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Xbox 360 Game impressions

Speevy said:
Everytime I try to love Kameo, the control and camera spit in my face.

Everytime I try to hate it, the graphics and battle action sequences leave me awestruck.

hehe, sounds like something worth a rental :P
 
Bebpo said:
Somewhere in-between arcade and sim. It doesn't handle seriously like a sim, but you have to actually brake and drive kinda realistic unlike arcade racers where you slide around in a physics engine that doesn't represent reality.

While its not completely to the arcade extreme of RR6, I think it leans more toward arcadey style than sim.

Bebpo said:
And go back and give RSC2 another shot. It's the only arcade racer that's outdone Sega Rally/Daytona IMO.

I don't really have a problem with how it plays, when i say i'm spoiled by SR2 it has more to do with the course designs which are pretty much better than any other racing game I can think of. But i'll probably give RSC2 another shot sooner or later.
 
controller impressions:

sometimes if the trigger buttons are pressed in while it's left off the 3rd player light will brighten up just a little... does anyone's do this?
 
"Perfect Dark-Entertaining,but falls terribly short of being the true killer app it was billed as,wonky aiming controls being the biggest offender for me,and a online setup that is just god awful,learn from Bungie,implement a streamlines matchmaking system,not some half assed system."

Best Live game ever. Host, and see that you have TOTAL CONTROL over what the game is going to be. EVERY developer needs to learn from the options available in PDZ. There are so many ways to play this game it's sick. Get in a game of infection or onslaught with good players, and get ready to be impressed.

It's pretty shitty that this obivous GE/PD extention with KICK ASS online play with 32 players and no lag is somehow a punching bag based on poeple playing a training level. The last 8 levels in the one player game fucking RULE, and the whole game co-op over Live is AWESOME.

Halo needs Live Co-op, and the mp setup depth this game has. Until then... Compare online PD options to Quake, CoD(a fucking joke), basically any live game yet on Xbox or 360... then be a man and learn to aim, before you jump down this kick ass $50 game's throat.
 
here are my impressions.. havent had a chance to really play lately with finals looming..

PDZ - has its ups and downs... gunplay is fun, although the aiming is kind of difficult sometimes. also single player missions can be a little.. directionless. havent played that much Live yet, but it was fun. B+

Condemned - great atmosphere and melee combat.. the story is interesting as well and it feels fresh so far, compared to other FPS's. Being short isn't really a big concern, except it did cost 60 bucks. B+

PGR3 - really fun so far, great visuals, fun pgr challenges. gotham tv rocks. only downside is when you're driving in long straights, you can really see they needed to turn on the ansiotropy :/ A-

NBA2K6 - awesome so far :D 2K is back! looks great in motion, and the 3d crowds are pretty sweet. yes some sideline characters seem like xbox models (dont have the last-gen version this year), but thats understandable. A-
 
Ridge Racer 6 - Awesome
Perfect Dark Zero - Not So Awesome
Outpost Kaloki - Awesome
Geometry Wars - Over-rated
Hexic - Fun
 
I don't own a 360 , though I do want one. A friend of mine was lucky enough to score a premium pack on the 22nd and I've been to his house a bunch since :P

perfect Dark Zero-Playtime 5 minutes(?) I watched my friends playing it for quite a bit, it looked sort of fun to play although my playtime session was limited to learning the control breifly and handing it off so yeah.

Ridge Racer 6- Played online once, raced single player twice - Its like the PSP ridge racer only a little harder and ALOT nicer looking. The visuals didn't actually totally grab me at first but then you have to look to see that there are 14 cars on the track instead of the what 8 ? that the PSP game offered and these tracks are actually new. Single player mode seems pretty massive.

PGR3- A stunning looking and pretty fun racing game. Those who say graphics have little to no bearing on a game can eat crow for me becuase I didn't like 1 and 2 that much but for some reason I could handle 3 mostly becuase it just looked so damn nice.

Kameo- Played the entire demo stage through , looks fantastic, once you get the hang of the controls its actually pretty fun beating up trolls.

Need For Speed Most wanted - I wasn't fond of the way it played but with some time I'd have likely gotten used to it. It actually looked alot better then I expected it to though. Demo Play only.

In short- Per Pixel Motion blur is an awesome looking effect. :P
 
fartblast said:
seriously guys download the NFS:MW demo and tell me it's not awesome
i dunno.. i downloaded the NFSMW demo and while the graphics were pretty decent, the steering controls didnt feel right at all to me... the demo track didnt seem all that fun as well... and i really enjoyed Underground
 
Limited play on a neighbor's system; all SP, no Live. Out of 10.

Project Gotham 3
-Presentation: 9
-Play: 6

Ridge Racer 6
-Presentation: 7
-Play: 8

Perfect Dark: Zero
-Presentation: 6
-Play: 4

Call of Duty 2
-Presentation: 6
-Play: 8

Madden 06
-Presentation: 5
-Play: 5

NBA Live 06
-Presentation: 4
-Play: 5

Kameo: Elements of Power
-Presentation: 6
-Play: 3
 
Don't waste your time with the NFS:MW demo, driving is poor and so is the collision. Instead I suggest you either purchase or rent PGR3 and RR6, preferably PGR3.

Still its cool that we're getting demos, downloading Madden '06 and I don't even give a shit about football.
 
For some reason, I've been trying to find good RR6 impressions while ignoring good PGR3 impressions. I've played neither, liked pgr2, never really played a RR game, yet I'm rooting for rr6..
 
f_elz said:
I don't get the NFS MW hate. It's a fun game.
It's all a battle of comparisons. I'm sure NFS:MW in a vacuum might be a fun game but with RR6 and PGR3 why bother?

However you should all check out the demo and judge for yourselves. That's what I love about Xbox Live, so simple to try out a game before you buy (ignoring the half a GB file size). Now if they could get some more demos on there and fast!
 
TekunoRobby said:
It's all a battle of comparisons. I'm sure NFS:MW in a vacuum might be a fun game but with RR6 and PGR3 why bother?

However you should all check out the demo and judge for yourselves. That's what I love about Xbox Live, so simple to try out a game before you buy (ignoring the half a GB file size). Now if they could get some more demos on there and fast!

YOU CAN RUN FROM THE COPS AND DESTROY HORDES OF CRUISERS HOW COULD YOU NOT WANT TO DO THIS
 
Played most of the games, just about to sit down with kong.

PGR3 - Brief but good, not stunning but still looks very nice. Plays like it's predacesors, which I love, likely a 9.

PDZ - I like it. Played the first couple of levels and a bit online, the bottom line for me is it is fun to play. Give it a 7, 8 or a 9, fun is fun. 8.5

COD2. - Pretty sweet game, audio and visuals combo up to make a great experience. 9.0

NBA 2K6 - Very good actually, takes what was good about the Xbox version and beefs it up. Smooth as butta most of the time frame rate wise. Not exactly what I would call next gen graphics but somewhere in between combined with great gameplay and you have a 9 or 9.5 game.

Ridge Racer. - Surpirsed me, was fun and looked better than expected. 8.5

Condmd. - Great graphics and atmosphere,.....but felt like the level started to just repeat itself. Need to play further to see if it's worth buying. 8

Quake 4 - Basically grabage, poor frame rate and boring game. 2

NHL 2K6 - Again, not exactly next gen graphics but still a great game, that looks very nice. 9

Need for speed most wanted. Boring, nice looking graphics, till you turn a corner and it turns into a slide show. 3

Madden - Not too bad, looks ok, animations need work, a bit choppy at times. 6.5

Tiger Wood - Last Gen graphics, ok game. 6.5

Gun - Decent game.....7

Kameo - Only played the demo so far but thought it was fantastic, full game on the way. 9

NBA Live. Let me start by saying I had decent hopes for this game after some 8 scores. The graphics/player models, arenas are all really nice. Too bad the game is a slide show. Basically I can't look at it. How anyone could score this game above a 3 out of 10 is amazing to me. 8? Maybe if you can only see at 5 frames per second.
-1
 
One other thing to mention, having tried the system on my regular tv a couple of times now. It sure appears that the fsaa is actually disabled, and the player models scaled down considerably. Not sure exactly why, I would have expected it to look fine on a good analog tv set still.
 
fartblast said:
Perfect Dark seems to have a better story if you pay attention to the missions which are well done and great but the cutscenes are terrible and my only complaint

Fartblast is banned? :lol

Why? He wasnt a bad guy :p
 
fartblast said:
seriously guys download the NFS:MW demo and tell me it's not awesome

It's not awesome. The framerate is not consistant at all and really hurts the experience, which is in stark contrast to PGR3 which is 30fps with motion blur all the time when racing. If they made the framerate a consistant 30fps, I might be drwan into it more.
 
Ramirez said:
I bought it on the Xbox,it was riddled with problems.

And Live is arcadey?Perhaps on the past consoles,but not the Live I own on the 360.
Dude. They've addressed just about every problem there was with the 360 version. The only problem I really have with it now is too many dunks in traffic but that can be solvedvia sliders. Trust me and trust Gilbert Arenas :D

http://www.nba.com/wizards/chat/arenas_chat_transcript_112105.html
carter grant, New York: Do you play nba live 2006?

Gilbert Arenas: No. I play NBA2K. It's real, the NBA2K. The other one, now...it's too fake.
 
truffleshuffle83 said:
play pgr3 and tell me that NFS is awesome

I have, and although I don't think that NFS isn't without flaws, it's actually a really fun game.

I only got a few minutes to play PGR3 so far and it was completely unfun to me. (I really liked the in-car view, though.) I haven't gotten my copy yet so I'll give it another chance when I get it in a few days, but to be honest, I thought MSR was disappointing, I hated PGR1, and I skipped PGR2 on the basis that PGR1 was not any fun to me...
 
The vids of the live-actors poorly acting makes my stomach churn. Nothing like a pretend-hipster dropping some threats on me with a script that even a tele-prompter cannot save. I saw that and was quickly turned off to the $60 game.
 
Argyle said:
I have, and although I don't think that NFS isn't without flaws, it's actually a really fun game.

I only got a few minutes to play PGR3 so far and it was completely unfun to me. (I really liked the in-car view, though.) I haven't gotten my copy yet so I'll give it another chance when I get it in a few days, but to be honest, I thought MSR was disappointing, I hated PGR1, and I skipped PGR2 on the basis that PGR1 was not any fun to me...

I have and enjoy both of them for completely different reasons. PGR3 is, obviously, a polished and complex game. NFS:MW is just extraordinarily fun and gorgeously put together. (Sorry, the frame rate never once bothered me during a race.) It's got some well-integrated challenges (Photo Ticket, Tollbooth Races) alongside your typical lap and point-to-point races. Sure the Cutscenes are cheesy but if PD0's story is a 9 on the cheesometer, this one at least squeaks in at an 8. I actually watch them, as opposed to PD0, where I take my wireless into the kitchen and whip up a quick sandwich.

And the art direction, in terms of the color of the game, is amazing, especially on the first Tollbooth race, where the highway leads out of the town proper and barns start popping up and you can see the mountains in the distance. I'm definitely looking forward to unlocking the rest of the areas. This is one of my favorite things about the 360. Last-gen, I was never too crazy about unlocking areas because, who gives, it's just a new set of challenges to deal with. With my 360 games, I actually can't wait to see the rest of the environments and levels, because they are very pretty, by and large.

I enjoyed NFSU2 and I enjoy NFS:MW. It's not everyone's cup of tea and if you had to pick between it and PGR3, it loses no question. But if you can swing both, NFS:MW is really fun game. But then again, I feel the same way about Amped 3, having never played any other games in the series.
 
Need for Speed is just plain fun. Running through roadblocks, getting chased by police, causing vehicular mayhem and destruction... It shouldn't be considered a standard racing game, but its premise is fun, and if you can't see that then you're a closet Communist.
 
truffleshuffle83 said:
play pgr3 and tell me that NFS is awesome


Considering lots of people here have PDZ and COD2, it doesn't seem beyond the realms of possiblity for a racing game fan to have two racing games.

I'm actually tempted by the 'cops' twist (although obviously they already did it years ago). But RR6 is also tempting.
 
I have NFS:MW and PGR3.... I enjoy them both equally for different reasons. I'll have Full Auto into the mix as well in a few months..
 
Still at a loss about the Live and NFS reviews. How can you love a game that hurts the eyes so much? Hardly next gen.
 
dvdvideo said:
Still at a loss about the Live and NFS reviews. How can you love a game that hurts the eyes so much? Hardly next gen.

I guess for the same reason why I spent a couple of hours just now playing Tony Hawk on my 360, which is very much not next gen at all - because the game is fun?
 
How can a game be fun if you have to turn it off due to a head ache 10 minutes later?
 
X360 after over a week or so.

here are my random thoughs

1. Ridge is the most fun game so far. But lets not beat about the bush here - this game could be done on the PS2. Graphics would take a hit, but the game could be replicated.

2. A lot of the games are nice, but i'm not feeling any sort of massive jump yet.

3. the machine itself is very nice in terms of interface and xbl etc etc. I think the market place IS something special. It opens up the industry to devs which don't want to commit millions of $ to dev. Looking at Keitai gaming, perhaps micropayment small scope games are the future?

4. X360 needs a strong second phase follow up.

5. X360 is fecked in Japan.

6. Inspired by the headache comment - i've been getting a lot of headaches playing the games. I've never had this happen before, and i've felt dizzy playing a few games. Albeit i'm playing at 100 inches projectorated, but hell... :(
 
truffleshuffle83 said:
play pgr3 and tell me that NFS is awesome
I can't :lol

Should've tried the demo after PGR3 :lol



edit: and can someone tell me why google ads are showing "Sexy Horse Lovers"? :lol
 
just exchanged my condemned for NFS. I really liked the demo. Its almost impossible to drive properly in chase mode, as the camera lags behind the car, but in bonnet-cam (thanks EA) its fine.

Lots of fun outrunning police cars, the graphics are really nice (like the shadows of the trees on the cars)

sure, PGR3 is more gorgeous, but this was still fun.



Oh, and I wish Kong wasn't so bloody dark. Half the time I'm trying to work out where I'm walking. And its a little dull up to the V-Rex section. But that bits really nice.


that marble game isn't available on the marketplace, hopefully soon.
 
DCharlie said:
1. Ridge is the most fun game so far. But lets not beat about the bush here - this game could be done on the PS2. Graphics would take a hit, but the game could be replicated.
PSX, Gamecube and PSP too :lol
 
m0dus said:
Yeah. I take it your Aeris avatar automatically subtracts 4 points from every score ;-)
6 for PGR3, that's rich. And a 3 out of 10 for Kameo? Did you not get beyond the title screen, my friend? a 3/10 is a score you give an unfinished 989 sports football game. Or NezMix. Get serious here. And a 6 for COD2's presentation? I'm all for 'to each his own' but that's just silly. :)
Here's how I look at it; when the large majority of games are not unplayable wrecks, why waste half of a ratings scale to describe that? A 3/10 is not what I would give an unfinished 989 sports game, I would give it a 1. My 1 encompasses your average mag's 1-4 scores, because in my opinion gamers don't care about to what degree a game is bad nearly as much as they care about to what degree it is good.

PGR3 gets a 6 because it is PGR2, with an awesome new coat of paint. There are subtle alterations here and there (most notably the further tweak to skew towards sim), but for the most part Bizarre played it safe. Combine that with my dislike of the game's controls and not-quite-a-sim-not-quite-an-arcade-racer feel, and it's easy to understand why I consider it's gameplay 'above average', but not quite 'great'.

As for Kameo, it is a current gen game, and a damn near mediocre one at that. Had it released on the Xbox identical to what it is now (minus the lesser visuals of course), I'd of given it's gameplay a 5, maybe a 6. Additional marks are docked for the fact that it is not what I expect and demand from next gen gaming in terms of gameplay.

And I really don't get your disagreement with CoD2's presentation score; the game is high-end PC quality, this is inarguable. The sound and atmosphere impresses, but it's really not that much better than the best we've had this gen.
 
As for Kameo, it is a current gen game, and a damn near mediocre one at that. Had it released on the Xbox identical to what it is now (minus the lesser visuals of course), I'd of given it's gameplay a 5, maybe a 6. Additional marks are docked for the fact that it is not what I expect and demand from next gen gaming in terms of gameplay.


How much playtime did you have with Kameo? I can see a lot of people being turned off by the unconventional controls, this included me at first. But now after putting over 5-6 hours in I love the feel of the game. I also understand why they moved the action to the shoulder buttons. I think Rare wanted people to really focus on switching characters. Having the morphing on the face buttons which are in a diamond and colored would make it easier to remember which creature is assign to each button. Having them on L1, L2. R1 or R2 would be too confusing.

Kameo so far is a AAA title for me.
 
Kameo won me over, too. AAA for me. No way is it a "near mediocre current-gen game". :lol And what game wouldn't be identical on current gen systems with lesser graphics? They're all the same gameplay techniques we've been playing for about 10 years now.

I hated the demo and almost didn't play it because of it. But it really turns around after that, and I'm really glad that I played through the first few levels to get to the meat of the game.

I see why Blim was disappointed that they had Thorns Castle for the demo, as it's not a very good representation of the game. Some of the visuals and bosses later on are truly awesome. I also agree with Xenon about the controls. Once you get used to them, they become like second nature. People should definitely give the game a shot.
 
Combine that with my dislike of the game's controls and not-quite-a-sim-not-quite-an-arcade-racer feel, and it's easy to understand why I consider it's gameplay 'above average', but not quite 'great'.


That's exactly how I feel about the series.
 
OK, now that I've been playing for a while, here's my opinion (like anyone cares :))...

Tony Hawk - Holy crap this game is unpolished. I forgot how rough around the edges previous TH games were...but this feels like the sloppiest one (maybe because I am playing it in HD?)...ugly game, no lighting to speak of, z-fighting on decals that take up a quarter of the screen so YOU JUST CAN'T IGNORE IT, too freaking dark on the default settings, sound levels noticeably lower than every other game I have (including Gun, which puzzles me), subtitles that don't match with the spoken dialogue, animation that keeps going after the sound stops, guys who have two different speaking voices, etc. This would seriously get a 1 from me on Heian-Kyo's presentation scale.

That said, the game is still Tony Hawk and is still fun. :) I'm sure it's identical for current gen, buy the game when it hits $20 cause it's still fun, definitely not worth $50, much less $60.

NFS - I can understand some of the hate - in HD, this game runs at 30 with hitches to 20 (and 60 with hitches to 30 in SD) but the core of the game is solid, and it's got a nice graphical upgrade from the current gen version (HDR effects, rear view mirror, real time shadows)...it's such a different game than PGR3 or RR6 that I don't see it as a zero-sum game where it's like "HOW CAN YOU PLAY THAT WITH PGR3 AROUND" like a lot of people have been saying in this thread. The handling in this game is very arcadey, the speedbreaker slow-mo feature is neat, and the police pursuit is handled very well (the sound is particularly good, as the cops call out what you're doing - yeah, I remember they did it well in Hot Pursuit 2 as well, but it's nice to see the feature return). Art direction is very nice and gives the game a good sense of atmosphere.

Tiger Woods - I haven't played a TW game in a couple of years, I've always been a Hot Shots guy myself...I'm not liking this very much. The analog stick swing mechanic feels imprecise, and there's too much CPU assistance bullshit going on, as it seems if you get the ball anywhere near the hole, it automatically homes in on it and goes in. I saw a hole-in-one and multiple 100+ yard chip-ins in the first day of play, and this is while my friends and I were getting used to how the game plays (that is, we all still suck at the game)...so, wtf. Player models are creepy and the flyby before each hole can't keep a consistent 30fps...and what the hell is that controller and screen vibration shit? Is there a way to turn that crap off, I just want to play some freaking golf!

Ridge Racer 6 - I'm liking this, although I look at that world map and it feels like there's a lot of filler in there...10% through the game, only on class 2, which doesn't feel fast yet. Handling is just like the PSP version so I'm feeling right at home. The game is not very advanced technically, but like all Ridge games it has really nice art direction which gives the game a very clean (if somewhat sterile) look to it.

GUN - This game is pretty unpolished too, although it feels less so than Tony Hawk. It's a very simple game and so far (30% in) isn't very challenging, although I am enjoying it. This game would probably get a 2 on the presentation scale from me but if the idea of this game appeals to you, it's also probably worth getting in the $20 range.

Quake 4 - just quick impressions here as I only played it for about 40 minutes, enough to clear the first couple of single player levels. I think this game is extremely meh, but then I guess I've always thought Quake single player is extremely meh. I guess I'll have to try it online later...

COD2 - Yes, this is one of the best games at launch...some of the later missions are really well done. (On the other hand, there's a mission or two in the middle that feel like filler like the tank level, which just didn't work well IMHO.) The sense of urban combat (clearing house to house) is good, and there are always enough NPCs around to make you feel like HOLY SHIT THE GERMANS ARE COMING. Another high point is their NPC dialogue - it's nice how the NPCs will call out to each other, sometimes even by name...that said, this game lacks that next-gen feel to me, maybe because you can get the same experience on a high-end PC? I mean, sure, I'd rather spend $400 than $1500+ on a PC, but maybe I'm just jaded so on a pure technical standpoint, it's not wowing me in the least. But the game is a really solid 8 or so, definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of the genre, and possibly even if you're not and you're looking for something good to play.
 
Quake 4 - Traded a few old Xbox games I no longer wanted, plus $20 cash for this today. I can't excuse the graphics (big, long "eeeeehhhhh") or the skippidy-doo framerate, but for some reason it's really clicking with me and I'm having a lot of fun with the old-school shooter feel of the SP. I never played DOOM 3, so maybe that has something to do with my enjoyment. Multiplayer feels like 1997 all over again, so that's a minus, but so far overall I give it a solid B.
 
Cracked open NBA2k6 and Call of Duty this weekend. Both are superb. I don't know what the hell the reviewers were thinking when they wanted to bash 2k6 for looking like current gen. It looks tremendous on a high def screen.

Call of Duty is so immersive and I can already tell I'll be replaying this game a ton of times....

Here are my scores for the games I have:

NFS:MW 8.5 / 10
PGR3 9/10
Call of Duty 2 9/10
NHL2k6 8.8/10
NBA2k6 9/10
Perfect Dark Zero 8.5/10 so far

Geometry Wars 8.5/10 worth the 5 bucks to play the full version
Hexic 9/10 Awesome bonus for having the hard drive

Kameo - trading this in for Dead or Alive 4 (haven't opened it)
 
Eel O'Brian said:
Quake 4 - Traded a few old Xbox games I no longer wanted, plus $20 cash for this today. I can't excuse the graphics (big, long "eeeeehhhhh") or the skippidy-doo framerate, but for some reason it's really clicking with me and I'm having a lot of fun with the old-school shooter feel of the SP. I never played DOOM 3, so maybe that has something to do with my enjoyment. Multiplayer feels like 1997 all over again, so that's a minus, but so far overall I give it a solid B.

Thats what makes Quake great! Run and Gun all the way.
 
I've only really played PDZ.


Best co-op i've played, with a great multiplayer and a fun single player. Rare got the core FPS elements right, and that for me is combat. Incredible amount of depth, extremly well designed weapons each with their unique advatages that really effect the way you appraoch a battle.

Controls take a bit of getting used to but now its like second nature, Rare managed to include loads of new touches that sets it apart from other FPS. Roll manouver becomes extrmly useful during battles, its great way of evading fire, holstering guns to accelerate, 4 slots for weapon management, wall move, the contruction of levels based on objectives rather than running from A- B killing everything is also a welcome change. The gadgets, awesome gadgets.

Best game of the launch, and totally lived up to my expectations. But then, i've not touched my other beauties, Kameo and PGR3.

9/10 -Together with XBLNextGen, totally justifies the money i spent on the 360

Edit: Fantastic music
 
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