kn said:
First, I got a premium. Contrary to all that I've heard, the unit and accessories seem well made. The date of manufacture was August, 2006 though I just bought it so it's been sitting around a while... Getting it from Buy.com I figured it would be "fresher" due to more stock movement. First, setting it up was a piece of cake. The little Standard/HD switchable cable is pretty slick. The menus and such were easy to navigate and set up so it was up and running in nothing flat. I've heard they were noisy, but I don't get it. There is a very mild "whir" but even just low TV volume completely masks it. I can't hear it unless I turn all sound off and play in silence so noise isn't a factor here. The first game I tried I had it on composite -- red/white/yellow into the back of my sony wega 32" TV. (standard def.) I was not all that impressed with the quality of the graphics and put the RGB connectors into the component input on the back of the TV and graphic/color quality was much improved. I don't have the wifi connector yet so I can't say anything about xbox live arcade or any of the online content. I probably won't have that in hand until friday. I bought a bunch of games -- 10 to be exact with 4 of them being original xbox games. Here are my thoughts after spending a bit of time with each of them: Crackdown -- seems cool, but I was told it was local co-op and it isn't. It's either system link or online but local co-op doesn't appear as an option in the menu. Am I missing something? Viva Pinata -- very neat game though my daughter is very disappointed that the pinatas eat each other in some grand food chain kind of way. The basic rule is don't make friends with the farm animals as they will end up on someone's plate soon. Cute graphics. Neat overall but the whole food chain kind of sticks a fork in it for my daughter. :( Samurai Warriors Empires - Too many options and reading to just jump in. Jury is still out. Gears of War -- I've heard the graphics are amazing. They are good no doubt but I guess I was expecting a religious experience or something because I'm just not blown away. I'll have to give it a little more time. It's pretty intense, lol. My wife and I were struggling with the dual stick control for camera and firing though I'm sure we'll get the hang of it. Burnout Revenge -- 10 minutes on it or so... fun so far. Marvel Ultimate Alliance -- X men Legends was cool. this is an improvement but the graphics could have been better. I also have Kameo which says 2 players but the manual states that each level has to be beaten single player before it can be played co-op. Is this true? I didn't have time to play it, but if that is the case, that's friggin stupid and makes me wonder what the hell is wrong with software developers that they would implement such a system. Overall I was expecting a 9 out of 10 rating on the console, the games, the experience, etc., after having spent so much time researching, shopping, etc. I'm more along the lines of 6.5 or so and wondering if the $700 bucks or so worth of stuff I got was really worth it Color me disappointed for now. Time will tell how it grows on me after some more time on it, I guess, since I own it now. |
A few responses about the games -
Crackdown - as far as I know, it's 2p online co-op/system link only. However, RTW could implement 2p offline at some point in the future.
Viva Pinata -
Yes, the animals eat eachother for the food chain. However, this is only the very minority in the game. You don't HAVE to have the animals eat eachother, but it hampers certain kids of animals. VP isn't just a kiddie game. Although it has colorful characters, it has tons of stuff to make any adult love it.
Samuari Warriors - No comment, never played it.
Gears of War - HD is needed for that graphical "religoius experience", but the fact is, the graphics, atleast to me, were great. If your struggling with using standard TPS fare for controls, give it time. Once you get used to it, it becomes ultimate fun.
Burnout Revenge - Great game. Just takes some time to get used to it, but it's very fun.
M:UA - It's a port from a PS2/Xbox game, typically, the last-gen ports didn't have uber-graphics. Of course, this game is just great fun with 2p+.
Kameo - Yes, you have to beat the levels. The simple fact is that you have to do quite a bit of adventuring in between the levels (ala Zelda:TP or OoT), and therefore 2p would be practically useless. You have to beat the actual levels because certain forms of Kameo are required to play the level, therefore just being able to play the levels would be a cheat.
I know your underwhelmed, but don't worry. Give it a few days, and you'll start loving it. The graphics always underhwelm - until you decide to goto a Wii or last-gen, then you realize how much better it actually is.
Once you get a wireless, or cable, or whatever, get all the free DLC for each game. There is free DLC for half of those games, and will really make it better for ya.
