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Woot! played 360 today- impressions inside!

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I've played it too yesterday but since it's a bit overkill to post a new topic about it I'll just post it here.

 

I've posted this article on Moz La Punk but since I feel its a bit too much of a marketing sceme to direct you to it, I'll copy and paste it here:

 

Xbox 360 Playtest

By Moz La Punk, head editor

 

Before we kick off our Xbox 360 preview week on the 14th of this month, we have hands on impressions on Microsoft’s new console right now. We walked in, were shocked about the quality of the graphics (and the televisions for that matter) and came away more impressed than ever.

 

How difficult is it to play a first person shooter when you’re high on cannabis? Not that difficult, in yours truly opinion. But when the game is as realistic as Call Of Duty 2, it’s an entirely different story.

 

See, yours truly wasn’t even planning on playing the Xbox 360. Because if he knew it was going to happen, he would’ve stayed sober for the event. Alias, he had to make do with the sense he still had left, but thankfully, every detail was reminded by his brains.

 

Xbox 360 then, is something special. If you remember Epic’s Marc Rein’s comment on the IGN roundtable some time ago, where he said that the major selling point of next generation would be graphics, he wasn’t lying you know. He really made a good point. You can say you prefer gameplay over graphics as much as you want. We sure know we do. But that still doesn’t make you quite ready for the graphical splendour of the Xbox 360. Groups of people stand around it in awe, talking to each other.

 

“Wow, it’s just like a movie.â€

 

“Oh my God when does this thing goes into sale? I’m getting one.â€

 

“I need a HDTV!â€

 

Needless to say, people were walking into the local electronics store early in the morning and they still didn’t left at the end of the day. Even I was guilty of being enormously impressed by the graphics, and that is saying something. It’s as big of a shock as if I was saying ‘meh, I don’t want the new Zelda game.’ Which would never happen of course, but here I am, telling you I’m going insane when I’m thinking of 360’s graphics. Does it have anything to do with the fact that it was projected on a HDTV? A bit, probably. For those that don’t know, the Xbox 360 makes good use of the new standard in plasma TV’s, HDTV. Instead of the usual, blurry-like graphics your normal TV projects, the sharpness the new HDTV projects is uncanny, even more so than your new PC screen. The technique is still expensive, unfortunately, but it does really help to make the experience that more satisfying.

 

But the Xbox 360 holds it’s own when it comes to graphics, probably even without that expensive HDTV television set. Good proof of this is Call Of Duty 2, or CoD2 as we will refer to it now. It’s a first person shooter set in the Second World War and it takes you to a wide variety of different locations. In the demo, you start in a desert-like landscape in army car. A whole troupe is riding towards a middle east-like city. You can only look around, see your soldiers talking and shoot a bit around. All around you airplanes fly, explode, and you reach the city. Whole walls and towers are getting shot to pieces. It’s cliché to say but it just feels like a movie. Believe me, it was not the influence of some outside source that got me ‘in’ the game. It was the game itself. You get out of the vehicle and you instantly get into a fight with the ground troupes. They take cover, and so should you, because when you simply run to them you get shot to pieces.

 

It’s difficult to explain the realistic experience that follows. It’s like you’re playing one of those shooter games with a light gun as far as graphics go, since those games were always great lookers because you didn’t have complete freedom. But in CoD2, you do have complete freedom, and in turn it feels so overwhelming. But it’s a good thing. When you stop playing it, it’s like you really experienced something instead of playing just another game.

 

Kameo: Elements Of Power is Rare’s big gun together with Perfect Dark Zero. Kameo is a platform/adventure game with heavy action elements. You can change into different characters with their own fighting abilities. The demo starts with a glorious intro scene. It seamlessly changes into the first level you’re going to play. The camera flies over a castle in the middle of a war, almost Lord Of The Rings-esque. When you take control, you’ll have to get used to it. Kameo definitely isn’t a game that’s suited well to play in a store with tons of people gazing at the screen behind you. It’s a game you have to get in to. The different characters seem to be the game’s selling point, and I can understand why. It really keeps things varied because they differ so much in how they control and what they can do. Graphics wise, it all looks next gen like it should, not only in sheer quality but also the number of things going on at once.

 

Another game we played was King Kong, and what a difference it makes to play it on the 360. You fight with King Kong against a T-Rex, yes, the dinosaur, and they are portrayed so large on the screen that it really feels like a massive fight. It’s like a wrestling game of two giants. Definitely beautiful and definitely fun to play. Of course, it’s not the only thing the game consists of. You’ll have plenty of first person elements too when you play as a human being.

 

The controller of the Xbox 360 is perfectly balanced, perfectly shaped and a great looker. People were even gasping at the controller. It has a shiny white but when you have it in your hands, it doesn’t feel hard or slippery at all. While the current Xbox controller is hard and cold, this new one feels rubbery. At least in our hands it fitted perfectly. The buttons have a nice click feeling to it and in all respects it’s better than this gen’s Xbox controller.

 

One thing that should be noted is that we don’t know yet how the games will be when the graphical splendour has worn out. Like it always goes with a new generation, your eyes adapt to the graphics eventually and if there isn’t great gameplay underneath it, the game will fail. Of course, an evening at a local store won’t prove if the gameplay is good enough. For that, you’ll have to wait to read our opinion, or test if for yourself when you pick up the new console.

 

So, there you have it, we played with the Xbox 360 and we came away amazed. It made us even more hyped for Microsoft’s new console, even more so than we were. Expect the Xbox Preview Week to start from the 14th this month. Be here or be square, daddy-o.

 

-Moz La Punk, head editor

 

 

From: http://mozlapunk.web-log.nl/log/4020994

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Nice Moz. However, CoD2 (which is exactly the same as the PC version bar an AI upgrade) doesn't give you any freedom at all. I've played and finished it and theres only 3 points in the entire game where it asks you which way you want to go first.

 

Plus, I hope the AI is a damn site better. I played it on max difficulty and it was still very predictable.

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Well, it might just be the graphics that pulled a fake on me, but I thought the A.I was very decent.

 

About the freedom, I believe you in that department, I didn't notice any chance to get off the 'rails'. I didn't really mind, I hope Perfect Dark Zero will give me more in the freedom department.

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I'm wanting to go to that today, but I can't find anyone to go with :( Might be able to go tomorrow... What did you think of the controller?

Also, how much was it to get in?

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free to get in, controller was awsome, just got by ureself lol!

 

I might have to do that tomorrow. I'll be seeing people tonight, so hopefully I'll be able to entice a couple to go with me. :)

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