Xbox 360 Live!

mattyj · February 20, 2006 8:57PM

Hey guys and gals, so I got this recently after having my Xbox 360 for a few months, and atm I have Project Gotham 3 Racing and Perfect Dark Zero. Perfect Dark is a disappointment if I'm honest however I play PGR3 regularly online, and looking forward to getting Battlefield 2.

I have to admit Microsoft has got it right, the system (dashboard, live, and the games) works great. So, who's on 360 Live, and what games do you play, and which future games are you looking to play on Xbox live in particular?

P.S I'm sorry if such a thread has been done before (specifically for the 360, not the first Xbox).

cosmonut · February 20, 2006 9:57PM

I usually play Halo 2 with an XBox 1.

fran441 · February 20, 2006 10:10PM

I have a 360, Perfect Dark Zero, and Call of Duty 2. I recently cancelled my Xbox Live account, the multiplayer for Call of Duty was mainly unplayable, and games like Halo 2 are now being overrun by cheaters. It's unfortunate.

I had Madden 2006 for a while, the disc stopped working and I returned it for a refund. It was missing quite a few features from the other console versions as well. Gamers are going to be confused this year with EA supposedly going with the ESPN brand over Madden. Going from Sega's NFL 2k series to ESPN NFL 2k, to no ESPN branded game, now to ESPN NFL 2007 (formally Madden) is going to be interesting to say the least.

If you are lucky enough to get one that doesn't overheat, the 360 is a good console, especially if you have a good HDTV (I have a 56" 1080p Samsung, and yes I realize no 360 games run in 1080p). But Perfect Dark Zero just wasn't that good and while I thought Call of Duty was amazing, I beat the game on Veteran months ago.

I've been thinking about picking up Condemned as I generally like Sega's games, but at $60, I can wait for the price to drop a bit. The same thing is true for Full Auto.

The Outfit looks promising and I'll wait for reviews of Ghost Recon and Battlefield 2, but I'm hoping the 360 will be more than a FPS box. Oblivion looks good if it ever comes out, I heard it was delayed again.

The main problem is that the 360 only has 21 games available at the moment. 3 months after launch and there are 21 games. 4 are racers, 2 are 'extreme sports', 6 are sports titles, 4 are FPS, and the other 5 are 'Action' games. That's not a lot of diversity.

I'm aware that most consoles have poor launches but if you look at the last generation, Sega started the Dreamcast off with many quality titles. You could easily see the difference between the PS1/N64 and the Dreamcast. The launch could have been handled much better.

Since we're in this 'transition', many game companies are shifting their projects from the PS2, Xbox, and GameCube to the PS3, Xbox 360, and Revolution. That means the last 6 months for console games has been *horrible*. That means the next 6 months for consoles games will be *horrible*. There might be a game or two worth picking up for the 360 but at $60 a pop, it's hard to justify buying unless you know it's going to be a great game.

The sad thing is, I've been going to the handhelds for my gaming fix. Even there, however, we're looking at a bunch of ports (didn't stop me from buying Mega Man X though).

Getting back on topic, if Call of Duty 2 was stable online and my manhood/sexual orientation wasn't questioned by teenagers who haven't hit puberty yet (high pitched voices is the dead giveaway), I might reactivate my Live subscription. But it's far more likely I'll wait until they can prove that they have stable servers with good bandwidth before I put my $50 on the table again.

shapiro2 · February 20, 2006 10:44PM

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat is the SH!T. It is the best Live game out there. No hacking on it, too. There are a few dorks that get inside walls, but hasn't ever bugged me - there's usually someone on your team that knows how to do it & then just goes inside the wall with them & kills them. The point is to move around & capture flags, not sit in 1 place (inside a wall) & get a kill every 5 minutes. I've been on Live for 3 years, now. A different gaming experience, for sure - just steer clear of the "non-ball droppers" (balls haven't yet dropped - i.e. "squeakers")!

xmoger · February 20, 2006 11:10PM

I've had my xbox for about a month. I have PGR3 and NBA 2K6. I spend about equal amounts of time between Marble Blast, Geometry Wars, PGR3 and the Fight Night demo. I played Call of Duty 2 for a couple weeks and I play BF2 regularly although both on the PC. I don't see any point in using a gamepad in an FPS when I have a PC with a mouse.

I'm not playing PGR3 on live yet since I don't want to get owned constantly.

mattyj · February 21, 2006 6:52AM

Fran441, its a pity to hear that Call of Duty isn't that great online, it was one of the games I was contemplating picking up, mostly for online play. Also everyone I've asked seems to be underwhelmed with Perfect Dark, I'd love Rare to make the original from the N64 on the 360, now that would be a decent FPS.

Talking of overheating, my Xbox does do it, but only ever on single player Perfect Dark, so I don't know if its the Xbox and PD is more demanding than PGR3 etc, or whether the game itself is buggy. Considering the way Rare has gone it wouldn't surprise me.

I basically bought the Xbox because I think it has great promise, and the titles coming out for it will only get better, because as you said, we're at this transition period at the moment.

Shapiro2, I can see what you mean about the 'squeakers' they tend to be pretty hyper active, although on PGR3 they're pretty good natured (so far). I guess because its a racing game and not an FPS.

Looking forward to Battlefield 2, should be great, especially when I can get a HDTV, 480i is just horrible right now.

Btw xmoger, I would try PGR3 online, you get used to it pretty quickly, and people are always up for a laugh. There's something about racing games where people are more relaxed than they are playing an FPS.

fran441 · February 21, 2006 10:38AM

Don't get me wrong, Call of Duty 2 is a great game. To me, it's worth having the system for. I just find the online play had some major problems. For example, you would join a game only for it to mysteriously become 'unavailable', and then have then next 50 games be the same way. Then if you did get into a game, there was no guarantee it would run smoothly, lag was a major issue.

When it did work, Call of Duty 2 was great online (although people carrying around the shotgun and sniper rifles got annoying), but the fact that it was great when it did work made it even more frustrating when it didn't.

mattyj · February 21, 2006 11:48AM

Interesting, but that is still enough to put me off buying the game tbh. I'll wait for Battlefield 2, as I've played it on PC many times and its amazing, not to mention hellishly addictive!

Hopefully over the next few months they'll be a few killer titles coming out - I say a few because I'm still a lowly (i.e. relatively skint) student at the moment, so if a lot of great games come out I'll have to pick and choose!

I might pick COD2 up if they fix the issues or buy it second hand, but I realised I greatly prefer modern of scifi FPS games, so its BF2 for me.

If enough people have PGR3 we could set up a AI racing league.

shadow slayer 26 · February 21, 2006 3:51PM

I have PD0, PGR3, and COD2. I love them all. While the single player on PD0 isn't all to great, the multiplayer on xbl is great. PGR3 is just a really good arcade racing game. COD2 is plain amazing. The online is fun, when you find a good game (nonlaggy). I heard they are goinng to fix the lag sometime, and when they do that, it will be one of my favorite games.

The cheaters on H2 have really stopped now, because xbl is coming down on them hard. Also the leaderboards are down, so they have nothing to show for all their cheating. I still love H2 even though it is old. Currently i am a level 35 in that game. Anyone better?

Xbox 360 Live!

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