Xbox 360 Console Discussion

[Caris]

First Famitsu reviews are in...

 

NFS:Most Wanted 8/9/9/8 (34/40)

FIFA 06 7/6/8/6 (27/40)

Tetris 7/7/7/6 (27/40)

Ridge Racer 6 9/8/9/9 (35/40)

Everyparty 7/5/7/5 (24/40)

Perfect Dark Zero 8/8/8/7 (31/40)

DW5 SP 7/7/8/8 (30/40)

King Kong 7/7/9/9 (32/40)

Wrestle Kingdom 8/7/8/7 (30/40)

 

It sickens me to think a magazine can ate NFSMW higher than PDZ.

[scubahood]

You have to remember that in Japan they aren't into their FPS so much. Onto the King Kong subject i played the normal xbox demo and didn't think much will give it a download on friday though as it is one of the demos available on marketplace i will probably download most wanted demo as well

[Caris]

thats if your harddrive Works ,

 

Oh yea! btw a question ove been mening to ask, can u go on Xbox live (gold) with only a memory unit?

[Caris]

Is anyone getting Faceplates for there 360? i think this will spice mine up a little.

 

Untill the limited edition Halo 3 ones proboly come out.

 

Blingness

[Jon]

Where do you get the sig things from?

 

I'm gonna use the free 30 day live trial to decide whether to buy it.

[Caris]

Someone i no made it for me.

 

imy Live renewed on the 22nd so i have a year with the 360

[Domstercool]

Most Wanted is a great fun racer ^_^ I bought it for the Xbox now instead of 360 since I won't be getting one. ¬_¬

[The3rdChildren]

You cannot have an Xbox without Xbox Live. Don't be fools, this is a NECESSARY thing.

[Stocka]

You cannot have an Xbox without Xbox Live. Don't be fools, this is a NECESSARY thing.

Yeah, I want Live SO much but the problem is my gaming TV is AGES away from my computer. House is pretty big ya see. So my only other choice other than having a cable runnig through the house (which my mum wouldn't let me) is to get a wirless adaptor...but...bu..but...£60?!?!??!?!?! Argh

 

By the way awesome sig Caris.

[Caris]

Thanks stoka, i stole the idea of yours a little haha. did you make yours your self?

[Stocka]

Nah copied each one from other people's sigs on the Gamespot forums lol, there are loads there. I'm gonig to do a new sig soon though, so keep an eye out between now -> Xmas.

[ShavenWolf]

Apparently some people who ordered off GAME's order status has changed to 'Packing' or something similar. Anybody that ordered from GAME like to check this?

[Caris]

I look forward to it ;P

[cheets]

Status:

Your order is currently being picked and packed.

 

WOOOOOOOOOT get in

[cheets]

just need to get my games from scan on friday

 

Fot those that want to know all GAMEPLAY 360 orders will be dispatched on Thursday via City Link, just found out from GP Customer Service

[ShavenWolf]

Status:

Your order is currently being picked and packed.

 

I can't WAIT til my Gameplay order says something like that!! Hold on... I'm gonna use it.... it's the..... I CAN'T FRICKIN WAIT SMILEY!

 

Fot those that want to know all GAMEPLAY 360 orders will be dispatched on Thursday via City Link, just found out from GP Customer Service

 

Where did you copy and paste that from, if you did?

[Jon]

Ah Damn, i so wish gameplay had used the royal mail special delivery, guaranteed before 1pm that is.

[Colin]

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but this xbox360 ad was banned in America.............

 

Banned 360 Advert

 

Pretty wrong really, and I can't beleive someone sat at a desk thinking up the idea of portraying videogame violence in a real life setting.

 

It's still a very good advert, but with all the media's eyes currently on videogames, I wouldn't have said it was a great idea personally.

[cheets]

I can't WAIT til my Gameplay order says something like that!! Hold on... I'm gonna use it.... it's the..... I CAN'T FRICKIN WAIT SMILEY!

 

 

 

Where did you copy and paste that from, if you did?

 

From Ocuk xbox 360 pre-order thread.

 

My gameplay order just says part-complete

 

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but this xbox360 was banned in America.............

 

Banned 360 Advert

 

Pretty wrong really, and I can't beleive someone sat at a desk thinking up the idea of portraying videogame violence in a real life setting.

 

It's still a very good advert, but with all the media's eyes currently on videogames, I wouldn't have said it was a great idea personally.

 

The ad was never banned, its never been shown on TV, people just think its been banned, it was made to generate a buzz at games conferences/lans etc. and to be passed around the internet.

[Moz La Punk]

So, first two PAL 360 reviews on my site... PGR3 and Kameo...

 

I shall post them here for thee reading pleasure, dear sirs.

 

 

http://mozlapunk.web-log.nl/log/4199373

 

Project Gotham Racing 3 (review)

Xbox 360

Bizarre Creations

European Release: December 2nd 2005

By Patrick Rijnders, freelance editor

 

There’s something magical about firing up a new console for the first time. You take it out of the box, hook it up (Smell that? That’s fresh console scent, don’t you love it?), fiddle around with the menu’s a little bit and then the time comes to put in the first game. Remember: this is the game that will color your memory of the new console forever. Play a game that doesn’t live up to your expectations, and you will be one of those misguided fanboys who rant on message boards that ‘the 360 suxxxorzz’! When it comes to games to start the life of your new console with though, you could make a far worse choice than Project Gotham Racing 3.

 

Ah, Project Gotham Racing! I can remember Metropolis Street Racing (more or less Project Gotham Racing Zero) coming out on the Dreamcast and being bowled over by this racegaming masterpiece, but being a little disappointed with the first PGR on the original Xbox. Of course, PGR 2 more than remedied this situation (as many late night sessions on Xbox Live can attest to) and now here’s PGR 3. My first impressions were that this was one of the most beautiful games I had ever seen and I could not wait to really dig into the different modes and start earning kudos. And even after a good number of hours of playing this game there is still a constant urge to keep firing up the 360 and go for another spin through Las Vegas, New York or one of the three other environments.

 

 

 

Let’s take a few steps back for the people not familiar with Project Gotham Racing. In PGR, it’s not just about racing fast and beating your opponents. It’s just as important to do it with style and earning kudos, the points you get for powersliding through corners, narrowly missing opponents and making hair racing turns that lead you just inches past the railing. With these kudos you earn medals, open up new cars and circuits and rise up through the ranks on Xbox Live.

 

The game is divided into several styles of racing. You have your standard races against a number of opponents, but also hot laps where you try to break a record lap time and other races where it is more important to show off your skills than your speed. In career mode you work your way through a succession of different events. You can choose to play through the career mode on several different skill levels, ranging from tin to platinum. Even so, the career mode is not as involving as it has been in the previous PGR’s. There are only 23 medals to win on each skill level and it won't take as much time as in previous games before you have earned every medal there is. Make no mistake though, we are still talking 10’s of hours before you finish all career modes, it’s just a bit less than we have seen in previous PGR’s.

 

It’s a good thing then that there is such a beefy online mode. You also have a career mode here, where the system finds opponents for you that are about as good (or bad) as you are. You don’t have to worry that you are trying to earn come credits and the only thing you see of your opponents is their tail lights speeding off in the distance. This is especially a good thing, since in PGR 3, everybody who is interested can watch other people’s races. This is quite a fun aspect, as you can see how the best racers in the game handle their cornering and overtaking. The best racers in the game are tracked in tables that are updated continuously, based on performance in career mode, but also in single modes like races, elimination races and capture the flag races. This last style of racing is a particularly fun addition to the game, where points are given to the racer (or team) that finishes a sector of the game in first place. These points are then added up to decide who ends up with the flag.

 

 

 

The races take place in five different environments, all broken up in many sections. These environments are London, New York, Tokyo, Las Vegas and the Nurburgring. If you are an expert at PGR, you may raise an eyebrow and wonder why there is only one new environment (Vegas) but rest assured that every location has many new parts to race through, so you don’t have to worry that déjà vu is going to set in anytime soon. Like in the previous games, the cities look amazing. Race through Las Vegas at night and feel your mouth fall open from amazement when you see all the incredible lighting effects. This is what a racing game should look like, especially now that there is finally an audience watching the races. Previous PGR’s were a bit empty and lonely without humans to watch your races, but now you have an enthusiastic audience that not only cheers you on when you win a race, but also when you ram your car into a wall right in front of them.

 

You might even feel that you have to be a little careful with the cars, since they look better than any car models before. All cars are shined up so that every light effect possible reflects off of them and it all looks so realistic that you will cringe whenever you ram another car. Don’t worry though, the cars don’t really suffer much damage, so your Konigsegg or Spyker (Dutch cars represent!) will look just as shiny at the end of the race as when you first selected it. There’s 80 different models in total, all in full, amazing detail. In my first hours of play, I rammed many a wall just because I was rotating the camera around the car while I was racing, just to see how beautiful all the cars looked. This free camera is amazing, showing off the power of the Xbox 360 in a very effective way.

 

An overabundance of modes and good looks is great, but it’s all for nothing if the racing engine sucks. No worries there. The game plays very smoothly, and you will be powersliding through corners like you have been doing it ever since you were in a pram. The car models all have their own handling, but it won’t take more than a few corners to get used to them. It’s almost a little bit too easy, which does take away a bit of the danger that racing games should have. You never run the risk of crashing spectacularly, the worst that can happen is a 180 right before the finish line, with all your opponents passing you and stealing your victory. This sense of true speed and danger is prevalent though when you switch to the magnificent in-car view. This looks great, from realistic interiors to windscreens getting more dirty as you rack up the kilometers.

 

 

 

Enough gushing, isn’t there anything really bad to mention about the game? According to several online reviewers who gave this game 10 out of 10, apparently not. And there is nothing about this game that is really wrong in any way. It’s just that, apart from a bit more true excitement to the races, I would have liked to see more different environments, and maybe also some environments we have not seen in previous PGR’s (a moot point if this is your first PGR-experience). Apart from that, this is racing at it’s finest, and at it’s most enjoyable. With all the different racing modes and the extensive online possibilities, you can expect many a sleepless night with this game. Oh well. Who needs sleep anyway.

 

Review Score: 9/10

By Patrick Rijnders, freelance editor

[Moz La Punk]

http://mozlapunk.web-log.nl/log/4233295

 

Kameo: Elements Of Power

Xbox 360

Rare

European Release: December 2nd 2005

By Patrick Rijnders, freelance editor

 

It's been quite some time, but finally we get to play Rare's new masterpiece, Kameo. Originally announced for the GameCube and then Xbox, this is a shining example of what's possible with the 360. You've probably read the comments online: it's just an extension of the regular Rare-formula, it's too short, it's unoriginal, it's graphically not that impressive... But having played this game from beginning to end in a few days time, I can tell you that none of this is true. Kameo is a wonderful gaming experience that will thrill you and move you, and that will make gamers all over the world, Rare-fan or not, realize that the old masters still know how to craft a great game.

 

Imagine if you will a world of wonder, where elves rule and where there's an uneasy peace with the trolls. It's the world where Kameo lives, a pretty little elf who just happens to be a princess, and who also just happens to be able to shift into some of the most incredible monsters you have ever seen. Which is pretty handy, since the trolls have decided to break the truce and start a full on assault on the Elf-kingdom. They are helped in this not only by troll-king Thorn, but also by Kameo's sister Kalus, who has grown sick and tired of Kameo being the favorite daughter and who decides to take matters into her own hands.

 

 

 

As the game starts, you launch a full out assault on a massive troll-castle, where Kalus and Thorn are holding your family captive. As you start, you have the power to control three monsters, each with their own abilities. With just a press of the button, the slender Kameo transforms in either one of these, and to be honest, they are better matched against the onslaught of trolls that you will find in your way.

 

There's Pummel Weed, a plant with an attitude, who is a mean boxer with an uppercut that leaves even the biggest enemies stunned. You have Major Ruin, a bit slow when he's on legs, but indispensable when he curls into a ball (Metroid Prime-style). And there is the menacing looking Chilla, a yeti who has no qualms to stick his enemies on the spikes on his back, and who is almost undefeatable. As you play through this level, you slowly learn the different moves and a bit of the background story. For the biggest part, you are left in the dark however, and real introductions only start after this impressive level.

 

Suffice to say, you are not able to save your family yet, losing all your monsters in the process, and when the real game starts you get your basic training (would have come in handy a bit earlier, say before that scene where I had ten trolls with axes running at me) and background story. You start off in the enchanted kingdom, but pretty soon you are transported to the hub world, called the Badlands. This uninhibitable place leads off to several different worlds where your missions take place. In each of these worlds one of your family members is held, and you can also find back your monsters, as well as seven other monsters who each hold their own abilities. Yeah, it's pretty standard fantasy/adventure/Rare-fare, but designed meticulously and with much flair.

 

 

 

For instance, the Badlands are definitely not your regular hub-world. The battle between the trolls and elves is raging on in full force, leading to some highly impressive visuals. If you want, you can join in on the fun and slay a few trolls together with your comrades, but if you just want to just concentrate on the main tasks, get on a horse and smash your way through the enemy hordes. The different game environments that you will find yourself in are not very original (including that old videogame staple: the snow world), but again designed so well that you shouldn't really care. After I finished the main game I kept on adventuring, just to be able to enjoy these lush environments a little bit more. At times you find yourself in levels that conjure up feelings of wonder that I have not experienced in many games before Kameo. It's not just the main graphics, but also the many little details and effects that show you what the 360 can do when handled by a team that is capable of coming up with something special. This is all enhanced even further by the music and sound effects, which are pretty amazing in their own right.

 

And Kameo is just a lot of fun to play. Your main character handles very well, and the switching between monsters is completely hassle free. It's cool to find new monsters and discover what they can do. Some of these monsters are funny (a weird contraption named Flex, for instance), but others look very impressive. Even though the Dragon Ash was not the most handy monster to use in certain occasions, I kept selecting him just because it was a blast (excuse the pun) to have him set fire to all comers. Another good thing about these monsters is the fact that you can level them up with new abilities. Although this is not very extensive (and not even really necessary because you can beat most of the game using the basic moves) it is still fun to do.

 

Working your way through the levels is never boring or irritating. Not only thanks to most of the puzzels being pretty logical, but also thanks to the Wotnot book, which not only stores your monsters, but also gives you advice whenever you are stuck. This advice, given by a wizard named Ortho, is sometimes a bit too obvious (acting almost like a walkthrough for the game), but can come in handy when you are on your way to being stuck and frustration is setting in. The game is well balanced too, letting you explore new levels a bit before you have to come into action. The same thing can be said about the boss fights, which I found to be a lot more enjoyable than most boss fights in games. It never took me more than a few tries (if that) to defeat these bosses, but they did present a pretty tough challenge. It took almost half an hour to finish off the final boss, even though I was able to defeat him on my first go.

 

 

 

Many people are worried about Kameo being such a short game, but let me put your worries to rest. I too have read the stories that you can finish this game in 8 hours, but that's a ridiculous estimate. Since I wanted to complete this game so I could write a review about it, I mostly kept to the main story missions (finishing off many of the sub-missions after completing the main game). Even so, it took me about 13 hours to reach the end. And let me tell you that if you do decide to go for the sub-missions, and if you do want to try and open up all the abilities for your monsters, you are looking at 20+ hours easily. And that is even without counting the co-op mode, where you can finish story mode again, but this time together with a buddy.

 

So all in all, Kameo is a formidable challenge. If you expect something totally new, you are going to be dissapointed, but be honest to yourself: can you expect true originality from a launch game anymore? Probably not until the Revolution launches anyway. So, if you are looking for a well made, exciting game that will make go "oooh, that's pretty" every once in a while, Kameo is a very good choice.

 

Review Score: 9/10

By Patrick Rijnders, freelance editor

[Jordan88]

As anyone here preordered from comet instore?i have it says 11 units on the reciept and they rang me the other day to see which package i wanted i chose the premium with pdz and king kong bundle for £350 so hopefully it means ive actualy got one.Any one else no anything about preorders at comet?

[Caris]

I ahte to bring this up again folks but i thought they wouldnt be many "defect" units, but on the gamespot forums (sorry cba to get a link its a sticky and easy to find tho) LOADs of people are having prolems with there Xbox's even people who ahve tried the hanging of the power brick etc.

 

So i dont no whats gonna happen, most consoles are frezzign on PDZ the most. if microsoft of doing this "box" thing ill be so anrgy. they shoudl come to your house and collect, im not paying £200+ for a debuged console and shite service.

 

I'm not in the frame of mind, not owrrys about getting a 360, but now if itll work and for how long...

 

Good luck guys...

 

EDIT: heres the link.

 

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=23998153

[Colin]

From Ocuk xbox 360 pre-order thread.

 

My gameplay order just says part-complete

 

 

 

The ad was never banned, its never been shown on TV, people just think its been banned, it was made to generate a buzz at games conferences/lans etc. and to be passed around the internet.

 

Yeah, you're right. Sorry. Everyone initially thought it was purely a TV based comercial, but now it seems apparent that it was aimed at the internet to create a "buzz" like you said.

 

Anyway, check this then, as it's kind of related to the advert. Haha. (I'm loving these new smilies, whooooop)

 

Gun Battle

[Caris]

thats FUCKING AMAZING!