Gaming Steve: My Second Day with the Xbox 360

October 11, 2005

My Second Day with the Xbox 360

After spending one day with the Xbox 360 I went back to the New York press event and played the few games that I missed. Here are my thoughts on those and make sure to check out the site tomorrow when I do a final recap of the event, post some pictures, and talk about the Xbox 360 multiplayer experience:

Xbox Live Arcade: I spent quite a bit of time playing Live Arcade since I knew almost nothing about it before the event and ended up quite impressed. Think Shockwave.com but with more "mature" games and lower prices (each game is priced separately with most being under $10 each). All of the games from Live Arcade are downloaded onto your Xbox and they have wide variety of game categories. After you download a game you can try it our for free and if you like what you see you can purchase the game for a small fee. The games I saw were more twitch-based than puzzle-based (which I think is a "good thing"), they played great with the console controller, looked amazing in HD. You might not buy the Xbox 360 to play Xbox Live Arcade but I think people will be amazed at the selection and quality of these smaller titles.

Dead or Alive 4: If you played DOA1, or DOA2, or DOA3 know the drill. It looks amazing and it plays just fine. If you liked DOA3 (or 2 or 1) you'll like DOA4.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The demo only featured two levels, which I believe are the exact same levels you can play on the currently released PC demo. The gameplay was a bit rough, but the graphics looked great. Plus, it's being made by Michel Ancel and the same team behind Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil (a fantastic game that nobody played). Expect potentially great things.

Project Gotham Racing 3: I didn't get to spend a huge amount of time with this one, but the plethora of options should appease any hardcore racing fan. One nice touch was crowd reactions, smash your car into the guardrail and watch the people scatter. I heard there were "famous New Yorkers" in the crowds, but they're a bit hard to see when you're flying by at 140 MPH.

NBA 2K6 & NBA LIVE 06: Wow, I mean, wow. The graphics were jaw-droppingly realistic. Shame they didn't have NHL 2K6 there as that is one of the only sports genres I still actively play.

Finally, I got a sweet little "keepsake" from the event -- my very own Xbox 360 Memory Card (of which I'll show you all tomorrow) and they even preloaded a few games on it for me. Of course, now I need an Xbox 360 to play those games...

Posted by Gaming Steve at 11:00 PM | Comments (6) | Posted to Xbox |

Comments

I totally agree with you about Condemned being "best of show." I was blown away by that game. I probably played it for nearly an hour today. I should have saved the game on my memory card, but I didn't know we would get to keep them! I'm so tempted to throw mine up on ebay to see how much it would go for ;)

Posted by Justin Nolan at October 12, 2005 1:02 AM

Your SECOND day with the 360? You lucky guy Steve. lol. Yeah, Im really looking foreward to some screens of NHL 2K6 for the 360 as well (Im a big hockey fan). That Xbox Live Arcade sounds really cool as well. J Allard said in a recent interview that some games downloaded from the Xbox Arcade can use the media remote as a controller as well ("Sort of" like the Revolution).

Thanks for all the coverage on this Steve. From hearing your comments, Im starting to think that the PS3 might be in trouble as well. Looking foreward tomorrows recap. :)

Posted by Pilot4Life at October 12, 2005 2:57 AM

Great read, I found your site form majornelson.com :)
When you say they saved some games onto your memory card I pressume you mean xbox arcade games?

Posted by DM2 at October 12, 2005 4:27 AM

I WOULD KILL TO BE THERE.
Steve, is it as good as they make out.
are the games true next gen, and what i mean by next gen is ground breaking gameplaynot just good graphics, Next Gen like the Nintendo controller.
can you write or talk about this please because i feel that it is the same games with better graphics. what do you think?

Posted by Teh_Jess at October 12, 2005 6:18 AM

Wow, Steve. Glad to see your hard work covering video games is paying off for you. There are thousands (millions?) of gamers who would love to be at the press event as well. Second best is reading your reports from the event. Did you get to play any of these games in multiplayer mode? Did you get to try out spectator mode on PGR3?

As I said yesterday, I don't expect innovation in launch titles since publishers don't want to take too many risks early on. But I've heard that Kameo may have some interesting innovative elements in it. Can you confirm?

Posted by SurfMurph at October 12, 2005 1:03 PM

Condemned is definitely on my shortlist. Looks like a great combo of horror and action. :)

Sega's got a little campaign going on to promote it. I think it's supposed to be a prequel to the game or something. Pretty creepy.

http://www.condemnedgame.com

Also, I'm glad Kameo is looking good. I also had my doubts, since it's been in development so long...

Nice article--thanks for the inside scoop!

Posted by Chris at October 12, 2005 4:28 PM



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Here are my thoughts on those and make sure to check out the site tomorrow when I do a final recap of the event, post some pictures, and talk about the Xbox 360 multiplayer experience: Xbox Live Arcade: I spent quite a bit of time playing Live Arcade since I knew almost nothing about it before the event and ended up quite impressed. Think Shockwave.com but with more "mature" games and lower prices (each game is priced separately with most being under $10 each). All of the games from Live Arcade are downloaded onto your Xbox and they have wide variety of game categories. After you download a game you can try it our for free and if you like what you see you can purchase the game for a small fee. The games I saw were more twitch-based than puzzle-based (which I think is a "good thing"), they played great with the console controller, looked amazing in HD. You might not buy the Xbox 360 to play Xbox Live Arcade but I think people will be amazed at the selection and quality of these smaller titles. Dead or Alive 4: If you played DOA1, or DOA2, or DOA3 know the drill. It looks amazing and it plays just fine. If you liked DOA3 (or 2 or 1) you'll like DOA4. Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The demo only featured two levels, which I believe are the exact same levels you can play on the currently released PC demo. The gameplay was a bit rough, but the graphics looked great. Plus, it's being made by Michel Ancel and the same team behind Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil (a fantastic game that nobody played). Expect potentially great things. Project Gotham Racing 3: I didn't get to spend a huge amount of time with this one, but the plethora of options should appease any hardcore racing fan. One nice touch was crowd reactions, smash your car into the guardrail and watch the people scatter. I heard there were "famous New Yorkers" in the crowds, but they're a bit hard to see when you're flying by at 140 MPH. NBA 2K6 & NBA LIVE 06: Wow, I mean, wow. The graphics were jaw-droppingly realistic. Shame they didn't have NHL 2K6 there as that is one of the only sports genres I still actively play. Finally, I got a sweet little "keepsake" from the event -- my very own Xbox 360 Memory Card (of which I'll show you all tomorrow) and they even preloaded a few games on it for me. Of course, now I need an Xbox 360 to play those games... Posted by Gaming Steve at 11:00 PM \| Comments (6) \| Posted to Xbox \| Comments I totally agree with you about Condemned being "best of show." I was blown away by that game. I probably played it for nearly an hour today. I should have saved the game on my memory card, but I didn't know we would get to keep them! I'm so tempted to throw mine up on ebay to see how much it would go for ;) Posted by Justin Nolan at October 12, 2005 1:02 AM Your SECOND day with the 360? You lucky guy Steve. lol. Yeah, Im really looking foreward to some screens of NHL 2K6 for the 360 as well (Im a big hockey fan). That Xbox Live Arcade sounds really cool as well. J Allard said in a recent interview that some games downloaded from the Xbox Arcade can use the media remote as a controller as well ("Sort of" like the Revolution). Thanks for all the coverage on this Steve. From hearing your comments, Im starting to think that the PS3 might be in trouble as well. Looking foreward tomorrows recap. :) Posted by Pilot4Life at October 12, 2005 2:57 AM Great read, I found your site form majornelson.com :) When you say they saved some games onto your memory card I pressume you mean xbox arcade games? Posted by DM2 at October 12, 2005 4:27 AM I WOULD KILL TO BE THERE. Steve, is it as good as they make out. are the games true next gen, and what i mean by next gen is ground breaking gameplaynot just good graphics, Next Gen like the Nintendo controller. can you write or talk about this please because i feel that it is the same games with better graphics. what do you think? Posted by Teh_Jess at October 12, 2005 6:18 AM Wow, Steve. Glad to see your hard work covering video games is paying off for you. There are thousands (millions?) of gamers who would love to be at the press event as well. Second best is reading your reports from the event. Did you get to play any of these games in multiplayer mode? Did you get to try out spectator mode on PGR3? As I said yesterday, I don't expect innovation in launch titles since publishers don't want to take too many risks early on. But I've heard that Kameo may have some interesting innovative elements in it. Can you confirm? Posted by SurfMurph at October 12, 2005 1:03 PM Condemned is definitely on my shortlist. Looks like a great combo of horror and action. :) Sega's got a little campaign going on to promote it. I think it's supposed to be a prequel to the game or something. Pretty creepy. http://www.condemnedgame.com Also, I'm glad Kameo is looking good. I also had my doubts, since it's been in development so long... Nice article--thanks for the inside scoop! Posted by Chris at October 12, 2005 4:28 PM
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