Gaming Steve: My Second Day with the Xbox 360, Part 2

October 12, 2005

My Second Day with the Xbox 360, Part 2

Xbox 360 Live and in Person During my second day at the NYC Xbox 360 Event I brought along my friend Dave to try out some of the multiplayer aspects of the games. Unfortunately Live multiplayer wasn’t enabled so we could only try out two-player and co-op modes on each game. Below are my thoughts on multiplayer as well some photos from the event. Make sure to come back later in the week for my podcast show where I’ll go into even more detail about every single aspect of the Xbox 360!

Perfect Dark Zero: It was a bit hard to completely understand what was going on with all the room noise but we got to play a cooperative mission where one person played Joanna Dark and the other person played a nameless female agent (well, I’m sure she had a name but we couldn’t hear what it was). The mission we were playing took place inside an industrial complex which was being attacked by small robotic spiders -- Dave mentioned that it looked like something from the cheesy Tom Selleck movie Runaway, not a good sign.

The level appeared to be a basic tutorial level it was explaining how to use the controller and it was a bit light on the combat. The mission consisted of us rescuing a scientist being assaulted by the killer robots, unlocking doors via a timing minigame, flying remote controlled skybots (which looked like chrome sphere’s from the movie Phantasm), and taking out flying enemies on the roof. Overall co-op play was a lot more fun than the single player experience, but then again, co-op play is usually more fun. I still have my reservations about this title as I didn’t see anything ground-breaking and the graphics were "next gen" but a bit on the funky side. But the weapon selection was very nice, and I wasn’t able to try out a large multiplayer map, so I’m still reserving final judgment.

One thing which should be mentioned right away is that you can’t jump in PDZ. You can do a combat roll, which is pretty cool, but Joanna Dark Can’t Jump. It was explained to me by the Microsoft rep that one reason jump was removed is that they didn’t want multiplayer to become a jumpfest. I told him to get ready for a mini-mutiny and sure enough throughout the night I would repeatedly hear “What? You can’t jump?!” But who knows? Perhaps the combat roll will become the new “jump button” of 2006?

Call of Duty 2: Being a huge Call of Duty fan Dave practically ran to this station and was not disappointed. The game looks great and plays just like the original. After playing single player for a bit the MS rep set us up on a 2-player deathmatch game in a bombed out town in France. I played the Germans and Dave played the British. Before the match we each got to select one of five different country-specific weapons and then the fun began. Dave took the ground while I managed to find a machine-gun nest on the second floor of a bombed building. Things were looking bad for Dave, until a well thrown grenade took my guy out.

The game continued as your basic one-on-one deathmatch game with each of us dying several times. Fun, but the map was a bit too big for intense two-player action. It would have been nice to try an eight-player deathmatch, but the game looked and played great. This game looks like a winner and a solid sequel to the excellent Call of Duty.

I also played Dead or Alive 4 multiplayer a bit, but don’t really have a lot to say about that game. If you played the first three you know what to expect in this version. Overall I was most impressed with Xbox Live Arcade, Kameo: Elements of Power, and Condemned: Criminal Origins as well as the physical unit itself. Look for a lot more Xbox 360 coverage in the upcoming weeks.

Finally, the ability to touch and use the Xbox 360 without a 3-inch protective sheet of plastic surrounding it.

NYC Xbox 360 Event
Kameo looked amazing and was a blast to play.

NYC Xbox 360 Event
Xbox 360s as far as the eye could see.

NYC Xbox 360 Event
Gaming Steve plays the most graphic-intensive Xbox 360 game ever to be released...

NYC Xbox 360 Event
... Joust! (It's part of Xbox Live and actually looked amazing in 1080i!)

NYC Xbox 360 Event
People were eating and drinking right next all those brand new Xbox 360s. It almost felt wrong.

NYC Xbox 360 Event
One nice bonus was the free Xbox 360 Memory Unit we each got to keep after the event. They even pre-loaded a few games onto the unit.

NYC Xbox 360 Event
Of course without an Xbox 360 it's just a nice piece of plastic right now.

Posted by Gaming Steve at 11:00 PM | Comments (16) | Posted to Xbox |

Comments

That sure is a nice piece of plastic....

Someone is having a very nice week!

Posted by PatMan33 at October 13, 2005 01:18 AM

The Xbox 360 really is looking like its become a true "next-gen" console. I actually want one now! Microsoft is realeasing their next-gen console in the coming weeks, Nintendo is working on their Revolution, but it leaves me wondering, what is Sony doing right now?

The 360 is looking much better than I thought when I first saw it in May. Hope you had fun at the event Steve! Thanks for all the info! :)

Posted by Pilot4Life at October 13, 2005 02:06 AM

Joust....you know. I WAS going to get a PS3, but now all of a sudden it may well be an xbox360. Joust is one of the coolest games of all times. Of course, that being said, SONY will now probally go and release GALAGA with their new console. Curses. >:(

Posted by Behumat at October 13, 2005 02:38 AM

Perfect Dark Zero - No jumping?

Come on....seriously? That title is going to be on the $20 rack within a month of release. That's horrible. It almosts seems like Rare put their A team on Kameo and their B team on PDZ. That's really embarassing for them.

Posted by Jason at October 13, 2005 06:25 AM

This jumping fixation is officially out of control.

Rest assured, if the game's design called for jumping, jumping would be in there. To assume the design is broken, or that the game will end up "on the $20 rack" because you can't jump is premature on the one hand and rediculous on the other.

I'm sure you won't miss jumping with all of the zip-lining, cover-taking, combat-rolling, vehicle-driving, jetpack-flying, boss-battling, pistol-whipping, and lock-picking, etc. you'll be doing.

Posted by Adam at October 13, 2005 04:20 PM

Yeah, but hell, is such a basic aspect of basic character control was cut from the game, it really gives me a bad feeling about what else they cut.

No zooming, maybe? No running? Maybe no looking up and down?

*shrug*

Posted by Mista_B at October 13, 2005 11:57 PM

First, let me say thank you to Steve for you input. I'm glad to see you enjoyed the Xbox 360. I've got a few questions:

1) Did they reveal the secret Halo character in the Dead or Alive game?

2) Is Kameo's online support going to include cooperative play or is that only for split-screen?

Secondly, to those who are up in arms about there not being a jump option in Perfect Dark Zero. Are you kidding? It makes me wonder if all current Xbox first-person shooter fans are simply groomed as Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 fans in short. Are you familiar with the Rainbow Six series, the Ghost Recon series, GoldenEye, the Perfect Dark Zero, and the Call of Duty series.

Jumping is an overrated, overused and pathetic aspect of most first-person shooters. You would find this to be accurate concerning an actual gun fight and I'm glad they're not utilizing the jump aspect. The roll sounds far more authentic and true-to-form in respects to reality. That being said, I support the Halo series, and others, to continue using the jump option, but I find it ridiculous to assume people are going to be turned off by the lack of jumping capability. I'm glad those people are going to be turned off, as I would rather not play with such shallow attitudes online. Hopefully it will keep a number of the twelve-year-olds out of sight.

Posted by Jeremy Patenaude at October 14, 2005 11:09 AM

I did not see the Halo character being played in DOA4. Kameo I believe can be played via split screen co-op (it was not available during the event). And Rare has toyed with the idea of an Xbox Live co-op mode as an eventual downloadable addition if the game is popular enough.

Posted by Gaming Steve at October 14, 2005 01:03 PM

Great article.

Quick hardware related question though - the 360's are obviously hooked up to Samsung HD-ready TV's - I've heard rumours of a 'delay' in response time when using consoles on some Samsung models, i.e you press up on the controller and it doesn't register on screen instantaniously. Any sign of such behaviour here?

I wouldn't have thought MS would demo their new baby on such sets in case people thought it was a fault in the 360 hardware...

Posted by Jodo UK at October 15, 2005 06:51 AM

Now that Elder Scrolls will not be ready at launch, my interest in Xbox 360 has dropped a lot. Especially when there are rumors of a shortage...

Posted by Shikaeshi at October 15, 2005 09:55 AM

So... neither PD nor CoD have bots?

Microsoft is very anti-bot. They want to force us to use Live. Unfortunately Live is a hassle and time consuming, and often doesn't work with split screen. I live with two other guys, all we want to do is kill each other. 3 player isn't fun, our skill levels aren't even remotely close to each other. Bots balance it.

No bots... no sale. Looks like we'll be sticking mostly with Nintendo again.

Posted by MosquitoControl at October 15, 2005 11:26 AM

Mosquito, I've read from some other sources that PD0 DOES have bots in multiplayer. But I cannot give you 100% assurance.

Also, if you can get a developer to say that Microsoft forces them not to put in bots in a game, I'd be really shocked. I seriously doubt that's the case.

Live is great. Not sure what you mean by "hassle and time consuming". No hassles for me.

Posted by SurfMurph at October 15, 2005 11:49 AM

k...i see all those nice displays...the xbox 360's...yadayadayada...ok..now one question..where are the speakers?!!?!? yeah yeah..there are speakers in the tv's...who cares?!?! they are CRAP. you tell me that some weakassed speakers in a tv can compare to some Martin Logans? i think not. sigh...it just goes to show they are afraid of poor sound quality coming up...as is pretty typical of the industry...even the PC companies dont even take it seriously...look at Creative...weak drivers...lackluster products...i mean...how do you 'upsample' sound to something thats not there? i think the xbox 360 is a good idea...but to totally ignore the 'sound quality' which is something i never see in ANY article..its always about graphics graphics graphics...how about next gen gameplay? next gen sound? next gen quality rather than old school regurgitation :P sigh. ppl are such sheep :P

Posted by KPN at October 15, 2005 12:02 PM

The dashboard is what made the XBox standout against other console systems. The ability to store music and have them play within a game was revolutionary. Having seen the new dashboard in XBox360 I can only say that they're doing it again. This one is on my wanted list. :P

Posted by Nanarchy at October 15, 2005 02:27 PM

Thanks Steve for your information, as it definitely helps my decision on Kameo....

MosquitoControl, Perfect Dark Zero will, in fact, have bots. The bots will come in at least three different flavors: Agent, Secret Agent and Perfect Agent, as the campaign's difficulty settings are. There may even be the fifth, Dark Agent, which is said to be the hardest. You will have up to 32 players and there will be six maps that support all 32 players at launch. Those maps can scale up or down depending on the number of players involved. Call of Duty 2 does not have bots, from what I've been advised. It will support 16 player matches, but beyond that I do not know.

As for other Xbox Live games, the notion that there are no bots is ridiculous. Star Wars: Battlefront and the soon-to-be sequel rely heavily on bots. In fact, those games supported 24 players online which are supported by bots. Microsoft does want Live compatibility, as it knows that the most fun a player can have outside the single-player campaign is with other, real people. Following that line of thought, I'm sure they support bots in their games as well, since there is a large market of people without broadband access...

Posted by Jeremy Patenaude at October 15, 2005 03:39 PM

I can confirm first hand that PDZ has bots in multiplayer. I played one game with 4-5 bots (I didn't check the max I could put in, sorry) and one of player over system link. I'm not sure what level the bots were on, but they weren't that bad. I came in second place, losing to a bot.

Posted by Justin Nolan at October 15, 2005 07:28 PM