UnforgivingEdges

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.

Also, new thing: Silver users (that is, free subscription) now have to wait a week or demos, whereas gold users (that is, paid subscribers) get access to demos immediately. Honestly, $50 a year isn't that much money in the long run, and it's worth it because the 360 is built for online play. Call of Duty 4 is only half as good without online multiplayer; same goes for Gears of War, Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom, and almost every game in the system's library. It is shitty to have to pay for online play, but the quality and diversity of the service is worth the money IMO.

I just beat the game the other day, too. I really liked it. It's on a portable, so there are some limitations, and it doesn't play very deep or complex, but it's a nicely built game. For the first time since SH3, I felt that familiar sense of "hey, I am uncomfortable, this is Silent Hill. I know this place, it makes me uneasy, but I want to keep going and exploring." Some great level environments, too. I was very impressed that the chill and scare factor was present when I played with headphones in the dark; kudos to Climax. Overall, it's not the best SH game, but it's a nifty little time killer with some nice touches. My favorite moment in the entire game was I don't think you can be disappointed if you're a SH fan, especially considering the game was in the hands of a development team halfway around the world with no previous SH experience.

I do not. It's just a great forum.

Premiere gaming forums on the internet. It's not just general users there; devs and industry media post there as well.

The most accurate sales numbers come from NPD (NA, monthly) and Media Create (Japan, weekly). Basically, Bahamut nailed it with his explanation. VGchartz numbers are widely considered to be unreliable in professional (media and business) circles.

The numbers on that site go beyond inaccurate. It's not a credible source by any means. Also, this is news to some people?

Mass Effect. There can be no question. Game of the fucking year.

You and me both. The game compels you to keep playing no matter what the cost.

I would say that the most technically ambitious game this year is Assassin's Creed, but after popping in Mass Effect for the first time tonight, without a doubt BioWare has succeeded in revolutionizing the RPG as a genre. The voice acting is FUCKING INCREDIBLE. The conversation wheel gives some sort of depth behind NPC dialogue, and the combat system is almost ripped straight out of a third-person shooter. Mass Effect is doing some amazing things to break RPG convention, and for that I am truly thankful as the genre has not evolved very much since it began compared to other genres.

Lonely Soul by Unkle

You can. Run far enough and the alert eventually disappears.

I kind of like that. AC reminds me of MGS in that regard: it's a serious game with a wry sense of humor (like after the first assassination when you read Lucy's email).

There's no feeling quite like planning your assassination on your target and then pulling off without a hitch. No game I have ever played has made me feel like such a badass, be it killing ordinary guards stealthily or taking out the main targets, which have lot of complex stuff happening.