Got an Xbox 360

[Stuxnet]

Brought it home last night with an extra wireless controller, 12 months Live subscription, Top Spin 2, and NCAA Football 2007.

Note: A console, extra controller, 2 games, and online service should *NOT* cost $700. But hey, as long as there are chumps like me dropping that kind of jack, why not, right?

Top Spin 2 is fun. It's hard as hell given that there is so much to be thinking about with each shot. Presentation could use some work. I don't like that I can't play a match in career mode whenever I want; instead, I have to wait until a match comes up that I'm ranked high enough to get into. Otherwise, I'm stuck doing rediculous training sessions. And speaking of the training sessions, a little more guidance from the computer would be nice... specifically, how to accomplish whatever goals have been laid out.

But speaking strictkly from a tennis standpoint, it's a good game. Definitely one of those "easy to pick up, a bitch to master" type game, which is exactly the kind of game I enjoy. Accessible with longlasting value.

I haven't popped the seal on NCAA yet.

I'm REALLY looking forward to Forza Motorsport 2. It's probably why I really bought the 360. Top Spin, NCAA, and Madden are just bonuses, but I think FM was the best game to hit the original Xbox, and FM2 is sounding like it is going to be one of the most polished, complete games EVER (which I kind of already feel FM was... so that's a pretty high bar).

I know it's an age old question, but what games do you guys recommend? I'm not much into action/fantasy/RPG/etc type games. I love sports games and racing games. I thought about PGR3, but I don't really see the point in getting it seeing as how I know I'll never touch it again once FM2 comes out.

I'm also looking forward to Double Agent, but honestly, I'll probably grab it for the PC.

 

[skace]

You aren't going to expand past sports and racing? Well anyhow, I believe Rockstar has an online table tennis game which is pretty fun. Frankly, if I just dropped all that cash I'd at least have grabbed Chromehounds also.

 

[bucwylde23]

If you like top spin you may like the rockstar table tennis game. It's pretty fun at first but I'm not big on tennis/table tennis at all.

PGR3 isn't all that great anyways, in my opinion. Don't waste your cash.

Maybe try the baseball/hockey games for the 360 if you're into that stuff.

I'm waiting for NHL 07 to come out in september i think? I don't like basketball so I haven't tried any of the NBA games .

I have mostly played FPS/RPG and a whole lot of UNO/SF2. Still waiting for gamefly to send me some sports/racing games.

NCAA 07 is a lot of run, I really enjoy that. I'd go ahead and break the seal on that bad boy right now.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: skace
You aren't going to expand past sports and racing? Well anyhow, I believe Rockstar has an online table tennis game which is pretty fun. Frankly, if I just dropped all that cash I'd at least have grabbed Chromehounds also.

The only other type of game I really enjoy is FPS, and I'm rather picky with those. CS:S and Splinter Cell are really the only games I'm interested in, and I'd honestly rather play those on my PC. The Table Tennis looked interesting, but I wonder if that would become really monotonous after a while... moreso than tennis. I might rent it and give it a shot, though.

Originally posted by: chrisg22
I'm waiting for NHL 07 to come out in september i think? I don't like basketball so I haven't tried any of the NBA games .

Ditto here. Not much of a basketball fan, but I love 2k Sports' hockey games. I haven't played an EA hockey game for some time, so I might try it this year.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: jbourne77

Originally posted by: skace
You aren't going to expand past sports and racing? Well anyhow, I believe Rockstar has an online table tennis game which is pretty fun. Frankly, if I just dropped all that cash I'd at least have grabbed Chromehounds also.

The only other type of game I really enjoy is FPS, and I'm rather picky with those. CS:S and Splinter Cell are really the only games I'm interested in, and I'd honestly rather play those on my PC. The Table Tennis looked interesting, but I wonder if that would become really monotonous after a while... moreso than tennis. I might rent it and give it a shot, though.

Originally posted by: chrisg22
I'm waiting for NHL 07 to come out in september i think? I don't like basketball so I haven't tried any of the NBA games .

Ditto here. Not much of a basketball fan, but I love 2k Sports' hockey games. I haven't played an EA hockey game for some time, so I might try it this year.

I think it would be smart to at least rent the table tennis game first, I think you'll find that while neat, you'll become bored quickly.

I've got Dead Rising right now and Ninety Nine Nights on it's way through gamefly.

Dead rising is a fun game, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of replay value. Only worth a rental as well.

 

[skace]

99 Nights is out?

99 Nights, Dead Rising, and Chromehounds are almost enough reason to buy an Xbox360 at this point.

Oh and the huge appeal to Rockstar Table Tennis ist he online play jbourne. It and UNO are very huge games simply because it gets people together. I wish I knew what else was out on the Live Arcade, I recall there being some really fun cheap games. Read an article about Xbox360 awhile back that said the hottest thing was just the Arcade released games.

 

[tuteja1986]

Dead Rising , Burnout Revenge , Ghost Recon advance warfighter , Rockstar Table tennis , Geometry wars and Uno i recommend you buying

Anyways Dead Rising is so much better than all hack and slash trash that come out like Ninety Nine Night. If it wasn't for the worst save save system seen in next gen console game , it would have gotten 9+ easy. The game is very unique and after playing it 72hrs + , you really want to play it again and its pretty damn awesome. To me its the 2nd Best game to come out on xbox 360. Check out Gamespot Live video review : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadrising/index.html?q=Dead%20Rising ( stream it , its free)

This game is one of the kind and its more replayable than games like Grand Theft Auto 3

P.S. 99Night is trash and not worth playing , its an horrible clone of : Dynasty Warriors. Also Cromohounds , don't buy it unless you have a group of people to play it with. The game is only fun if you can work as team and single player is just a trainning to get you playing online.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
Dead Rising , Burnout Revenge , Ghost Recon advance warfighter , Rockstar Table tennis , Geometry wars and Uno i recommend you buying

Anyways Dead Rising is so much better than all hack and slash trash that come out like Ninety Nine Night. If it wasn't for the worst save save system seen in next gen console game , it would have gotten 9+ easy. The game is very unique and after playing it 72hrs + , you really want to play it again and its pretty damn awesome. To me its the 2nd Best game to come out on xbox 360. Check out Gamespot Live video review : http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/deadrising/index.html?q=Dead%20Rising ( stream it , its free)

This game is one of the kind and its more replayable than games like Grand Theft Auto 3

P.S. 99Night is trash and not worth playing , its an horrible clone of : Dynasty Warriors. Also Cromohounds , don't buy it unless you have a group of people to play it with. The game is only fun if you can work as team and single player is just a trainning to get you playing online.

Well I've only played Dead rising for about 3 hours so have mercy on me I'll be playing it some more tonight. I do hate the save system with a passion, though.
The only big complaint that I have aside from the save system is the aiming system with the guns. You can't really run and gun and you have to stop and it's very tedious to aim. I always get grabbed by zombies if I really try to aim. But I just get the samurai sword and go to town anyways.

I don't expect much from Ninety Nine nights. Once it gets here in the mail, i'll probably play it for a night or two and send it back. I didn't really care for the demo at all.

 

[tuteja1986]

Get another memory card it counts as another save point. Also read your maunal as it tells you how to create offline user account which enable more save spot. Guns are for lammer , alot of crazy weapons i finished the single player and i am playing it again but doing things i didn't do 1st time.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
Get another memory card it counts as another save point. Also read your maunal as it tells you how to create offline user account which enable more save spot. Guns are for lammer , alot of crazy weapons i finished the single player and i am playing it again but doing things i didn't do 1st time.

Where can I find out how to make an offline account without the manual? rented it on gamefly...

Well it pissed me off with the gun when I had to aim to stop that crazy guy in the food court with brad. Otherwise I don't realy use guns..

I don't care too much about saving a second game, just would like MORE save points although after playing a bit and figuring out where the save points are, it's not THAT bad to make that trip.

I could care less about my "rank" online with other players, that is another thing I really don't like.

In the game I am at the point where I am in the security room and have to go with brad to stop the crazy guy with the .50 cal sniper rifle to save dr. barnaby

 

[Hadsus]

I've got the 2K MLB and NHL games. 2K has got this thing about cramming reams upon reams of control in their controllers. If I were to memorize it all it would take me months. Too much of a bother IMO and their manuals are the absolute worst. Each game has it flaws and foibles, but if you can get 'em for $29 each (which is what I did) it is worth it. The pitching system in MLB is superb. Fielder control not so great. In the NHL game, your first two lines stay on the ice pretty much all the time with auto-switch lines on.

Each game has been ripped severely but much of the complaints go overboard IMO. I remember a couple of years ago with MVP for the PC where every ball hit to the OF went to wall and hitters rounded the bases. Took all sorts of slider manipulations to get rid of that. You don't see anything *that* bad in 2K games.

PGR3 is great....the graphics are photorealistic at times and the races are challenging without going overboard. You'll like NCAA 2007......if you value gameplay over glitz. The glitz has been removed but the gameplay is as solid and realistic as anything I've seen.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Funny thing is that my 360 has turned into an Uno table...

Nothing against the other games but damn that game is addicting. If only they would add Rook I would ever leave the house.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
Funny thing is that my 360 has turned into an Uno table...

Nothing against the other games but damn that game is addicting. If only they would add Rook I would ever leave the house.

man do I love UNO............... can't wait to get home to play it

 

[jbritt1234]

Fight Night is awesome! You should look into renting it at least.

There is a free demo of Table Tennis on XBL, try it. I thought it was pretty fun actually.

 

[Hadsus]

Never played UNO.....guess I'll need to look into it.

 

[Hidden Hippo]

At the moment, I'm liking Dead or Alive. It's a fantastic game. For FPS games, I think that Call of Duty 2 is about as good as you can get on the 360. Perfect Dark is average and FarCry can be a good laugh, but neither game is as engrossing as COD2.

 

[erikistired]

uno is great. dead rising is great. bf2:mc was much better than expected once i gave it half a chance. ncaa 07 of course. the table tennis demo was actually pretty neat, but i just can't see myself playing that game over and over. in another week texas hold em comes out, free the first two days (as in, if you download it the first two days it's out you get the whole game free forever, if you wait past that i think it's 800 points).

 

[Slew Foot]

You mean to say that cheap simple games that bring people together are appealing?

Maybe the Wii has something after all

 

[Eeezee]

Dead Rising looks amazing, if I had the 360 that's the first time I would buy.

GTA but with zombies!

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: Slew Foot
You mean to say that cheap simple games that bring people together are appealing?

Maybe the Wii has something after all

I would spend on a brand new 8-bit NES what I just spent on my Xbox 360 .

FWIW .........

 

[Stuxnet]

BTW, I played some more Top Spin last night (after playing some real tennis, of course). Some annoyances are starting to crop up. I'm going to post them here to make myself feel better.

1. There are so many different shots. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but there's no easy way to practice them in the game other than firing up Exhibition mode and losing match after match while you try to make sense of it all. Guided training for each of these shots (including strategy and when to use them) would go a long way. The "coaching" - if you can call it that - in Career mode is nothing more than busy work. It doesn't actually teach you jack squat.

2. The loading times are really starting to get to me. Considering how much emphasis is placed on training (if you don't train, you don't earn stars... if you don't earn stars, you can't improve your player), it really stinks when you spend more time waiting for training to load than you do actually performing the tasks. Of course, you experience the same loading times after training just to get back to the menus.

3. Speaking of the Career mode, it just seems a little shallow to me. Train, play a match, train, train, train, play a match, train.... Why isn't there more to this? Take Tiger Woods PGA Tour for example. A lot of the fun is in buying new equipment and accessories. That's there in TS2, but it has zero impact on your performance.

4. The advanced shots are difficult to do, especially in the heat of a game. Maybe it's just my inexperience talking, but the advanced shots require insanely precise timing and anything short of perfect execution leaves you with a short/long/OOB ball. The penalty for < 100% perfect execution is always a point to the other player. I'd rather see varying degrees effectiveness, instead. 95% execution means it ends up as just a normal shot. 85% = long/short/OOB. I'm over simplifying a possible solution, but you get the point. The problem is that the risk:reward seems way out of whack. It's much easier to just run your opponent left to right as you plant simple shots in the corners. Unfortunately, it's also boring as hell. I want to use the advanced stuff.

I'm looking forwad to playing online. I'm going to give Career mode another hour or two to suck me in, but if there's no magic, then I'll probably abandon my player in favor of Exhibition mode and online play.

 

[Maxspeed996]

Dead Rising..and stick the shower head into the zombies.....watch the blood rain out.....Juicy.

 

[yllus]

One of the best things about the 360 is that if you'd like to try out almost any game on the system, you don't need to run down to the video rental store. Just download the demo off of Xbox Live instead.

This does require you to have a Xbox Live Gold account, but you really ought to have that anyways.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: yllus
One of the best things about the 360 is that if you'd like to try out almost any game on the system, you don't need to run down to the video rental store. Just download the demo off of Xbox Live instead.

This does require you to have a Xbox Live Gold account, but you really ought to have that anyways.

Very good point, and I'm so glad they've done that. I've been burned on so many games because I bought something that got good reviews only to find out that it SUCKED... and I'm too lazy to rent/return games.

I got Live Gold when I bought the Xbox, so I'm good to go, there. I might try the table tennis and Chromehounds.

 

[Thraxen]

Originally posted by: yllus
One of the best things about the 360 is that if you'd like to try out almost any game on the system, you don't need to run down to the video rental store. Just download the demo off of Xbox Live instead.

This does require you to have a Xbox Live Gold account, but you really ought to have that anyways.

I thought demos were available to people with Silver accounts too?

Anyway, jbourne77, definitely look into the Live Arcade games.... especially if you are married or otherwise have an SO. My wife loves those games, especially the puzzle games. There are plenty of good games yet to come too. I'm particularly looking forward to Lumines Live and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.