Tag Archives: Xbox 360

Quick update

Here’s a quick update about what I’ve been up to lately… and a bunch of Warhammer Online screenshots because… why not?

First, starting with Warhammer Online since it is probably pretty apparent that I’ve been doing a lot of that.

I finally got to my main character to tier 4 despite being distracted by several new alts. All of the various tier 4 zones I’ve visited lately have been relatively awesome – Eataine with its super bright blue skies, lush green fields and orchards, and beautiful Elven towers, Praag with it’s massive city sprawl, Reikland with its centerpiece, Reik River Observatory, keeps, and walled towns galore, and Kadrin Valley with it’s scenic snowy mountains, valleys, and epic Dwarven structures.

“Checking out a cool tower in Dragonwake.”

I quickly made the most of my limited schedule and put my nose back to the PVE grind stone questing in the relatively boring Elf lands once again. After gauging how much experience I was gaining and the levels of the mobs in the adjacent zones I decided I’d break away from my original plan of sticking only to my racial lands for solo PVE and ended up completing (including grinding out chapter influence!) the first zones in Empire and Dwarven lands as well long with the beginning chapters and first 3 side zones of the next set of zones. I just finished wrapping up the second chapter of Dragonwake back over in the Elven lands and am currently sitting just another short sit-down away from dinging 40 – the end is almost here and still absolutely tons of potential PVE content to go through! Perhaps the most exciting part of my character advancement, until I get to 40 at least, has been qualifying to use all of the great gear that I’ve slowly been gathering from off the auction house. That doesn’t sound that great but I’ve already maxed out my chosen mastery and don’t see any major benefit in using the leftover points in other trees and I’ve also got my tactics pretty much locked in until I get my forth slot at level 40.

I did do my first couple of Tier 4 scenarios as well, though so far which was interesting to say the least. I, of course, played the current flavor of the month scenario in tier 4, Serpent’s Passage, which is thought was pretty bizarre. It seems to be one of those scenarios where it is either absolute chaos or an utter beat down and seldom anywhere in between. I also played Thunder Valley a few times which I enjoyed. The I think my policy of waiting until I was further along in the various tiers to PVP much has been a sound one. 🙂

“My Swordmaster alt posing in Nordenwatch.”

With the recent releases of World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, and Lord of The Rings Online expansions and Warhammer Online rapidly losing its “oooh, new, shiny game!” appeal for a lot of players we’re really seeing a lot of population drop off. Our server hasn’t suffered that badly, nor has my guild, but some have been utterly decimated. Still, my guild has it’s own problems – we’ve suffered plenty of membership attrition for a variety of reasons. With a mature focused guild like ours though they tends to be more because of various real life issues than game hopping or silly drama. This is all further hampered by the raging case of “altitus” everyone seems to have which included the establishment of a Destruction guild on a second server which has generated far more interested than I think any of us anticipated. I’m one of the few hold outs but it is pretty disappointing logging on to see no or few other guildmates online and no fun at all listening to my former allies talk smack about Order while cheerleading for Destruction on our voice server. We’ve taken some steps to help the situation out including having a serious discussing about the issue one night recently and looking seriously at joining an in-game guild alliance. Still, I sadly fear that my time in this guild may be nearing an end if things continue down their current course.

“A convoy of Imperial Steam Tanks escorted by Knights of The Blazing Sun.”

Speaking of those new expansions I’ve been resisting picking of Wrath of The Lich King as I don’t really feel like it offers me too much. I’m sure the 70-80 PVE content is great (if not more of the same) but the new class and other additions don’t do much for me. I’d definitely still like to check out EQ2 and return to LoTRO at some point though but neither idea seems feasible until I’m over WAR. Sadly one game that I had talked about here not too long ago including plans to return to it some day, Tabula Rasa, has announced that they’ll be closing their doors early next year. I’m pretty bummed by the news as the game had tons of potential and the development team seemed to be putting an outrageous amount of effort into updating the game post release. Respect to those on the TR live dev team and I hope they’re all able to find great jobs somewhere else if they aren’t reassigned to other NCSoft projects.

I finally managed to play my first couple of online matches of Warhammer: Battle March (Xbox 360) with my brother. They mostly consisted of me showing him how to do various things and some experimentation but it was fun none the less. I’ve instructed him to have a 15,000 point army of his choice ready to do battle for next time. I hope to get into the final chapter of the single player campaign which features Orcs and Dark Elves soon and finally get this game out of my 360 so I can move onto the next thing in my backlog. 🙂

“Sightseeing in Dwarf lands.”

Speaking of the 360 the new “NXE” dashboard update was released last week. Personally, I’m pretty happy with it. First of all, although I didn’t get to see how/if it effects matchmaking, the new party system seems like a simple, logical evolution of the old chat features. The avatars are neat – we definitely need some more customization options, especially with clothes, but I was able to make my avatar look quite a bit like me according to a couple of people who have checked it out. They don’t really add much to the experience but I’m not necessarily bothered by them either. The new friends list, which shows each of your friend’s avatars in a room, or their party in a room, and what they’re doing is pretty neat but much less useable than the old one. Of course you can still access your friends list the old way via the guild button which I assume most people would be doing while gaming anyway.

“My Xbox Live facsimile. Yes, I really do have stupid sideburns.”

The dashboard itself is much more responsive and feels a lot less cluttered – I know some people have complained about the adds, but personally I feel having a few Xbox 360 related adds within each menu is much more tasteful and much less intrusive than having little blinking ads scattered all around the screen, blocking your wallpaper as with the old dashboard blades. Netflix streaming is great and we’ve already scoped out several shows and a movie on it since we’ve had it. The rollout itself seemed to be pretty trouble free. You always hear horror stories of freeze ups or entirely bricked systems during these things but, for the most part, it seemed to go extremely smooth. The update downloaded and installed very quickly and the whole process was quite painless for me.

“About to cook some smores in Isle of The Dead.”

Lastly, after the release of a couple of new game that interest me, the Castlevania and the DS version of Chrono Trigger, for instance, I’ve finally decided its time I upgrade from a GBA to a DS. Hopefully this’ll end up being a Christmas present – I’m actually pretty stoked about it. 🙂

New Release Wish List

There has been an absolute flood of new games that have either came out recently or are coming out very soon that interest me. Unfortunately I’m both wrapped up in my Warhammer Online addiction and way too broke to actually buy any of them at the moment, currently wondering how I’m even going to be able to afford Christmas presents this year. I’ve got plenty of games to tide me over, particularly a few old Xbox 360 games, some ongoing PC infatuations of mine, and a ton of retro PC games I’m pining to play again and (hopefully) review here, but the collector in me really wants to rush out and get them as soon as possible. Must… resist.

Mercenaries 2 was released and, while apparently very buggy, it has gotten a lot of great praise on various forums and podcasts I follow. I was a big fan of the first game, being one of my favorite games of the last console generation. It is sad that this one isn’t apparently as polished as the first one but on the other hand it does sound just as fun.

Dead Space could have easily flown under my radar. EA trying to make a new franchise based on survival horror… in space? with shooting? Great, a generic Doom 3 cranked out by some crappy studio? Apparently not. Dead Space loots excellent and has been getting great reviews all around. Must acquire!

Stalker: Clear Sky. I still haven’t played the original but it is only a matter of time. At this point though, I know it is a game that I am absolutely going to love, period, so I might as well keep my eye on this light weight sequel. Initial reports mention tons of bugs and other issues, as with the first game, yet for the most part fans of the original like Clear Sky.

Gears of War 2 is coming soon. I don’t expect that it’ll fail to live up to the hype. The first one had plenty of hype and, though I bought it quickly, it took quite a while to rise up to the surface of my backlog. By the time I finally did get around to playing it I was pleasantly surprised by the unique style and high production values.

I still really want to play The Witcher and the new Enhanced Edition is very inviting. I really need to snag an import copy of this while I still can.

What can I say about Spore? I’ve been anticipating it forever now and, now that it is out to mixed reviews, I still can’t wait to get it and fool around with the various creators and modes. I know in many respects it didn’t live up to the hype but in many others it seems to have delivered. The only question I have at this point though is whether or not I should just hold off for five or so years and buy the ultra deluxe edition that includes the 25 post release expansion and parts packs for one low cost. 🙂

Saints Row 2: Saints Row was a game that I had my eye on for a long time before I ever got an Xbox 360 but eventually decided to hold off for the release of Grand Theft Auto 4. Now that GTA 4 has come and gone Saints Row 2 has been released and the reviews have been largely positive. Now, because of much of what I’ve heard and seen, both games have ended up on my wish list.

Oh my goodness how I cannot wait to play Fable 2. The first Fable was, again, one of my favorite Xbox games. It didn’t quite deliver on all its hype but, taken on its own merits, was a really fun, really polished action adventure RPG with lots of neat little touches that ended way, way too quickly. I never did go back and play the Lost Chapters version but from what I hear Fable 2 is more of the same, and better to boot. The buzz around this one is intoxicating.

I never played Far Cry 2‘s predecessor, somehow, despite coming out during a heavy period of PC gaming in my life and sounding totally up my alley. I had considered getting it on many occasions but somehow let it slip by. Far Cry 2 sounds quite different and totally excellent. Some have described it as Far Cry meets Stalker and others have compared it to more GTA inspired sandbox games such as Mercenaries. In any case it looks excellent and I’ve got my eye on a copy of the PC version of this one.

I still can’t wait to get my ass beaten viciously by Ninja Gaiden 2. Again, the first one was one of my favorite last gen console games. There’s a lot of those on this list it seems. 🙂

Probably most importantly is Fallout 3. I loved the original two Fallout games, particularly the first one, and I’ve also really dug Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls games. This marriage of the two seems like a no brainer and I’m having a hard time resisting going out and picking this one up right now. Reviews and discussion on the forums look very promising but I have a feeling that I won’t really know what to expect from this game until I’m playing it myself.

I must also give shoutouts to Mirrors Edge and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. Despite not having a PS3 I’m also going to mention Resistance 2 and Little Big Planet while I’m at it.

Argh, so little money, so little time, so many great games!

Grand Theft Auto IV

Lately I had been determined to get the Grand Theft Auto 4 skeleton out of my closet – that is it has been taking me forever to beat the damn thing and this was a big problem for me as my back log has been building up yet I’ve been absolutely compelled to resist playing any other console games until I got it out of the way. So, with that in mind my last couple of weekends had been dedicated to GTA4-a-thons (when possible.)

“I wish I could take in game screenshots.”

First let me say that part of the reason it took me a while to play was that it didn’t really grab me at first and I almost immediately made a number of minor negative observations:

The game still suffers from repetitive, simple missions – drive here and kill this guy, drive here and then chase this guy. Nothing any more exotic than any of the GTA series offered and some of the chases are still just as annoying as they were in previous games. One plus side here, however, is that a lot of the sillier mission types from old GTA games have been dumped.
The controls (keep in mind I’m playing it on the Xbox 360) felt a little less accessible than previous incarnations. Different configurations whilst in car or on foot, holding down certain buttons for different functionality. Just a little more complicated than before without many new features to show for it. I did get used to them soon enough however, so I’d probably take this one back.
A lot of people griped about the more realistic control and movement, particularly of vehicles. Movement is a lot slower and clumsier with more realistic animations taking priority over fun and precise control. You’ll notice this immediately when you start trying to run around the world. I personally actually liked the new way that vehicles feel though the on foot controls totally took me by surprise at first. I’d say after I got used to the feel of the new controls I actually preferred them though.
The increased detail and sometimes dark, muddy graphics of the starting area made the whole game feel much more claustrophobic and just plain unfriendly to me. To counter this though, the more I played and the more new areas I explored, the more I appreciated the awesome amount of detail the game has. GTA 4’s city is without a doubt the best sandbox I’ve seen yet. It is absolutely amazing. I feel like we’re probably not given enough opportunity to really enjoy and appreciate it as we could though. The same goes for the graphics in general – they’re not always too nice to look at, in fact I thought the game was fairly ugly when I first saw it, but they’re actually pretty damn great at times. Again, we spend so much time with the camera pulled back, barreling down streets that it can be difficult to really take it all in. I think when the PC version of this game is released, providing the port isn’t botched of course, people will have a lot of really good things to say about the graphics regardless of how much of an improvement they are over the console versions.
Cops seemed hellishly annoying at first. Sure, it seems generally easier to avoid getting busted and to lose your wanted level but it also seems like it is a lot easier to get a wanted level in the first place. It seemed like cops were fucking everywhere and stupidly observant to boot. After I got a little better at losing my wanted level this became much less of a problem but it is still a noteworthy difference from previous games in my opinion.
Combat seemed improved but still didn’t do much for me at first. Once I got more used to it though I enjoyed it quite a bit and actually found myself occasionally doing things the hard way just for the thrill of the firefight. I never did feel completely satisfied with switching targets accurately during the heat of larger engagements. I also never really took as much advantage of the cover system as I probably should have though this is entirely my fault, I’m sure.
Friend management… What the fuck? I don’t feel like I have to say much more about this. Interesting concept but not too fun. Once I learned ye olde “accept their offer then immediately call back and cancel plans” strategy things became slightly easier to cope with though.
I liked the addition of the GPS and improved map but I felt like I was spending more time watching it than taking in my surroundings while driving around which is a shame. I also had a harder time seeing some guide line colors than others. That is, the darker colors sometimes blended in with the roads on the map. Speaking of the GUI the minimap itself and some of the text seemed a little on the small side to me. I had a lot of trouble reading my cell phone until I got the picture one with the different color scheme, for instance. Maybe I’m just sitting too far away from my TV or something. 🙂
Oh thank god, at last we have the ability to do a quick restart of missions instead of having to go all the way back to the mission starter and try again! Unfortunately though the system still needs a lot of work to be really good in my opinion. Only a few of missions that I had to retry had checkpoints anywhere other than at the very start of the mission. Given the way most of GTA 4’s missions are structured this could lead to some very annoying, time consuming mission attempts. Example: Drive half way across the city to get this car, then drive half way across the city again to do a drive by. If you somehow fail the drive by you’re back to having to drive across the city to get the car even though that was a tedious, unchallenging, almost extraneous part of the mission in the first place. Saints Row’s earlier implementation of this feature had the same problem. Argh…

Anyway, as you can see most of my bad early impressions were taken back after playing a bit longer. I actually suspected this would be the case which was one of the things that kept me playing. The GTA sandbox can be pretty intimidating when you’re first dumped into it and I had always enjoyed the previous games much, much more after getting used to the controls, learning more about the various game play systems, and getting a better feel for the layouts of the cities. GTA 4 was absolutely no exception to this. I remember feeling the exact same way with GTA 3 – at the start I was some what intimidated by the massive scale of the city and bewildering amount of choices I had, yet by the time I had logged many hours into it I was enjoying myself immensely and the game was just flying by. With GTA 4 I was almost sad to see it finally come to an end.

So, yes, I finally beat the game! The story wrapped up well enough and I then spent several more hours playing the side missions and racking up some of the easier achievements which for the most part I had a lot of fun with. I’ve yet play online via Live though I’m itching to try it. I’m sure I’ll post about it when I do. In summary I’d say this game pushes the series ahead with a much better story, much better characters, an improved sense of immersion (the city, graphics, animations, physics, more detailed combat system) with the series’ awesome style, usual parody heavy sense of humor, and great voice acting still intact.