Joystiq hands-on: Xbox 360--the games

by James Ransom-Wiley on Oct 12th 2005 7:00AM

I'm slowly recovering from a 10-hour date with the Xbox 360. For an event that offered free non-stop gaming-true, it was invite only-the number of attendees (on Tuesday) was shockingly sparse; but the room did start to fill up once cocktail hour rolled around. Needless to say, I was free to hop from station to station and get down n' dirty with the following titles (listed alphabetically):

Call of Duty 2
Condemned: Criminal Origins
Dead or Alive 4
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Kameo: Elements of Power
King Kong
NBA Live 06
Need for Speed Most Wanted
Perfect Dark Zero
Project Gotham Racing 3

I�ll cover some of these games in greater depth later today, but I want to hit you with my first impressions:

Call of Duty 2 - My favorite overall experience�a ceaseless attack on the senses. I really enjoyed the arcade-style pace and gameplay coupled with a pseudo-authentic WWII motif. But 8-player (only?) Live support was a disappointment�
Condemned: Criminal Origins - Biggest surprise. Integrating player-friendly (i.e. easy) detective work provided a nice break from beating psychotic vagrants to death with anything and everything (read: 2x4s, lead pipes, fire axes, mannequin arms, etc�). Be prepared to have DOOM 3 flashbacks�
Dead or Alive 4 - Most disappointing title on-hand. A modest upgrade from Dead or Alive Ultimate�and yes, that means better bounce. However, there are some promising Xbox Live spectator features.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Fans of the series will not be disappointed. Personally, I don�t have 200+ hours to immerse myself in this one, but for those that do, put this on the shopping list. The Havoc Physics Engine rocks, plus combat has been much improved!
Kameo: Elements of Power - Not my cup of tea, but I respect what Rare has down with this one. Kameo could be a breakthrough title that attracts a huge audience of casual and younger-aged gamers�there are also elements that cater to the hardcore. Kameo�s �hover� ability (she can fly a few feet off of the ground) is just plain cool.
King Kong - The two level demo version. Looks impressive, and Ubi�s choice to feature no HUD could lead to some innovative gameplay. But poor response and obstructive camera angles ruined the Kong experience. Ubi will definitely iron this out though�so watch for the final build�
NBA Live 06 - The build was rough, and there wasn�t a developer on-hand. It did look pretty (easily recognized the 76ers roster), but played awkward�I�ve always found that basketball sims ultimately fail as video games.
Need for Speed Most Wanted - I�ve never been a huge NFS fan, but the initial test drive impressed. The speed is there, and it looks gorgeous. But the collisions are awkward and the traffic is too light for my tastes.
Perfect Dark Zero - Mixed feelings. I want to like this game, but I�ve got a sinking feeling� it tells me that I�ve been here before�I�ve been here many times. There�s simply not enough innovation. PDZ cannot carry the Xbox 360 launch.
Project Gotham Racing 3 - The cockpit view was hands-down the sweetest frickin� ish on the showroom floor. I got lost staring out the passenger window, er, rather, I crashed into a wall�many walls. Visually stunning, same old Gotham gameplay.

Microsoft is banking on established franchises to carry its launch. This is a safe bet, and I�m sure it will help the Xbox 360 to get a significant head-start in the next-gen console war. But as a serious gamer, I�m disappointed. Nothing at this event blew my mind. In fact, I came away feeling like I�ve been here before�only now, she�s a lil� bit prettier. The truth is, when you hook up the original Xbox to an HDTV, she looks pretty damn fine in her own right. I can�t wait for developers to unlock what�s really under the hood of the Xbox 360. But know that that will most certainly not be this November, or even perhaps, next November�

Xbox 360 NYC event For now, the innovation comes in the system itself. In the Xbox dashboard, the Live integration, the gamer customization, and even the Live Arcade�I will cover these features in greater detail in my next post. That�s not to say we won�t have plenty of fun with the first wave of Xbox 360 games. But it�s a lot like getting your old bike for your birthday again. Only now, it�s been repainted, it�s got some new tires, and some gears have been added. For most of us, it�s not going to happen this time around, but eventually, we�re gonna get tired of riding the same bikes, no matter how nice they look or how great they perform.

Microsoft is on to something with their gamer profiles and expansive Xbox Live service, but if all developers are going to offer us is playground after playground for riding our same old bikes, the real innovation of the Xbox 360 is gonna go to waste.

Source

Tags: Action, Condemned, Condemned-Criminal-Origins, Microsoft, Monolith-Productions, Sega, Survival-Horror, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (68)

ttly mn i agre wt u.

2 bd no 1 rd yr cmmt fr lck f vwlls

90% of all the comments made regarding this article seem very biased. People have already made their decision on what they want, what they want to see, and how they plan on seeing it. In an effortless battle to change how something thinks on this issue, I'd like to point out the few people that took both sides (or three sides) in the given situations of next gen games and consoles. Critics can only give their own interpretation of a game. These kind of arguments have been going on for years. For a couple examples, what about Halo vs. Halo 2? Seeming as a lot of popularity and/or rep about games has been based on these games, for reasons I won't get into, because that is my own opinion. But let's not just stop there, what about the whole Counter Strike X-Box vs. Rainbow Six 3 people? There was plenty of controversy there as well. Or how about Metal Gear Solid vs. Splinter Cell. Gran Turismo vs. Project Gotham Racing. Frankly, like I said before, 90% of these arguments are biased based on the opinion or experience of the player. You cannot just read 1 review from 1 person, or 2 from others and make your decision. Read, play, watch, listen, everything you can do, and make your own decision. We have brains and lives for a reason, make use of them and make your own decision. Critics basically set a standard on what they're looking for, whether it be graphics, new gameplay, new genre, new hardware, new controllers, new depth, new perception, or anything else you can think of.

Be your own critic, set yourself a standard and go off that. You are a person, be a person.

According to Piaget's Cognitive Stages, name calling (as evidenced here with the Xbox 360 be referred to as the xbox 1.5) typically occurs in children during the preoperational years (ages 2-7). Children during this time can develop a preoccupation with name calling. They can also be quite egocentric or unable to take the viewpoint of another and they can't always differentiate between fantasy and reality (aka magical thinking).

@Soco

In your most recent post, you're starting to talk more sense and even in your earlier post you weren't nearly as "out of it" as zerolight but when you open up with something like, "i'll be glad when this "innovation" fad is over"....." well frankly you deserve a good helping of criticizm because that statement is just completely out of control. You can make (and did make) a fair argument that innovation in this gen is more subtle but still substantial and you can argue that not all innovation is good or yields anything for the general game player but to generalize innovation as a fad that you hope soon passes is going overboard and I stand by my previous comments in that regard. I wasn't trying to pick a fight.

To be perfectly honest im not surprised that Microsoft have failed to provide any new innovative features this time round. Now they have refined their dashboard (i.e. stolen a heap of ideas from the current xbox mod community and thrown them in as standard) yet in my opinion that hardly justifys releasing a new console. What you have to realise is that Microsoft is a company who make a living from entering established markets and rehashing current products whilst promoting them as new and innovative.. They will never go out of their way to innovate or change gaming as it is unless someone else sticks their neck out first. This is where we need to thank God that Nintendo are still around, because if Microsoft get their way and take control of the market, goodbye originality.

What really gets to me are people who say 'well, what else is there to innovate? arnt all the genres already taken?'. What a crock of shit. I personally know a team of researchers at my uni who have been developing a virtual reality system which will leave any current gen gaming system for dead. Simply put, a headset is placed on the users head which is able to place quake enemys in the users current real world environment. Now thats innovation. Im currently wondering if i will actually bother picking up the new xbox sys, or just donate my 500 bucks to a project that might actually provide something fresh and original.

you're talking about Mixed Reality idiot...and such systems will take atleast another decade to hit the streets...you don't need FDA approval for any console so far...count on it...Mixed reality will require FDA approval etc...

btw they already have a Pac Man game in running...

Does everyone here not have a job or are they poor? $500 isnt that much money at all for the next 4 years of sweet HD internet gaming.

>> Does everyone here not have a job or are they
>> poor? $500 isnt that much money at all for the
>> next 4 years of sweet HD internet gaming.

How about this: take the $500 and put it on a shelf. Pick it up and fiddle with it maybe once or twice a month. Do that for six months. That's effectively what people are complaining about. $500 over 4 years isn't a lot. Spending $500 on something that is not currently compelling is not worth it if the Xbox is just going to sit on your entertainment center, waiting for a decent game to come out.

-p-

PS Since you started this pissing contest, and I was griping about $500, I'll continue it: I very likely make more than you do per year considering I work in a city with a very high cost of living (not even taking into consideration the $25k my employer pays per year for school in addition to my salary), and $500 is still a lot to spend before the holidays when people are traveling and buying gifts for other people. Please, piss on...

Innovation is in the design of the console -- built from the ground up to allow for game developers to make and players to experience remarkable stuff. However to expect mind blasting new stuff for launch is totally unrealistic. Developers need time to learn the system.

You guys also seem to conflate the console and the titles. I dont think anyone would argue that the system itself is not innovative. The deep Live integration, the brilliant stuff they are doing to promote gamer community through the system, the multi-core architecture, and way the GPU and CPU are designed to interact, the built-in media capabilities, the built-in wirelss support, etc... are all quite innovative. You can dismiss all of those as merely derivative, but the synthesis of the features into a seamless and beautifully designed whole IS innovation. The complaints about the titles is a sparate issue. I would say that MS is showing some pretty damned innovative stuff in PGR3 -- 300,000 observers watching a race, both deep and wide Live integration, on and on.

Many of you seem to imply that the PS2 launch was somehow a model of innovation. The hardware was pretty innovative -- it certainly required developers to learn new ways to build games (and not necessarily in a good way), but essentially, it was the same things only prettier than PS1. And I will remind people how totally crappy the PS2 launch was. MGS was not there for PS2 launch. Neither was GTA3, nor much of anything else interesting. Of the 40+ games released from October to December in 2000, at least half were extensions of existing franchises. SSX was probably the most creative title done at that time.

I have been involved in games for more years than a lot of you have been alive and there are a couple of things that don't change.
1) You can't predict when or where truly innovative breakthrough products come from, but if you buil a platform that has the horsepower and provide good tools, they will come,
2) The more it costs to make these things the more risk averse publishers will be, and it will get hardwer to get the creative stuff approved -- moral here is to support innovative stuff when it comes out.
3) the public seldom actually wants real innovation -- if they did sequels wouldn't sell so well and truly wild creative products wouldn't fail so badly, (see point #2)
and
4) no product will ever come out that people won't bitch about -- especially before they actually see it.

It's actually the third time we came here...

Dreamcast, Xbox, and Xbox 360 or 1.5.

Wow, you sit and preach about innovation, yet CoD2, which has been done to death, was your favorite game. Nice.

It's no wonder companies don't innovate with all these idiots who only buy and play FPS war games.

Personally I think he was grading each game on there own. He talked about innovation for other aspects then switched back to rating games overall which is why CoD2 got such a good rating. Why blather on so much? You want innovation go to the revolution. You want what you loved so much on the Xbox then get the Xbox360. Liked the titles on the PS2? Then get PS3. Im sure it will be the same old with a new twist. Theres a valid point for all sides.

We love our games now so dearly why change them? We love to see new things why not innovate. Unless you know how hard it is to code engines or bump map graphics all day, Id suggest you'd leave the design to the developers. The have basically steered us in the right direction, most of them probably started out just like us. Lovin games. My 2 cents: All sides are right, show your support by buying the ones you like and supporting that console/ game company. Instead of doing this name calling contest. Actions speak louder than words (Don't go out and punch people in the face now, we don't need anymore bad press for GTA.) --Zombie King

Launch titles almost always fail to live up to the hype. Besides the occasional Mario 64, what you usually get is more of the same with slightly better graphics. This hasn't kept systems like the original PS from selling well. The PS3 will likely be the same (but the Revolution may excell if Nintendo can fully utilize that crazy controller of theirs).

"Dead or Alive 4 - Most disappointing title on-hand. A modest upgrade from Dead or Alive Ultimate�and yes, that means better bounce. However, there are some promising Xbox Live spectator features."

Ignorance.

Most of the games I want to play on the Xbox360 (NFS, COD2, ES:Oblivion, Quake 4) will be available on the PC long before the XBOX360 even launches. The graphics will be the same, if not better and faster on the PC. I won't have to join some silver/gold club to play online. And I'll have access to free community created mods and bonus levels.
I only wanted the X360 to play HD-DVDs on my HDTV. Wake me up when it does.

I just got back from Walmart. They had the Xbox 360 kiosk up and I got to play King Kong and Call of Duty 2, and I have to say they both kind of sucked. After everything we've been hearing about how powerful the 360 is, people forget that most of us will still playing these games on standard def TV's. And even a hi def TV isn't equal to the number of pixels most computer monitors have. I'm used to playing Half Life 2 and Far Cry on a graphics computer monitor; going back to a plain old TV, even if it is high def, is a huge step down. And then there is the lack of a mouse for first person shooters. Call of Duty 2 sucks with a gamepad because you really can't aim, and it takes forever to move the crosshairs anywhere. I'll buy COD2 for the PC. The splash screen for the levels in King Kong is a boat bobbing up and down in the ocean. The mast and ship lines are all ugly jaggies. King Kong fighting the T Rex is cool, but the level where you are a human running from the T Rex is awful. It takes forever to run anywhere. I'm glad I won my Xbox 360 from Mountain Dew, because I would be really bummed if I spent over $500 for the system and games and got the lousy quality I saw at Walmart today.

Oh, and the Xbox 360 at the Walmart kiosk was HUGE! It's almost as big as the first Xbox. I don't really care how big it is, but Microsoft told us the 360 was going to be slim and then there was that whole "the design of the Xbox 360 is the intake of air by a martial artist before the exhale and burst of power" bullsh*t. I won my 360 from Mountain Dew, and I'm seriously considering selling it for $300 before I even open it. I got the Need for Speed game for free with it, and if that had been a playable demo and that game had sucked too, I wouldn't be hesitating to sell it. Since it's free and my DVD player died recently, I just might keep it for awhile.

Can I just ask, are *all* Joystiq readers complete morons, or just the ones who feel the need to wade in here with their comments on 'next-gen' consoles?

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Joystiq hands-on: Xbox 360--the games

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