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First Xbox 360 Reviews Hitting the Web
An anonymous reader writes "The first reviews for Xbox 360 games are starting to hit the web! 1UP has reviewed Kameo, Project Gotham Racing 3, FIFA Soccer 2006, NBA 2K6, and Amped 3, while IGN has reviewed Madden NFL 06, Kameo, and NBA 2K6. Judging from both sets of reviews, it looks like Project Gotham Racing 3 - which scored a 10/10 on 1UP - is the only sure winner of the 360 launch games thus far."
What I find interesting about reviews during this time is that those who have to have the 360 have already bought, and likely already know which of the 20 or 30 games available they will buy. It's not like there will be anyone with a 360 who has not already been planning on buying one. So, just how useful is a review like this when, pretty much by definition, the likely consumers have already made up their minds?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
I mean let's be real: This is a GAME console, if you don't care about it for playing games, there's little reason to get one, espically at the current prices. $500 is plenty to build a media PC better than any X-box.
I think people looking to do this are expecting both, not one or the other. For me, for it to pay off it has to be a DVD, a Tivo, and a game box.
C//
Giving a game perfect score doesn't sound like something a respectable reviewer should do.
10 out of 10 possible indicates perfection, something that can't be improved. Suppose that a year later,
the game gets a sequel with some improvements. More cars, more levels - the usual sequel stuff. Shouldn't
that also receive a perfect score of 10, since it is the same "perfect" game, but just... better?
I do understand that scores are meant to be read like the bible, that they are just general guidelines and
that you really need to read the review. But scores are what will be quoted on advertisements, and a pretty clearly hype-influenced perfect score is just sad.
I agree. I bought an Xbox about a year and half after its launch, and it was a delight to have over ten excellent games to sit down and play the first day I brought it home. A lot of them were already in the cheap rental section at the local video store as well. There's no doubt the great games will come, but they aren't there for launch (are they ever?).
but this is slashdot. we use devices for everything but the intended purpose. play games on an xbox360? ha! we need to discuss important things like:
1) can i run linux on it?
2) can i build a beowulf cluster of them?
3) can i play illegally downloaded movies/music on it?
4) can i use it as an ssh proxy to connect to my file server hosted on a toaster running netbsd?
you know, things like that...
I think there is some serious "astroturfing" going on in this thread. Comments like yours, that are critical of the XBox, are being modded down as flamebait.
I've noticed the same thing as you, none of my friends are very excited about the 360. There doesn't seem to be much buzz surrounding it. Personally I think it is because all the games are just sequels, more of the same but with fancier graphics.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the Playstation3 comes out.
Ignoring the fact that you can't pick a winner from "both sets of reviews" when it's only included in one of them...
The "games have to get nine out of ten to be worth playing" mentality bothers me. A lot. Scores are inflated to the point where they're almost meaningless anyway; even though Black and White was a good game, do you really think it would have been consistently rated at the 90% level if it wasn't so anticipated and so hyped? The 10/10 on PGR3 means jack except for it's the obligatory launch title that everyone is expected to buy with the console. What console hasn't launched with at least one game in the 9/10 or above range?
Personally, I know I'd have more fun with Kameo than I would PGR3. I've got racing games, and plenty of them. I'd much rather have an experience that's new instead of something that we see modified and released anew every six months in some form.
It's also a letdown to see how the scores are determined. Kameo was scored lower because it's only going to last "weeks, not months?" Give me a fucking break - weeks of entertainment for $50 is still pretty darn good, all things considered, and Kameo also seems to be one of the few 360 launch titles that has a plot of some kind. Apparently, that's become a bad thing.
Goo goo g'joob.
"Does anyone else see what I see? All but one of these is a sequel! Where, O where, have the original fun-to-play games gone? :("
Um, this is a system launch. You picked the wrong time to expect originality or high quality games, and that goes for any system.
"Derp de derp."
You know, that really is too bad, because for once I'd like to play a well-crafted, simple, addictive game that doesn't feature neurotic plumbers, walking mushrooms, giant monkeys, turtles with wings, pink princesses, rainbows and clouds with fucking faces on them.
Alright, I take back what I said about the monkeys.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
My perception of the PS1 is that it started slowly, uninterestingly, and eventually picked up steam with better and better titles, really taking off with FF7, and finally ending its career at a ripe old age where it can still be bought in micro form with a huge game library available. I still see new copies of some Greatest Hits on the shelves at Best Buy.
Enter the PS2. The Playstation has a track record of a platform with a ton of top titles, offers better graphics, backward compatibility, a higher capacity format and DVD movie playing capabilities. Any suprise people wanted this one?
Contrast this with the XBOX. It started off with lots of hype, never really went anywhere with its library, instead relying on technical superiority, and they're already coming out with the next console before this one has had five years.
Enter the XBOX360. Now, the XBOX didn't have a great library, and so there's not much track record there. It's got slightly improved graphics (but probably not as good as the competition will have), some backward compatibility (but to a meager library), and the same old DVD format. People say "there are interesting games on the horizon," but honestly, I want to know: what are they?
Contrast this to the competition. The PS3 promises what the PS2 promised (and delivered on): highly improved graphics, full backward compatibility, a higher capacity format and the ability to play next-gen movies. It's sitting on a vast library of 2 generations of games, and all indications point to the next generation being just as big.
The Revolution promises full backward compatibility to everything Nintendo owns (although details are fuzzy), a new form of controller that could really make console shooters something else (as well as open up new types of games), and most importantly, all the Nintendo franchise games.
I can see why someone would want a PS3. I can see why someone would want a Nintendo Revolution. But why would someone want an XBOX360?
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
You miss the point. I had my XBMC set up in three hours. It can play just about any media, has digital audio out, hooks up to my TVs component inputs (and has done since it came out). Say a weeks work to produce something similar using off-the-shelf components? And at what cost? I've never even seen a video card with component-out that'll work in UK TVs. (we've always had RGB component inputs).
Also, you miss something MAJOR that most who undertake making a media pc miss out. The user interface. With the xbox, the UI is designed for the device. The remote control works out the box. No need to assign buttons to an existing remote, and "hack" buttons that don't exist on your remote. No "menu" button? Well, I'll use the "1" for that. No "display" button, guess I'll put that on "2" then. With XBMC the UI is specifically designed for the hardware, and it works beautifully. It has a better UI than ANY media device I've seen. Seriously, it's the dogs bollocks. The standard hardware is one of the things that benefits games developers, and guess what...it applies here too.
It's small, fits under the telly and it's cheap. I update it every other month and I am always pleasanly surprised by the new functionality they add. Last month it was an Apple website browser (lot's of quicktime media) as well as an iFilm browser. Watching streaming media to your TV over the net from the confort of your armchair? Bah, that's old news for us, and now we have a massive library to watch.
The only thing it doesn't do is TIVO style recording HOWEVER that's doable. It can display streams over the network, so all you need is a centralised PC doing the recording. And in essence this is a far superiour solution, as you can buy additional xbox "clients" for pennies now and watch the media in ANY room.
You really don't know what you are missing. Every tech-head who has seen my (cheap) setup now has one.
I'm interested but:
:)+
-This generation I'm married with kids, so dumping $700 ish into a system aint going to happen!
-I realize I can buy this for much cheaper in a few years with more games
-My PC is at least somewhat up to date reducing the need for the 360
-Oblivion is delayed anyways
Whatever you say, my friend.
Honourable mention (Wario is not a plumbler).
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