[Aptorian]

I finally caved and bought a 360. My favorite online store had a great offer for the Holiday package. A 250 GB X-box with Forza 4 and Skyrim for 1650 kroner. Compared to the Wii U that's launching in a month for 3500.

I already own a gaming PC and a PS3 so it's not really like I need the console but it has a handful of exclusives that I've been wanting to try out and I wanted to experience this "X-box Live" thingy. First impressions, the videogame part of the dashboard... well, it's sort of sucky. The Playstation Network was worse than this admittedly, before the recent revamp, but at least they made sure you could easily navigate to special offers. And there was always a ton of free or special content for Playstation plus users. With this X-box Gold stuff it seems like you're paying for all kinds of crap that isn't even related to gaming.

I was going to buy a bunch of games via the online store but the old games on there have a ridiculously high price. I can buy those games on online stores for 25%-33& of what they're going for on XBL. Also this point system is super frustrating but I guess you get used to calculating the price in your head. It seems that Microsoft has focused mostly on the X-box Live Arcade portion of the site. Which I guess does pay off.

On the plus side there sure is a lot of strange extra content on the x-box.

So far I've purchased or ordered:

Shadow Complex
Fez
Halo: Anniversary edition.
Halo 3
Gears of War
Crackdown

and I am planning on buying:

Halo Reach and ODST if I like the first Halo games. I am going to play these games as a project. I've heard the story is actually quite good but I really want to play them to train my ability to play FPS games with a controller. I've tried in the past but couldn't get used to it. Anyway, Halo is supposed to be the pinnacle of FPS console games so time will tell.

Fable 2 and 3
Gears of War 2 and 3
Cracdown 2
Dust: An Elyssian Tale
Mark of the Ninja.
Geometry Wars
Deadlight

(by the way, why the hell is Fable 1 and Halo 2 unavailable for the 360? What the hell is up with that? Does Microsoft hate money?)

Any other recommendations for the 360 or advice on special stuff the 360 can offer?

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 23 October 2012 - 07:07 PM

[Obdigore]

xbox live and playstation + are two different services with different goals.

[Aptorian]

Obdigore, on 23 October 2012 - 07:06 PM, said:

xbox live and playstation + are two different services with different goals.

Oh yes. I do understand the different philosophies behind them. I just know which one I think is superior from the point of view of a gamer.

[Slow Ben]

I know this doesnt help you, but the dashboard, IMO, used to be much much better.

I still miss the old version.

[Ulrik]

For Halo - you can begin with Halo Reach, because its prequel. But yeah, it doesnt matter. Just Anniversary is rather goodretro feeling, it has its problems (FPS simply developed).

if you like JRPG, definetly Lost Odyssey, probably Eternal Sonata, i liked Last Remnant. Other good picks Dragon´s Dogma (if you dont have PS3 version), Dark Souls (dtto), Too Human (underrated game), Halo Wars, Witcher 2...

[masan's saddle]

Not sure if it's on the 360 but if you can get your mits on Return to Castle Wolfenstein you should.

Nazis, the occult, zombies, reanimated techno zombies, leather clad SS assassin chicks,demons, loads of weapons/ levels and a pretty decent story. Good FPS fun.

Also any of the DOOM, Far Cry, Splinter Cell and Gears of War games.




edit sp

This post has been edited by masan's saddle: 23 October 2012 - 08:34 PM

[Cause]

Welcome to my world! Never be contsrained by console. That said, here goes

Shadow Complex - Excellent
Fez - No comment
Halo: Anniversary edition - Pinnacle of FPS 10 years ago, today not even avergae
Halo 3 - 6 years old, terrible FPS as far as single player is concerned
Gears of War - Great Game
Crackdown - Great Game classic

and I am planning on buying:

Halo Reach and ODST if I like the first Halo games. I am going to play these games as a project. I've heard the story is actually quite good but I really want to play them to train my ability to play FPS games with a controller. I've tried in the past but couldn't get used to it. Anyway, Halo is supposed to be the pinnacle of FPS console games so time will tell. (Halo is famous for the multiplayer. ODST is not even really a full game but its firefight mode, you and your team against endless enemy waves, is iconic and fun. Reach though is excellent!)

Fable 2 and 3 - Do not buy. Many people love these games. I hate them. If you like games that have no challenge and cant be lost though fable cant be beat
Gears of War 2 and 3 - Excellent
Cracdown 2 - First game I reviewd for my blog. I wanted to make the suits happy but even so I gave the game a 4! Its unplayable garbage and nothing like the first
Dust: An Elyssian Tale - no comment
Mark of the Ninja. - no comment
Geometry Wars - fun game to while away a few minutes. More a mobile game in my opinion though
Deadlight - no comment

Suggested Xbox Exclusives

RPGs
Blue Dragon
Lost Odyssey

Beat em Up
Bayonetta - Not really an exclusive but horrible on PS3

Strategy
Halo Wars - only decent RTS on consoles

You already know about the FPS games. More will come to me. Enjoy your gaming journey

You can get many Xbox games for Xbox 360. They are backwards compatible. That's probably why you cant find them. Just wiki them first to be sure. Not all work

[Defiance]

Fable games are rather crap if you ask me. The story is absolute shit and the NPC interactions are amusing for maybe 10 seconds. The combat is pretty mind-numbing.

I love the Halo games. Be sure that you pick up Halo 2 as well (it's backward compatible). I'm not a big fan of the FPS genre, but I always have a blast playing the Halo games. In my opinion, the first 3 were the best, although ODST was alright and Reach was pretty good. The games just aren't the same when you aren't playing Master Chief and never hear the Mjolnir Mix (main Halo theme).

Bayonetta is a pretty epic game that I recently discovered. I wish it had a little more variety with the enemies, but it's a ridiculously silly and fun game.

Pick up the 3 Mass Effect games if you haven't played them. Despite 3's ending criticism, they're all totally worth playing.

Xbox Live has become worse to navigate over the years. It's full of so many advertisements and stuff that isn't game related that it no longer really feels streamlined. I usually don't bother paying for gold unless I want to try out a game's multiplayer (in which case I usually have a free month trial sitting around anyway).

[Eddie Dean]

Idk if it is an exlusive, but Limbo for XBLA was a fantastic game.

[Stalker]

I second Ulrik on Too Human, it's one of my favorite Xbox games. Definitely worth a look at its low cost. It's a Norse third person dungeon crawler where triggers control your guns and the right thumbstick controls your melee weapon. There isn't much in the way of replayability just because the studio went out of business so they never released the DLC but again for $10, whatever.

[Ulrik]

Stalker - yup, its great smash all of them style and I enjoyed playing for different class...and the universe is pretty unique

For Gold, I would add - you need it to play multiplayer. If you like it, Halo has great modes, Gears of War 2 n 3 too, Mass Effect 3 is very addictive (but you probably have it on PC/ PS3)...

From multiplatform - Red Dead Redemption (OMFG western), LA Noire (stylish retro detective adventure), Binary Domain (solid sci-fi shooter, but only worth in discount), Ace Combat 6 (best action flying game on consoles...well, it is exclusive iirc), Devil May Cry 4, Ninja Blade (underrated funny action slasher, also only discount), Fable 2 (but not Fable 3)...and Witcher 2. Of course, dont forget Witcher 2...

[Tattersail_]

I am addicted to Modern Warfare 3. I play live against other people and can play it for hours on end. I second whoever says Limbo because that is awesome. Gears of War 3 on live or just playing Horde is great. Red Dead Redemption has been sitting there since it came out and I must have played about 4-5 minutes of it. A lot of my friends play Fifa but I'm not one of them.

[Aptorian]

Ulrik, on 23 October 2012 - 08:20 PM, said:

For Halo - you can begin with Halo Reach, because its prequel. But yeah, it doesnt matter. Just Anniversary is rather goodretro feeling, it has its problems (FPS simply developed).

I want to start out with the Trilogy and play the games in the order they are released. With the exception of the Anniversary edition, this should mean that each game will have a better experience as the graphics improve and the series comes into its own.

Ulrik, on 23 October 2012 - 08:20 PM, said:

if you like JRPG, definetly Lost Odyssey, probably Eternal Sonata, i liked Last Remnant. Other good picks Dragon´s Dogma (if you dont have PS3 version), Dark Souls (dtto), Too Human (underrated game), Halo Wars, Witcher 2...

Lost Odyssey and Dragon's Dogma are both on my radar but they are not a priority.

Dark Souls I am weary off. I made it past the first level of the first world in Demon's Souls before I pussied out and went else where. I find these games fascinating but I am not that much of a masochist that I want to spend a week feeling frustrated.

masan, on 23 October 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

Not sure if it's on the 360 but if you can get your mits on Return to Castle Wolfenstein you should.

Nazis, the occult, zombies, reanimated techno zombies, leather clad SS assassin chicks,demons, loads of weapons/ levels and a pretty decent story. Good FPS fun.

Absolutely loved Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Must have played through it ten times on the hardest difficulty between 2000 and 2010. It's one of those games that just becomes more fun as you ramp up the difficulty rather than becoming frustrating.

I warmly recommend the sequel that came out a couple years ago simply named "Wolfenstein".

masan, on 23 October 2012 - 08:32 PM, said:

Also any of the DOOM, Far Cry, Splinter Cell and Gears of War games.

Not a fan of Doom 3 or the Farcry series but I hoping that Farcry 3 and Doom 4 turn out better than expected.

Cause, on 23 October 2012 - 09:16 PM, said:

(Halo is famous for the multiplayer. ODST is not even really a full game but its firefight mode, you and your team against endless enemy waves, is iconic and fun. Reach though is excellent!)

A question of taste perhaps? I've been told that the Halo series has great gameplay and an original story (for a console FPS from the 2000s). Time to see if the stories are true I guess. There isn't many other popular franchises that can offer the kind of setting Halo takes place in. That has to count for something.

Cause, on 23 October 2012 - 09:16 PM, said:

Fable 2 and 3 - Do not buy. Many people love these games. I hate them. If you like games that have no challenge and cant be lost though fable cant be beat

Again, I've heard the gameplay is great fun and the story is whimsical and entertaining. If nothing else, I want to live the Peter Moleneux experience. It's time to see what all the hatred and adoration is about.

Cause, on 23 October 2012 - 09:16 PM, said:

You can get many Xbox games for Xbox 360. They are backwards compatible. That's probably why you cant find them. Just wiki them first to be sure. Not all work

I've been wondering about that but haven't had time to check, do you think the current line of X-boxes are still backwards compatible? They haven't phased it out like the PS3 did to save on the hardware?

Defiance, on 23 October 2012 - 09:33 PM, said:

Bayonetta ... the 3 Mass Effect games

Already own them all.

Eddie Dean, on 23 October 2012 - 09:35 PM, said:

Idk if it is an exlusive, but Limbo for XBLA was a fantastic game.

Got it on Steam. A tiny bit overrated in my opinion but it's a Danish game so it gets my support.

Ulrik, on 23 October 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:

Red Dead Redemption ... LA Noire ... Binary Domain

Own them already. I warmly recommend all three.

Ulrik, on 23 October 2012 - 10:27 PM, said:

Devil May Cry 4, Ninja Blade, Witcher 2.

I have been thinking on playing these.

In the case of Devil May Cry I'll probably eventually in the coming years pick up the remastered HD package of the first 3 games and start from there. There's also a reboot coming I've seen that looks really cool.

In the case of the Witcher 2, when I buy it, it will be on the PC. Gotta get them suped up graphics and mods. But I need to find the right time. I suspect I will loose a hundred hours to that game which is daunting.

Tattersail, on 24 October 2012 - 08:58 AM, said:

Red Dead Redemption has been sitting there since it came out and I must have played about 4-5 minutes of it. A lot of my friends play Fifa but I'm not one of them.

Go play that game now. I don't think anyone in the gaming business is able to compete with the storytelling and character development of a Rockstar game. And that ending. Holy shit. Probably, maybe, the best videogame ending I have ever experienced.

[Stalker]

Oh, in th case of ODST, I would disagree that it's not a full game. The full-length campaign was enjoyable and noticeably different from playing as Master Chief. The atmosphere of the game was darker, and the soundtrack perfectly complemented that. Then you add Firefight mode, which was Halo's answer to Gears of War's Horde mode, and you get an enjoyable co-op experience. If that isn't enough, you also get the entire Halo 3 map pack on the disk so that you can play versus. There is no way that this doesn't qualify as a full game.

[Defiance]

My favorite thing about ODST was New Mombasa. Wandering around as the Rookie wasn't necessarily the funnest thing ever, but the visuals were great. New Mombasa looked like it was originally supposed to. Anyone remember the 2003 Halo 2 E3 demo that got cut from the final game? I was so disappointed that they completely changed how New Mombasa looked in the final version of 2 (although it's understandable, as I heard that the E3 demo took them like 8 months to make) and was really glad to see them change it to something more akin to the Halo 2 E3 demo in ODST.

Despite your reservations I really recommend you try out Dark Souls. Find it cheap/buy a used copy that you can return if you don't like it. You'll die quite a bit, but the frustration is worth it because the game rarely, if ever, feels cheap.

[Raymond Luxury Yacht]

And your fall from grace is complete. I like it.

If you are looking for a dual stick shooter, skip Geometry wars (blasphemy, I know) and get Biology Battle. I think it's the best dual stick shooter ever made, and chasing the global high scores on the leaderboard can get very addicting.

the Fablew games are fun but a constant reminder of how cool they could have been. I've gone from being a total Fable fanboy after the first to now, where I don;t think I will buy the next installment for full price if at all. Getting the first three for a low price though, they'll be worth it to see what all the fuss has been about. No Fable part one on 360, but I believe the old xbox version is backwards compatible. Get the expanded version.

From now on do not buy a console version of a Bethesda game for your ps3. They always run better on xbox. Always. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, whatever, always 360.

Forget free games like you get for playstation plus, it's not happening. The greatest flaw if you compare the two systems.

[Aptorian]

Defiance, on 24 October 2012 - 10:51 PM, said:

Despite your reservations I really recommend you try out Dark Souls. Find it cheap/buy a used copy that you can return if you don't like it. You'll die quite a bit, but the frustration is worth it because the game rarely, if ever, feels cheap.

There is so little time and so many games. It's on my list of games I want to play but not a priority just yet.

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 27 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

And your fall from grace is complete. I like it.

Now, now. I have yet to buy a 3DS or a Playstation Vita. Or the new Wii U. When THAT happens I'll know I've gone off the edge.

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 27 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

If you are looking for a dual stick shooter, skip Geometry wars (blasphemy, I know) and get Biology Battle. I think it's the best dual stick shooter ever made, and chasing the global high scores on the leaderboard can get very addicting.

Why not BOTH!

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 27 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

the Fablew games are fun but a constant reminder of how cool they could have been. I've gone from being a total Fable fanboy after the first to now, where I don;t think I will buy the next installment for full price if at all. Getting the first three for a low price though, they'll be worth it to see what all the fuss has been about. No Fable part one on 360, but I believe the old xbox version is backwards compatible. Get the expanded version.

They're all really cheap which is why I've even considered this project of playing through the old X-box franchises.

I really am looking forward to see what all the fuzz is about. I like the things that Peter Moleneux speaks about when he does presentations at games conferences so I want to see if he's just talking out of his ass or some of his ideas translate into a solid games (Considering the games popularity I am guessing it does)

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 27 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

From now on do not buy a console version of a Bethesda game for your ps3. They always run better on xbox. Always. Fallout, Elder Scrolls, whatever, always 360.

The way Bethesda releases the games full of bugs and handles problems with their games (I'm looking at you Skyrim release on PS3) has actually soured my opinion of them quite a bit over the past year. It's the reason why I haven't bought Skyrim yet. But I generally wouldn't want to play those kinds of games on consoles anyway. I got Skyrim with the x-box and it does not look great and stutters quite a bit so I will play it on my PC instead. After all it's the mods that make Bethesda games great(er).

Raymond Luxury Yacht, on 27 October 2012 - 12:28 AM, said:

Forget free games like you get for playstation plus, it's not happening. The greatest flaw if you compare the two systems.

Well, that and the stagnant price on their digital games.

On the other hand I really love the controller. Sooo much better than the playstation controller.

In other news, I finished Shadow Complex yesterday. Really great game. Short but on the other hand not so long that the novelty of the powers and gameplay wears thin. It's a really good Metroidvania game. Sort of sad that the studio went over to mobile gaming instead of giving us a sequel.

Just started Halo: Anniversary. Feels surprisingly good. I don't know if there is a big difference between Killzone 2 on the PS3 and Halo or if I've just become a lot better at using analogue sticks but I'm not really having any problems playing the game. The enemies aren't terribly challenging yet but the combat feels really satisfying. The assault riffle has a terrific sound and feel. The enemies feel dynamic and kind of comical. I like the two different weapon classes differing between the human and alien technology, it makes for an appealing duality in the combat.

[Obdigore]

The pistol is the best weapon in halo1. Just FYI.

[Aptorian]

Finished Halo yesterday. That game is cool. For a 10 year old game I mean. I can see why the series became a hit.

Still, no matter how much people bitch about modern shooters, it's obvious we have come a long way. I nearly didn't finish it because of the last segment. You have to escape an exploding ship and you have 6 minutes to get away. You have to use one of the warthogs to drive to an extraction point through the ship, all in all some 2-3 kilometers (that's one long-ass ship). Timed objectives are never fun. Doing it in a vehicle that acts like it is drunk is worse. Driving through an obstacle course of completely fucked up architecture that impedes you at every twist and turn is frustrating and doing it with only one life bar because of the shitty check point system is infuriating. Every time I died or didn't make the end in time, the game re-started me at the beginning. I spent over 30 minutes driving through a 5 minute section. With a vehicle that is built to make you angry. Fuck that ending.

I have to say, in terms of plot the game doesn't make a lot of sense. The Halo ring is revered by the Covenant yet they have never had contact between the Monitor and the Covenent? The Monitor is not able to observe intelligent life returning around the Halo? Even over a 100,000 years of monitoring the space around the ring? No radio signals or super advanced quantum telescopes? Really?

And the Monitor has no effective way of containing the flood on its own space station? Why isn't it capable of wenting the atmosphere, nuking the surface, releasing nano-killer robots or use force fields to contain the flood? How fucking stupid were these forerunners? They built a death weapon that could wipe out everything in a diameter of 25,000 light years but they can't handle a simple out break? And why did they build this station to apparently make it easy for flood infected to just get around through air ducts?

Silly aliens.

Began Halo 2 afterwards on the PC. I was expecting some issues since it's an 8(?) year old PC port made for an older windows version but god damn. It has some kind of issue where if you haven't forced vertical sync on via your graphic cards advanced settings the game stutters and constantly forces the screen to point at the ceiling or floor, that took me a looong time to google and figure out. Almost ordered an x-box copy via Amazon. Anyway, compared to the restored anniversary edition of the first game it looks really ugly but the combat seems much improved. I like the dual wielding function.

Also began playing Fez. This game is something else. Any one else tried it out? I'm considering make a thread for it to discuss the secrets and puzzles. Just looking at this ever branching out network of worlds is doing my head in. From what I've heard you need to be some kind of code breaker to figure out all the secrets in the game.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 30 October 2012 - 12:13 PM

[Roldom]

The flood was held back by force fields and the covenent let them out by mistake.
The forrunners do have killer robots but the flood beat them up.
the covenent only find the first halo ring slightly before we follow them there