Call it an early Christmas present or momentary retail weakness. Regardless, last Friday, I walked into the Best Buy across the street from my office and walked out $300 richer, a shiny new Xbox 360 under my arm. My original Xbox has been thoroughly worn, and the DVD player was starting to choke on me… that combined with a little bit of extra cash prompted the buy.
The system itself: I know it’s got a more powerful system to cool, but I was a little surprised at first how loud it was. Loud enough to make my cat sit up and wonder what the hell was going on. This is very handily solved with the recent addition of full-game hard drive installations. At first, I didn’t notice the change after committing GTA IV to the hard drive, but after paying attention for a minute, it makes a HUGE difference. Less noticeable for gameplay (at least for that title), but the system becomes whisper quiet, which is nice.
The first thing I did was jump on Live (I picked up a 3-month gold membership to test drive the Netflix functionality – it’s awesome), downloaded the New Xbox Experience™®©, and made myself an avatar. It’s cool… it’s not something I see myself spending any huge amount of time on, especially if they do something stupid, like make you pay for new options. A few winter-themed options did pop up free of charge this morning, so hopefully that is the route it will take. I poked around on there for a bit, downloaded a few demos, and browsed the video library. Overall, I’m very pleased with the equipment itself. I take probably a little too much pleasure in the idea that I can just turn on the damn thing with the controller. I know it performs the job of a basic remote control, but it’s not something I’d ever had in a console before, and it’s a nice perk.
Onto specifics:
Netflix: Not a game, but definitely worth mentioning. The Netflix streaming support is probably the item that pushed me toward the Xbox, and prompted me to actually pull the trigger on the thing. In time, I actually suspect my girlfriend will use it more than I do – I work nights, and she watches quite a few “Watch Instantly” things in the browser when I’m not home. Now she can do most of them from the couch, which is cool. I pulled up a couple things just to see how it worked. The verdict is very, very good. The time from selecting “play movie” to the movie actually playing spanned about 30 seconds, max. Compared to something similar, like Amazon Video on Demand on Tivo (which I also use occasionally), it’s a huge step up. The video quality is slightly less awesome, and Netflix’s instant streaming selection is still limited (by time period and recognition, certainly not by volume), but the immediacy and ease of the thing holds it high. I’ve only watched a few TV episodes all the way through, but I got nary a hiccup. It’s really impressive.
LEGO
Dead Rising: This was the first 360 game I ever played, at a buddy’s place after he got his for Christmas a couple years back. I remember imagining the possibilities it presented, and really, really wanting it. Having it now, it definitely meets those, but there’s one major problem. The text – all the text – is WAY TOO SMALL. As if I didn’t want one already, this game is really making me wish I had a bigger TV (I have a 19” tube). Until I get one or at least get to play it on a bigger one, Dead Rising sessions will probably just consist of running around the mall finding weapons, with no real regard for the missions, since I can’t read what any of them are anyway. At least running around the mall is fun all by itself. The minute I found a hardware store, I knew I was golden.
NBA 2K9: First off, I was shocked to see Best Buy throw this in for free, because it's still a new game, only two months old. I’m not a basketball fan, per se, but living in Boston
during the past year made it pretty hard to ignore (I’m sure people say the same thing about baseball, but being a huge Sox fan, I don’t see that as any sort of intrusion). I was in Vegas during the Conference finals this spring, and spent a good part of my last night there sitting in the sports book at the MGM watching the Celtics-Cavs game. Thanks to that, I do have a decent knowledge of the players. Also, my brother is a huge C’s fan, and he played basketball (and I watched him play) for as long as I can remember, so I have a decent understanding of the game. Which all leads up to this game sucking me in. And I SUCK at it. It’s cool that the control scheme is laid out in a way that gives experienced players a more organic way to use more complicated moves that the computer has traditionally handled… I’m just not nearly good enough to use it. My Celtics are off to a 1-4 start, thanks to the Bucks sucking slightly more than I do.
Other cool stuff in there, too… the “2K Network” does real-time score updates for the sports world. It’s a system that will probably tempt me to get the next Major League Baseball iteration, even though I have a grudge against 2K for prematurely ending the fantastic MVP Baseball series when they scooped up the exclusive MLB licensing. And the basic controls do make a lot of sense – a lot of games have used the right analog stick as an action control mechanism, and I think using it for shooting in basketball makes the most sense out of any I’ve seen. The game is absolutely fun, even for a non-fan… I’m just not sure I’m patient enough for it.
Assassin’s Creed, which was supposed to make a huge addition to the open-world sandbox style that GTA perfected, and they weren’t as glowing as people thought/hoped they would be. The big complaint is that the game is repetitive. And that’s absolutely right. When you’re in Altair’s robes, every mission you do, you will do basically the same things – target your mark, get close to them, hit a button to do something relatively passive. It works, but it gets old pretty quick. Where the game makes up its points, though, is the visuals. You can be frustrated as all hell by the repetition, but climbing to the top of a View Point is the closest thing to breathtaking I’ve ever seen in a video game. It’s very cool. I also like the extent to which they take the open-world idea. It’s similar to GTA: San Andreas, in that if you want to get some where, you better commit to the time it takes to do so. Obviously, the
GTA IV: I got this on Tuesday, and it has sucked this week away. I’ve tried to play it as this guy living his life, and it makes for a much more
varied gaming session than most other games of the type. First, I’ll do a story mission. Then hang out with a friend. Then maybe take a girl out on a date. Pull in a couple fares as a taxi, go shopping for some new clothes, then another mission. There’s a huge selection of crap to do, and it has kept me very interested. Niko Bellic is by far the most interesting character Rockstar has given us in this series, as he’s the first with a real history to unravel. Whether or not you allow that history to inform decisions you make is obviously your decision, but it makes for some very interesting in-car conversations with those close to Niko. The fact that there are certain people that are closer to Niko than others is a huge accomplishment. There’s a legit bond between him and his cousin, and I find myself taking extra care to call the girl Niko is dating after every couple missions. What Rockstar has put out is a slice-of-life Sims. It’s not as detailed in some areas as the Sims, and much more specific in many areas, but in the Sims, I feel like I’m watching what life could be like. In GTA IV, this IS someone’s life. It’s great.
The control scheme and interface are fantastic. The cell phone is the best tool they’ve ever given a character – CJ had on in San Andreas, but it was inactive as far as the player was concerned. This is a cell you can use to make plans, get missions, get help and many other useful things. It’s a great addition. The camera angle for driving is a little odd… it’s slightly offset to the driver’s side of a car by default. It works well, but I’ve found myself switching to first person to get a better feel for what’s going on in my immediate vicinity. The high-speed chases that GTA has become famous for are even better than ever – the RAGE engine is probably the best thing to ever happen to vehicle-based games. Traffic acts real, and speed FEELS real. It’s incredible. The combat system is greatly improved, with region-specific aiming working much better, and the cover system making much more sense than the awkward squat-behind-a-box-and-pray system of the previous games. Most impressive to me is the fullness of the minigame system. Bowling, pool and darts all work really well, probably as well as the best web-based or standalone retail title. And they’re fun, which is shocking and new.
I haven’t touched multiplayer yet, and probably won’t until I beat the single-player… I want to see where the story leads first. I highly, highly recommend anyone with a 360, PS3 or PC pick up the game and give it a shot, so long as the requisite GTA sex and violence doesn’t bother you. I’m not very far through, but it’s already one of the most interesting and complete gameplay experiences I’ve had in a long time.
I downloaded a couple of demos, to see some of the newer stuff the system had to offer – The Force Unleashed and Mirror’s Edge were most notable. Both were fun, but I feel like Mirror’s Edge is going to get hurt by mission structure. The best thing they could do for that game would be to give you a “free run option,” where you just get into the city and go nuts. The Force Unleashed demo is limited to force grip, push and lightning, but the sheer fun of throwing people around and watching them react to that will go a long way. TFU I will be picking up at some point. Mirror’s Edge…. I think it has to be a little bit cheaper.
One last quick note – I also picked up the Nyko Charge Base, so I wouldn’t be dropping a ton on batteries for the controllers. I only got it yesterday, but thus far it seems great. It’s a smart base, not timer-based, so it will detect when a battery is full and turn off. It looks decent, and contains the controllers when you’re not using them. The only downside is that the lights are REALLY bright, but if that’s my only complaint, life is good.
So far, I’m very pleased with this purchase. Like I said about Dead Rising, the biggest downside is that it makes me want a larger TV even more than I already did. Ah well… one thing at a time…
