HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

[InuTrunks]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Haha, when i saw the post about you quitting (I'm re-reading though them), I knew it had to be you.

So, how do you know Dave?

[Feba]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

I don't think there are any other Febas out there. Maybe a mule or something, but I've never seen anything about another FFXI player using the name feba.

Mostly from posting on Allakhazam way back when, and commenting on the blog in it's early days (Actually, I think I bitched about Smithy being basically the same character as Dave. I don't remember how he responded, I think he changed Smithy a little though.). Also, you know the little BCNM favicon (the little icon next to a web address in your favorites list, and in some browsers in the address bar) on the Smithy page and the GM icon on the Dave page? I made those. Well, more accurately, adapted the game icons to fit a favicon file, and sent him the code for how to add them to his pages.

I've emailed him occasionally since then for advice on writing things that I never will, thanks to my knack for procrastination.

[jwalton]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

D: Now that makes 360 looks like a superior choice. There's a better 360 model coming out soon?

The cooler, quieter 360s are supposed to be on the way. The rumor mill says sometime this summer.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Resistance: Fall of Man and MotorStorm are two of the PS3's best original games out right now, along with Virtua Fighter 5 (360 version coming out this summer, with planned upgrades), and Calling All Cars! is currently the best downloadable game on the network, and it's great party fun.

Sony dropped the ball on game releases in the first 6 months of the PS3's release but it's finally starting to pick up. Lair is an air-based dragon combat game from Factor 5, who've developed some great Star Wars air-combat games in the past. I'm not expecting it to be a fantastic game as they're a developer who tends to put graphics above gameplay, but it looks like it's still worth at least a couple rents to beat.



FolkLore is a new action RPG from Sony and the creator of the Shin Megami Tensei series, in which you battle monsters called "Folks" and capture their souls. Once a Folks' Soul is captured, you can use that Folk to battle others. It's...kind of a mix between your generic action-RPG and Pokemon. It's been getting rave reviews from every major site that covered Sony Gamers' Day a couple weeks ago.



Ninja Gaiden Sigma comes out on June 26th, and if you haven't played the original Xbox versions or love them that much, I highly recommend it. The first remakes on Xbox were among the best action titles ever, and this one isn't going to be any different. Every model and texture in the game has been upgraded to 1080p quality with animations running at 60fps. There are also a slew of new missions, weapons, abilities, enemies, and previously unplayable Rachel as a new playable character with her own unique missions.



Warhawk is probably the PS3's most promising upcoming game this summer and is generating tons of buzz with the beta that's currently underway. I can say with confidence that it's one of the most fun online action games I've ever played. It's very straightforward and the closest thing I can relate it to would be a console-ized mix between Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield 2. The on-foot gameplay is frantic and fantastic, and there are 4x4s and Tanks to use, as well as airborne Warhawks which make it a completely different game. It's fun and addictive, it looks great, and it's going to be a blast. It also features four-player splitscreen online play, which makes it a great title to play with your friends who don't own a PS3. It's going to be downloadable on the PlayStation Store for about $29.99 later this summer, and will also be available on Blu-ray Disc as a special addition with bonus content and a BlueTooth Headset packed in.



If you've ever played a Ratchet and Clank game, or never played one, then Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction will be an extremely important game to look for. Most series fans agree that the last two games, Deadlocked and Up Your Arsenal were pretty subpar when Insomniac decided to focus more on the shooting/action aspect of the game than the platforming, so with the new game they've decided to return to the focus of platforming and adventure with wide, open worlds to explore. If you've never played it before I'll tell you that Ratchet and Clank is one of the best platforming action series ever, so definitely check the new one out if you're interested.



Heavenly Sword has been widely compared to another Sony-created action series, God of War, but since Kratos hasn't appeared on the PS3 yet, that may not be a bad thing. The game follows a woman named Nariko, whose entire tribe is wiped out by an evil emperor in search of a weapon called the Heavenly Sword. Lusting for revenge, Nariko takes the sword in hand, which begins to kill her, but grants her incredible powers. Dying, she makes way for the imperial city to murder the emperor and take revenge for her slain loved ones.



LittleBigPlanet is still one of the biggest surprises of the year, first being revealed at Game Developer's Conference 2007. Part of Sony's user-generated content plan for new titles, the game is essentially both a platformer and a platformer-maker mixed into one. Nearly everything in the game can be created by the player. Textures, objects, characters can all be designed and uploaded onto the PS3 and put in the game. You can create an entire level as large as you want and make it as fun and exciting as you want and upload it online to share.



Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is the first PS3 game from the creators of Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter. It follows Nathan Drake as he travels the world in search of both gold and lineage. He believes that he is the descendent of the wealthy English expeditionary Sir Francis Drake. The game is inspired by pulp action films like Indiana Jones, and it shows in both the design and the gameplay, and plays like a mix between Tomb Raider and a fast-paced Gears of War with more focus on hand-to-hand combat. It stole the show at Sony's Gamers Day earlier this month and most press sites agree that it could be the PS3's biggest hit this year.



There are many more PS3 games coming out this year, like Hot Shots Golf 5, SingStar, The Eye of Judgement and Haze, but I think these will be among the best. Unfortunately, some major titles like Devil May Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Tekken 6 and Killzone 2 still lack release dates, but all of those should be out by the end of the year or before Q2 2008. In 2008, the PS3 will see releases like Final Fantasy XIII, Gran Turismo 5, White Knight Story, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Resistance 2, The Last Remnant, Star Ocean 4 and possibly God of War 3, which is currently in development.

I would NOT recommend buying a PS3 until later this year. If you have the money to spend now and want a next-gen console now, by all means grab a 360 Elite. The PS3 started out stronger than expected but sales are quickly starting to falter below that comfort zone, as Sony hasn't had many big game releases in a few months and has largely yet to release a major hit game. They're extremely pressured to drop the price of the console and are expected to by pretty much everyone, as they've considerably lowered the cost of production since release last year. The PS3 launched in Korea this month at a reduced price, so most people expect a price drop of at least $50 later this year, but I personally expect Sony to opt to continue to take losses on the console and drop the price $100, as a major price drop in addition to a slew of AAA game releases this holiday could make up for the console's slow adoption rate. By waiting a until this fall you'll be able to avoid the wait for all of these great titles, as well as possibly avoid the hefty price tag in the case of a price drop.

[Jei]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

I played ninja gaiden since NES, I didn't like it very much. Partly because I was too young to get far in that game >.> Now that reminds me about a lot of my games. I got Doraemon NES, the action one with 3 stages, when I was less than 10 years old. I could never complete it.... but I replay it again on emulator just a few years ago and I finish it easily. A few more games were like that too.

I think it's hard to compare graphic above with GOW2. GOW2 has astonishing visual... to the point that the screenshots above don't impress me if I think about GOW2 >.> That's a scarey thought. Low poly + well done lighting and texture can be super powerful visually. Little Big Planet seems to be the only 1 up to par with that quality visually.

The water in Lair looks really cool tho. My best friend got laid off from Factor 5 after only 3 months working there along with many more employee, just something that bothers me.

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

As for Tekken 6, it's very possible the game will come out on Xbox 360. After VF5 and DMC4, it appears no franchise is safe from breaking exclusivity.

However, do keep in mind that even the arcade version of Tekken 6 is based on PS3 hardware, so the chances of it happening are somewhat less than other games. Like Kojima Productions with MGS4, Namco is certainly building Tekken 6 with PS3 hardware in mind. They can always have a team port the game at a later time, but right now the game is being built for PS3 and it's unlikely it'll hit the 360, at least not at the same time as the PS3 version.

Also like Konami, Namco has not expressed any business model based around multiplatform game design. Capcom has decided that to be their focus, but Namco has generally not been a multiplatform developer in the past, particularly when it comes to the Tekken series.

[jwalton]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

I'm not going to get into it too much, but here are the three most notable upcoming 360 games that I'm personally interested in:

Eternal Sonata is a beautiful game. Again, if you're a fan of JRPGs and love colorful worlds, this is one to pick up. I could almost swear the team that created Tales of Symphonia worked on this game. The style and atmosphere feels so similar, even the cel-shaded style used on the characters.


Ace Combat 6 on Xbox Live not only ups the ante as far as graphics go... but it's also bringing in online co-op missions over Xbox Live. That is a major selling point for me... the idea of flying jets in missions with friends and talking to them over voice chat that'd mimick doing the real thing is just awesome.


If you've seen any video footage of this game, you'd know how much potential this game has. They're placing an extreme emphasis on the game's dialogue, and it sports some impressive graphics to boot. This game looks like it utilizes a fair bit of third-person-shooter type stuff which usually isn't my thing since I pretty much hate FPS's, but since its focus is the RPG aspects, I'm willing to overlook that and give it a shot.

[Jei]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

what game is that in the 3rd shot?

[jwalton]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Ooops, forgot to mention the title. It's Mass Effect. Watch this video. It's a year old showing an early build of the 3D engine, but still quite relevant.

[Jei]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

ohhhh it's Bioware's... That, and the movie together make this game really interesting. That scale could be made into online game if they want....

[jwalton]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

That's the other interesting thing... Bioware is working on a next-gen MMO, but what it is, is anyone's guess. Mass Effect is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, so we'll see how that pans out.

[Jei]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Hey. Some update. After I passed my driving test I was driving around shopping. It felt great to drive around here, so much faster than waiting for bus/barts, felt like a different world.

Anyway I ended up buying 26'' Westinghouse HDTV, it's only 720p with 800:1 contrast, but also only 499 at Best Buy. Very cheap. It really stood out in the stor despite it's low price and contrast, it was 1 of the 2 that had the sharpest image in the store (the other one being Sony) and the contrast ratio, I didn't notice much unless I compare it side by side with other screen.

Anyway, I'm quite happy with it's price. It doesn't have normal VGA input tho, and I can't seem to find component output for my PS2.

I also got myself a 360 :O Hadn't openned it yet. I only got Gears of Wars with it so far. Any good RPG already out for 360?

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Westinghouse is a good purchase for their extremely low prices.

All next-gen consoles are pretty lacking in quality RPGs at the moment. Enchanted Arms is rather hit-or-miss with a lot of people, but I've got friends who love it.

Other than that, Blue Dragon was originally scheduled for release at the end of the month, but has since been pushed back to August.

[Jei]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

Yea I was looking at that game too. It has SE style face with very.... weird taste design... especially that green guy wearing a potty on his head. Not sure if I wanna buy that, maybe I'll rent it and see what happens o_O;

What about RPG on PS3/Wii?

[Pai Pai Master]

Re: HD TV recommendation? xbox 360 learning curve?

The PS3 also has Enchanted Arms, but like the 360 it's essentially not a safe place to look for RPGs right now. However, since there are still billions of RPGs coming out for PS2, it's not like there's absolutely nothing to play (and hell, Odin Sphere looks amazing in upscaled 1080p). Other than that, 360 gets the bigger RPGs this year, which isn't surprising as most decent RPGs will take a little longer to develop than other titles.

There are a plethora of RPGs in development for the PS3, from FolkLore (which comes out in August) to Shin Megami Tensei 4 to Final Fantasy XIII to White Knight Story to Star Ocean IV, but most of not all of anything worth looking forward to won't be out until 2008. In addition, NIS has pledged more of their strategy RPGs like Makai Wars and Disgaea 3 to the PS3, but it's unknown if they've even started development on either of those.

Eternal Sonata is a really good looking RPG coming out for 360 and there's a rumoured PS3 version floating around (it showed up and was taken down off the official ESRB website, and Namco didn't deny it when asked), so it's likely to show up on PS3 eventually, but the 360 version will be out for sure this year. In addition, the 360 also gets the exclusive Lost Odyssey from Mistwalker later this year, and both platforms get The Last Remnant next year.

And the Wii, well, isn't really an RPG platform. There's Super Paper Mario, which can kinda be counted as partially RPG, but other than that the only ones I can think of are Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers and Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors.

EDIT: I also forgot, there is a Naruto RPG in development for the 360 from Ubi Soft, and some people have been saying that it looks pretty good.