Insert plug for Kirby Air Ride here
I’m finding that I now think less of games that have unrealistic achievements, or ones that are too much of a slog. Worst offenders: PDZ, Blazing Angels, Ridge Racer. I expect at least 600 points after finishing the SP game and maybe some online matches.
XBL play is worldwide, IIRC. I know Ridge Racer has an achievement for playing an “international” online match. MS also tracks your region for content restriction purposes (no demos for JP games in the US, etc.).
Hitman: Blood Money’s achievements are the model for me. You want to meaty 100 point achievements in there.
Or maybe Dead Rising. Those are some pretty good ones too.
Right now I’m only looking forward to Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Lost Planet, and Operation Darkness during the next year, at least as far as I can tell. There are others I’m interested in, like BioShock, but they’re also coming out for the PC, and would most likely be a superior experience.
If 360 games added USB keyboard/mouse support, at least in offline play, then that would top it for me. But until then…
I put 60+ hours into Ridge Racer 6 and still only have around 650 points. Only a scant few are difficult to earn, but that game is a total timesink. Purposefully designed to stretch the tedium in order to keep the player holding a controller. I like the game, but it’s unappreciative.
Everybody, including me, forgot Castle Crashers on XBLA! This is a serious oversight because that game looks badical. I’m on the fence about Viva Pinata.
I believe I’m the only one in the world who thinks that The Outfit is a great game.
That said, if you’re looking for some 2-player co-op over Live, I think you could do a lot worse than TO. I also happen to think it’s a hell of a lot of fun once you “get” the controls and gameplay mechanics.
ElGuapo loves the Outfit as I’m sure he’ll point out if he sees this. I’ll probably grab it if it ever drops below 20, it hasn’t yet has it?
I’m looking forward to Viva Pinata. The cartoon is…let’s just say “not for me” and irritates me. But the game doesn’t have all that silly talking pinatas stuff and what I’ve seen of it seems like a really slick game in the Animal Crossing vein.
There’s some good stuff coming to Live Arcade. Right now I would say if you have to get one game, get Uno. $5, and one of the best XBLA games around. But there’s Lumines Live, Small Arms, Alien Hominid, Mini Golf, Carcassonne, Alhambra, Castle Crashers, and more really promising stuff coming up.
There are so many great dlable games they could stick on XBLA but don’t. Gish, Samarost 1/2, Cave Story, Golf? - I would buy these. This really demands its own thread.
A great game? No - too simplistic, too repetitive. And what’s the point of giving you defensive structures if you don’t spend more time defending things?
But I really liked it, in spite of its shortcomings, in large part because it isn’t too micromanagement-y. [Which is what turns me off about Company of Heroes.] If they had kept the RTS-lite elements but made the combat feel more like, say, Freedom Fighters - now that would’ve been sweet.
That sounds pretty cool, actually. Just looking at a few vids and it seems a lot of fun (Sorry Tom).
Gish isn’t a great game, it is a great game idea that they built a shitty game around.
I paid 22$ or something at gamefly w/ a coupon. IT’s a decent game, I like it a bit betetr than graw.
Defensive structures?
I use everything for offense. It’s no different from any RTS IMO - attack, attack, attack. It’s the one strategy my old man gave me in playing chess and god bless him it’s worked for just about everything. If you’re not attacking, you’re losing.
I think a lot of people got turned off by the early single player game in TO, where there isn’t much variety and it comes off as a simple shootemup. The rest of the people got turned off by the MP demo that threw you into an unforgiving chaos.
Again, if you spent the (short) time it requires to get acquainted… TO delivers in a way many games try to but ultimately fail.
The Outfit almost lost me until about the 2-3 hour mark where it clicked. Up until that point, it felt like a weak Armed & Dangerous clone. Relic should have given the players tanks much earlier in the game.