UnforgivingEdges

Or you could, you know, save some money an buy a system that has your favorite franchises on it.

The important part about this is that they don't care. Their biggest marketing push this year will be or Wii Fit. Nintendo is perfectly happy to rake in billions of dollars on the backs of soccer moms and casual gamers around the world, knowing that their loyal followers will chase after their coattails like loyal puppies. Nintendo will be the next, more elaborate PopCap.

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Kim Swift at Valve who was lead developer on Portal Kellee Santiago from thatgamecompany who was lead designer on flOw Jade Raymond, Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft Montreal The producer of the Phoenix Wright series is a woman The CEO of Blueside, korean developers of the Kingdom Under Fire series, is also a woman

The difference between 720p and 1080p at 32/37 inches isn't noticeable unless you're playing with your nose against the screen.

The demo doesn't do a good job because it tosses you into a mission without context or help. The full game does a much better job of acclimating you to the controls and bringing you up to speed slowly.

It makes me smile seeing all the Sylpheed love. I felt like I was the only one who bought it when it came out LAST SUMMER, and nobody else was raving about it besides me. It's a great game. Also, once you beat the game, you can go back and replay it with all of your upgraded weapons unlocked. This is how you can achieve some of the tough bonus objectives on the early levels and get medals for those missions (which unlocks achievements).

Go with the pro for the HDD if you can. Unless you think you'll be downloading lots of movies or buying lots of Xbox Originals games from the XBL marketplace, 20 GB should be enough for gaming. I usually hover somewhere between 11 and 7 GB available at any time depending on how many demos I have downloaded. It's also always cheaper to buy the Pro than to buy the Arcade and buy a separate HDD. Necrotic, your dad sounds like he rocks.

I would like to assume that people's game systems are within 3 feet of their television. The component cables that come with the 360 are about that long.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Unless your TV and 360 are hooked together across different rooms of the house, 1080p through component or HDMI is virtually indistinguishable., especially if your TV isn't larger than 50 inches.

Excellent. You'll thank me when all is said and done. One of the best games on the system, IMO.

But a lot of Xbox 360 games don't support 1080p, and unless you have a monstrous TV, then is the minute difference in picture quality really worth mentioning?

If by too advanced and too hard you mean too awesome, then yes. It's a very nicely put together space combat flight game. The controls take some getting used to, but if you've ever played video games before, you should come to terms with them in less than an hour. It's got a great soundtrack, awesome CG cutscenes, and some very beautiful settings. Game was one of my top 5 favorite 360 games from last year. So great. Who are these heathens? Lost Odyssey is probably the most finely-tuned old school JRPG I've ever played. It's production values harken back to the PS1 era Final Fantasies. It's got awesome music and a great story. Must buy if you like RPGs at all. It is, but the rest of the game is meh. Not bad per se, ust kind of bland. No way in hell should you be buying this before Lost Odyssey or Mass Effect. If you can find Overlord, you should give that a try (download the demo if you can). It's like some weird mix between Fable and Pikmin. I also suggest Earth Defense Force 2017, and I know you can find that cheap. Game is fun in its more pure, raw form. One of my beloved 360 games.

All 360 models come with HD cables (component). The PS3 does not. In order of importance to buy: Mass Effect Lost Odyssey Rez HD (XBLA) The Orange Box Gears of War BioShock Earth Defense Force 2017 Project Sylpheed Rock Band Assassin's Creed Condemned: Criminal Origins That should be plenty of gaming for you, and I'm ignoring some titles that a lot of people enjoyed that I either haven't played or liked, but not enough to buy them (Dead Rising comes to mind). But Mass Effect is the best game I have ever played, Lost Odyssey is so good, and many of the other games I listed should satisfy any desire you have to play that particular genre. Then there's the Xbox Live Arcade, and I could make another list full of awesome games about the same size, but I would suggest once you buy the system you connect to the inetrnet and look through the XBLA library and give the fee demos a try to decide what you like.

Excellent, another convert. For that boss, use Seth and Kaim to heal Jansen, and have Jansen spam flare over and over again. Boss is weak to fire.

Once the game world opens up on disc 4, you can go back and get the dreams you missed.

Excellent. Nintendo finally catches up to next-gen.

And, uh, you know, CRACKDOWN.

I think I know what part you're talking about. That killed me, too. The second disc has been so far much happier.

Blue Dragon can be championed; the game has sold 200,000 copies in Japan. That's almost 45% of the entire Xbox 360 userbase in the entire country. That's absurd.

When Mistwaler/Sakaguchi announced they were developing for the 360, their goal was to do two games: one for the Japanese market and one for the American market. Blue Dragon was for Japan, and Lost Odyssey was for North America. You can even tell in their ad campaigns: Blue Dragon got little advertising in the US, but in japan they advertised it a bunch (and it consequently became japan's best-selling 360 game). It was the opposite for Lost Odyssey, and they even went so far as to animate the mouth movements in LO for the American dub. That said, Lost Odyssey is not a beginner's RPG by any stretch of the imagination, nor was it targeted at "non-RPG gamers." In fact, it's very challenging; I've already gotten game over on several occasions already.

I'm 13 hours in on the second disc. I stand by my previous comments.

Game is all kinds of incredible.

Here are my thoughts: -The best JRPG I have played in a long LONG time. It does nothing new but does everything well and with a great level of polish -Graphics are a mixed bag; sometimes it looks great, sometimes it looks meh -Voice acting is also mixed: most of the characters are average to good, some are horrible, and a few are absolutely great (Kaim in particular) -The story, oh the story. Never have I played such an emotionally powerful video game in my life. The only other time I've ever experienced the feeling of having my heart ripped out was the In Water ending of Silent Hill 2, but I'm not even off the first disc of LO yet and there have already been several instances where I wanted to just cry because you feel so goddamn bad for Kaim, who by the way is the most interesting and dynamic protagonist in an RPG EVER. I can't even begin to describe it without going into a huge long-winded rant that wouldn't make any sense anyway if you haven't played the game. I'll just put it succinctly: the game's plot is merely above average so far in terms of originality and delivery and whatnot, but Kaim's story, which is woven into the context of the game via cutscenes and A Thousand Years of Dreams (short novellas accompanied by sound effects and music) is utterly masterful. It is a true achievement in storytelling for the medium; just be warned, this game is sad sad sad. A more powerful pathos in video game characterization I never did see. It IS that good, albeit highly depressing. -Gameplay is super challenging; weaksauce RPG lovers need not apply. Battle system is good, incorporating elements of the Shadow Hearts timing system (which makes sense given that Feelplus hired 40 ex-Shadow Hearts staffers) -Atmospherically, it's also a stud. This is my favorite work of Uematsu in his entire career. There's a very diverse range of sweeping orchestral stuff along with disheartened sad solo piano tracks and a lot of creative things in between. It doesn't sound very Final Fantasy-ish most of the time, which is nice because it gives the game its own distinct flavor. The battle theme is also quite good. Do not miss it, do not wait. This is a stellar, old-school RPG that reminds me a lot of the Shadow Hearts games, FF12, and the PS1 era Final Fantasies. EDIT- Added some links Opening cinema http://www.gametrailers.com/player/26385.html Battle themes http://youtube.com/watch?v=eM-CZvEdKu4 Map theme (one of my favorites) http://youtube.com/watch?v=qFOsFLjBP94 Ipsilon Mountains (love the guitars in this one) http://youtube.com/watch?v=28lntoikGwo&feature=related Uhra theme (first town in the game) http://youtube.com/watch?v=SECXS0Spf0o Some of the morose piano scores http://youtube.com/watch?v=_houGS-K0PA http://youtube.com/watch?v=eu3bbpZmMA4&feature=related God, just hearing these again, being only 10 hours into the game, already fills me with nostalgia. Lost Odyssey is powerful stuff.