The Semi-Official 360 Thread

Cool... I was going to start this thread. I really want to hear some impressions.

I could give a crap about the system. I've seen the system.. I've yet to hear any real reviews for the Games... other than about 2 reviews on G4tv.


Anyone with some actual reviews for the games would be great. I'm particularly curious about DOA4 and Perfect Dark Zero.

thanks..


but of course you linked to a page that has reviews for neither DOA4 or Perfect Dark Zero.


Quake 4 sounds good.

Played the new Need for Speed last night at a friend's place. Was absolutly blown away--the graphics were gorgeous, and I'm in love with the controller. A fun little extra is the downloadable arcade games, especially Geomotry Wars--a fun acid trip of a game if there ever was one.

Color me impressed. I haven't played any of the other titles, but what I saw last night made me wish I had one.

Got mine on Saturday, and I love it. Not an MS whore, by the way. I haven't had a single game crash, no problem transferring my GamerTag, not a single complaint, so maybe I lucked out.

PD0 is really an awesome game. The trick is reminding people that it isn't Halo, it is just another really solid FPS. The 4 missions and hours of Multiplayer vs. Bots has re-affirmed my opinion that PD0 is THE launch game to have.

Kameo looks good, but the gameplay kinda sucks, and gets old real quick. It is just a normal game, nothing special besides graphics.

Condemned is also a great game. Scary as hell, and a lot of fun. In most reviews it mentions the mystery solving experience as 'boring' and it is, but it doesn't tak away from the game.

The whole Live setup is wonderful. The leaderboard feature as well as the marketplace are great. I hooked up my Ipod and PSP, which was very easy, and after downloading a patch, all the AAC files will play.

I hope most of you that are interested have HD, because the difference is night and day.

I agree that the system NEEDS HD. Call of Duty is astonishing looking (and a blast to play) in 1080i. I'm not sure if the game itself is in 1080i, but my TV is. Regardless, I've spent maybe 5 minutes dicking around in PGR, which didn't grab me quite like Burnout has, but I have to really get into it still.

Now, COD...THAT is a game. The only FPS I've played in the last 5 years is the Halo series, so I've forgotten just how much variety is out there. The second level, where you assault the building the Germans are holding (before the counter-attack) is heaven. I love this game.

So far, so good. I still need to link my gamertag up to the Xbox Live website, but my gamertag is WadeGarrett4eva, and I look forward to sniping the shit out of unassuming 17 year olds with the rest of you chewers.

My one criticism: The Wireless controller tends to lose its connection. I'm thinking it HAS to be a hardware error with my controller, as opposed to a flaw that reaches all systems.

I also really need to get Geometry Wars, but I don't want to give Xbox Live my credit card, which means buying those stupid cards at Best Buy.

I've also picked up Madden and PDZ, but I think the family wants to give those to me for Christmas, and since I'm still working through Guitar Hero....I can probably wait.

So... which one will you be bringing to the screen first?

He'll just keep Kristanna Loken in her red wig as Joanna Dark. Maybe he'll even use cut scenes from Bloodrayne and just digitally insert a gun into her hand and put her into video clips from the game.

After spending some more time with PD Zero, I think I can safely say that it's awesome. I'm only a few missions into the single player, but I've already shot up a disco and sniped baddies from Hong Kong rooftops, all to the tune of a surprisingly good soundtrack. The weapons thus far are all updates of the original PD arsenal, although virtually all of them can now zoom in on a target. The game nods to Halo with a weapon inventory system that limits the amount of firepower you can lug around. You get four gun slots; heavy weaponry like assault rifles and shotguns take two slots and pistols take one, etc etc. You get to choose which gats you're taking on a mission from your arsenal before a mission begins, and you "unlock" additional guns for the arsenal by finishing a level with them. Thusly, let's say, if I finish level 2 with a newly-acquired FAL pistol equipped, it'll show up in my arsenal as I gear up for level 3. Kinda cool.

Overall, the game really feels like Goldeneye by way of BALCO. The graphics, interface and bells and whistles add undeniable next-gen flavor, but underneath it's the same FPS Rare has always made. There are some neat little innovations here and there such as the evasive dive roll manuever (for which the camera jumps out to third person and then smoothy slides back), but the game is distinctly old-school N64 with a somewhat-sluggish pace and enemies that can take a serious licking before going down. I think white-knuckle PC FPS devotees aren't going to be satisfied with PD Zero while people like me who burned countless hours with friends playing split screen deathmatches on N64 are going to eat it up.

I haven't gotten into the multiplayer much aside from playing a few bot matches, which were an absolute blast.

The game is the goods.

Man, now I wanna play PDZ. The original Perfect Dark is still one of my favorite multi-player games of all time (granted, that's probably because it was so good relative to the games that were out concurrently with it).

Here's a stupid question: My system (a core) has a white cd tray. All the pictures I've seen of the system have silver cd trays. Is this because I bought a core system or something?

Yeah, LD, only the premium packs get the chrome plated DVD tray.

That should be the pull-quote on the front of the box.

I'm glad to see that I wasn't the only one to enjoy PD. I used to play the shit out of that game in college, and its great to play basically the same game on the 360.

As for the controller concerns, I haven't had any problems. I thought maybe it would interfere with my wireless internet, but it hasn't.

For you COD fans, I was looking at picking up Quake or COD for the holiday weekend with my brother-in-laws, and since we would fight all weekend, I have put a strict ban on competitive play. Does COD feature 4 Player vs. Bots?

As soon as I finish editing Tetris starring Tim Curry, I would like to adapt Connect Four. I will wait for people to love these new games before I wipe my ass with the IP.

Man, that really craps on my day. I was hoping that PTA would get to direct his Connect Four script where it was revealed that Connect Four and Boggle have been doing battle since the dawn of man, and are in large part responsible for our evolution.

Also, has anyone bought a faceplate? If so, why? Not that it's a particularly good looking system out of the box, mind you.

I played the first solo level of Perfect Dark Zero. It's worth noting that it looks GREAT on even a standard TV. You don't NEED HD to experience next-gen, although I guess it doesn't hurt.

The game itself is fun, but again, I've only played the first training level.

Users report Xbox 360 “crashing like mad.”

http://www.engadget.com/entry/123400...9364/#comments




http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=391764

Here is my 360 set up at home. After playing this on an hdtv, I don't think i can go back to my dorm and play on my shitty 19in. When i set it up on the HD i forgot to turn on the hdtv switch on the AV cables, so i played for like 3 hours thinking it was hd and going "oooooooooooooooooo", but then when i found the switch I was like "OH SHIT", the difference is incredible.

That in-car photo looks incredible.

wow.. its good to know that phone books are good for something.

supporting an xbox360.

People are mentioning the good, so I'll bring up some of the bad. I love the console, but there are sticking points.


-It's painfully bigger than the Xbox1. Okay okay, the console alone is a nicer design and slightly smaller alone, but the unity of effect between it and the power adapter and the huge freakin' cords make it seem like a monster. This thing's power cable dwarfs my PC one.

-Between how warm the system gets (it doesn't get "hot" exactly, but very warm, yes), and the disturbing little rattle the tray makes when it slides out, you get a sense that it's just waiting to die on you. I don't think it *will* exactly, and I certainly remember the PS2's vertical position tray sounding the same way, it's just the impression it gives off.

-The rechargable battery pack. An otherwise good feature (the controller shuts down when not used for a while, to conserve power) results in a lot of "Please reconnect your controller" screens when you're downloading. I'm not sure how many times I had to power back up the controller while reinstalling my Halo 2 maps.

-You know how it says it's a 20gig HDD? When you load it up, it says there's only 11 gigs free.


That's about all I can think of at the moment.

I thought the same thing.

Regarding crashing, it's happened to me twice. Both times when I tried to do an insta-Live login from the little pop-up screen the Guide Button brings up while in game. It would fail connect for some reason, and then the dashboard would freeze up on me forcing a reboot. I could see the game running fine in the background, however.

I keep hearing about the power cord. Just how big is it? I'm going to see if I can find a picture online. I mean, it's an adaptor and a cord, right?

Ever seen any old John Holmes movies? It's like that.

Here's the brick from the dev kits. I'm assuming it's still the same size, yes?

That looks about right. I think mine says '16v' on the brick. It is the biggest power thingy I have ever seen.

Right, that's it.

The cord going from the power adapter to the wall outlet is double the size of your standard PC power cord.

The cord going from the power adapter to the 360 itself is like quadruple.

Hmmm....that's a serious power cord.

Yeah, with Google, this is the only use i can find for a phone book. I just remembering hearing horror stories about people putting their consoles on the carpet and the console dying out. Since the PS1, I have always put it on top of a phone book.

The PS1 only crapped out because the carpet clogged the vents. Keep the vents clear and you should be fine.

Mine's running flawlessly thus far, but I haven't messed with Live yet. I also had a launch XBox, and the only game it ever crashed on was Morrowind, which I think had more to do with the game than the system.

Perfect Dark Zero is a fantastic game. More on that later.

Look for my Live Gamer Tag, IroquoisWolf.

MicroSoft has multiple support articles on 360 crashing/freezing issues. One was written as early as Oct 25th, so they definitely already knew of the problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817385/
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;818358
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907588
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907536/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907533/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907534/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906652/

And then you have:


suckers

Same deal. PDZ runs and looks great. The console is a bit loud, but the game drowns it out right away.

What's your Live tag Jacob?

The URL and the link to your tag is different for some reason. Under your little blurb it should say Gamer Profile Link. Here's mine.

http://live.xbox.com/member/IroquoisWolf

Ive put about 9 hours on my 360 playing Need for Speed: Most Wanted. The game is amazing. So far, i have crashed 4 times. Im wondering if it is worth reporting considering i have sent off the warranty already. Also, yesterday after having trouble with overheating/freezes (and being the genious that i am) i decided to turn the console from its verticle position and lay it on its side, to see if that would have any effect on the heating issues. the game was running and and is now scratched to hell. not exactly a brilliant move on my part, but should a console permanently scratch a CD like that?

Where did you put the power supply? I read it causes the overheating issue for some people.

Disc scratching is also a reported problem of malfunctioning systems. I don't know if it applies in your case, being unaware of how the mechanics of the drive work when it's playing in the vertical position, but maybe it would be a good idea to have it looked at. I believe the number is 1-800-4MY-XBOX, and they send you a prepaid box for shipping. Turnaround time for the return of the fixed system or a replacement is about five days business days.

hey thanks for the tip, ill definitely give it a try. i really dont wanna shell out another $60 for this game. remember kids not to switch positions of the xbox while there is a game inside.

I've yet to have a single problem with my unit, for which I am very thankfull.

GamerCard: http://live.xbox.com/member/malliabu

No problems here *knocks on wood*

Picked mine up on launch day plugged it in at 8:30 am and it didn't get shut off, not even once, until we finished playing at 1:30 am.


Call of Duty 2 blew me away. I didn't play the first one because it got lost in all the WW2 games released at the same time and I probably thought I had already played it. Passed the game on Thursday andl ook forward to playing it again. Live CoD is a blast though.

I'm 4 missions into Perfect Dark right now and I'm totally digging it. It more or less plays exactly how I remember and expected it to play. I still gotta give this game a whole lot more time though. The little I've played of it on Live has been good fun.

Project....Gotham....Racing....3. I blow at racing games but I'm so glad I picked this one up. I usually get caught up in the beauty of this game that it hinders my driving so Gotham TV is a great addition. As well as that awesome photo mode.

Barely even touched Kameo yet. Looks great though.

I grabbed Geometry Wars, Joust and Bankshot Billiards off the arcade and I'm having a grand ole time with all of `em. Geometry Wars is like crack....on an acid trip.

I'm very grateful for my new toy.

I'll add the both of you... After I figure out the huge amount of media that comes with this console.

Got my Gamertag set up today as jmgist. I expect some CHUD PD0 shenanigans to occur in the near future.

You're so added.