judge them. Then wait one year and see what the system can REALLY do.

The system's launch lineup will seem pretty bad then.


The defense that Gun & THAW2 "live up to current gen standards" is pretty fucking weak too!

So you honestly think that there secrectly hides a Shrek/Fantavision in here? Which one?

Of course some will be rated lower than others. There is a HUGE difference between that and a dud.

Azurik anyone?
 
To be serious of the question... the 12 launch games are...

Call of Duty 2 (Activision/Infinity Ward)
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Sega / Monolith)
Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo / Team Ninja)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games / Bethesda Softworks)
Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)
Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
NBA 2K6 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)
Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft Game Studios /Bizarre Creations)

None of them seem like duds really. Some are weak yes, but none of them are at the Ping Pals ofthe 360.
 
DCharlie said:
Indeed. the thing that i'm worried about is every game just throwing hundreds and thousands of characters on screen without thinking about the game play implications.

KONAMI WINNING ELEVEN 14 - HOMOLOGATION EMALGAMONONON RAPE EDITION OF THE 65000-A-SIDE EURO CUP REPLICA CONCEPT SPECIAL DELUXE FINAL INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Scores from this week
0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-0 (match abandoned, bent pitch), 0-0, 0-0

Anyways, not sure many games companies have had a proper think about what they can do with the power.

It's something that I feel will pass once game developers get comfortable with next-gen. It's just a way of screaming from the hill tops that your game is "next-gen", which is usually why so many launch games from each gen are mediocre. They're just big tech demos.

I mean, I dunno about you, but just what are the gameplay implication of a game with 1000 Slimy Rain Dragons (LAIR)? :|
 
krypt0nian said:
Of course some will be rated lower than others. There is a HUGE difference between that and a dud.

The half-assed ports of current gen games are "duds". They don't really advance graphics or gameplay over what is available on current-gen systems.
 
Unison said:
The half-assed ports of current gen games are "duds". They don't really advance graphics or gameplay over what is available on current-gen systems.

There is no way THAW or GUN can be considered to be Ping Pals. We may be disappointed with Activision's laziness, but they aren't crap underneath.
 
Like I said before... the games that are hardly mentioned are the games that suck.

think hard... look at the launch lineup (the 40 day window lineup) and you'll find the answer"s" to your question.
 
Let's get ruthless with this lineup:

Current-gen console Port:
Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Gun / THAW2

PC Port:
Call of Duty 2 (Activision/Infinity Ward)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games / Bethesda Softworks)

Looks inferior to FEAR:
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Sega / Monolith)

Not a significant enough advance over last gen's game:
Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo / Team Ninja)
Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft Game Studios /Bizarre Creations)

RARE LOL:
Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)
Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)

Half-featured sports games:
Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
NBA 2K6 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)

Now, this is playing devil's advocate, but you can see that they all have their pitfalls.
 
KingJ2002 said:
Like I said before... the games that are hardly mentioned are the games that suck.

think hard... look at the launch lineup (the 40 day window lineup) and you'll find the answer"s" to your question.


Launch window is not this thread. Answer the question put forth. :)

Unison said:
Let's get ruthless with this lineup:

Current-gen console Port:
Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)
Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
Gun / THAW2

PC Port:
Call of Duty 2 (Activision/Infinity Ward)
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2K Games / Bethesda Softworks)

Looks inferior to FEAR:
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Sega / Monolith)

Not a significant enough advance over last gen's game:
Dead or Alive 4 (Tecmo / Team Ninja)
Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft Game Studios /Bizarre Creations)

RARE LOL:
Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)
Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios / Rare Ltd.)

Half-featured sports games:
Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
NBA 2K6 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts / EA Canada)

Now, this is playing devil's advocate, but you can see that they all have their pitfalls.


So no Ping Pals then?
 
... and seriously, the issue with the 360 launch lineup isn't that some games look like shit... it's that nothing is stepping up to be the AAA system seller!
 
Unison said:
... and seriously, the issue with the 360 launch lineup isn't that some games look like shit... it's that nothing is stepping up to be the AAA system seller!

And seriously make a thread about that. THis is a thread about duds at launch. :D

Halo wasn't stepping up a month before launch either.
 
krypt0nian said:
Even if you're not a big fan of the hi-res current gen ports like Tony Hawk and Gun, they sure don't look like utter shovelware like Mad Dash Racing for the xbox 1's launch. At the very least, they will be equivalent to their current gen builds.
What a cop-out. Why pay the extra 10 bucks then?
 
krypt0nian said:
There is no way THAW or GUN can be considered to be Ping Pals. We may be disappointed with Activision's laziness, but they aren't crap underneath.

Well, some might argue that they are worse offenders of launch crapiness than Ping Pals even. Sure, Ping Pals is a painful experience, but it at least TRIED to take advantage of the DS hardware.

THAW and GUN are both just cheap exploitations.
 
bishoptl said:
What a cop-out. Why pay the extra 10 bucks then?

Because of November 21st at 11:00 PM, my Xbox gets moved to my bedroom. The King is dead, long live the King and all that good shit
 
Paying 10 dollars more for the privilege of playing a "current-gen" game on my next-gen system doesn't seem like a...bright...decision.
 
bishoptl said:
Paying 10 dollars more for the privilege of playing a "current-gen" game on my next-gen system doesn't seem like a...bright...decision.

Again, buy the current gen build then and save cash! They still aren't duds like Pen Pen or Fantavision.

So far we have:

1) defending Blue Stinger (insert sub-par titles that you enjoy)
2) taking Activision to task for high prices/laziness
3) off topic claims that some titles will surely be rated lower than others (duh)
4) no duds
 
Oblivion (like Morrowind) will likely be the longest, most content-rich RPG released next generation.

As long as Bethesda keeps the framerate up and the bugs down, this is the 360 game to own.
 
Bebpo said:
Because people seem to be insecure about their future purchases and need threads to re-assure them that they made the right choice.

lol....I didn't think a logical explanation for this thread could be made...but you have hit the nail on the head.
 
More tools trolling!

I'm actually insecure about ever getting a real answer here. :lol

Oh well...such is GAF. Agendas over content.
 
Top Bottom