Tag Archives: 360

Dec 06 2008
Games

Persistent Growth

Persistence. I’m going to call it a feature. Three really excellent titles feature persistence this year:

  1. The World Ends With You, by Square Enix for the Nintendo DS
  2. City of Heroes, by NCSoft, for the PC (and MAC!)
  3. Fable 2, by Lionhead studios for the xbox 360

The World Ends With You had a great system of character growth. Your skills are attached to wearable pins. The more you use them, the more they level up. What was also interesting was the fact that they would earn experience when you weren’t playing, but only to a certain level cap.

In addition to being a great game, it was always a major draw to come back to it after a couple of days to check on the pins and swap them out so that other attacks could become more powerful. Even when I wasn’t playing, my characters were getting stronger. It felt like the game was going on, even when it was switched off.

In MMOs the world goes on without you regardless of whether or not you’re in it. But nothing directly happens to your character. There’s no growth–at least in most cases. (World of WarCraft toys with this idea, but it’s merely a case of accruing a period of time where you earn double “rested” XP. This is done, presumably so you can log back in and level up twice as quickly to make up for the time you’ve spent falling behind your friends who raid full time, in addition to their 40 hour a week day job.) Continue reading →

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Sep 25 2007
Games

The Haloz

In what may be my most public display of nerditry yet, I have just come back from spending part of my lunch break shaking boxes of the Halo 3 Limited Edition box (themselves, encased in plastic boxes) in order to determine whether or not discs have gotten loose in shipping.

Verdict: All of them are loose.

Which means scratched up discs, which means your seventy dollar purchase has to go back to the store for a replacement.

The worst part about this is the fact that I did not, in fact purchase anything, and just walked out of the store, Halo-less.

I was rather tempted by the Super Limited Legendary Edition, which comes in a box about the size of a small laser printer.

Yes, it really is that big.

Update: I just canceled my Amazon order and I’m actually going to head back to that Best Buy and purchase a copy of Halo 3 anyway.

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Aug 27 2007
Games

BioShock

BioShock is the best anti objectivist essay I have ever played through.

Ultimately, that’s not a good one sentence review.

Let me try again.

“BioShock is one of the few games in my collection that has compelled me to its completion.”

In fact, I’m playing through it again, and that should tell you something else.  I’m doing it for two reasons.  One, to watch the plot develop again, knowing what I know now about the game’s protagonist and the twist that occurs roughly two thirds into the game.  Two, I’d like to see how the 360 version stacks up to the PC experience I had on my first run through.

There are hints even in the game’s opening cinematic (itself remarkable because it happens entirely in the first person point of view) that I have discovered on the second playthrough.  This second playthrough is a different affair, with the comfy chair, big screen, wireless controller and 5.1 surround.

The control is taking me a little while to get adjusted to, there’s a bit of autoaim, hacking is quite different from the PC to the 360 version, but overall the flow of the game is the same.  I’m trying a different “route” this time, just to see how it plays through, but that’s only in terms of plasmid (power) development.  I’m still rescuing the gatherers, which is the “good” choice.

I just can’t bring myself to go the other route.

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Aug 13 2007
Games

Untimely

Now that my 360 is in a box on its way to the Microsoft repair depot in Texas, of course there are games I would love to be able to play. Case in point, BioShock. I think it has everything I’m looking for in a video game.

Giant Robot Man Monster Thing? Check.

Creepy Undead Red Eyed Lolita That Wants To Kill Me? Check.

Psychic Powers Being Used to Throw Explosives? Check.

Hacking Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Turrets? Check.

Wall Crawling Ninja? Check.

Ayn Rand Inspired Underwater Dystopia? Check.

Bobby Darin? Check.

Yeah, I think that’s pretty much all of the bases covered.

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Jul 10 2007
Games

And yes, I really do think

So, right after how I mention how cool it is to have a board game cheaper digitally than in meatspace, my 360 dies. If I had bought a real copy of Carcassonne, I could have been playing it later tonight, regardless. Scoring still would have been a bitch, though.

On the 360 front, I’ve decided to go the Target route. This way I can be assured of a new unit, and I can get rid of the older, kind of unreliable controller that I’ve got. Otherwise, I just send the box to MS and I’m left with nothing to show for it but a two to three week wait. Plus, I’ve already paid for the privilege of a three year warranty, so I might as well take advantage of it.

And can it just rain already? I am sick and tired of all this thunder with no water falling out of the sky.

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