So recently I’ve gotten back into playing my Xbox 360 a little bit after picking up Tales of Vesperia, Burnout Paradise, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker during Gamestop’s buy 2 get 1 free promotion last week. Hopefully that’s the last of the games I’m picking up for a while because I’ve been piling them up over the past year or so. I’m going to have to bring the Wii back up to my office to finish those games. Anyway, I’m finding that both the Xbox 360 games are quite good (haven’t gotten to Wind Waker yet).
As for the PC, I’ve been getting back into playing Starcraft and Age of Empires III and putting Left 4 Dead (a bit angry that Valve is releasing Left 4 Dead 2 so soon) and Team Fortress 2 aside. I’ve forgotten how fun RTS games are and am now very excited for Starcraft II. So far we’re mostly playing against the computer and getting better very quickly. I’m probably going to be trying out the Xfire broadcasting feature, so you might see me doing that online in the near future.
I forgot I capped this clip, but it’s from the Magic vs. Cavs series. I’m really looking for the Magic to pull out game 2 tonight.
After many years since the last Street Fighter game, the highly anticipated Street Fighter IV has been released. Since I missed the entire Playstation 2 / Dreamcast / Xbox generation and I recently got back into console gaming with the Xbox 360, I’ve somewhat been looking forward to this game. However given that I haven’t actually played the game yet and have only watched some videos on YouTube, I’m leaning toward waiting a couple months until I can find a good deal for $30 or under at the very least. I’m a fan of the art style, but for some reason I’m a bit soured on the voice acting and that the game looks somewhat uninteresting as a whole.
Compared to the more recent Street Fighter style games like Marvel vs. Capcom and Guilty Gear that I’ve tried out through various arcade emulators, I’m getting the feeling that that actual gameplay has taken a step back. I’m aware that they’re skewing the gameplay to appeal to casual fans and beginners, but it looks almost too basic. I think I would be more excited if Capcom released Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on XBLA or found a way to get the licensing straight so Tatsunoko vs. Capcom can be released in the US.
My other gripe about the game is that the new characters they added are a bit bland looking and are uninteresting in general. They’re really quite boring compared to back when Super Street Fighter II added T. Hawk, Cammy, Fei Long, Dee Jay, and Akuma. Something tells me that by the time Street Fighter V rolls along, the new guys will not make the cut. Maybe I’ll change my mind once I get to try out the game through a demo, but I think I’ll hold off for now (and finish up all of these other games I have). Or maybe I’m just getting too old now.
People may or may not know that the Xbox 360 is getting a major system update on November 19, so I’ll shed some insight about the whole thing. I was recently accepted into the New Xbox Experience Preview Program and will be able to try out all the new features before they open it to the world this coming Wednesday. Some of the new features include Avatars, Netflix video streaming, an install-to-hard-drive feature, and of course a revamped layout. I have to say, I’m pretty impressed with this substantial upgrade that will probably change the console forever (not that you’ll be able to go back to the old “blades” system though).
So the new public demo of Left 4 Dead came out a few days ago and I finally got a chance to play it last night. The hotly anticipated title from Valve Software is only a week away from release and I have to say, the hype is meeting my expectations so far. I’d already ordered it off of Amazon.com months ago, but after hearing so many positive things about the game up to this point, I couldn’t resist waiting for the full version and gave it a go on my trusty PC (the demo is out on Xbox 360 as well, but as most of you know I have “problems” aiming with an analog stick).
Valve has done a great job again following the release of The Orange Box last year and have produced a stellar game that not only fills a hole in the co-op gaming spectrum, but highlights a trend that I hope continues for years to come. In an age where first-person shooters have become generic and bland, Left 4 Dead is innovative. Each time the experience is different due to the “AI Director” that they’ve implemented in the game. Simply the Director knows when the group moves to a new area and determines the type, volume, and difficulty of enemies based on the skill and current health of the group. Each time you play, the available weapons and health kits may be different as well.
Technically, Left 4 Dead is built on the Source engine which means hardware requirements scale all the way down to lower-end computers, but still looks great on the most powerful machines out there. I found that even my mid-range desktop (Core 2 Duo @ 2.67ghz + ATI HD3870 OC) performed very well with all the details turned up. Logistically it was easy to find buddies that were already playing and join their game in progress without needing to use a server browser all the time. Overall the game boils down to the co-op gameplay which for the most part excellent. When I could gather three other people to play with, I had a lot of fun even though I was playing through the same two levels every time (which I did probably 5 times). I expect that the full experience (which launches on November 18th) will be even better with varying objectives and scenarios.
Years ago when the Xbox 360 came out (when I was still at the University of Maryland), I dismissed it completely because of the lack of games, lack of a good TV to play on, and lack of people to play with. Fast forward 3 years and the Xbox 360 has become a viable platform for media streaming, a hub for HD downloadable Arcade games and demos, and has a many more games (at decent prices especially for the older games). I took the opportunity while on vacation in Eastern Maryland and Delaware (tax free) to pick one up at Costco nearly a week after the recent $50 price drop. So far I’m really liking what I’m seeing. Not to discount how good the PS3 is because of its unique ability as blu-ray player, but the Xbox fits right in there as the top HD gaming/media center system until Sony gets the price point right and/or blu-ray becomes mainstream enough to get those discs into my local library.
Recently I picked up a couple games including Castle Crashers on XBLA, Gears of War, Halo 3 Limited Edition, and Lost Odyssey to begin my 360 game collection. I assume those will last me a little while since I have lots of Wii games to still go through. I’d have to say that I’m playing Castle Crashers the most right now since it’s been quite a while from the last time I played a really good beat ‘em up game. One of these days I hope they make TMNT: Turtles in Time, Simpsons Arcade, and X-Men Arcade for XBLA (and yes, if you recognize these games, you’re getting old like me since they came out in the early 90’s). If anyone wants to play with me on Xbox Live, my gamercard is down at the bottom of the column on the right over there.
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