VIDEO GAME DISCUSSIONS

[Legacy96OB]

Awesome!

Too bad it didn't break months from now.... There's rumors of a slim/Natal/250gb bundle for the same price as the current Elite.

So, is your broken Xbox under warranty? You should still send it in then sell it. I did that so I wouldn't have to wait and could get a unit with HDMI. My friend now has my older 360 and got it for less than a new one. Worked out pretty well.

I heard about that, I also saw what was claimed to be leaked pics of the motherboard, but who knows when that's actually coming.

Along with Splinter Cell: Conviction, I also picked up a copy of MotoGP 09/10... Got to play both a good bit today.

SC: Conviction- freakin' awesome. Really REALLY cool. It's got a really interesting plot (not at all hard to follow even if you've ignored the whole series until now) and it's definitely is up there with MGS4 in terms of military sneakfest fun. The mark & execute feature is great, once you melee kill one person you can kill a number of people you have "marked" as targets w/ one shot kills. It all feels very "Bourne Identity" when you get the drop on a group of 4 people and whack them all in a split second. The melee takedowns are very well done, as well.
The absolute best part for me, though, was when the AI actually showed fear, and recognized the fact that I was dropping people like flies. I took out 2 guys and their bodies were laying in the hallway, I shot out the lights and though a guy caught sight of me, he saw what had happened to the guys who had run down that hallway looking for me, and said "NO WAY I'M GOING DOWN THERE!" or something like that. This really impressed me, as often times you can amass a pile of dead enemies just inside a door or something, just capping them as they march through the choke point one by one. The fact that they'll recognize that now and say "nope, I'm going to hold position or find another way" really shows how much effort they put into the AI.

MotoGP- I'm having fun with it, but I'm a little less satisfied than I initially was with it. It's a pretty hard game to begin with, as it is very much a sim game. Driving cars lends itself much better to an xbox controller scheme than motorcycles do. Adding the fact that there is front and rear braking as well as tucking, shifting, etc. seems like control overload but the game seems to handle it okay. What I have beef with is the career mode showed so much promise, and then turned into a dull grind-fest with an annoying announcer. At the beginning, the expectations are actually reasonable for a REAL sim- you're not expected to nab the pole and win the race, but qualifying near the middle of the pack is good, and getting points is considered a "good result." (think about how boring it would be to watch MotoGP if Rossi got pole position and won EVERY LAST RACE without fail, always, rain or shine.) But then, after the 3rd or 4th race, your announcer starts whining about you getting pole and winning, each race, every race. And you have a magic opponent, who unopposed will win each race, every time. Beat him and he will come in second. Every race. Every time. Who's that behind me? Oh no, I don't even have to look because I KNOW it's the one rider that the game has decided must be the bane of my existence for the rest of the season.

I just feels like a disappointment to me, as I was hoping for a hardcore sim, and instead it almost immediately falls back to much more arcade-y feel.

[chris.]

Halo Reach beta next week! Woo!

[wrx_02]

I have been playing a lot of Desktop Tower Defense. Pretty cool game for a free one.

[ilivas]

Halo Reach beta next week! Woo!

Not for me.... No odst

[Legacy96OB]

Red Dead Redemption...

I'm not totally sold on the concept of some of the missions- like herding cows (what? I'm in the wild wild west with a vendetta and my plot-advancing mission is herding cows?) and there are some frustrating glitches like random mission fails for something vague like "terrorizing the townsfolk" or people getting shot, falling down, and then suddenly levitating back to life.

Despite this, though, it's a very fun game. I really like the "dead eye" mechanic as it makes the combat much more interesting and fun, the weapons (at least the one's I've seen so far) all "feel" suitably old-westy, and the atmosphere is awesome. Fast travel is handled nicely with "camps" and aesthetically speaking, its an extremely well executed game. It's like GTA only in the wild west.

[Saitoh10101]

Oh how the glitches made the game horrible. I randomly teleport and sometimes just start running without holding the controller or start going the complete opposite direction that I want to go. One time while switching weapons while on a horse, dude just jumped off the horse and started running the opposite direction and I couldn't control where he went. It took maybe 3 minutes before I could regain control over him. I also have bounties that I fail because once I hogtie them, I try to pick them up but the body stays on the ground and he goes through the motions with nothing. To fix that you have to die or turn the console off. Everytime I save via camp, I will not exit the camp in the same area that I started it. The character will be maybe 100 feet away from where I chose to put the camp, I've been on top of a cliff and saved and ended back up at the bottom and had to run all the way back up.

I've run by people before and all of the sudden got a bounty on my head. Thats a bit annoying when you are running into town to start a mission and then you can't because everyone with a gun just opens fire on you.

None of the guns really "feel" different to me. I have 3 different pistols and I only use the "new" semi-auto one because I can fire it faster. Not really any more accurated and I can't tell if it is actually stronger than the others. Same goes with the shotguns and rifles.

[Legacy96OB]

this one had me actually tearing up I was laughing so hard, especially at the sudden wanted level at the end:

[chris.]

Crazy day for Xbox. Woot.

I'm looking forward to ESPN stuff and seeing if it really holds up and gets lots of content.

[Legacy96OB]

been playing Red Dead some more, after I spent a while away from it.

It's unimaginably frustrating that developers still make water instant death, your character falls in and IMMEDIATELY dies. It's like there are only two options- upon touching water you die, or your character just so happens to be an Olympic swimmer.

I think it would be way funnier, more immersing, and far more believable if your character falls in the drink and can't swim, starts splashing around, and you have to press some buttons to guide them back to shore doing some weak doggie paddle flailing, all the while being vulnerable to getting shot at. If you hang out too long in the water or try to go deeper like an idiot, THEN you die/drown. Dying immediately because someone bumped me off a dock into neck-deep water is just rage inducing and immersion breaking.

Anyways, new Zelda was announced- I'm pretty stoked for that.