The Official Xbox 360 Thread

[Batman]

it's on marketplace now?!!?!

[FD]

it's on marketplace now?!!?!

Since Wednesday, but yep, 800 points.

It's f**king great

[Rated R Superstar]

Duke Nukem 3D was the XBLA game yesterday!

Co-op and Versus modes included...(8 player!)

You can record your game and upload it, also when you die, go back to any point as it's recording all the time.

Reminds me of way back, playing modem games with my mates.

Absolute brilliant buy for 800 MS points!

Not been on my 360 for a while, it might be time to dust it off!

[blurred]

Quick question to XBoxers on here - I've been away from the consoles for a while, but fancy getting myself one of these here 360 malarkies (used to have a bog-standard XBox back in the day, and prefer them to the PS2/3). Of the three on the market, the arcade version seems pathetically small HD-wise, but is there really any difference between the 60 gig and the 100 gig or whatever it is of the 'Elite'? Seems to me that that would only be for some hardcore gamer types. In short, would I be most likely best off with the middle-of-the-range 60gig, as surely the arcade is too small a HD to be worth bothering with?

[BWFC_Insane]

Quick question to XBoxers on here - I've been away from the consoles for a while, but fancy getting myself one of these here 360 malarkies (used to have a bog-standard XBox back in the day, and prefer them to the PS2/3). Of the three on the market, the arcade version seems pathetically small HD-wise, but is there really any difference between the 60 gig and the 100 gig or whatever it is of the 'Elite'? Seems to me that that would only be for some hardcore gamer types. In short, would I be most likely best off with the middle-of-the-range 60gig, as surely the arcade is too small a HD to be worth bothering with?

Depends what you want to do with it.

Arcade is fine unless you want to put lots of your own music on it and or download a lot of videos etc.

I find it fine for simply playing games.

[boltonbhoy1978]

if you have the money for the elite, then i would get that, its alot less quieter, and as for the hard drive its your choice i would say 100 gig is the better choice, but only if you want put films, music and download games.

[BWFC_Insane]

if you have the money for the elite, then i would get that, its alot less quieter, and as for the hard drive its your choice i would say 100 gig is the better choice, but only if you want put films, music and download games.

If you mean the Elite's are quieter then not always so.

My friend has an elite and my 2.5 year old 360 is quieter.

[boltonbhoy1978]

thats strange. mine is so qiuet you could hear a pin drop,lol.

[blurred]

Depends what you want to do with it.

Arcade is fine unless you want to put lots of your own music on it and or download a lot of videos etc.

I find it fine for simply playing games.

Doubt I'll be doing a great deal of downloading onto it (have always got my PC for that, I s'pose) - do the save game files and other gaming stuff (anything needed for XBoxlive or owt like that) not eat up that measly disk space quite quickly, though?

[FD]

Don't fall into the Elite being better trap, they are just as noisy and just as prone to dying. Like all 360's, some of them are good and make little noise, some are not. It's down the to the drive and not the motherboard (which is what changed with the elite etc). Some of the older hitachi drives are like aircraft taking off, whereas the newer revised hitachi and the benq drives are pretty quiet, certainly compared with the older ones. It's pot luck as to which you get though, no guarantee of which drive you'll get by which "sku" you buy.

Also, don't fall into getting an arcade. They are cheap for a reason, they are barebones units and don't even come with a unit to save games onto. Games require a lot of updating nowadays, so a Hard Drive is the preferable option. They are fine for literally playing games though, but if you plan to use XBOX LIVE then you'll eventually want to download a live arcade game (like Duke3D or Geometry Wars) or a demo or even some DLC, and then you'd have to go out and buy a hard drive, which will cost you more to buy on its own than within a premium unit.

I'd reccommend the Premium model, comes with wireless controller, hard drive and cables that will get you the HD signal to the tv.

[Batman]

pes demo out on 2nd october

best game of the year

[boltonbhoy1978]

pes demo out on 2nd october

best game of the year

have you even played it yet, i have, apart from having the champions league and a deeper career mode for be a pro, it still not as good as fifa.

[boltonbhoy1978]

nice little review here

FIFA 09 REVIEW

First off I’d like to say that after playing this game for 2 days, at approximately 7-8 hours per day, I still feel like I have barely scratched the surface of what is most definitely the best football video game I have ever played even if it does have the odd hiccup here and there….

I picked the game up on Friday and since then I have played kick-off (both single player and multiplayer) and a 3 player Lounge mode (1v1). I have also had a decent look through all the new additions to the game, the new online modes and downloaded the Premier League as my free Live Season update. I have also spent quite a bit of time exploring and experimenting with the new Custom Tactics.

First Impressions

Out of the box and into my Playstation 3, loading up the game for the first time I am walked through a similar menu to that of the demo in which I choose from various options to set my initial personal settings. As the ‘Press Start’ option flashes I’m greeted with a gigantic icture of Ronaldinho, as per the demo, as beautiful as that man is I think I May grow tired of gazing at his mug-shot every time I load the game up!!
Into the game we go…. Incidentally each time I have loaded the game up I have been presented with a different arena in which to practice some of the new tricks available in the game. Whether it’s Tokyo at night, the back-streets of South America, an Eastern European cityscape or the greens and greys of London suburbia, each feels and looks different from the other.

New stadiums from around the world, much like the arena offer different environments to play in, some pitches are drier than others and the ball moves differently as a result, I've only played a couple of games in wet conditions and have yet to find snow, but judging by the intro video it's there somewhere.

Gameplay

My first few matches I don’t bother with the new Custom Tactics or editing my formation, I dive straight into a ten minute game on World Class difficulty. I’d like to say at this point that I play FIFA with all manual settings but I had the shooting on semi in an attempt to familiarise myself with, well everything!

I never had a problem with the running animations but they all look great, accompanied by the very detailed graphics and physical animations which alone take this game into it’s own league.

On the whole the gameplay is greatly improved from 08, the overall speed of the game (NORMAL) feels ever so slightly slower than the speed of the demo, this could be because I have become familiar with the new speed and the fact that I am able to play longer matches and spent more time building up the play.

The computer AI gives you a far better game than it did last year, although it does resort to crossing the ball a little too often for my liking. One thing I would say is that EA promised ‘more intelligent’ runs to be made off the ball, well the good news is that they do make more intelligent runs, the bad news is that they make these runs more often than not and in turn feel less impressive as a result.

Ball control is greatly improved although not as instantaneous as PES I believe it is more realistic as a result. On occasion though, a player might struggle to get hold of the ball properly and they seem to parry slowly next to instead of being drawn toward it, Although this is easily fixed by pressing the two triggers it can be annoying and can happen to any player on the pitch at any time both when you are coming to meet the ball and when you want to run into the path of it, I have both conceded goals and missed goal-scoring opportunities because of this. NOTE: Manual settings could be the reason it occurs more often.

Lastly for those that prefer manual settings I have found the following; manual passing is less sensitive than it was in the demo but still more sensitive than it was in 08, I still find myself over-hitting passes more often than I did last year, laying the ball off to someone a couple of feet away is the trickiest of all but you are usually rewarded with a heel pass of sorts when you do pull one off.

The first touch and first-time passing and shooting has improved quite a lot, probably one of the biggest changes to note. It seems EA are trying to encourage 1,2 touch touch football more as you seem to be rewarded well for implementing it into you football.

Overall it’s what you should expect if you are realistic, yes the game-play is greatly improved from last year but there is still a few strides to go.

Custom Tactics
One of the most intriguing parts of this year’s edition, for me at least, has been the introduction of the new Custom Tactics. I have spent a bit of time here getting to know how exactly each part works and how it will affect the layout,style and attitude of your chosen team.

Flicking and editing through the squad is easier and you no longer have to worry about re-selecting a player, there are separate slots for you to save your formations and tactics, I counted 28 slots for formations alone! They have adopted a PES-style setup when you are editing your team and moving players around the pitch when you create a custom formation no longer disrupts your oponent from what he is/was doing, it can all be done on one side of the screen. This small change has a big impact for me at least, and I’m certain it will change the online experience for those that enjoy getting the most out of their team.

Online Game Modes

I have only had a brief look through this, people are encouraged to play quick ranked matches this year, it is the first option in the menu whilst unranked matches come in a different section when you create a custom match. The only added filter is the option to choose manual settings. After you have created a custom match you can save your settings so you can get a quicker game next time around.

FIFA 09 is without doubt the truest interpretation of real football as we know it today and I say this as an ex-PES player. Konami need to put some serious thought into what exactly the future holds for the PES fans as EA have clearly set new standards in practically every department of football video-gaming.

[boltonboris]

Said a source from EA Sports

[Batman]

exactly

[boltonbhoy1978]

so what.

[Batman]

ha

BEST FILM EVER, by the Director's Mum

[FD]

Said a source from EA Sports

Even if it is from EA sports (which, to the non-blinkered, it probably isn't), the game has consistently been getting 9/10 reviews so far. Most reviews stating how both Fifa 09 and PES09 are excellent games, both as good as one another but offering a different experience. It really annoys me the way people consistently bash EA, despite the fact they've been behind some of the best games this year.

I'm sure Konami will come out saying how shit their game is when they decide to publicise it though, since developers often say their game is shit when trying to sell it.

Wouldn't do though for a PES fan to admit a Fifa game is good though, we can't have that.

pes demo out on 2nd october

best game of the year

You haven't even played it yet!

Or Little Big Planet...(I have)

Or WipeOut HD?

No chance PES09 will be game of the year mate, though of course it is subjective.

[General Mannerheim]

Tiger Woods 09 half price at play.com!

[BWFC_Insane]

Depends what you want to do with it.

Arcade is fine unless you want to put lots of your own music on it and or download a lot of videos etc.

I find it fine for simply playing games.

Doubt I'll be doing a great deal of downloading onto it (have always got my PC for that, I s'pose) - do the save game files and other gaming stuff (anything needed for XBoxlive or owt like that) not eat up that measly disk space quite quickly, though?

Apologies, haven't looked at new xboxes and assumed they all came with at least a 20GB drive.

Seems the arcade doesn't so you'd need to buy a HD with it.

Apologies for the confusion!