eugimon Posted August 11, 2007 Posted August 11, 2007 It always struck me as incredibly odd that game developers don't gear releases for those all important summer vacation months, when kids actually have time to play. In general, most hobby industries dry up during the summer... for some reason, people go outside and play rather than staying in doors and staring at televisions or aquariums or what have you.
David Hingtgen Posted August 11, 2007 Posted August 11, 2007 Which is the exact opposite of what happens in the Midwest. It's WAY too friggin hot and humid to go outside. 30 secs and you're sweating. I stay indoors 24/7 if I can in July and August here--I need games! Spring and Fall are the only times to stay outdoors here.
Keith Posted August 11, 2007 Posted August 11, 2007 In this crazy age of global warming, it just doesn't make sense to go outside anymore.
JB0 Posted August 11, 2007 Posted August 11, 2007 In this crazy age of global warming, it just doesn't make sense to go outside anymore. Naw, people have just suddenly started to realize that there's a big ball of nuclear fire in the sky that gives you cancer.
Chowser Posted August 11, 2007 Posted August 11, 2007 yeah, here in OH, it's too hot and humid also. When I was a kid, I used to sleep during the afternoon and was up and out during the evening when it's a little cooler. I asked for a transfer to night shift for the summer but was told no. It's hot and humid enough outside without having to wear body armor all afternoon. Well, MS sent me a box, I will send my 360 back on Monday and hopefully they will fix it right.
Excillon Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 Which is the exact opposite of what happens in the Midwest. It's WAY too friggin hot and humid to go outside. 30 secs and you're sweating. I stay indoors 24/7 if I can in July and August here--I need games! Spring and Fall are the only times to stay outdoors here. I hear you. Illinois isn't any better. Hell the only games I have are: Transformers Gears of War Dynasty Warriors empires Lost Planet Dead Rising Armored Core 4 The Darkness Burnout revenge MLB 2K7 Madden 07 Hitman blood money. Chromehounds When I had the original Xbox, I had twice as many games in half the time compared to how long I've owned my 360.
David Hingtgen Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 Ha, I'm still only at 2 "permanent" games in my 360 collection. DOA 4 and Oblivion. Everything else was merely rented/borrowed, or sold or is to be sold. (anyone want DOA XBV2?) But again--in Oct/Nov, I'm buying quite a few games I plan to keep forever. Ironically, while the Gamecube had quite a few games early. Then a huge drought. Then there was Metroid Prime 2, RE 4, and that was about it for the GC. Never did feel I got my money's worth out of the console. The 360 is getting a slow start, but within a year I'll probably have more games for it than I ever did for the GC. (Though I just bought Zelda: TP for the GC, since I don't plan on finding nor buying a Wii any time soon at this point)
Dante74 Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 (Though I just bought Zelda: TP for the GC, since I don't plan on finding nor buying a Wii any time soon at this point) I'd buy a GC all over again just for Zelda TP. Great game.
CoryHolmes Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 Saw they had DOA X2 even cheaper than Target, so decided to buy it. I give it a meh. I do think the original was better. Let's just say the physics have gone from "improbable" to "it completely pulls you out of any possibly immersive environment/suspension of disbelief". Plus the character models are flat-out shiny. It's like their skin is flesh-colored chrome. Finally, I liked the suits in the first one better. None of Ayane's are good, and I've only found 1 from someone else to give to here. I had trouble enough with the opening video. I felt like such a dirty old man with that and I'm not even thirty!
JB0 Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 I'd buy a GC all over again just for Zelda TP. Great game. I'd buy it all over again for Prime. IMNSHO, that's one of maybe a dozen "perfect" games in existence.
Excillon Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 I just got the red ring of death! I just bought my system like 5 months ago. This is bullshit! I have some questions: 1. What happens if I have to send it in? 2. Are they still giving away free wireless controllers and 1 month Live for their stupidity? 3. Do I have to send in my HDD? 4. How long does this take? 5. Do they actually fix it right?
David Hingtgen Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 You'll most likely get a refurbished one sent back, not yours. The official explanation is that it's quicker, so you can play your games again. It also probably is quicker, who knows how long they have to do diagnostics, repairs, etc. Don't send in your HDD. Or your face plate. Strip it as bare as you can. They actually are quite fast, I had my replacement in like 10 days. Still, I'd rather have waited and gotten my own one back, repaired. The refurb was NOT mint. It's in good shape, better than most used stuff--but it was not as nice or clean as mine. You'd think they could at least wipe off or clean the refurb'd units before sending them out. You'll get a free month of live, that's what I got. Also, see my post one page ago: http://macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?s=&a...st&p=505232
Chowser Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 (edited) Did the refurb come back with a different serial number? Or do they slap your original serial number on it? I still have my $29 360 warranty which is good till Feb. 2009. Time to sell the original Xbox to fund my 360 Elite purchase... .... was at Best Buy today dropping off my notebook for repair, stopped by the 360 aisle, they had 8 elites and 4 premiums. All Elites were made in 6/2007. None of the Premiums had HDMI, they were all made in 11/2005. So I am guessing Microsoft still has plenty of stock of old Premium systems. Edited August 14, 2007 by Chowser
mikeszekely Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 According to Kotaku, the new non-Elite 360's with the HDMI out do NOT have the 65nm "Falcon" chipsets, but David, you might be interested to hear that they are using Ben-Q drives. Perhaps they'll stick with them when they do release the Falcon models?
David Hingtgen Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 I am interested indeed to hear that. PS--the refub I got is a different serial, different case, different drive. I'm pretty sure MS just has a revolving setup---systems come in, are repaired, then placed in the line to be sent out when someone needs a system fixed. You get the first already-repaired one they grab off the shelf. They'll fix yours later, and give it to someone else.
Steve68 Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 (edited) So nobody has downloaded the new Bioshock demo on live yet? I'm only 50% complete Edited August 14, 2007 by Steve68
Chowser Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Well, hopefully they'll record that and transfer my warranty over to the refurb. I wish I could d/l the bioshock demo, no 360. My internet is finally stabilized at 4.8 Mbps for D/L and I can't even use it.
Dante74 Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 So nobody has downloaded the new Bioshock demo on live yet? I'm only 50% complete Bioshock's available for dowload? Cool! downloading now!
Steve68 Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 (edited) It's like Gears of War!, with color! Seriously though I played through the demo and it rocked as much as Gears did the first time I played. Glad I pre-ordered this one, and for only $39 to! Steve Edited August 14, 2007 by Steve68
j_wong00 Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 I am interested indeed to hear that. PS--the refub I got is a different serial, different case, different drive. I'm pretty sure MS just has a revolving setup---systems come in, are repaired, then placed in the line to be sent out when someone needs a system fixed. You get the first already-repaired one they grab off the shelf. They'll fix yours later, and give it to someone else. Yeah, that seems to be standard procedure for warranty repairs most places. It's just easier, and quicker.
Mechafan Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Bioshock's available for dowload? Cool! downloading now! I have downloaded it and played thru it. Nice Demo.
David Hingtgen Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Gah, and I just put away my ethernet cable. Will download it later. (I found it was easiest to just buy a 50ft cable and hook it up as needed)
Fort Max Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 So nobody has downloaded the new Bioshock demo on live yet? I'm only 50% complete Just got back from my mates, he called me round almost exclusively to see the Bioshock demo. It's an extremely atmospheric game, every room has loads to see and pick up and there is so much freaky dialogue, even in just this short demo. You can play it as a shooter but I had more fun using the plasmids. As soon as I get an Xbox (ordering tomorrow!) I'm getting this.
yellowlightman Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 Anyone try the Stranglehold demo? Has a few annoying parts, but does a pretty great job of capturing John Woo's bullet mayhem in video game form.
Alpha OTS Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 I have downloaded it and played thru it. Nice Demo. I only have one negative thing to say about it. When the demo is at its best is when it ends. And then they go and add insult to injury by showing you things you want to do in the demo but can't unless you have the full game. It's evil! Evil, I say!
David Hingtgen Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 Yeesh, I think all of Live is trying to download it. 2 hours and only got 44%. Will try to get the rest later.
Chowser Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 Anyone try the Stranglehold demo? Has a few annoying parts, but does a pretty great job of capturing John Woo's bullet mayhem in video game form. I did, right before I sent the 360 back in, I liked it. There's some problems with it, but it's a demo, I got stuck on some scaffolding when I went up, and couldn't get out and ended up dying. Had to restart, but I was able to finish it.
mikeszekely Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 I don't know why some of you were having problems, it only took me about a half hour. I downloaded it, Eternal Sonata, and Beautiful Katamari, then played them all plus the Blue Dragon demo I never got around to playing because I was too busy playing Ace Combat. My thoughts as follows: Eternal Sonata: Interesting story and concept, and I like how you actually have to move in battle... it works better here than it did in FFXII. I thought the demo was pretty hard, though. The pig boss thing killed me good. Blue Dragon: I played the Nene's Tower demo, killed the boss of the first floor, and got bored. Toriyama's character designs remind me more of DBZ Dragon Quest. And, it seems everyone's trying to reinvent the turn-based wheel. Blue Dragon's attempt (charge all your actions to take longer, but have better results) is a huge turn-off, especially with regards to healing... you can either cast a heal that goes off right away, and probably won't restore enough HP to stand up to a boss's assault, or you can charge it to heal massive HP and give the boss more opportunities to kill you before it goes off. Beautiful Katamari: Impressive. Katamari Damacy had a simple graphic style that worked well on the PS2, and BK somehow both retains and improves it. When you start, you right away notice that you're not on the PS2 anymore, but you're definitely playing Katamari, as there's zero change in the gameplay department. I like how the King of All Cosmos has some demo-specific dialog, but the demo is over much too fast. BioShock: I LOVE the game's atmosphere. LOVE it. Can't stress that enough. This game is creepy in a way that more closely resembles Silent Hill than Doom, and I really dig that 50's style "futuristic" setting. The gameplay is a little loose and simple, though. I might be in the minority on this one, but with all the other great games coming out in the next four months, I'm going to pass on BioShock now and grab it used and cheap come next spring.
David Hingtgen Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 Eternal Sonata---meh. Liked it ok, but not going to pay 60 bucks and play for 50 hours though. Have other stuff coming. Mass Effect twice through will be all the RPG I need for a while. And then there's Lost Odyssey! Blue Dragon--disappointed. I usually like large parties, but everything took forever. Also, the characters seemed even more generic than usual. Remove the hair from DBZ/Chrono Trigger/Blue Dragon and I dare you to tell any of them apart. And I despise "cute comic relief characters" with annoying voices. And the "moving gauge" got really annoying, as you could very easily get totally screwed. Some attacks/spells have the gauge move so rapidly and RANDOMLY you couldn't even "play it safe"---you could "fail" 4 times in a row and have the entire round wasted with .0001% power attacks and healing by completely missing the entire band by .0001 secons. And damage seemed very random/cheap----I checked, and some characters just kept dying, even with stats the same as everyone else's--they just kept getting hit 20 times in a row, every time you revived them. It just was long and slow. Liked the music. But not the boss music. That sure got annoying after the 450th time you've heard the refrain.
eugimon Posted August 15, 2007 Posted August 15, 2007 http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/15/hdmi-eq...rry-90nm-chips/ Here's an article confirming the latest bunch of HDMI enabled Premium boxes are still on the zephyr chipset. I guess I'm still going to be waiting.
CoryHolmes Posted August 16, 2007 Posted August 16, 2007 And I despise "cute comic relief characters" with annoying voices. The only decent comic relief character is HK-47, and that's because he's a bloodthirsty and sociopathic droid who truely loathes the Meatbags he's forced to associate with
David Hingtgen Posted August 16, 2007 Posted August 16, 2007 Yup, he's about the only comic relief I've ever liked. HK-47 rocks. Blue Dragon has everything I hate about NPC's (or movie characters, like say, Jar-Jar) all rolled into one of them.
mikeszekely Posted August 16, 2007 Posted August 16, 2007 The only decent comic relief character is HK-47, and that's because he's a bloodthirsty and sociopathic droid who truely loathes the Meatbags he's forced to associate with Are we only talking console games? I kinda liked Minsc in the Baldur's Gate games.
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