The Xbox 360 Thread Elite Edition

[Apollo Leader]

Friday night I sat down and played Golden Axe on XBLA. After about an hour I had 185 of the 200 achievemnt points... the ONLY reason I don't have the remaining 15 points is because no one was around to play a co-op game locally (as in two people playing off the system instead of on XBL)! Those who are wanting the achievements from getting to the last stage without dying or getting through the whole game without continuing, set you lives and continues to the max of 5 each and play as the dwarf.

[mikeszekely]

I finally beat Bioshock for the first time last night... without spoiling anything for those still playing the game the ending was, well, kind of a letdown. I enjoyed the story and for some reason it just sort of became quite derivative after the ultimate "confrontation" with Ryan and ceased being interesting and fresh and wandered into the realm of "seen it before". For some reason I was expecting, well, more. This game was so well put together that to get "that" as an ending, while expected, was pretty short and... well... lame. I'm going to replay it on hard and this time through I'm going to be the evil sonovabatty rather than goody two shoes like I was this time. I also know that I missed a few things my first time through (missed a weapon upgrade machine and a few tape recordings) so this second time will be a more thorough trip through the game. Now that I know "what to expect" I can plan a little better.

I also hope that the hard setting is actually hard... playing through on normal was a complete cake walk. I never once ran out of ammo, eve or medkits... in fact I usually found myself maxed out and had to pass up several ammo and health pickups along the way. I suppose if you played this game like a mouth breather and just ran headlong into every gun turret and stood still and let every splicer have his way with you then you'd start running low on supplies and heath. Before it came out I was reading about this game online and everyone was talking it up as being so difficult with limited resources and "hard decisions to make" but I found it on normal to be far too easy.

Plus, as I've said before in this thread, this game was far too generous with the achievement points. I played through the game once, only once, and have over half the 1,000 total points already. These are the most points I've ever earned from one single game. I don't consider myself an "achievement points whore" like a lot of folks I've see around... I generally just "play" the games without concern for the points. But this game just showers you with them for doing regular in-game activities, most of which you have to do just to progress in the game.

You played through the game, and got over half the game's achievements, and you think that's too generous? I think the opposite. I'm sick of games that want you to play hundreds of matches online with racist, sexist, prepubescent smacktards or replay a game long after it stops being fun (and like I have time to replay games anymore) to get achievements.

[JsARCLIGHT]

That's what I mean... every game I own makes you jump through billions of hoops to get the achievements or perform near impossible stunts or feats to earn them. Bioshock has been the first game I've owned that just "gave" you achievement points for doing regular things. It's strange to me as I'm used to barely earning 100 points from most games I play.

[Apollo Leader]

Call of Duty 2 is one of the few 360 games that I have gotten all the achievements in. Pretty much all of them were the result of beating each campaign section on the different difficulty levels. Though playing through on Veteran difficulty was maddening at times, it was doable and eventually I had the entire game beat. I think COD2 was very balanced with it achievement points and what you needed to do to get them.

Games like Gears of War and Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter on the other hand have you doing some totally ridiculous things to get a few scant points. 10,000 kills in ranked gameplay to get the 50 point "Seriously..." achievement? Considering that you don't respawn during a regular Warzone round, it is going to take years for some people to get this achievement. Since I started playing GOW back in late November, I only now have amassed about 5,000 kills in Warzone, Assassination, and Execution combined. It's probably going to be another year or two before I get this achievement! GRAW also has some pretty tough demands. In fact only a handful of people have scored all 1,000 points to the game. I've seen where some people having got the full 575 points or so from the story mode of the game (beating it through both on regular and hard), called it quits on the game afterwards.

[Chowser]

Yeah, I wouldn't bother with some of those outrageous achievements, I don't have that much time to spend trying to get it.

Just my got 360 back from MS repair today, it looks brand new. Not a scratch or fingerprint on it. It has a manufacture date of 08/15/07. It's REAL quiet as well.

No HDMI though. Different serial number.

I'm d/l'ing the Bioshock demo now.

[David Hingtgen]

JsARCLIGHT---what was your total play time? Local place just got in Bioshock to rent. Gone before I could get it, but if I could beat it in a 5-day rental without playing too much per night I'd like to go that route.

PS---I like games that give decent achievements for winning too. Too many games have insane requirements, unlikely ones, or just plain stupid ones. I personally feel you should get 1/4 to 1/3 just for winning, and probably get up to or a bit over half for also doing pretty "normal" stuff that isn't guaranteed but could easily happen. Like say 50 kills of a certain type, or 50 kills of a certain enemy type. Not 5,000. You could easily win the game with like 4 and 12 respectively, but if you "killed *everything*" like some people play you'd easily get 50.

Of course there should be some hard/insane ones, but it shouldn't make up like 500 points worth.

I mean seriously---shouldn't WINNING THE GAME be a fairly large achievement? 300pts minimum IMHO. That is the main goal, and should take the longest (or close to it). (Now, some games only give like 20pts for actually winning---but that's because they also gave 10pts for every stage leading up to the end--same thing)

[Chowser]

I agree about the achievements thing. For Halo 2 PC, my son spent over an hour trying to get one achievement worth 20 points!

It was the King of the Scarab achievement. I watched him do part of it and I'm not even going to waste my time.

Bioshock just finised downloading, I'm gonna try it and decide whether to get it or put some money down and reserve Ace Combat 6.

[JsARCLIGHT]

JsARCLIGHT---what was your total play time? Local place just got in Bioshock to rent. Gone before I could get it, but if I could beat it in a 5-day rental without playing too much per night I'd like to go that route.

I bought it Tuesday evening when it came out, played it every evening for about an hour, hour and a half during the week (four days) and then had a marathon playing it Saturday night for about 5 hours or more. Front to back I'd say it took me 10 to 12 hours to beat it. I'm going to go back through again on hard and take more time this time around, I know for a fact I blew through some of the levels... it felt like you were pressured for time but in hindsight I rushed without real reason.

I mean seriously---shouldn't WINNING THE GAME be a fairly large achievement? 300pts minimum IMHO. That is the main goal, and should take the longest (or close to it). (Now, some games only give like 20pts for actually winning---but that's because they also gave 10pts for every stage leading up to the end--same thing)

Bioshock gave me 240 points for beating the game. The points breakdown was: (contains a spoiler so be warned)

40 points for "dealing with" all the little sisters, 100 points for defeating Atlas and another 100 points for rescuing all the little sisters rather than harvesting them.

[Steve68]

I just got my copy in the mail yesterday and played it tonight. I had the demo and played through about a half dozen times on medium difficulty. I decided to start the full version on hard and it's way more difficult than the demo was on medium. The splicers take tons more punishment before they go down. Also I don't think you find as many Eve or health packs. I could be wrong on that one though.

[mikeszekely]

Okay, not to interrupt all this Bioshock talk, but did anyone besides me pick up the new Tiger Woods? 'Cuz I'm up for a few holes if anyone's interested.

And if you have the Xbox Live Vision camera, you can actually put your own face on your golfer instead of tweaking facial settings until you get something close enough.

[Steve68]

Started over on medium last night and will say that medium is much easier than hard. I think you get the same amount of ammo and health packs, but the bad guys are just really tough to kill on hard. I just encountered my first little sister. How far after this can you buy an extra slot for a 3rd plasmid? I had to make a choice earlier and drop one of the two you get early on.

Edited August 30, 2007 by Steve68

[JsARCLIGHT]

You don't actually "drop" plasmids, they go into your "storage". When you see one of the gene splicing machines you can re-arrange your plasmids and tonics and you'll see all of them you have available to you.

If memory serves you can purchase your first extra slot at the first or second Gatherer's Garden machine and you can purchase additional ones at each machine afterwards as well as health and eve extensions.

I myself restarted on hard last night and found three things: pickups are exactly the same. Items are always where they are in all difficulties. Your starting health and eve are 2/3rds that of normal. The damage enemies do is greater, the damage you do is less and you consume more eve to use your plasmids. I roared through the first level last night on hard and made it to the medical pavilion.

Before that though I went back to get two missed "secret" achievements. The two secret achievements are (spoilers so only read if you have beat the game):

In Apollo Square, the "housing" area, if you let Sander Cohen (the crazy artist) live you will be able to go into his house. Inside you find a pair of crazies dancing and Cohen comes on the PA and tells you to leave them alone. Don't. Kill the frakk out of them. It will piss Cohen off and he will come out of hiding to "deal with you himself". Drop him cold then take a picture of his corpse to get a secret "Irony" achievement. Then take the key off of his body and open the door to his "room". This is where the long lost 12th weapon upgrade machine hides and you will also get another achievement for entering his hidden room.

[David Hingtgen]

Darn, Bioshock rented out again--I must have mis-guessed when to try to get it.

Anyways, a spoiler-free answer is requested:

IIRC, one of the big things is along the lines of "do you take all the Eve and kill the sisters for it, or do you take the least amount and let them live"---something about a big payout at the end if you do the latter. Is it worth it? As I plan to rent it and go through quickly, but still see as much as possible--is it just some super-ability (and is it worth it) or is it something big that changes the whole ending or something?

Because most games where there's a choice, being evil/destructive is faster and easier.

[mikeszekely]

Because most games where there's a choice, being evil/destructive is faster and easier

Especially Jade Empire.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Anyways, a spoiler-free answer is requested:

IIRC, one of the big things is along the lines of "do you take all the Eve and kill the sisters for it, or do you take the least amount and let them live"---something about a big payout at the end if you do the latter. Is it worth it? As I plan to rent it and go through quickly, but still see as much as possible--is it just some super-ability (and is it worth it) or is it something big that changes the whole ending or something?

Attempted spoiler free answer:

1. the only real good or evil choice the player has in the game is whether or not they "Rescue" or "Harvest" the little sisters. There are about twenty of them in the game (give or take, there are two to three per level).

2. How you choose to "deal with the Little Sisters" does indeed affect the ending. The game has two endings, you get one if you rescue them all and a different one if you harvest them all. None of your other choices or activities in the game affect the ending.

3. Worth it or not? This gets into potential spoilerish territory so I will block out parts I think may be spoilers. If you "Harvest" the Little Sisters you get

160 Adam per Little Sister

. If you "Rescue" the Little Sisters you get

only 80 Adam per Little Sister (half that of "harvesting" them) but every three rescues or so you get a radio message from Tenenbaum complimenting you on your humanity and compassion and she leaves a "gift" for you at the Gatherer's Garden stations that consists of 200 Adam plus extra supplies

.

So in a nutshell if you harvest all the Little Sisters (in effect playing the game "evil") you have the potential to get something like

3200 Adam, no bonus Adam or supplies

as well as the "bad" ending. But if you rescue all the Little Sisters you have the potential to get something like

2800 to 3000 Adam with the bonuses, extra supplies and plasmids from Tenenbaum plus the 100 achievement points for rescuing them all as opposed to harvesting them

as well as the "good" ending.

All in all how you "deal" with the Little Sisters only affects how much Adam you immediately have in your cache, which affects how quickly and efficiently you can upgrade your character's plasmids and tonics as well as which of the two endings you will get. IMHO:

Rescuing them is the best bet as overall the total difference in Adam gained is marginal but you get extra supplies from Tenenbaum and you don't have to listen to anyone berate you for killing children in the game. Plus it sets you up for the "good" ending and a possible 140 achievement points. The only way it really affects gameplay is that you have to be a bit more prudent and thrifty in your Adam spending. The only real benefit I think I see to killing all the Little Sisters is that it might give you the chance to purchase all 52 tonics in the game with the extra Adam, thus gaining you that one extra achievement as well as seeing the "bad" ending.

[Apollo Leader]

I'll be picking up DW Gundam tonight. Next week, Fatal Fury Special will finally be hitting XBLA here in the states. And of course Halo 3 is just about 3-1/2 weeks to go. Looks like a lot of great games coming out this fall.

[CoryHolmes]

Don't forget about Mass Effect, which is due out on November 20th.

[Apollo Leader]

Don't forget about Mass Effect, which is due out on November 20th.

Along with Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band... lots of good stuff.

Edited August 31, 2007 by Apollo Leader

[Steve68]

I had been saving the Little Sisters until last night in the heat of battle I accidentally harvested one. Am I doomed to the evil ending now?

Also what is a good way to defeat the Bouncers? The Big Daddy's are tough, but the Bouncers are really tough!

[JsARCLIGHT]

I've found the best weapons against the Big Daddies are:

- Take tons of research photos of them to increase the damage you do to them. Big Daddies will totally ignore you if you don't fight them so run right up close and snap about 4 photos of both him and the Little Sister for every one you encounter, soon enough you'll get tons of combat bonuses against him that really help.

- I never engage a Bouncer in tight quarters, and similarly never engage a Betty in open spaces. Bouncers run at you and you really need space to dodge them and conversely Bettys throw those grenades and snipe you with their bolt gun so it's best to have a nice bendy hallway you can juke around to dodge their weapons.

- Use the electrocute plasimd to stun them if they get too close to you or you need a second to breathe or think

- For long range I use the grenade launcher with either heat seekers or regular grenades. Keeping my distance I pound them until the ammo runs out. The grenade launcher takes forever to reload so I usually switch over to a close range weapon and close in for the kill at that point if the Big Daddy is still standing.

- Up close I use the shotgun with electric buckshot, the electric buck stuns them (thus preventing them from attacking) plus it does damage to them. The shotgun is devastating at close range and I was able to take out Big Daddies in 6 to 8 shots of electric buck alone later on in the game with full research damage.

- When my electric buckshot ran out I would switch over to the Thompson with armor piercing ammo. I've found that even with a fully modded Thompson your shot pattern is terrible and you only get about a 50% hit ratio so I use it as a weapon of "last resort" or only up close where I know I'll get higher hit percentages.

- Dodge Dodge Dodge! Sidestep as soon as you see the Bouncer start a run at you then circle strafe him.

- If possible in an big, open level use the "Hypnotize Big Daddy" plasmid on a roaming Big Daddy so when you encounter a Big Daddy with a Little Sister in tow you can snipe the Big Daddy and your "Hypnotized" Big Daddy ally will attack him. You then sit back and let them duke it out until one of them drops. I've also found those helicopter drones to be great decoys as well, let the Big Daddy focus on them which allow you a few more seconds to spare to line up shots on him.

[Steve68]

Research photos? Hmm... Maybe I missed that part. Crap. How do you take research photos?

Also did you ever find the key to get in that locked dentist office? I think it said you need Chompers key or something like that. I looked everywhere and didn't find it so I moved on to the next level. I checked the map several times and I hadn't missed any rooms and I'm pretty sure I checked every corpse, ashtray, desk, container, crate, etc.

The Bouncers do something where the screen goes blurry and it causes you to run slowly. That's usually when they get a big hit on me.

I just figured out that you can aim better with the guns last night, just like every other FPS. I can't believe I didn't notice it earlier, but it makes the Thompson much more effective.

Edited August 31, 2007 by Steve68

[JsARCLIGHT]

If you are only in the medical pavilion then you don't have the research camera yet. You are required to get it to progress past Neptune's Bounty. Once you get it it is a "weapon" like your other weapons, you use it to photograph bad guys and when you do you get "experience" towards combat benefits. Most baddies have three to four "levels" of photo, once you max that out you do triple damage from weapons and gain other combat bonuses such as increased item drops.

Did you enter the area of the medical pavilion that is frozen shut? If I remember right the key is in there.

Edit: No I'm wrong. It took me a second to remember but SPOILER:

The key to that area is right there. It's inside the locked room, you have to use the telekinesis ability to "grab" the key through the open window

The "blurry screen" that you are describing is the "Bouncer Shock". Watch the Bouncer, when you see him rack back his fist... JUMP! He slams his fist into the floor which causes your character to lose his balance, resulting in you not moving fast and having blurry vision. But if you jump into the air when he does that Bouncer Shock your feet are off the ground and you "dodge" the shockwave and keep moving at normal speed.

The "Aiming" does indeed improve the weaponry's aiming... but the Thompson is still very inaccurate at long distances. If you watch it's hit pattern it's pretty much a cone of fire, even when aiming and even with the stability mod. The closer you are to the target, the more rounds hit as they don't fan out as much. The same is true for the shotgun, except the shotgun throws up a perfect circle of fire whereas the Thompson randomly blips rounds inside a circle. Both become far more accurate at closer distances.

Also the game has an "auto aim" that defaults to "on", the auto aim causes your character to "track" people with his weapons after firing on them. If you notice when you fire on a baddie but don't touch your aim control stick your cross hair will automatically track the target, which means all you have to do is "line up the shot" and then don't move your aim and just keep pulling the trigger.

[Steve68]

Oh well I guess I will have to play the game again as I'm past the medical pavilion and into the next level. I turn auto aim off as I can't stand that feature.

[Apollo Leader]

South Korean Halo 3 promotional videos!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q60IHr9SS4Y...2Din%2Dkorea%2F

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldn5m-vMLwA...2Din%2Dkorea%2F

[Chowser]

haha, funny, he's a bit short to be Master Chief, but he's lucky he's not doing that here, someone would definitely beat up and steal the costume.

Anyone getting the Halo 3 edition 360? I'm still holding out for a Falcon equipped Elite.

The manager at my usual gamestop is going to a conference where they'll have some time with the final edition of Halo 3. Hope it's worth the wait.

[Gaijin]

haha, funny, he's a bit short to be Master Chief, but he's lucky he's not doing that here, someone would definitely beat up and steal the costume.

Anyone getting the Halo 3 edition 360? I'm still holding out for a Falcon equipped Elite.

The manager at my usual gamestop is going to a conference where they'll have some time with the final edition of Halo 3. Hope it's worth the wait.

I think the Halo edition is kinda ugly. Waiting for Falcon consoles. Hopefully they will be worth it.

[Fly4victory]

Another X360 just fell into the burning ring of fire.

[Ishimaru]

I think the Halo edition is kinda ugly. Waiting for Falcon consoles. Hopefully they will be worth it.

The only thing keeping me away from it is the freaken 3 on it, that was on the Zune and I did think of buying one but noo.

But I won't be one of those hardcore gamers to purchase Halo 3, I don't even have a 360 and Microshaft still messing up with the red rings is just insanity enough as it. (Excluding the 3 year warranty thingie.)

Do you ever wonder why Michael Moore or whoever resigned? Cause he knew what he was doing is a mistake...

I don't hate the 360 or anything but with Microsoft its just bleh for me..

[yellowlightman]

Do you ever wonder why Michael Moore or whoever resigned? Cause he knew what he was doing is a mistake...

The same guy who gets a Halo 2 release date tattoo reigns because he doesn't like Microsoft? Right.

Anyways, just a little over three weeks until the 25th. Time to start stocking up on Game Fuel..

[Chowser]

I'm skipping the puke green 360.

The manager at Gamestop is going to hold the first two Falcon equipped Elites for me and a co-worker.

I work 9/24, I'm off work at 10:30pm, I will go plink on the range till 11:50, then I will drive over to Gamestop and be there before midnight, pick up my copy of Halo 3 and be home.

I've already taken off the 25th and 26th, and my normal days off are the 27th and 28th, so that's at least four days of Halo 3 for me.

----

ok, just paid off Halo 3 LE, and put some $$$ down on Ace Combat!

Edited September 2, 2007 by Chowser

[Excillon]

Just a quick question for the Ring of death victims. I just sent mine off to get "fixed" yesterday. About how long does it take, and will they actually fix it or will I be mailing it off AGAIN in a couple months?

[JsARCLIGHT]

They don't actually "fix" your unit, they send you a previously refurbished one. The Xbox replacement system is basically a daisy chain. As broken units come in they begin to repair and refurbish them. The ones that are "fixed" are put "into a pile" and when new broken units come in they pull from that "pile" of fixed units and send you one of those while yours goes into the "broken pile" and is fixed at a later date and sent to someone else when their broken unit is sent in.

In other words you don't get your unit back, you get another similar one that was broken and repaired. Hence why they ask you to remove your faceplate and hard drive, because you are not getting yours back you are getting someone else's that has been reconditioned and later on down the line someone will be getting your old broken one.

To answer your other question, yes... eventually your replacement will need to be replaced. All of the Xbox 360 units of that generation are "bad" and have the potential to fail from heat issues. Talk to most people and it's not a question of "if" but a question of "when". Personally I'm on my first unit and have never seen one sign of failure (knock on wood). When my unit does fail, as let's face it I have to accept the fact that it eventually will, I plan to send it in like everyone else. At some point when the newer Falcon units arrive with their HDMI outs I plan to replace my unit with one of those and give my old one to one of my friends.

[Chowser]

Microsoft received my 360 on August 16th.

On August 28th, I received a replacement unit, MFR date on the new unit was 08/15/07.

I received my updated warranty policy with the new serial number yesterday.

(I purchased the $29 two year warranty from MS when I first got my 360, this warranty does not cover the 3ROD, but covers other stuff).

My new unit is quiet and runs like a champ.

It does not have an HDMI port.

[Apollo Leader]

When my system went kuput, I had my refurbuished unit about three weeks after my confirmation call that my system was indeed dead. So far my reurbished unit has lasted almost 1 year and 1 month. It has put in many an hour of use. The only times I've had problems has been if the power flickered off and on during a storm or some other interruption in the power took place. Turning the system off and then turning it back on has done the job.

BTW, I finally tried the Mountain Dew Game Fuel over the weekend. Since it had cherry flavoring, I originally though it was just a repackaged Code Red. The stuff actally tastes pretty close to Mountain Dew's Amp energy drink. Good stuff.

Edited September 3, 2007 by Apollo Leader

[Chowser]

I actually have UPSs hooked up to my TV, 360, PS2, Computer and monitor. Gives me about 10-15 minutes to save in case of power outages.

I found about a dozen APC BACK-UPS ES 8 Outlet in a dumpster and they all work, just packaging was torn.

Yes, I dumpster dive when I'm on night shift. No shame in it. I've built two computers from dumpster diving...

----

I actually called MS on August 9th, got my box on Monday the 13th, and shipped it same day with their prepaid return label.

Shipping is 3-day UPS. Both ways. So I was without the 360 for about 15 days.

My son is now playing Guitar Hero which he got for his birthday on the 14th, so he had to wait two weeks before he could play it.

haha, too bad for him, I'm taking the 360 with me next week for another week long school.

I don't know if I'll be online since the academy's internet NAT is so strict, I get knocked offline alot. And they only have a 13" TV in the room. Wonder if I can pick up a cheap 27" LCD and bring it with me. I couldn't play Dead Rising at all on the 13", couldn't read a thing.

Anyone get an HDMI equipped premium yet? I'm wondering if I should hook the 360 Elite up by HDMI when I get it or just leave it as component and save the HDMI for the PS3 again.