Topic: So I borrowed a 360 from a friend this week..

[ShyGuy]

A buddy was going out of town this week and he was kind enough to let me borrow his 360 while he is away. I was a little apprehensive about borrowing the system for fear of it dying with the red circle of death that I hear so much about.
I've tried the 360 at demo stations, but I could finally get a better feel for the system at home to see if I wanted to go the Wii60 route. Anyways, I hooked the 360 up to a TV running at 480p and got on Xboxlive.

First, the games. He had 3 games for the system so far: Oblivion, Burnout, and PGR.

Oblivion I have already played on the PC and wasn't impressed with the game. Maybe if I spent a few more hours playing it would get interesting.
Burnout is as fun as always, the graphics look nice. I'm not a big fan of racing games, but I liked Burnout. Overall, not a much different experience than playing it on the original xbox.
Project Gotham Racing Haven't tried it yet.

Wanting to get a better taste of what the 360 offered I downloaded some demos off of the Live Marketplace (btw, these things are big! the demos ranged from 400 to 1gb in size. Makes me wonder if the 512 storage is nearly enough on the Wii...)
Kameo Meh, it's pretty but average. Reminds me of StarFox adventures.
Call of Duty 2 I don't like fps on consoles, but this was decent, in a WW2-shooter-I've-played-a-dozen-times-already kind of way.
Tomb Raider Legend It was good, played very similar to the original Tomb Raider. Not a game I would pay full price for on any platform though.
Rumble Roses Crap. bad controls, stiff animations, confusing menu system.
Perfect Dark Zero Ugh. stiff controls, and the graphics were very plain. COD2 is the better FPS on the 360.
Condemned Now this game I like! great atmosphere and graphics. I may get this for the PC.
Geometry Wars Fun asteroids clone, one of the better games I tried on the 360.

PROS:
You can turn the console on and off with the controller.
The Blade interface was cool for a GUI junky like me.

CONS:
Price. Between the premium console, an extra controller, 3 games and a charging unit, my buddy sunk about $650 into this game console. ouch!
Lack of games I want to play. 80% of the lineup seems to be FPS, racing or sports games.

I may check it out again after some games I want to try come out, such as Dead Rising, Bioshock, and Alan Wake. Until then it will probably be Wii only for me.

[Smash_Brother]

Gears of War looked pretty good, but after seeing Prey in action, I changed my mind about whether or not it would be worth playing.

It went from looking very cool to being an iffy FPS.

[ShyGuy]

I've played through the prey demo on the PC, the graphics are amazing and there are some clever game play elements (such as changing gravity) but the alien enviroments were unpleasant and got old for me.

[please let me in, please]

you think preys worth a purchase? The one player does not matter to me, i am really more interested with online play. Is it easy to control? Are there multiple fun and cool abilities and guns? Enemy AI smart? In other words, think it would be worth a purchase? I have seen many reviews for it, but i dont trust them that often.

[ShyGuy]

I wouldn't pay full price for it based on my playthrough of the PC Demo. I have not played multiplayer so I can't comment on that.

There are some cool things in the demo, you have a pipe wrench for a melee weapon, an alien bio rifle that can zoom in, and a gun that shoots either hot or cold, depending what spaceship orifice you reload it at.

About halfway through the demo you also get a spirit ability and then you can leave your body and fire a bow and arrow. It made for some clever puzzles.

There are also sensors you shoot to change the gravity (ceiling becomes floor, etc) and portals to hop through.

One cool bit had you go through a portal and then you were shrunk down on a mini planet in glass case in the room.

Keep in mind the game is very demanding. I first tried it on an Athlon64 3000+ with 1gb RAM and GF6600 Video card and it ran slow. I then played it through on a Athlon64 FX55 and an ATI X1900 and it was smooth with the settings maxed.

But back to the 360, anyone else have opinions on it so far?

[bustin98]

I just wanted to throw in a reason why the demos could be so large: high def textures. Since the Wii doesn't have that, I'm sure demos for it will be fine. Thankfully you do have the option to increase how much storage space you have on the Wii.

[capamerica]

I own a 360 and I pretty much agree with most of your comments on the games. Thou I loved Tomb Raider Legend and actually went out and bought it. At first I was iffy with the game since I hated all the other Tomb Raider games but that Demo really changed my mind. And I didn't mind Perfect Dark Zero all that much, The single player mode kind of sucked but the multiplayer mode was a blast and was well worth the $35 I paid for it. Condemned is a really good game, It kind of opens in to a untaped area in game, its not as much of a horror game as it is a suspense thriller.

The Library is still very lacking, I feel MS really missed out on establishing a large library with the year head start they got. I was really hoping that by now I would have a lot more games to play.

DoA4 is a really fun game, there isn't a demo but you should be able to rent it. The AI is brutal so its very hard.

Dead Rising looks really sweet, I can't wait for it to come out.

as for the Demo download, the fact that the demos range from 400MB to 1GB+ make me feel that CD based games won't be a strech for the Virtual Console on the Wii. I just hope Nintendo ups the Flash Memory to at least 1GB or pushes 1GB+ Memory cards that can store your Virtual Console games and Demos.

[blackfootsteps]

RE Prey: I downloaded the Prey demo on 360 today, decent length single and multi. The single player looks interesting with the wall-walking and fresh use of portals. However it fells pretty same-y, reminds me heavily of Geist, especially the 'spirit walking'.

The multiplayer is horrendous. I don't know if it just 360 but the lag is unbearable. It got to the point where I could not move at all! The game is out very soon and I wonder if this will be fixed or patched later like Call of Duty. EDIT: The multi reminds me of Quake 3.


RE 360 in general: There aren't that many A rated games i think, however I finished Oblivion this week and it was 90 hours that I loved greatly.

GRAW is an amazing experience and despite not being much of an FPS fan I find myself playing online quite regularly. It must be said however that unless you join a friend's game the waiting to get into a game can be a pain thanks to a pathetic search system. EG it says that there are 10/16 in a room however it doesn't include guests so when you try to join you cant and what's more your room list is reset, forcing a second search.

PDZ was a nostalgia purchase for me, even though I knew it would probably be disappointing. And guess what? It is. Boring single player, passable multi. Skip it unless you get it cheap.

Table Tennis and Fight Night are good distractions and are great with people around.

I must say I've enjoyed my 360 but once the Wii comes out it will inevitably take a backseat as I'm just not that into FPS and Racing games. However, bring on Mass Effect!


 

[Bill Aurion]

The only game I love for my 360 is Oblivion...Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo were utter disappointments...

I have a slight interest in Ninety Nine Nights and I really hope Namco's Trusty Bell is localized, but that's really all I have on the forecast for now...

[Nephilim]

Great reviews, love how the people who replied just said oblivion rules and seems like they havnt tried any other games, bored of this "lacking" attitude, there are 20+ games, heck the person who made this thread listed 5 odd

Great:
Fightnight (Amazing effects, fun multi)
burnout (great game, very samey but new look makes it feel refreshed)
COD2 (great game for single or multi)
BF2 (awsome single player, game feels great since i never touched the xbox orginal since it looked awful)

ok:
PGR (burnout looks 5times better and is more FUN)
Oblivion (dont get me started)
Condemned (Decent game, has better AI then oblivion for its first person fighting)
DOA4 (game doesnt add anything new, AI is cheap as ever, its like playing old skool mortal kombat)
Kameo (feel like a game that would of got 8/10 for n64)

sucks:
PDZ (lamest end boss ever, doesnt feel like perfect dark)
Farcry (fps port from 4years ago, game sadly feels 4years old, atleast its rare)

Prey was leaked like a week ago, most people seem to think game is ok who finished it, then again the same people said quake 4 was a great game *shivers*
*edit: and yes iv played all those games, full version at that  

[Bill Aurion]

What if you hate sports, racing, and war games like I do?

[ShyGuy]

Well Bill, do we have the game to change your mind...

Lolicon Sports-Race of War!
From the makers of Hello Kitty and Doom, comes the harrowing tale of an underage Japanese space marine girl. Play the game as she rides her tricked out sports car down the field to score points with the ball! Coordinate a win with your teammates over a barren, war-torn football field then use the prize money to upgrade your sweet ride! Watch out for the deadly lolis and mutant space monsters! Unlock Tiku Tiku mode where you can hit the soft part of the transvestitie for massive damage! Careful fighting the boss, you might get tied up and have icecream spilled all over you!

Coming soon to the xbox360, PS3, PS2, PSP and PC. Published by EA.

much love to Bill and matchoor video games!  

[Kairon]

O.M.G.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[EasyCure]

Quote
Originally posted by: DeadlyD Kameo (feel like a game that would of got 8/10 for n64)

well it was originally an n64 game so maybe thats why

[Donutt007]

Ya my Roomate has the 360 so I get to play it quite a bit. It's always been like that between me and my friends, seems all of us have at least one of the systems so I get to play them all.

Right now we've got.
DOA4 - kinda weak game, not to thrilled
Perfect Dark Zero - very let down by this game
King Kong - actually a pretty fun game
Quake 4 - pretty bad ass
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - I love this game, my fav that he's got
Condemned - Haven't really played to much, but looks interesting

Overall not the best selections of games, but hey he bought them all with the premium 360 for $500 off of a starving student, so not a bad deal.

Two games that I am looking forward to are Darkness and Dead Rising. Both look like pretty interesting games.  

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: DeadlyD
Great reviews, love how the people who replied just said oblivion rules and seems like they havnt tried any other games, bored of this "lacking" attitude, there are 20+ games, heck the person who made this thread listed 5 odd

Great:
Fightnight (Amazing effects, fun multi)
burnout (great game, very samey but new look makes it feel refreshed)
COD2 (great game for single or multi)
BF2 (awsome single player, game feels great since i never touched the xbox orginal since it looked awful)

ok:
PGR (burnout looks 5times better and is more FUN)
Oblivion (dont get me started)
Condemned (Decent game, has better AI then oblivion for its first person fighting)
DOA4 (game doesnt add anything new, AI is cheap as ever, its like playing old skool mortal kombat)
Kameo (feel like a game that would of got 8/10 for n64)

sucks:
PDZ (lamest end boss ever, doesnt feel like perfect dark)
Farcry (fps port from 4years ago, game sadly feels 4years old, atleast its rare)

Prey was leaked like a week ago, most people seem to think game is ok who finished it, then again the same people said quake 4 was a great game *shivers*
*edit: and yes iv played all those games, full version at that

That list of games is why I current don't have a Xbox 360, it is sad when the vast majority of the games are multiplatform or are for PC. Out of that list, including games like GRAW, only PDZ, Kameo, DOA4, and PGR are exclusives.

[Bill Aurion]

Lolicon Sports-Race of War!
From the makers of Hello Kitty and Doom, comes the harrowing tale of an underage Japanese space marine girl. Play the game as she rides her tricked out sports car down the field to score points with the ball! Coordinate a win with your teammates over a barren, war-torn football field then use the prize money to upgrade your sweet ride! Watch out for the deadly lolis and mutant space monsters! Unlock Tiku Tiku mode where you can hit the soft part of the transvestitie for massive damage! Careful fighting the boss, you might get tied up and have icecream spilled all over you!

Okay, I guess I'd have to buy this if only for the crazy factor!  For now I'll just have to be satisfied with Loli Golf...  

[KDR_11k]

I liked the Prey demo, pretty creative stuff in there. BF2 owns but I wouldn't want to play it on a console.

[couchmonkey]

Someone was saying they're disappointed with what Microsoft has done with the one-year head start.  It seems to me that the PS2's head start was pretty much the same, but it picked up a lot at Christmas.  Maybe that won't happen with the Xbox 360, but I think the lead may come into play more when Sony and Nintendo hit their post-launch droughts and Xbox 360 has a big lineup of games from Christmas 06.

[ShyGuy]

What are the notable releases for the 360 this Christmas?

Hopefully Nintendo will stagger out it's releases, and provide plenty of action on the VC to counteract the post launch drought.

[Kairon]

All I know is that Gears of War could very well spoil the PS3 launch this fall when it launches on the exact same day.

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[couchmonkey]

Notable releases, good question.  There's Gears of War, obviously.  Bioshock was very well received at E3, don't know if it will be ready for Christmas.  There were some others, but frankly, they all kind of look the same, which has always been my problem with Xbox, and which also makes it hard to remember what they are.

[capamerica]

I went over to GameStop and looked at the list of games coming out for the Xbox360 between now and Christmas these are the games that I'm looking forward to:

-Timeshift
-Dead Rising
-Ninety-Nine Nights
-Enchanted Arms
-Blue Dragon (from the creator of Final Fantasy)
-Gears of War
-Star Trek: Legacy
-Phantasy Star Universe (FU PS2 version)
-Superman Returns
-Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball 2
-Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
-Stranglehold
-Tony Hawk's Project 8 (first real next gen Tony Hawk game. I only buy one per-gen)
-Sonic the Hedgehog
-Mass Effect


Not a bad list, January has some more good games showing up. It will be intresting to see what the PS3 line up is.
I already know Nintendo is going to have a killer line up, As it stands I think this Christmas will be Nintendo's.  

[Ymeegod]

Well minus the usually EA sport titles there's
8/8 Dead Rising
8/18 Ninety-Nine Nights
8/29 Enchanted Arms  

For 9/1 there's 2 days from vegas and Blue Dragon
Rounding out that month is Timeshift and Splinter Cell: Double Agent

Gears of wars comes out in Oct.

At least the lineup is getting better.

[Ceric]

That sounds to me as a very respectful line-up.  Considering I can't really think of a launch game for the PS3 off the top of my head right this second this bodes well for MS.  Looks like a very strong showing.  This is what there launch should of had but it still not to late to give the PS3 a good blow in it's core market.  Though none of those really cross over to the Wii launch titles domains.