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Tag Archives: Xbox 360

Mass Effect 2 breathing new interest into my 360

I own both an Xbox 360 and a PlayStation 3. In all honestly, I always try to get the PS3 version when I’m buying multi-platform games, but there are several gems that are Xbox 360-only, and I love each of them.

The most recent addition to that library for my wife and I is Mass Effect 2. We both enjoy BioWare titles in general, and this space trilogy is no exception to that rule. The new story and method of keeping your character intact is innovative and fun.

And Mass Effect 2 is by no means the only title we have our eyes on. My wife and I both want Alan Wake once the price comes down, and we may not even wait for a price-drop once Fable 3 is released. So while I favor my PS3 to my 360, I wouldn’t want to give it up; not for anything.

Top 20 Videogames of the Past Decade #17

17. The Fable Series (Xbox, Xbox 360)

Granted, the Fable series only enjoyed two installments between 2000-2009, but both were platform-defining experiences by one of the top game designers in any genre. Peter Molyneaux may not have the RPG experience that the big brains at SquareEnix did, but in two simple games, he turned in efforts that outshone both Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, creations from the mind of legendary Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. And that’s no small task.

While not as important as a cure to a href=”http://www.mesotheliomahelp.net”>Mesothelioma cancer, the really important reason Molyneaux’s Fable series earned its spot is that it helped establish the Xbox as a home for the RPG genre, cutting into Sony’s once-dominant status in that regard.

Fable also helped define a more American/European style of console RPG after decades of US audiences being spoon-fed Japanese RPGs on home consoles, with PCs being the only home of US RPG developers. All that has changed now, and it is thanks in no small part to the wildly entertaining worlds found in Fable and Fable 2.

My 360 gave me the Red Ring of Death

And here I thought – and hoped – I was immune. But no such luck. After about three years of faithful service, my Xbox 360 has offered up the much-feared Red Ring of Death to me. And just in time, I believe, for Microsoft to stop fixing the problem for free. Wonderful, eh?

As of now, my 360 is less fun than picking out patio furniture covers. All it does is blink red. I’d heard of this happening and even though I had a “first wave” 360, I honestly believed I’d remain immune from this crap, since it hadn’t happened yet.

Wrong-o. Always count on something to break AFTER it is out of warranty coverage.

Looks like my PS3 is about to become my ONLY friend for a while…

“Red Ring of Death” solved?

Microsoft has spent a lot of time lately claiming that they have finally solved – nearly three years after initial console launch – the “red ring of death” problem that has plagued the Xbox 360 community. And no, the solution does not involve strategically-placed magnets or any such hokum.

Rather, the company is claiming that improvements in technology and the manufacturing process have eliminated the source of the failure and anyone getting their unit serviced now, or buying a new 360, should expect that their Xbox will not fail in the future.

That’s all great-sounding, but we’ll wait for the results to prove the claim over time. Xbox 360 seems to be winning out over the PS3 so far in this console generation, but this is the one issue that’s been holding Microsoft back. If it’s actually fixed, all 360 owners will benefit.

Games I’m Looking Forward To: Star Ocean: The Last Hope

Scheduled for release on the Xbox 360 on February 24, Star Ocean: The Last Hope is one of the top games I’m looking forward to in the near future. Tossing in everything I can think of, including the Kohler sinks, I would do a lot to acquire this game.

See, I’ve been playing Star Ocean games since the second one debuted in the US on the PSone. I’ve followed the series closely ever since and certainly do not intend to miss out this time, either. With a great battle system, tons of other skills to develop and acquire, and an epic storyline, the Star Ocean series hasn’t disappointment me yet.

It’ll be high on my list to acquire.

My favorite game of 2008

It has been a long year full of good, even great, videogames. Some I’ve had the chance to play… some I haven’t. So when it comes to picking the silk ties from the cheap nylon ones, you have to realize that I can only go by what I’ve played, not what I’ve missed.

The year’s been full of great gaming experiences. I enjoyed seeing a lot of new SquareEnix titles, even if most of them were unexpectedly on the Xbox 360 instead of the PlayStation 3. And, as much as anyone, I loved Fallout 3. But when push comes to shove and I have to choose what game captured my heart the most, it’s really no contest.

Fable 2 was my favorite game of 2008. The game is just pure heart and, most importantly, it’s fun to play. That places the game head and shoulders above Fallout 3; for all its impressive achievements and cool visuals and such, one thing Fallout 3 fell short on was being fun to play. It was epic, sure; it was challenging and beautiful. But it wasn’t as much fun as Fable 2.

And when it comes to videogames, when it all boils down to basics, being fun to play is ultimately what counts the most.

Fable II is wonderful at first blush

Tonight I played Fable II for the first time; my wife and I went and picked it up, and after supper, I told myself I’d play about an hour and then start writing my blogs and videogame reviews up.

Only an hour very quickly turned into, like, four hours. That’s how addictive the game plays. The pacing is much improved this time out and, with plenty to do both in-town and out, the game is much better than the first Fable, which was a classic but not exactly as polished as this game is.

You can do just about anything in the game, from having sex to performing at a real work-a-day job, to getting married and whatnot. And the graphics, this time, are on par with the best Xbox 360 titles on the market. About the only thing you don’t get to do in the game is sell car insurance: mainly because there are no cars in the game.

Otherwise, I’m sure they would have thought of it.

November 2008 Games Worth Getting: Xbox 360

We continue our survey of promotional products… wait, no… games worth getting in the month of November 2008. It’s the last big month of the year, so our ultra-picky picks are your best guide to not wasting your hard-earned cash. We’ll now focus on the best to be had on the Xbox 360.

Left 4 Dead

Once EA gets into a new game genre, they really get into it. More survival horror from the company that did so well with their survival horror debut, Dead Space.

The Last Remnant

Another SquareEnix RPG on 360 instead of PS3? Believe it. This one’s typical epic stuff on the new next-gen RPG champion, Xbox 360. Not much has been leaked about this one, but it’s supposed to be the latest RPG goodness from the company that recently gave us Infinite Undiscovery. ‘Nuff said.

Where’s Gears of War II on our list? Sorry… didn’t care for the first one, so no go on the second. We’re that ultra-picky. Ignore us at your own expense.

Review: NHL 2K9 (360)

2K Sports’ NHL 2K9 for the Xbox 360 is a rather ho-hum update to the annual professional hockey franchise. The game still lacks the cinematic flair experimented with in NHL 2K7 but went missing in action in last year’s NHL 2K8. While rosters have been updates, there are actually not that many noticeable tweaks between last year’s release and this edition of the game.

The hockey game, developed by Visual Concepts, does play host to some changes, however. Most notable is the new commentary team, made up of Randy Hahn, Drew Remenda, and John Shrader of the San Jose Sharks broadcast team. While this freshens up the commentary with new voices, they are too often stuck with the same too-brief script of tired clichés that the last commentary team used, limiting the appeal of the new voices behind the lines.

There are also some notable upgrades, including new stick handling moves, more superstar moves added to the list from 2K8, enhanced skating engine, enhanced checking, brand new fighting engine, hit by puck collisions, blocked shots, user-controlled Stanley Cup celebrations, playoff beards and more than 1,400 new gameplay animations. But it’s all just window dressing on a package that, in the end, is still more vanilla than it is rocky road.

The heartbeat of any pro hockey game is its franchise mode, and unfortunately, there have been some troubles with NHL 2K9 in that regard; it seems that some users have discovered that if they play through more than a couple months of the franchise mode in one sitting, the game has a tendency to freeze up and result in lost data.

Also, if one manually saves their franchise immediately after a game-controlled auto-save, some users have reported that their save file gets self-deleted by the game. Although these problems are said to be limited and rare in scope by 2K Sports, they can occur and certainly become a problem for those who experience them. So far, in my testing, I have not been able to duplicate these errors.

The skating physics are improved from last year’s model, and the feel of the game is solid. Once you learn the controls, it is possible to be competitive in most of the games you play, though the AI is smart enough to win some from you even if you’re a series veteran, especially on the higher difficulty settings where the game physics and AI amp up and start playing as smart as you, and allowing fewer flukey goals.

Still, there’s really not much new in the way of expanding the appeal and features found in franchise mode, and the online play options are pretty much the same as before. When you combine this relative lack of real change or improvement to the series, along with the annoying lack of the cinematic presentation flair on display in 2K7 but since abandoned, there’s not much to really recommend this year’s model. If you desire up-to-date rosters, this is a serviceable entry in the series, but those who loved the 2K7 version won’t find a suitable replacement in this year’s model.

The 360 is the new home of RPGs

The Xbox 360 is now officially the home of the best RPGs. Critical mass has been reached. The only RPGs on the PS3 are all Xbox 360 hand-me-downs, whether it be Oblivion, Eternal Sonata, Fallout 3 or whatnot.

To make matters more critical for Sony, they have virtually no system exclusive RPGs yet, and recently lost their exclusivity on their biggest such title, Final Fantasy XIII, which will now appear on Xbox 360 as well as PS3. Boom.

One could fill a few Amazon books on the mistakes Sony has made this time around; not securing enough RPGs is certainly near the top of that list.

Meanwhile, adding insult to injury is the growing list of Xbox 360-exclusive RPGs in Microsoft’s library. Anyone who snubs their nose at RPGs like Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Mass Effect, Infinite Undiscovery, Fable 2, The Last Remnant, and Spectral Force 3 are simply trying to hard to ignore the truth: Even with holiday releases factored in, Sony’s PS3 has about seven RPGs either out or coming to their platform by the holidays. Xbox 360 has 28 RPGs.

Nuff said.

Review: Infinite Undiscovery (360)

Created by developer tri-Ace, the geniuses behind three (and soon, four) Star Ocean titles, as well as some other well-thought-of one-off titles, have unveiled their latest RPG masterpiece, Infinite Undiscovery, which at least for a while will be an Xbox 360 exclusive title from SquareEnix.

The good news is: it’s a good one! Infinite Undiscovery revolves around the tale of a world where the moon is, for mysterious reasons, chained to the earth and unable to move in rotation around the planet. A lone hero rises up to undo these chains and become the people’s hero and he – is not your main playable character in this game. Instead, in Prince and the Pauper fashion, your hero is someone who just happens to be the spittin’ image of this hero of the people.

Complication matters is the fact that Capell is a bit of a pacifist; he’d rather blow a flute than swing a sword, but fate pretty much won’t allow him the luxury of that option. As the game begins, he’s been imprisoned by some folks who believe Capell is Sigmund the Liberator, and soon he rescued from that cell by Aya, one of Sigmund’s followers. As is usually the case with such games, Capell eventually gets caught up in Sigmund’s mission, like it or not.

The whole affair takes place in a nice-looking world that is somewhat photorealistic, but only if you painted reality over with an airbrush. Think of it more as a very sharp-looking cartoon world … for grown-ups.

Like the Star Ocean games before them, and most other tri-Ace games, Infinite Undiscovery is an action RPG that retains an RPG feel more than an action-game feel, which should be a good fit for all longtime, multiplatform SquareEnix fans. The battle system at its core is rather simple, but is given depth and complexity as the game evolves without ever becoming hard to manage. Quite a feat.

The game also offers up more than the usual dungeon crawl; there are puzzles to solve and mysteries to unwind and secrets to reveal. Some of these are accomplished using a “link system” that allows Cappel to talk with folks he meets with different party members sort of “along for the ride. While it doesn’t work on everyone, each area has at least a couple people who will either tell you something extra, or given you something they’d have held back otherwise, simply because your fellow party-member is with you.

Like most other tri-Ace games, the simple world is a bit deceptive, in that there are loads of new systems introduced as the game progresses. Examples include the aforementioned in-town link system, as well as a battle link-system, an item creation interface, and much more.

In the end, the game is exactly the sort of thing the original Xbox era lacked; a top-notch exclusive RPG release from one of the top names in RPGs: SquareEnix. Infinite Undiscovery could become the basis for SquareEnix’s newest franchise, and based on the high quality on display here, there’s no reason it shouldn’t spawn sequels. 360 fans, rejoice: not only is the 360 “in the mix” of the next-gen RPG market, but as of now, they’re well ahead of Sony and the PS3. That’s because, like a sizable handful of RPGs released to the 360 recently, Infinite Undiscovery is a must-have for any true fan of RPGs.

My most-wanted videogame for October 2008

Of all the great games coming out across all platforms in October 2008, which one am I most dying to acquire, personally? That’s not an easy choice.

I’ve been anxious to see Fallout 3 since it was announced; and LittleBigPlanet certainly has aroused me curiosity. The band/music titles are always fun. But if I had to narrow it down to one must-play title? The kind of game that would make someone forsake crib bedding for their newborn over? (And no, I’m not a dad yet.)

Well, in this case, it would have to be Fable 2. Both my wife and I have been looking forward to it since its announcement and its a game we’ll both play to death.

And as a long-time Sony loyalist, I have to admit this: the Xbox 360 has become this generation’s home of the best and most RPGs. Sony needs to wake up or get left in the dust.