My brother and I are now buying a Pro (well, after Christmas, discounts ftw!) and we were wondering how you tell one of the Falcons from one of the ones that suck.
Our current game list is pretty good, but suggestions are always lurved. In no particular order:
Dead Rising
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Viva Pinata
Skate
CoD4
Forza 2
Dirt (he wants it, I’ve heard nothing about it?)
Bioshock
Our not buying list:
Crackdown (not fans)
GH3 (we’ve got it on the PS2)
Xbox Live (we like our liquor, and this means less of it)
Chromehounds (no live, no point)
Saints Row (he’s a racist against thuggs, I’m cheap)
I feel like we’re missing stuff, but I’m going to be poor as hell after this anyway, so I’m not too worried.
Most important is how to tell a bad Xbox from a good one, so, uh, halp!
You got CoD4, Viva Pinata and Bioshock on there. All available for PC. The fact that you have them on this list leads me to believe you’re fine with playing the 360 version, or don’t have the PC necessary to play 'em.
As such, let me suggest Orange Box.
Assassin’s Creed is pretty good, too. Or pretty awful. It seems to very from person to person. For me it varied from moment to moment.
No Xbox Live? I say this often (and get flamed for it regularly on this board), but I simply can’t fathom why you’d choose to play a game against a limited, predictable AI when you could play it against a human being. This goes double or triple for shooters, especially CoD4, which is a good enough single player game but is a sublime multiplayer one.
You don’t have Gears of War or Halo 3 on either list. If they’re not specifically ‘not buying’ games, then they should probably be specifically ‘am buying’ games. Especially since both feature co-op in the single player campaign.
While that’s definitely a valid criticism, I would like to point out that Xbox Live makes it really easy to mute these people, and me & my friends make frequent use of this feature. I especially like muting the 12 year olds and the heavy breathers. The beauty of muting them is, they can’t hear you either. So after muting them, we can all make fun of them all we want, without fear of coming across as assholes. (I might not like hearing a 12 year old in my ears, but that doesn’t mean I want to be mean to him or her either).
I am still new to the Xbox thing, I will give the muting a try. In general I loathe any sort of voice comms but with a good group it is definitely worth it.
I have a 360 without Live, and the only thing I miss is DLC – which, admittedly is a pretty big miss. To me, multiplayer console gaming has to be done with everyone in the same living room.
Chuck Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend onto the list. It should be dirt cheap by now. Also consider Marvel Ultimate Alliance; make sure you get the Gold Edition or Special Edition with the bonus pack characters.
Definite thumbs up to Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Might be a bit easy, but that makes it perfect for, um, liquored up gaming.
Have you actually tried Crackdown? If so, go ahead and skip it, but I thought it was a hoot.
I’d get Saints Row, but we’re only going 50/50 on stuff if it’s unanimous and I’d rather not shell out alone when I could just rent it.
Assassin’s Creed is probably a good idea.
Because he goes to college up in PA and I go to college in GA and the xbox is staying with my cheap ass, so I’ll have to pay for live. And I’m pretty effing cheap.
Aeon221, in case you missed it above, the article jfletch linked to has a really nice description of how to tell the new Falcon 360s apart. Lots of screenshots, etc. It even has screenshots of the box and where to lift the flap and look at the relevant information on the box.
