Xbox 360

[DarkeSword]

It's a very straightforward fighter. I wouldn't call it particularly deep; not on the level of something like Street Fighter; it's more of a Street Fighter-lite. Still very fun.

Graphics and art are very pretty and the music is wonderful. Controls are tight, and characters are varied enough. They all fit the old anime-fighter clichés; movelists are standard; lots of QCF/QCB/etc.

Overall it's a really nice package. I like it a lot.

[Maco70]

Braid is on sale this week for 800 MSpoints ($10).

...Only for gold members...

[anosou]

Braid is on sale this week for 800 MSpoints ($10).

...Only for gold members...

If you don't have gold you don't deserve a 360

[Maco70]

If you don't have gold you don't deserve a 360

Luckily for me, my one month is still around for another week. I bought Braid earlier tonight.

Also... I don't have a 360, yet I have gold. What does that make me?

[anosou]

Luckily for me, my one month is still around for another week. I bought Braid earlier tonight.

Also... I don't have a 360, yet I have gold. What does that make me?

Beyond awesome? Get a 360 and play SFIV with the rest of OCR! My n00b blanka is so unpredictable he seems to beat people

[Maco70]

Beyond awesome? Get a 360 and play SFIV with the rest of OCR! My n00b blanka is so unpredictable he seems to beat people

I've never played street fighter. I'm not one for fighters either, so I'm hard pressed to pay $60 for a game I probably wouldn't enjoy.

I bought Sonic's ultimate genesis collection, and Braid. Those will be my video games for the next 4 months or so. Yay for poor college students. =D

[prophetik music]

i picked up braid as well with the dealoftheweek thing.

[zircon]

While I was playing SF4 today (off the disc) I accidentally tilted the console slightly and heard a very bad grinding kind of sound. I continued playing for a few more mins then restarted. Now, the game pops up with an "unreadable" error at various points (ie. trying to enter Training mode, menu music won't play, various challenges). I tried restarting the system and the disc itself LOOKS fine. Am I screwed? WTF Microsoft?

[Bigfoot]

Maybe get an exchange at the store you bought it from? It hasn't been 30 days since SF4 came out already, has it?

I had a similar, yet really stupid scare myself one day. I forgot I put Gears of War disc below the CoD4 inside the CoD4 case. I didn't notice that I grabbed 2 discs, and to my surprise both of them fit inside the tray with the 360 standing vertical. I still don't know how I didn't notice that I somehow placed 2 discs in the tray. It made the most disturbing noise, but I'm lucky none of them became scratched and still work.

[anosou]

While I was playing SF4 today (off the disc) I accidentally tilted the console slightly and heard a very bad grinding kind of sound. I continued playing for a few more mins then restarted. Now, the game pops up with an "unreadable" error at various points (ie. trying to enter Training mode, menu music won't play, various challenges). I tried restarting the system and the disc itself LOOKS fine. Am I screwed? WTF Microsoft?

See if you can trade with the store you bought it at. Other remedies include waiting a day or two, polishing the disc, trying to install to harddrive and crying.

Honestly, this is the reason I install all my most-played games to harddrive! Not only does it remove any disc noises, it keeps it from being scratched AND makes the games load faster (generally speaking).

[Maco70]

So I finished Braid on Friday...

I took a couple days just to think about the ending, the story, and what I thought it meant. Then I started poking around looking for confirmation of my thoughts. Only to find this:

[spoilers]

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=190136%C2%A0

...What?

[Darknut]

So I finished Braid on Friday...

I took a couple days just to think about the ending, the story, and what I thought it meant. Then I started poking around looking for confirmation of my thoughts. Only to find this:

[spoilers]

http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=190136%C2%A0

...What?

Yeah, the epilogue ruined it. It would have been much better without it.

[Maco70]

Yeah, the epilogue ruined it. It would have been much better without it.

No, even with the epilogue it was intriguing. Didn't make much sense... but it still made you think.

Reading that thread just dumbfounded me. IF that's what this game is actually about, I will pretend that there isn't a story.

[Toadofsky]

i picked up braid as well with the dealoftheweek thing.

quoted you because I just did that today. I'm still waiting for Outrun Arcade to be on Live Arcade, then I won't be needing anymore games on the 360 for the rest of the year, as far as I'm seeing for the rest of the year right now.

Oh, and Banjo Tooie since I never finished the original. And since they're smoothing out the frame rate issues (no more slowdown hopefully), I'm game. To be frank, I hated Banjo Nuts and Bolts, I gave it a shot, but the stuff I'd build wouldn't balance right. I'd steer only so far, and I'd do a 180. The enemies would knock off the parts, messing up the challenges, to the point of me wanting to throw the controller across the room. Then the tutorial was so, I don't know, not that helpful for me.

And the challenges, what good is it for me to build something when the game already has a pre built vehicle to handle the situation? Banjo Land's Captain Blubber challenge protecting Clanker made me stop playing the game.

But, the music was excellent. Banjo Land making reference to the first game was just golden for me, and the humor was great too.

I just wish that game was centered on platforming only, I don't think it would have hurt the game to strictly bide by that (from what I've heard, Nuts and Bolts didn't fare so well in sales).

[Zeklan]

Anybody else picking up Halo Wars?

I know there is better RTSs out there, and most people who pick it up will stop playing it within a week when they realize it's not HALO 4, but it seems like good fun. I love RTSs but since my CPU sucks I have to rely on what the console gods can come up with.

[Bleck]

I know there is better RTSs out there, and most people who pick it up will stop playing it within a week when they realize it's not HALO 4, but it seems like good fun. I love RTSs but since my CPU sucks I have to rely on what the console gods can come up with.

Halo Wars is a fun RTS for people who do not obsess over RTSs

anybody who thinks that a simplified RTS is a bad thing probably plays RTSs way too much

[Native Jovian]

My problem with Halo Wars, from what I played of the demo, is that it consists entirely of "build lots of units, tell all units to attack". That's... really dull. There was no way to assign groups, so you couldn't do any sort of strategy easily. There was no way to select more-than-one but less-than-all of your units easily, which meant that it was near-impossible to do even simple tactics like leaving some of your units behind for base defense or attack different targets simultaneously.

I'm not one of the "lulz mouse + keyboard better at everything!" types, but RTS games are really the exception. Halo Wars demostrates exactly what the problems with a console-based RTS game are. Hell, even turn based strategy games are fine, but RTS, where the time it takes to input commands actually matters? That's a different story...

[zircon]

Maybe get an exchange at the store you bought it from? It hasn't been 30 days since SF4 came out already, has it?

I had a similar, yet really stupid scare myself one day. I forgot I put Gears of War disc below the CoD4 inside the CoD4 case. I didn't notice that I grabbed 2 discs, and to my surprise both of them fit inside the tray with the 360 standing vertical. I still don't know how I didn't notice that I somehow placed 2 discs in the tray. It made the most disturbing noise, but I'm lucky none of them became scratched and still work.

Yeah, I'm doing a return with Amazon now... looks like I should be OK. New copy is coming in on Thurs.

[SirChadlyOC]

Yeah, I'm doing a return with Amazon now... looks like I should be OK. New copy is coming in on Thurs.

You're lucky. At GameStop, I have to tell people that they can trade in their copy as defective, and buy a different copy of the game. They usually get ~$10 off the cost of a different one that way.

One of my managers always asks them, "did you bump your system?" as if they didn't. They always say, "no way!" but that's obviously where the laser burns came from.

Then I have to explain how common it is for 360s to eat discs like candy. Please put your system horizontally. Also, take the game out before you move your system. In fact, you probably should just take the game out every time you're done playing. Thanks for shopping at GameStop, have a great day.

[Native Jovian]

I've never had a problem with my 360 eating discs -- is it just when the system is vertical? Or is it just that it's easier to bump it when it's vertical? My 360 is horizonal, and the way I've got it set up it's in an out-of-the-way place so I'm never even near it unless I'm switching out a game disc (yay for wireless controllers!).

[zircon]

It apparently can happen any time the 360 is moved with a disc in it, regardless of whether the 360 is on or the disc is spinning. There have been tens of thousands of reported cases, so it's just bad design. If you don't touch the system though it becomes much more rare.

[Malaki-LEGEND.sys]

My problem with Halo Wars, from what I played of the demo, is that it consists entirely of "build lots of units, tell all units to attack". That's... really dull. There was no way to assign groups, so you couldn't do any sort of strategy easily. There was no way to select more-than-one but less-than-all of your units easily, which meant that it was near-impossible to do even simple tactics like leaving some of your units behind for base defense or attack different targets simultaneously.

I'm not one of the "lulz mouse + keyboard better at everything!" types, but RTS games are really the exception. Halo Wars demostrates exactly what the problems with a console-based RTS game are. Hell, even turn based strategy games are fine, but RTS, where the time it takes to input commands actually matters? That's a different story...

I agree with your points, and I think that if you're a big RTS fan, then Halo Wars just won't do it for you. It really does have a "my first RTS" feel to it, but that withstanding I still can't wait to pick up my copy tomorrow.

I've played Starcraft and loved it(although admittedly I never became a pro at it), but outside of Blizzard stuff I don't have much RTS cred. I actually like the fact that basebuilding isn't so crazy and they put the focus on combat rather than resource management, although that's a drawback for some people. Your enjoyment of the game will come from what you expect from it. If you're an RTS fan expecting a deep RTS game, then steer clear from this one.

Also, there are some commands that don't appear in the tutorial, such as holding left trigger to scroll faster, and using the right trigger to scroll through different unit types.

[prophetik music]

Halo Wars is a fun RTS for people who do not obsess over RTSs

anybody who thinks that a simplified RTS is a bad thing probably plays RTSs way too much

i agree with this. in general, i'm terrible at RTS games, because i have trouble micromanaging. i hate micromanaging. but i like the storyline that they present, and it looks absolutely gorgeous.

[DarkeSword]

Ditto. Some people just hate resource management. I liked the demo for Halo Wars, I'll probably grab the game when it hits.

[Azuth]

It apparently can happen any time the 360 is moved with a disc in it, regardless of whether the 360 is on or the disc is spinning. There have been tens of thousands of reported cases, so it's just bad design. If you don't touch the system though it becomes much more rare.

This. If you plan on moving your system at all, do yourself a favor and take out the disc. I moved mine once with a disc in it (system was unplugged), and the next time I fired it up I kept getting Disc Read errors. Took the disc out and it had a laser ring. Needless to say I take my discs out before I move my 360 at all anymore.

And just as a heads up, if you have a Hollywood Video near you, they can buff your disc to look brand new. It's only a few dollars, which is much cheaper than buying a new copy.