The Xbox 360 Thread Elite Edition

[Apollo Leader]

A friend of mine picked it up, and I played the first mission (not counting the training course bit). You can definitely tell an Infinity Ward Call of Duty from a Treyarch. CoD3, despite looking and playing identically to CoD2, was kind of dull IMHO. But (without giving any spoilers away), CoD4 felt more like CoD2 despite the difference in setting. Infinity Ward has a knack for well-executed "Oh crap!" moments that go a long way toward getting your adrenaline going and really drawing you into the experience. After he finishes it, I'm going to buy it off him.

Yeah the look, feeling, handling, and atmosphere of COD4 clearly shows its by the same people who did COD2. When COD3 came out I loved that it supported 16 players online and that you could control vehicles and I thought it looked quite good, but since the artwork design was different and the handling was a slight bit different from COD2, it didn't resinate with me like COD2 (and now 4) and when I sunk my teeth into Gears of War I never got back to playing COD3. But I still do have COD4 and I fully intend on getting back to it someday.

[Ishimaru]

If you prefer I could ask Roy to do it.

No no I'm good.

The Limited Edition is $10 more. Regular is like $59.99 while the LE is $69.95.

Man I have the choice of either purchasing this or Assassin's Creed, not enough monies for both but they both look so eye candy.

[eugimon]

No no I'm good.

Man I have the choice of either purchasing this or Assassin's Creed, not enough monies for both but they both look so eye candy.

get mass effect before all the spoilers ruin the story. While Assassin's creed looks awesome, I don't the story is going to be as important

[David Hingtgen]

Very true. I'm picking up A. Creed the day it comes out ('cuz I preordered the LE) but I might not even play it until after ME.

[Apollo Leader]

Long rumored but maybe finally a reality:

Original Xbox games, including Halo 1, on Marketplace this December?

I already have Halo 1, but if they add achievements and online play I just might consider it.

[TheLoneWolf]

I gotta admit that I'm pretty stoked about the 1 free xbox live arcade game that we can get on the 16th. Now the question is which game to get. I never got the point of paying for games that can otherwise be downloaded for free as roms (or iso's), so I'll be looking for something that's exclusive to the XBL marketplace.

[David Hingtgen]

Uh-oh. Assassin's Creed is getting a lot of mediocre reviews, and they all agree on what's wrong. Maybe I should switch my pre-order over to Contra 4 for the DS. (The only other game I want that's coming out this year)

[eugimon]

Uh-oh. Assassin's Creed is getting a lot of mediocre reviews, and they all agree on what's wrong. Maybe I should switch my pre-order over to Contra 4 for the DS. (The only other game I want that's coming out this year)

yeah, that's what I'm reading too. lots of high praise for innovative game design and and a great story but massively repetitive gameplay. Oh well, I guess I'll be playing Halo 3 for one more week before mass effect.

[promethuem5]

Contra FTW man... Assasin's Creed hasn't looked so hot since it didn't work at that one convention tech-demo...

[David Hingtgen]

Just got back from the mall/grocery shopping. Switched pre-order over to Ninja Gaiden II. I'll rent A. Creed later. (I still haven't gotten around to Bioshock--I have a rental backlog). With games now costing 60 (when MANY triple-A PS2 games cost only 40 just months ago) I buy fewer and rent more, especially all these 10-12 hour games lately. Really, only RPG's are worth the money at this point, "hours of entertainment-wise". Or stuff you'll replay a hundred times or do a zillion matches online.

[Chowser]

good, I didn't bother preordering Ass.Creed. If they put a demo online, I'll try it. For now, I guess I'll put the rest towards my Mass Effect preorder.

[CoryHolmes]

yeah, that's what I'm reading too. lots of high praise for innovative game design and and a great story but massively repetitive gameplay. Oh well, I guess I'll be playing Halo 3 for one more week before mass effect.

The reviews I've seen have skewered the story and how it was given away within the first five minutes.

[Ishimaru]

Uh-oh. Assassin's Creed is getting a lot of mediocre reviews, and they all agree on what's wrong. Maybe I should switch my pre-order over to Contra 4 for the DS. (The only other game I want that's coming out this year)

Thats not what metacritic is saying, even showed other reviews to compare

But they are pretty fair, if it's any site to check up on game reviews it'd be them.

Edit: Link refix.

Edited November 14, 2007 by Ishimaru

[David Hingtgen]

Basically--the sites I agree with often rate it low, the sites I think are full of it rate it highly.

[eugimon]

it seems to break down like this:

bigger sites with lots of corporate advertising rate it high, smaller gamer focused sites rate it lower.

[myk]

Speaking of Metacritic, Need for Speed got average reviews on there as well. Maybe Wednesday won't be so busy for me after all...

[Dante74]

Looks like I'll be playing COD4 this weekend afterall. Too bad, I was looking forward to something different from shooters for once.

[Scream Man]

so i got all the stuff to get Xbox live but cant make it work with my router. It refuses to assign the xbox an IP address for some reason. Any thoughts?

[David Hingtgen]

MS does have a surprisingly helpful guide for Live, that is quite specific to your exact equipment. Not that easy to find nor well-known though: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connectt...ivitywizard.htm

Also--I'd suggest unplugging (not merely shutting off) everything you have that's connected to the net. Wait 2 mins. Then plug it all in to your 360, and not allow anything else to even be connected at all. Power on your 360 first until it gets to the dashboard. Then power up your router etc. That's what it takes for my 360 to connect, but it works EVERY time. (30 secs isn't enough of a gap, it will be messed up as it will "search" for the PC as it "remembers" being connected and ignore the 360) Basically, if it can 'sense' a PC in any way, the 360 tends to get ignored.

[David Hingtgen]

And the Penny-Arcade response to A. Creed reviews: (not linking at the moment because it'll be a different URL tomorrow, but it's on the front page now, scroll down)

Hmmmn. Will wait for more. Honestly, if it does depend a lot on "doing everything" vs "trying to beat it as fast as possible" then that does make a big difference--heck, Bioware RPG's are that way, and part of the reason I always do "lightside" first. Then you see everything and take your time, helping people etc. "Evil" is for the second playthrough, going as fast as possible and just blowing stuff up. It's actually never as fun the second time, as you do encounter a lot of "I just did this" and "this is slowing me down" moments as you're probably just re-doing the core plotlines, not all the side stories.

I don't have time for a sandbox game now--ME is out in 6 days, and I want to get my last few achievements for AC6. I might snag (or rent) A.Creed when I have more time--like January, after I've played ME 2 or 3 times and there's nothing coming out for a while.

[mikeszekely]

And the Penny-Arcade response to A. Creed reviews: (not linking at the moment because it'll be a different URL tomorrow, but it's on the front page now, scroll down)

Hmmmn. Will wait for more. Honestly, if it does depend a lot on "doing everything" vs "trying to beat it as fast as possible" then that does make a big difference--heck, Bioware RPG's are that way, and part of the reason I always do "lightside" first. Then you see everything and take your time, helping people etc. "Evil" is for the second playthrough, going as fast as possible and just blowing stuff up. It's actually never as fun the second time, as you do encounter a lot of "I just did this" and "this is slowing me down" moments as you're probably just re-doing the core plotlines, not all the side stories.

I don't have time for a sandbox game now--ME is out in 6 days, and I want to get my last few achievements for AC6. I might snag (or rent) A.Creed when I have more time--like January, after I've played ME 2 or 3 times and there's nothing coming out for a while.

Total opposite. I like playing evil. One of the reasons I loved Jade Empire so much was that a lot of games playing good means side quests, and playing evil means killing people who might give you side quests, but Jade Empire had solid side quests for both. Sometimes, side quests could be completed by either good or evil, and the difference was in the methods.

[David Hingtgen]

Oh, I play evil. Went through KOTOR 5 full times. 4 of them evil. KOTOR 2? 3 times, 2 evil (yes, I know it's not Bioware's). JE? 3 times, 2 evil.

However, "killing everybody" or "scaring them away" closes a lot of plot lines/quests. Or at the very least, makes every side-quest much shorter. There is ALWAYS more to do, playing "good". Every quest is longer. You meet more people. You get more backstory on the game, plot, people, culture, etc.

That is why I always play through "good" the first time. It will be inherently slower, but so are you, since it's your first time. You WANT to explore every nook and cranny, find every little thing you can. Find all the special armors and weapons, etc. But the second time through? You already know just about all there is, you just want to kill everything and see how that changes things. And you can still "cheat" and do the one or two "good" things you remember lead to awesome rewards, and it won't affect your evilness rating much.

But if you were evil the first time, and went through quickly and just killed everybody--you never really know what's different as you'll never miss what you never knew was there. And if you make the "good" way the second time--it'll seem REALLY slow and frustrating, as all these whiny people who need your help will make it seem like it took twice as long as last time through.

In summary:

Evil is fun, but good makes it a deeper game. But Doing evil, then good, makes the good side slow/tiresome much of the time due to how you remember the first time and how many more fetch-quests etc there are. Plus you tend to have less money playing good which has a small but constant effect on playing. But playing good then evil---makes evil that much MORE fun because it seems faster and easier.

[CoryHolmes]

ME is out in 6 days

Five days, 13 hours, and 56 minutes until I can buy it. But who's counting? And yes, I still blame you for this.

Total opposite. I like playing evil. One of the reasons I loved Jade Empire so much was that a lot of games playing good means side quests, and playing evil means killing people who might give you side quests, but Jade Empire had solid side quests for both. Sometimes, side quests could be completed by either good or evil, and the difference was in the methods.

One of the things I'm looking for in Mass Effect is how they say that the main story will be the same no matter how you play. Instead of being able to save the galaxy or rule the galaxy, your job is to save it, period. You can choose to be slow, meticulous, and overall a goodie-goodie, or you can choose to step on a few toes for sake of expediency. But trillions of lives are on the line. Do a few toes really matter?

Plus with the converrsation system, playing as a Bad Cop should get you some humourous dialog options

[Chowser]

so i got all the stuff to get Xbox live but cant make it work with my router. It refuses to assign the xbox an IP address for some reason. Any thoughts?

What router are you using?

I've used a Netgear, D-Link, and LinkSys wireless g-routers and they have all worked out of the box. I didn't have to change any settings.

I've used the Netgear wired since 02/2006 with no problems until my Netgear died a few months ago, got a D-Link for free and started using that. I set my friend's Linksys up wirelessly (secured) and he bought the adapter for his 360. works great. Maybe I'll pick up an N-router if I move to a bigger house. For now, the g router goes well into my backyard.

For now, I have cable internet, averaging 3-4 Mbps D/L, 256kbps U/L and my son and I can both play online at the same time with no lag issues, while my wife surfs the net and d/l's music.

[Dante74]

I bought COD4 yesterday and played the first couple of levels. This game is awesome! I was completely emersed into the game in the first level. Is the online multiplayer any good? I plan to finish the single player before trying it online. Can't wait to get home tonight!

[yellowlightman]

The multiplayer is REALLY good.

Uses an experience based system to unlock new perks, weapons, weapon add-ons and modes. Lots of fun.

[Apollo Leader]

The multiplayer is REALLY good.

Uses an experience based system to unlock new perks, weapons, weapon add-ons and modes. Lots of fun.

I like how you can not only make your own weapons classes, but your also able to cutomize your classes with the different perks... in a way it's like a shooter with some RPG elements! I loved COD2 quite a bit and played that into the ground, but COD4 takes a lot of the things I loved about COD2 and have really expanded on it.

[Dante74]

Played the Chernobyl sniping level last night. OMFG! That was just about the most intense sniper type level I played in any game ever. This may be a heavily scripted game, but it hardly shows IMO.

Spoilers:

Did any of you guys

not wait untill the flag stopped moving before taking the shot? I did the first time and when that .50 bullet swayed off like it did I had to stop playing and calm down a bit before trying again.

[Apollo Leader]

Played the Chernobyl sniping level last night. OMFG! That was just about the most intense sniper type level I played in any game ever. This may be a heavily scripted game, but it hardly shows IMO.

Spoilers:

Did any of you guys

not wait untill the flag stopped moving before taking the shot? I did the first time and when that .50 bullet swayed off like it did I had to stop playing and calm down a bit before trying again.

I'm playing on Hardened difficulty right now. Not only did I make that shot on my first attempt, but I also managed to take two or three other guys out in the shot too!

BTW, I'm stuck right now after both of you guys repell down the building and you start heading between a few buildings. Any opinion on how to get around those Russians?

[Dante74]

I'm playing on Hardened difficulty right now. Not only did I make that shot on my first attempt, but I also managed to take two or three other guys out in the shot too!

BTW, I'm stuck right now after both of you guys repell down the building and you start heading between a few buildings. Any opinion on how to get around those Russians?

Just keep on running and follow the waypoint on your HUD untill you reach an appartment building. I've noticed throughout the game that if you don't keep advancing, more enemies will just show up and make you run out of bullets. Once you advance to a certain point your buddies will move on and the enemies will stop coming.

I finished the game just 30 minutes ago, releasing the Arcade game mode and the abillity to enter cheats in the pause menu. If I'm not too busy tomorrow, I'll try the online multiplayer.

[David Hingtgen]

12 hours to Mass Effect. Don't know of any Midnight sales though. But some stores are open at Midnight for OTHER games, so maybe... Anyways, EB has removed the "street date guarantee" from their site, so it's past the deadline to preorder now.

I don't normally read Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this one's better than average, and about ME:

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20071119 (though the response choices are actually the source of the humor to me, not their stupid running gag of what's actually chosen)

[eugimon]

12 hours to Mass Effect. Don't know of any Midnight sales though. But some stores are open at Midnight for OTHER games, so maybe... Anyways, EB has removed the "street date guarantee" from their site, so it's past the deadline to preorder now.

I don't normally read Ctrl-Alt-Del, but this one's better than average, and about ME:

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20071119 (though the response choices are actually the source of the humor to me, not their stupid running gag of what's actually chosen)

I thought that was funnier than the penny-arcade nit pick gags.

[JsARCLIGHT]

With all the hullabaloo over Mass Effect, and remembering how much I liked certain aspects of the KOTOR series, I went out and bought it last night on the way home. I really only got to play an hour or so (and in keeping with David's request for NO SPOILERS) here are my initial reactions:

PROS:

- the graphics, when they are not popping in or stuttering, look really nice.

- the combat is not as clunky as many reviews say it is.

- the menu system is also not as clunky as many reviews say it is.

CONS:

- the game hides certain loads well yet has other blatant "loading screens".

- the game suffers from massive amounts of texture pop-in and stutter.

Overall even though I am only slightly "into" the game, I feel it's draw will keep me around to the end. The way the game is laid out (RPG element wise) are simple enough yet deep enough to keep you from feeling they dumbed it down. The system it uses I can only describe as a "simplified, streamlined" KOTOR system. The "real time" action game combat is a welcome break from the point and click RPG-ishness of KOTOR and you really feel more "involved" in the combat when you are actively dodging and shooting.

My main gripes with the game so far are mostly technical ones. The game looked kind of crappy "out of the box" and that is because I found out the game "defaults" to having this "grain" filter turned on which makes it look like you are watching a badly encoded DVD over coax cables. Luckily you can turn that off and it makes the game a LOT better looking IMHO. Then comes the other "issue" the game has, massive amounts of texture pop-in. Meaning the character models switch from low res textures to high res textures quite abruptly. It is most noticeable in the "talky" bits, when you are talking to a character they will appear blurry and mottled and then bloooooop the high res textures just swap in in front of your eyes. That "pop-in" is very, very noticeable and the game almost takes no attempt to hide it. It's very jarring and ugly. Also, and this is possibly personal opinion, they use a lot of lower res textures on some characters and it looks bad. For instance you will be talking to someone and you'll notice how your player character's outfit is so crisp and detailed yet the person you are talking with has glaringly noticeable "jaggies" on their costume. Some of the aliens (the race that looks like pissed off cats, don't remember their name) have such wonderful nuance and detail in their faces, yet other characters look like they have 256x256 maps on them.

Another gripe of mine is that the game "stutters". You'll be in a "talky" moment watching this nice, fluid animation and then you'll just see it "skip". A character will be moving smoothly and then blooooop they "snap", almost like the animation jumped forward ten frames, which creates a very visibly noticeable hiccup.

On the positive side I like the music, very Vangellis '80s "blade runner"-ish. I like the equipment designs and how your characters can carry a pistol, a rifle, a shotgun and a scoped rifle all at once in this sort of modular "carry all" backpack. I also am a total geek for the talky bits. They are the thing that "makes" the KOTOR games for me and it's nice to see they expanded that functionality in this game... however it does seem (without going into any detail) that sometimes no matter which response you pick your character will say the same thing which illicits the same response from your opponent.

All in all this game appears that it is going to require quite a long commitment. Which is GOOD because Call of Duty 4 has depressed the hell out of me and I need something to distract me from that.

[David Hingtgen]

Basically--yup, 99% of comments about ME are the technical issues. And it seems every 360 is different (no surprise). Some people have rock-solid frame-rates with atrocious texture pop-up. Some have the opposite. Some (lucky) people seem to have it play 60FPS in high-res all the time (we want proof though). I think I'm typical, as I mainly get:

1. Stuttering when panning.

2. People always have to re-load the high-res version of their clothes when the camera switches between closeups.

I don't have severe problems in either case---it reminds me of playing KOTOR on the PC before my new graphics card.

As for the actual story----I'm thinking it's going to be a Xenogears level of "you won't get it at all until the end, and you won't REALLY get it until you've played twice". It's just so DEEP if you go explore the world. Seriously, I spent like 20 mins last night talking to Tali about Quarian politics. All those "17 hours and I'm done" people certainly didn't do that. Bioware really fleshes out their worlds and people.

Still, if not for MS's stupid rules, or Bioware's apparent "same experience for all" policy even a small hard drive cache could take care of all the texturing issues---it's always like there's just *one last one* that didn't make it in time.

My current main issue is that combat has no tutorial and very little is explained--especially in the way of icons. I figured out blue and orange I think, got a guess for green, but then I think I saw a 2nd type of green one. And what represents health/gel/mines/creds is NEVER explained, I just eventually figured them all out by tracking numbers.

I really wish we could do the "pause and make a queue of actions" thing like KOTOR, while retaining the realtime shooting. As it is, I usually just issue commands once at the beginning, and after that, keep shooting. I really didn't get KOTOR's battles until the 2nd run through, think it might happen again. Just a lot of slowly experimenting.

Basically--any battle so far is winnable without too much effort, but knowing how things REALLY work and choosing appropriate actions will sure speed things up and cut down on deaths.

[eugimon]

I agree that this game could have greatly benefited from a HDD install. This is one area where I think the PS3 has the right idea.

I'm on a newer 360 and I haven't had the dramatic FPS drops or 3-5 second texture loads yet... even some of the more complex area seem to load pretty smoothly. I certainly didn't experience death from old age in the elevator that I've heard some people complain about. I guess I should mention that my 360 hasn't crashed (yet) because of this game like I've read as well.