Official Xbox 360? Thread...Part Deux

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: PricklyPete
Everyone seems down on GRAW 2...I for one like it.

No, it isn't R6:V...but it isn't trying to be. It has a lot of great things in its own right. I love the new integration of the drone...much easier to use and control. I barely used it in the first game...used it regularly in the demo.

The graphics are awesome...especially the way the sand and smoke react with the environment. No more "sheets" of smoke running over 3D objects...looks smooth as ever.

I'll definitely be picking this one up.

GRAW 2 definitely looks awesome. I'm a bigger fan of R6 than GRAW though. For some reason GRAW seems waaaay too planned out/easy. Targets highlight for you, the drone tells you where to go...it's so padded that all you do is follow the instructions on-screen and pull the trigger at the appropriate time. Gosh I need to go play some GOW

 

[jlmadyson]

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Exclusive Multiplayer Hands-On - Team Adversarial

Pretty good read.

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Exclusive Multiplayer Hands-On - Team Adversarial

Pretty good read.

Looks promising. I did go home and play the demo some more at lunch and I agree, the "cover" feature could definitely be improved...but I don't think it takes away from the game as a whole. The demo is a bit weak on what it shows you other than the fancy graphics...but it is enough to get me wanting the game. This multiplayer writeup definitely gets me interested.

 

[blurredvision]

The NBA Street demo is fairly decent. From my hours of play with the original NBA Street (haven't played any others since), this one seems just as frustrating . The graphics are fantastic like you'd expect on a next-gen system, no complaints here. The play itself seems a little slow, although maybe you can "upgrade" your players in the final game.

This isn't a game that I'd even consider buying, but others should enjoy it.

 

[jlmadyson]

GRAW2 Multiplayer Preview : Video

That HD video is looking nice, liking the added options/features.

 

[nycxandy]

I have a question pertaining to R6. Why do I have a crosshair in cover in single player but not in multiplayer?

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: nycxandy
I have a question pertaining to R6. Why do I have a crosshair in cover in single player but not in multiplayer?

Because then it's just cheap/cheating if you had the crosshair. Just camp behind a wall, knowing exactly where you're going to pop out and shoot when you see someone come running towards you.

IE, take Casino, everyone's favorite fvcking level. Have a guy camp the back door - if the crosshair was there, you'd just cover till a guy comes and squeeze the trigger. It's already bad/easy enough to camp w/ the cover, having a crosshair just makes it that much easier. Or, it could be an oversight since MP was done by a diff team than SP.

And for the love of god R6 players, please play some other map than Calypso. I played with my roomie the other night - full 14 man room, (7v7) for 2 rounds. Everytime one guy left, we immediately had another guy join. Once we changed maps, 5 guys immediately quit. Played two other maps and it eventually went down to a 3v3. We asked what map they wanted then and immediately it was all "Casino, I don't know these other maps". Changed back to Casino and within 2 minutes of waiting for players, it was 7v7 again. Just crap like that makes me not want to even play this game anymore.

You don't know the fvcking map because you only play Calypso all the time, dumbass. :roll: Argh. Just frustrating.

 

[bucwylde23]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: nycxandy
I have a question pertaining to R6. Why do I have a crosshair in cover in single player but not in multiplayer?

Because then it's just cheap/cheating if you had the crosshair. Just camp behind a wall, knowing exactly where you're going to pop out and shoot when you see someone come running towards you.

IE, take Casino, everyone's favorite fvcking level. Have a guy camp the back door - if the crosshair was there, you'd just cover till a guy comes and squeeze the trigger. It's already bad/easy enough to camp w/ the cover, having a crosshair just makes it that much easier. Or, it could be an oversight since MP was done by a diff team than SP.

And for the love of god R6 players, please play some other map than Calypso. I played with my roomie the other night - full 14 man room, (7v7) for 2 rounds. Everytime one guy left, we immediately had another guy join. Once we changed maps, 5 guys immediately quit. Played two other maps and it eventually went down to a 3v3. We asked what map they wanted then and immediately it was all "Casino, I don't know these other maps". Changed back to Casino and within 2 minutes of waiting for players, it was 7v7 again. Just crap like that makes me not want to even play this game anymore.

You don't know the fvcking map because you only play Calypso all the time, dumbass. :roll: Argh. Just frustrating.

Totally agree. It's frustrating for me, too. I was playing A/D with a guy that I normally play with and we had that same problem, everyone wanted casino. So we switch to casino because the other guys "0wn" on that map. Well, we played defense and they never made it past keno or into the back stairs for a 20 minute match.

I can't believe that no one knows any of the other maps. Do people actually have fun playing ONE map constantly?

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: chrisg22
Totally agree. It's frustrating for me, too. I was playing A/D with a guy that I normally play with and we had that same problem, everyone wanted casino. So we switch to casino because the other guys "0wn" on that map. Well, we played defense and they never made it past keno or into the back stairs for a 20 minute match.

I can't believe that no one knows any of the other maps. Do people actually have fun playing ONE map constantly?

I guess so. That's all Jerry plays. Even my GF makes fun of him, it's sad. You were right in that Retrieval plays different maps, they almost never play Casino in that one.

That's the one feature (I originally hated) in Halo 2 that I really like now - the automatic map choosing. I think it makes for a balanced/random/mixed up games, as opposed to just the constant one map over and over. (Even if there were some absolute crap maps)

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
GRAW2 Multiplayer Preview : Video

That HD video is looking nice, liking the added options/features.

I'm definitely liking it. Looking forward to its release.

 

[Queasy]

Vongo looks like it could be a nice alternative to Live video marketplace if you have a WinXP MCE or Vista box. $9.99 a month for unlimited downloadable movie rentals.

 

[jlmadyson]

The 1UP Show: 02/02 - Episode 63

Check out some of this footage of Graw 2 Multiplayer (18 maps, not sure if that's confirmed?) and Oblivion: Shivering Isles xpac, some really good stuff here. Heh, got to love some of those comments at the end on the PS3 version of Oblivion and downloadable content, "not enough memory". Keep hearing these issues, more than anything it?s memory, but this is the first time I've heard it first hand on a specific game.

 

[nycxandy]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: nycxandy
I have a question pertaining to R6. Why do I have a crosshair in cover in single player but not in multiplayer?

Because then it's just cheap/cheating if you had the crosshair. Just camp behind a wall, knowing exactly where you're going to pop out and shoot when you see someone come running towards you.

IE, take Casino, everyone's favorite fvcking level. Have a guy camp the back door - if the crosshair was there, you'd just cover till a guy comes and squeeze the trigger. It's already bad/easy enough to camp w/ the cover, having a crosshair just makes it that much easier. Or, it could be an oversight since MP was done by a diff team than SP.

And for the love of god R6 players, please play some other map than Calypso. I played with my roomie the other night - full 14 man room, (7v7) for 2 rounds. Everytime one guy left, we immediately had another guy join. Once we changed maps, 5 guys immediately quit. Played two other maps and it eventually went down to a 3v3. We asked what map they wanted then and immediately it was all "Casino, I don't know these other maps". Changed back to Casino and within 2 minutes of waiting for players, it was 7v7 again. Just crap like that makes me not want to even play this game anymore.

You don't know the fvcking map because you only play Calypso all the time, dumbass. :roll; Argh. Just frustrating.

Oh ok. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't experiencing a bug or something. I'm still learning the game trying to reach a 1:1 K ratio.

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: nycxandy

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: nycxandy
I have a question pertaining to R6. Why do I have a crosshair in cover in single player but not in multiplayer?

Because then it's just cheap/cheating if you had the crosshair. Just camp behind a wall, knowing exactly where you're going to pop out and shoot when you see someone come running towards you.

IE, take Casino, everyone's favorite fvcking level. Have a guy camp the back door - if the crosshair was there, you'd just cover till a guy comes and squeeze the trigger. It's already bad/easy enough to camp w/ the cover, having a crosshair just makes it that much easier. Or, it could be an oversight since MP was done by a diff team than SP.

And for the love of god R6 players, please play some other map than Calypso. I played with my roomie the other night - full 14 man room, (7v7) for 2 rounds. Everytime one guy left, we immediately had another guy join. Once we changed maps, 5 guys immediately quit. Played two other maps and it eventually went down to a 3v3. We asked what map they wanted then and immediately it was all "Casino, I don't know these other maps". Changed back to Casino and within 2 minutes of waiting for players, it was 7v7 again. Just crap like that makes me not want to even play this game anymore.

You don't know the fvcking map because you only play Calypso all the time, dumbass. :roll: Argh. Just frustrating.

Oh ok. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't experiencing a bug or something. I'm still learning the game trying to reach a 1:1 K ratio.

That's a good goal to reach for. Some games you'll just have a bad day though...Thursday I was rolling left and right over people, then had a bad game (6-11). It happens.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Vongo looks like it could be a nice alternative to Live video marketplace if you have a WinXP MCE or Vista box. $9.99 a month for unlimited downloadable movie rentals.

Very interesting, I may actually get the 14-day trial. Gonna read up on it a bit more....

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: blurredvision

Originally posted by: Queasy
Vongo looks like it could be a nice alternative to Live video marketplace if you have a WinXP MCE or Vista box. $9.99 a month for unlimited downloadable movie rentals.

Very interesting, I may actually get the 14-day trial. Gonna read up on it a bit more....

Well it looks like a nice alternative to the market place even with the 360 since you just stream the movies. I just signed up for blockbuster total access, but I might have to drop that if there's a sizeable library with this service.

Can anyone comment of the quality of the service and video files? Is there HiDef available?

 

[blurredvision]

I think I'm going to get the trial, I'll let you guys know what I think.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I think I'm going to get the trial, I'll let you guys know what I think.

I was getting ready to sign up for the trial as well before my MCE PC blew up on me over the weekend. I've got everything working again so I'm going to try to sign up and download a movie or two tonight.

 

[purbeast0]

I'm liking the NBA Street demo, I'm looking forward to this full game :thumbsup:

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: blurredvision
I think I'm going to get the trial, I'll let you guys know what I think.

I was getting ready to sign up for the trial as well before my MCE PC blew up on me over the weekend. I've got everything working again so I'm going to try to sign up and download a movie or two tonight.

Well, from my initial impressions, it could be better. The software is fairly nice, although a bit choppy/slow in scrolling through movies titles. They went ahead and charged a month to my credit card upon signing up, although I'll assume that will be credited back if I cancel within the 14-day trial. When you sign up initially, the only option for you is the monthly sub with the 14-day trial, so no worries here that I'm under the right plan.

The movie list is lackluster at best, and the first thing you'll find once you get in the software is that most, if not all, of the most recent movies are PPV only, typically costing around $3.99. Yes, The movies that are downloadable under the sub are mainly older movies, with the most recent being a couple of years old. I was able to find 4 or 5 movies that I wanted to download, although most of them I've already seen and want to watch again.

They do offer different versions of each movie, if available, though. One movie offered me the uncut or regular version, and most of the others that I saw offered either standard or widescreen versions that you could download. The servers seem to be fairly fast, as I've seen it as 580Kbps, but no lower than 350Kbps.

I don't see myself keeping this past the 14-day trial, but it has potential so far. I'll update this when I get a movie downloaded to let you know how it looks, and easy it plays via the 360 media extender and via Media Center in Vista.

 

[blurredvision]

Looks like the Live Anywhere service Microsoft is getting ready to unveil will launch with Halo 2 for Vista (as well as Shadowrun). Live Anywhere is the service that allows you to have your one gamertag linked across not only 360 games, but Vista games as well, and should allow Vista gamers to play alongside 360 gamers in online matches.

article

 

[blurredvision]

A quick update on the Vongo service, so far it's pretty nice with the Vista Media Center integration. It's a very nice interface, and even allows you to select movie to download without using their software. It automatically inputs an icon in the TV+Movies section to access Vongo. It'll take a few seconds to load, but once it does, it'll automatically come to a main menu that will show some new releases on the left, along with links in the middle to download other movies. Previews will play on the right side of the screen automatically, and below that will show the progress of a currently downloading movie. On the far right of the screen is where you access your library. When you click on that, the whole screen shifts to the left, with the preview window now moving to the left, and your library showing on the right. You can then play a movie in that preview screen, or play it full screen.

Unfortunately, though, I can only get the Vongo software to work in Media Center when ran on my computer, but cannot get it to run on the 360. When I go into Media Center on the 360 and choose the Vongo icon, it acts like it's loading for a minute, then comes up with an error that says the 360 has unexpectantly disconnected from the network, and gives me options to reconnect or dump me to the dashboard. I can always connect immediately to Media Center, so something is definitely wrong here.

I'll update if I can find a solution, or somebody let me know if they are able to connect in Media Center on the 360.

 

[Queasy]

Ok, I finally had the opportunity to Vongo out. I'll try to add to what blurred said without repeating some of his points.

The service is OK but the movie selection is kind of bland. Lots of older movies and any hit movie that recently came out is PPV. Even some older hits are PPV. Recent movies that aren't hits (read Ultraviolet, Underworld:Evolution) are free to download. It appears that the entire Disney catalog is PPV. At times, there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason as to why some movies are PPV and others aren't...I believe it is predicated on the studio though.

I was able to download 4 movies in about 5 hours. Not too shabby at all for Standard Def movies. File sizes are around 1.2GB for a 2 hour movie.

A side perk with Vongo is that you are able to stream the Starz movie channel.

I tried out two of the movies I downloaded, Hitch and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I had no trouble whatsoever streaming to my 360 from my freshly re-installed WinXP MCE2005 box. Just selected the Vongo folder and the movie I wanted to watch and voila. Quality was below that of a regular DVD however. Files are encoded in WMV. Hitch looked good but there was some banding during some outer space shots for THHGTG.

Its kind of hard to get a feel for Vongo. I'd say that the service is pretty decent for $9.99/month IF they got more movies (especially more recent/quality). I mean, you get some great movies available like Sin City, A good selection of Bond, Big, Young Frankenstein but then you get a helping heaping of crap like VI Warshawski, every Earnest movie, Dragnet, and crap horror movies like Rodentz and Dr. Chopper. I just don't think I could recommend sticking beyond the 14-day trial.

 

[MBrown]

Does anyone else besides me think that Def Jam Icon looks pretty fun?

 

[raystorm]

Originally posted by: MBrown
Does anyone else besides me think that Def Jam Icon looks pretty fun?

Not a hip hop/rap fan but I really dug the previous Def Jam games as they were really solid and were made with the good wrestling engine AKI made for their WWE games. Not sure if AKI is doing this game too but if they are I think we'll have ourselves a fun game. Hopefully a demo will show up soon.