Matt’s Somewhat Serious Bit
Well, the Xbox 360 finally launched in Australia, and being a single white male with a high disposable income, I was compelled to purchase one to start off the “next generation”, which I guess now is the “new generation”, due to the “current generation” still being alive and well. Nevertheless, I’ve had a fairly significant time with the machine now, so I thought that I’d share a 10 random thoughts and opinions on the machine and all its associated hooplah.
1. I, Robot.
Despite the beauty of some of the Xbox 360 games’ graphics, the animation is absolutely atrocious on the majority of the games I have played so far. Fight Night: Round 3 is obviously the worst for quality of graphics vs quality of animation, but it’s a trend that applies across the board. Hopefully as developers come to grips with the console’s power, we’ll see a lot better animation techniques being employed.
2. High achiever
Achievements are pretty cool – so far they’ve compelled me to play further into games I’d normally abandon or have played through previously, and they’re generally a good incentive to keep trying when you’ve become stuck in a game. There is a problem, in my opinion, when the achievements can all be achieved before the game has been beaten (Fight Night again), or they’re just way too easy to get (Madden – is it just me, or are EA not trying?). Still, it’s good fun, even if it is just for a boost to one’s e-penis.
It's pretty until it moves
3. 720prrrr
Many may be sceptical of the fact that you’ve got to have laid down thousands of dollars on a high definition television to get the most out of the Xbox 360’s visual presentation, but when you see it running in hi-def, it makes it all seem worthwhile. My family is in the rather uncommon situation of having two hi-def TVs, so ner. Another highlight of this is that all of the games are widescreen as standard – hooray.
4. Where’s the beef?
Despite all the hoo-ha about this being the next generation, and all that fancy shit about multiple cores, assloads of RAM and so on, no developer has done anything to date on the Xbox 360 in terms of introducing new gameplay features that would not have been possible on old hardware. Right now, we’ve only got graphics that couldn’t have been produced on the old consoles – I want more than that.
Pretty, but hardly groundbreaking where it counts
5. I want to break free
Wireless pads aren’t a new thing – consoles dating back as far as the Master System have had them. But since the release of the Wavebird, wireless pads have become a viable option – even surpassing their wired brothers. On top of being wireless, the Xbox 360’s pad is really comfortable, has good sensitivity on its analogue sticks, and gives access to all of the functions of the dash with the press of a button. Powering the system up from the pad is really handy too.
6. Blocked port
18 of the Xbox 360’s launch titles are currently playable on other hardware, and to add insult to injury, the much more expensive Xbox 360 versions don’t boast too much more over their current generation equivalents – in the case of some of Activision’s lovelies, they do absolutely nothing. This has got to stop, and stop early, or I’ll be handing out a lot more sub 5 scores.
Activision put the cart before the horse when making the decision to go to next-gen
7. In the trax can
Thanks to the 360’s expanded custom soundtrack feature, I don’t have to listen to any more of EA’s terrible selection of music. No more whiney skater boys, no more wannabe gangsters, and more importantly, lots of metal. And Eye of the Tiger.
8. Silver lining
Giving 360 owners access to a service like Xbox Live Silver was certainly nice of Microsoft. It’s just a pity that the size of 360 game demos is too restrictive for any of the 3 million Australian households currently using Telstra broadband. Oh well, there’s a good selection of games on Xbox Live Arcade, and it’s only going to get better, so rock on. I haven’t had the opportunity to try Xbox Live Gold yet, sadly.
Call of Duty 2's new patch should make the online experience more palatable
9. Backwards ass compatible
The 360’s backwards compatibility is absolutely atrocious, isn’t it? Less than one quarter of my Xbox collection works on the new consoles – I’ve got to keep the original console hooked up to the TV now, and that’s space that I can’t really spare (walking in our game/theatre room is nearly impossible now), not to mention that it’ll eventually force me to have to get a pricey switch box to accommodate the machine. The other thing about the backwards compatibility is that it is rather poorly tested – many people claim that the games featured on the list are only guaranteed to boot on the 360, they aren’t actually confirmed as working as well as they did on the original Xbox. Well, except for Halo 2.
10. The price of freedom
The price of the 360 console is somewhat reasonable, depending on your point of view (cheaper than both the Xbox and PS2 due to time value of money, but a rip-off based on pricing parity), but the pricing on peripherals and games is just taking the piss. $120 for EA’s slightly upgraded yearly updates? $80 for a wireless pad, and $35 for a battery pack to make it work? $170 for a goddamn wireless adaptor!!?! You might as well just hand Microsoft a tub of lubricant and the deed to your house.
You Know What Really Grinds My Gears...
On the Xbox 360’s launch day, I had to (unfortunately) attend a financial planner’s briefing, which delayed my pickup of the console by several hours. Fortunately, it was late night shopping, and I could still get a good hour or two in during the day, yay.
As you’d expect, I rushed out of the briefing down to the nearest EB to pick up my console. Now the thing that disturbs me here is that the EB employee that served me referred to me as “man” or “dude” at least 15 times in a 5 minute conversation. Is this a phenomenon that is localised purely at my EB store, or is it spreading? I’ve noticed this just isn’t restricted to the one employee – it seems like they all do it.
You have to feel sorry for them, being the bottom link in the chain
Now, I’ve been known to speak this way in the past (a natural part of the dialect of my circle of friends), but is it possible that Electronics Boutique’s head office is encouraging or possibly enforcing their employees to address customers in a rather laid back fashion, and speak this ‘hipster’ lingo? This seems like the sort of disturbing filth that would come from a marketing executive’s (or committee’s, most likely) mind. I know being laid back is a rather general trait of the gaming community, but I wasn’t dressed as a typical gamer here – I was in full work garb; suit, tie – the works. It has also been verified by my brother at another time, who was dressed in regular uni student attire. I’m not totally outraged by this occurrence, but it seems rather odd, and somewhat disturbing. If anyone else has noticed this trend lately, post a comment.
Things that make you go “WTF”
Is it an innocent mistake or a cruel joke from a corrupted mind? You be the judge.
From the Bowels of the Internet
It’s no secret that many PAL gamers are severely disenfranchised with Nintendo of Europe. Hell, after 20 years of having to wait up to 12 months (even more for Wario Ware Twisted), they have good reason to be.
Enter NOEWatch, a new watchdog-style blog dedicated to tracking the affairs of the European branch of the Big N. It’s even got a War-on-Terror style measurement of Nintendo of Europe’s current performance (it’s been “bad” for two days now). Check it out.
Easy Mail
Q: Is there any chance that PALGN will have a weekly podcast? Much to the same as Australian Gamer, which is just one of the podcasts that I listen to every now and then.
A: I toyed with the idea of a PALGN podcast at the end of last year, but realised I really suck ass at radio – you just need to listen to my appearance on The Gaming Show to see (or hear) that. I don’t think it will be happening at all now. [insert cheap shot at Yug doing the podcast drunk here]
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