Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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So I downloaded Crystal Quest, being a big whore of the first one. Here's my thoughts:

First of all, they made this game waaaaaaaay easier than the original (you can check out the original with the game) and a lot of the precision work is gone. It used to be, you touched a star, the base, whatever... boom you'd die. Now, they give you a "safe time" where the controller shakes and the screen flashes telling you "stop rubbing up on that star or else you're gonna explode!" kinda thing. Also, the controls are a lot smoother, in that movement is not as "inertia" run as it was in the original (and even that version seems smoother than what I remember playing on my Mac back in the 80's.) The last thing they did that makes it easier, is you can now shoot in any direction Geometry-Wars style. Believe me, this makes a HUGE difference, and it's an addition that I actually appreciate, although some of the challenge is now gone. There are these moth-like Nasties that will chase you around on the upper levels; it used to be you ran your ass off trying to avoid these things, since you really couldn't shoot behind you, but now, it's no problem.

Other than that, the game is still just as addictive. I found myself wanting to check it out for 5 minutes, and wasting 30.

I recommend it. It's not OMG-shit-blowing-up a la Geometry Wars, but it's a dodging/precision kinda game, and it's helluva lot of fun too.

Okay Microsoft, good job guys. Now put Solarian II on Live Arcade! :D
 
Yeah, Crystal Quest is fun for a long while, but once you start hitting the real high waves each level feels the same, like it isnt getting harder. I finally gave up and just died on lvl 80 i think. I had like 80 bombs left :lol :lol :lol
 
ColdBlooded33 said:
Yeah, Crystal Quest is fun for a long while, but once you start hitting the real high waves each level feels the same, like it isnt getting harder. I finally gave up and just died on lvl 80 i think. I had like 80 bombs left :lol :lol :lol

umm

there is only 60 levels

edit: but... i dont get it
 
im curious as to how the people at the top of the leaderboard got that score

especially after 12 waves


edit

oohhh up the difficulty O.o

man! i was using too many bombs at level 8 thanks to the mine layer dudes O.o

and the bonus crystals getting 1+ mil points

this game just got a lot more interesting
 
I can't wait for SF2 Turbo Hyper Fighter to come out on XBLA. I wonder if it will have 800 or so gamerscore points for achievements. It will be the best fighter to come out on the 360, well for me anyway. :D I already own SFAC for the Xbox yet I will be buying this due to all the great new live features.



Also, I have to say I can't get enough of Hexic. What a awesome game.
 
Crystal Quest is worth $5 IMO, I bought it when I saw it was 400 points and not 800.
 
Small update on Canadians for buying points: Its cheaper to buy points at Wal-Mart then buying them online.

At Futureshop and Bestbuy, 1250 points are $19.99, but at WalMart? $18.77, plus tax, $21.5855, /1250 points = 0.0172684, or 1.7268 cents per point.

Buy points online, $15.50 -> 17.83 / 1000 = 0.017825, or 1.7825 cents per point.

So it is cheaper to buy it at WalMart than to buy them online. Just wanted to share :D

(to put a label on it, to buy 5000 points it'd cost $89.13 through the Xbox and $86.34 from Walmart... yeah okay, not that big of difference, but its there, and if you have a parent or friend that works at Walmart, the added 10% off can make it significant ($77 for 5000 points), etc)
 
Not particularly an arcade-specific thing, but-

Does anyone notice that when streaming music from an XP PC while playing a game causes the framerate to suffer a little?

It really seems to effect NFS: MW for me...
 
FlyinJ said:
Does anyone notice that when streaming music from an XP PC while playing a game causes the framerate to suffer a little?

I've never noticed any such thing. I sincerely doubt it affects the framerate. The amount of CPU resources that go into that are miniscule.
 
After the fun-killing leaderboard bug in Marble Blast Ultra (which I'm an unfortunate victim of) and bugs in other Arcade titles (like the Hardwood titles), I'm hesitant to purchase brand-new releases. But I guess Crystal Quest is pretty clean?
 
I <3 Katamari said:
Uh.. It says there's "over 60". I doubt it would be 80, otherwise they'd say "over 80". Could be wrong, but that's weird.

Yeah, your wrong. Check the leaderboards
 
Dr_Cogent said:
I've never noticed any such thing. I sincerely doubt it affects the framerate. The amount of CPU resources that go into that are miniscule.

It actually happens in Marble Blast Ultra, so I guess it could happen in other games too... It is very pronounced in MBU since the game is 60fps otherwise.
 
I tried Crystal Quest but I cannot find the funfactor... for me I do
Mutant Storm / Geo M Wars and Hearts...
Still awaiting Lumines and Every Extend Extra.
 
Dr_Cogent said:
I've never noticed any such thing. I sincerely doubt it affects the framerate. The amount of CPU resources that go into that are miniscule.

I think it's a bug. Ridge Racer 6 runs at about 5fps online with Media Connect instead of 60fps. MBU has a slight stutter. How bad the bug affects a game probably depends on what code loop, if any, contains the bug for a given title.
 
what a bunch of bullshit. i was playing hexic today, and i got a new high score (over 50,000, yes!) and the leaderboard doesn't reflect that! it still has me at 44,000. wtf is going on here? makes me mad
 
Bought Crystal Quest, which is pretty fun. But it took me less than 2 hours to get all 200 achievement points :S. Too much practice already from Geometry Wars.

BTW, when I first bought the game I got a score of 0 to see how many scores are on the leaderboards, and its only slightly above 3000 (and the game makes it very easy to switch profiles, so they're likely not all sales). This one doesn't seem to be firing up the charts despite being 400.
 
Crystal Quest is not fun.
It might be worth the 400 pts for achievements addicts, but the game itself is so devoid of entertainment value, especially compared to Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm. The main problem is that there's no challenge at all for about 25 levels, and then after that, the nasties move in such random ways that you end up having totally random deaths that can't be avoided.
 
Jonnyram said:
Crystal Quest is not fun.
It might be worth the 400 pts for achievements addicts, but the game itself is so devoid of entertainment value, especially compared to Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm. The main problem is that there's no challenge at all for about 25 levels, and then after that, the nasties move in such random ways that you end up having totally random deaths that can't be avoided.

go to the options and change the difficulty. duh.
 
Jonnyram said:
But doesn't that just add more enemies, rather than making them move more intelligently? I just don't see the appeal.

it also makes the scoring scale higher

and makes enemies shoot more / lay more mines

it makes finishing the level quick a lot more important

it also removes the vibrate warning when you screw up and hit something
 
Yeah, Crystal Quest pretty much has no replay value once you get the achievements. Technically there are leaderboards, but the #1 guy has nearly 300 million points. What level did he make it on? 22. So its obvious that he just hung around one of the easier levels, collecting those bonus gems again and again (which at times can give over a million points on the hardest difficulty level) while avoiding the easier early enemies. What a bore.
 
beermonkey@tehbias said:
I think it's a bug. Ridge Racer 6 runs at about 5fps online with Media Connect instead of 60fps. MBU has a slight stutter. How bad the bug affects a game probably depends on what code loop, if any, contains the bug for a given title.

Ugh. That really sucks. Does just having media connect running cause it, or do you actually have to stream a song for it to effect the framerate?

EDIT : Does this effect streaming from an MP3 player from the USB port as well?
 
LakeEarth said:
Yeah, Crystal Quest pretty much has no replay value once you get the achievements. Technically there are leaderboards, but the #1 guy has nearly 300 million points. What level did he make it on? 22. So its obvious that he just hung around one of the easier levels, collecting those bonus gems again and again (which at times can give over a million points on the hardest difficulty level) while avoiding the easier early enemies. What a bore.

grr

no he got it at the harder difficulties

the random gems only appear twice on a level (as i've hung around waiting to see)

at the harder difficulties you get millions of points per level
 
FlyinJ said:
Ugh. That really sucks. Does just having media connect running cause it, or do you actually have to stream a song for it to effect the framerate?

EDIT : Does this effect streaming from an MP3 player from the USB port as well?

You don't need to be streaming music, you just need your Xbox 360 "connected" to media connect on the PC. And streaming from the USB port will not produce the same slowdowns/stutters.
 
I must be lagging really badly because Marble Blast is really jerky when I play it against people

A OK now. Do I have to win games to be able to use better maps?
 
DopeyFish said:
grr

no he got it at the harder difficulties

the random gems only appear twice on a level (as i've hung around waiting to see)

at the harder difficulties you get millions of points per level
He was playing on the hardest difficulty levels, but he only played up to level 23. I made it to level 23/24 on max difficulty too but only ended up with 40 million rather than his 250 million. I figured it had to be him picking up way more of those super-diamonds. Are you sure the limit is 2 super diamonds per level? I coudl've sworn I got 4 in one level when I was trying to get the super-diamond achievement.
 
LakeEarth said:
He was playing on the hardest difficulty levels, but he only played up to level 23. I made it to level 23/24 on max difficulty too but only ended up with 40 million rather than his 250 million. I figured it had to be him picking up way more of those super-diamonds. Are you sure the limit is 2 super diamonds per level? I coudl've sworn I got 4 in one level when I was trying to get the super-diamond achievement.

yeah i thought it was 2

the trick is to get one diamond at a time and take an attack wave one at a time

best level to do that: level 10

the enemies dont shoot, they give off mad points and you get like 50 million points for that level alone
 
Ahh okay, so beating the levels as fast as you can is a bad idea if you want the highscore, got it. And Classic Mode is actually pretty fun, I can't believe they don't have a leaderboard for it though. Makes no sense at all.
 
LakeEarth said:
Ahh okay, so beating the levels as fast as you can is a bad idea if you want the highscore, got it. And Classic Mode is actually pretty fun, I can't believe they don't have a leaderboard for it though. Makes no sense at all.

I think that the Arcade leaderboard is based on Classic Mode. That's the one that lists your top friends' scores in the Arcade launcher in the dashboard. If you haven't seen it, go to the page in Arcade that lets you choose which game you want to play and sit there for about 10 seconds. The achievement window in the lower right will eventually go through the scores.

I may be wrong about Crystal Quest's leaderboard being based on Classic Mode though.
 
When I died in Classic Mode, it didn't go "uploading scores" like it does when you die in the new mode. So I figured it wasn't there. I'll check again later.
 
From IGN:

Publishers tell us that more than 30 XBLA titles from various third parties have already been submitted to Microsoft and that the company has them queued up and ready for release. These efforts are likely to trickle out at a rate of Microsoft's choosing, providing users new reasons to play with their 360 and Microsoft and its partners new and growing streams of revenue.

:D
 
Microsoft is aggressively encouraging external XBLA support by actively propositioning third parties about porting their classics and by offering an attractive pricing model. Publishers tell IGN that model is generously divided between two different structures. Third parties who port their classics over to XBLA take home 70% of all profits -- the remaining 30% going to Microsoft. Meanwhile, the company that Bill Gates built purportedly has developed an internal group whose sole purpose is to take over the responsibility of porting publishers' classic games. If Microsoft handles the port, the company takes 40% of XBLA profits, leaving the remaining 60% to third parties. Either way, small-level developers and big-name publishers win.

Good gosh, you don't even have to port your own game and you can still get 60%. I can't fathom Nintendo doing something like this of their own volition. Ultimately this may get very competitive and should be good for fans of both services. Multi-console future FTW.
 
So 30 new games are ready to go, huh? Time to put a couple more out methinks! :D

Live Arcade is so damnn sweet.

Konami, seriously, where is TMNT Arcade Game? We know it is coming. You know it is coming. Give it to us. 100 percent intact too. Need the music and sound effects!
 
beermonkey@tehbias said:
Good gosh, you don't even have to port your own game and you can still get 60%.
No brainer for companies out there with classics that dont have time to port it over. It's like free money.
 
Mrbob said:
Konami, seriously, where is TMNT Arcade Game? We know it is coming. You know it is coming. Give it to us. 100 percent intact too. Need the music and sound effects!
I call dibs on Donatello. ^_^
 
Blimblim said:
I just played a bit more (like... 2 hours) of Astropop on the debug XBLA, wow what an addictive game this is. Very nice !
Does Astropop have any type of 2 player mode? The one thing XBLA is desperatly missing is a competitive puzzler.
 
LakeEarth said:
Does Astropop have any type of 2 player mode? The one thing XBLA is desperatly missing is a competitive puzzler.
I have to admit I have no idea. Considering how fast a game it is, I doubt it.
 
Damn, another single player puzzler. Come on Tetris, Puzzle Fighter, Dr Mario clone, hell I'll take MK: Deception's Puzzle Kombat right now.
 
Is there a known bug with Geometry Wars achievements? I have made the quartermaster achievement, but it doesn't show up on my acheivement details. But it DOES show up on the window to the right, when I select Geo Wars on the "My Arcade Games" screen. It doesn't show up anywhere else though. Is this happening to anyone else?
 
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