Xbox 360 & Xbox Live..

After waiting and waiting, I finally obtained an import Xbox 360 unit about two weeks ago

So far I only have 4 games: Condemned, Ridge Racer 6, Dead or Alive 4, and Wrestle Kingdom.

Both Condemned and Ridge Racer 6 are the U.S. versions of those games, unfortunately the post-launch copies of Ridge Racer 6 are region-protected so the game won' t be playable until I get a U.S. 360 unit down the line. No biggie.

Reason I took a chance on the U.S. copies of those two games was because my 360 arrived totally unexpected on a Friday, leaving me with absolutely no time to place an order and get a game in time for the weekend. So, getting a peek at a posted list of U.S. 360 games that weren' t region-protected I headed down to one of the local game stores and snagged those two games. The NCS list did also note that later versions of Ridge Racer 6 *might* be region-protected so I basically took a chance on the game, hoping for the best, knowing that it was a gamble.

With that said I' ve only played Dead or Alive 4 and Wrestle Kingdom. Dead or Alive 4 is a beautiful game I must say. Looks damn good and plays just as well.
Wrestle Kingdom didn' t turn out as good.. While the game looks pretty good with great looking grapplers and animated fans, the gameplay is a bit underwhelming. There just doesn' t seem to be a lot of wrestling moves in the game, especially compared to Yuke' s other wrestling game offerings.

I was on the fence about Xbox Live since I' m a solitary gamer, but I finally bit the bullet one night and signed up for three months. Registration was pretty easy, in fact, the only disappointing part was that, no matter how hard I tried I couldn' t get the username I really wanted. But other than that I must say that it' s an interesting service. The biggest appeal of the service to me right now are the downloadable demos. Checked out Project Gotham City, and 5 minutes later that game was wiped from the hard drive after enduring one of the races. The best part about the game was probably seeing Commisioner Gordan among the crowds in the backgrounds.

I did get a chance to play a few Dead or Alive matches online and it was interesting. Won 2 matches and Lost about 998 times. The lag was INCREDIBLE while watching the first match. there was one point in the game where the lag literally brought the action to a crawl. Fortunately my matches were a lot smoother than that and the lag wasn' t as insane. Those headsets must be of pretty poor quality since everyone I heard chatting during the game sounded so tinny, OR is it
the audio conversion and not the headsets themselves? I haven' t tried the headsets, don' t really think I' m ever going to (who knows), but I' m curious as to whether much better quality headsets would yield better results?

Wrestle Kingdom fared MUCH MUCH better online. Played against someone residing in Taiwan and there was virtually ZERO lag - at least from what I noticed. But then again it was 3 am in the morning and the internet/online world isn' t as congested.

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

Which Gordan was it? Was it the fat one from the Michael Keaton Batmans, or was it Gary Oldman from the latest Batman?

LOL!

PGR3 isn' t that bad, it just takes some getting used to. I hadn' t played PGR2 for ages when i got the 3rd on 360 and i was taken by surprise and kept crashing into the walls. Now though i' m back on form and can' t get enough of the damn thing, ...you should give it another chance!

Condemned' s good but a little slow going. Play it with the lights out!

You should get Call of Duty 2 if it' ll work on your machine because it' s easily the best game on 360 so far.

Boot up DoA4 play as Kokoro, get all her school uniforms then stick it in watch mode, make her fight Kasumi in her uniform and take pictures til your hearts content!!

School uniforms turn you on? Are you a pedophile? Or maybe you like ' em because they look like sailor suits and you loves you sum sailors, like Ryo? :)

Boot up DoA4 play as Kokoro, get all her school uniforms then stick it in watch mode, make her fight Kasumi in her uniform and take pictures til your hearts content!!

Actually, those school uniforms do Kokoro NO justice! I love her more traditional garb.

PGR3 isn' t that bad, it just takes some getting used to.

While I despise the entire Gran Turismo series with every fiber of my being, I don' t think they' re bad games, I just don' t like them. Same goes for *Project Gotham City with Commissioner Gordan in the background*. Just not my cup of tea, I LOVE traditional arcade racers. The cars firmly grip the road and when you tap left or right on the controller you don' t continue going straight into a wall

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

Really? Huh!

Ha, no Joe not quite. The Japanese tend to stay in school until they' re 18, then they go to university (isn' t it like that in the states too?). But real-life Japanese schoolgirls are a wonderous thing to behold (those that are closer to 18 than not). Japan has some seriously good qualities!

Actually, there is a mysterious and little known " over 18" grade that exists in Japan. Otherwise, where would they get hentai, right?

Hey, Terry. Did you check out the Fight Night: Round 3 demo? I heard it was amazing! Of course I' m still hard-drive-less, so I can' t say.

I must also ask; are you playing these games in high-def? If you are, you' re in for a real treat in condemned! It got repetitive after a while, but it delivered on graphics and atmosphere! BIG TIME!

...older males preying on young girls is serious issue.... ...something not to be made fun of... ...isn' t it?......


...anyway.... ...is it true that you no-longer need a credit card to subscribe to xbox live?...

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just when I thought the ...' s had gone away
You should try one of the many Xbox Live Arcade games. I highly recommend Marble Blast Ultra.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

You should try one of the many Xbox Live Arcade games.

Oh but I did! I downloaded the SMASH TV demo immediately!! I wanted to see if it was actually an emulation of the arcade version.

...is it true that you no-longer need a credit card to subscribe to xbox live?...

I' m not 100003% sure but I don' t think you need a credit card to subscribe because at the store that I DIDN' T buy the 360 from because they sold them as bundles, they had these little pre-paid Xbox Live kits/packs - $39.99 & $50. Included in them were the headsets. So I imagine that' s an alternative to not having a credit card..

Hey, Terry. Did you check out the Fight Night: Round 3 demo? I heard it was amazing! Of course I' m still hard-drive-less, so I can' t say.

I downloaded it but haven' t played it yet. Got caught up in the edit a wrestler mode of Wrestle Kingdom last night and getting my ass badly whooped by some Wrestle Kingdom players in Japan!

I must also ask; are you playing these games in high-def? If you are, you' re in for a real treat in condemned! It got repetitive after a while, but it delivered on graphics and atmosphere! BIG TIME!

Nope, standard crappy as TV definition. I say crappy because my current TV truly is the epitome of crappy. It has this annoying glitch that causes images and sound to disappear once in a while and you have to smack the set in order for the image and sound to return! So I think that' s a sign that a new TV is needed eh? ;). Been in the market for one for quite some time, I' ve ALWAYS wanted something from the Sony Trinitron family of TVs, so when I take the high definition plunge I want something from that line.

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

...funny you should mention that....

...not having the cash for a decent high def plasma is the main reason why i don' t have a 360....

...it' s sad that the worlds biggest Team Ninja fan can' t play their greatest version of DOA, but i just don' t have a thousand bucks or so for a good HD plasma...

...it' s rather annoying, but there' s no way I' m going from a decent 28" windscreen tv to a shitty 15" LCD, ...HD or no...

...LCD' s are only worthwhile if you work with static images anyway....

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I think it' s really dumb that people think they need an HDTV to play a 360... I have a standard 36" TV and all the games look absolutely incredible.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Perhaps not as crassly as Rampage99, but I agree. A high def set is not REQUIRED to play 360 games. Just go for it, man, and get the tv when you get your tax return, or something!

ORIGINAL: Terry Bogard

I' ve ALWAYS wanted something from the Sony Trinitron family of TVs, so when I take the high definition plunge I want something from that line.

Yeah, my tube is a Sony and so is my projector. Come to think of it, so is my monitor! Definitely high quality. I' m just waiting for someone to bring over another 360 so we can network my tvs together and be in high def heaven! I tried to get a couple of my friends to go for it, but they won' t listen! Oh, well. Maybe it' s because I called dibs on the 133" screen!

bishonen, you don' t have to spend 1000 bucks on a hdtv. why would u wanna get a plasma anyway? hdtv crts go for like 500-700 bucks, 27" . that' s not bad if u ask me.

I think I might get my 360 in a month or so. soo happy

I got a cheap 26" one which does the job but even with my old 21" normal TV I would have gotten a 360.

I' m also impressed with X-Box Live. I' ve never really been too enthusiastic about online play ignoring it basically on PS2 and X-box till recently. The most I' ve done online is play The Matrix Online and Battlefield 2 for my PC. Live is truly great though and I' ve had massive fun racing people on Project Gotham and shooting them on Perfect Dark.

I' ve only dared play 2 online DOA4 matches and while there was a little bit of lag it was entirely playable both games.

...using a 360 on a standard tv is like having sex with a condom....

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LOL!!!!

People could just get the composite-VGA cable and play in hi-def using their monitors, though you' d need a sizable monitor to make it worthwile.

While my current TV is a 19 inch piece of krap, I can still appreciate Xbox 360 graphics on it. I was checking out Condemned the other day and was impressed by the texture detail on the enemies as well as some of the environments. The characters in Wrestle Kingdom also look superb and the game seems to utilize soft-focus camera effects in many areas. And then sweet jeebus we have Dead or Alive 4, a graphical masterpiece in some areas. Although, even in Dead or Alive 4 Team Ninja continues to demonstrate their hatred for water physics ;).. Anyways, all of those games look wonderful and that' s just from viewing them on my 19 inch piece of $hitte. So I can only imagine how much sweeter things will look on a VGA monitor OR HDTV!

Terry Bogard - currently the most Unhelpful member of the Kikizo forums.

Yeah it does look good even on a SDTV, espacially Call of Duty 2, but the difference between playing it on a standard definition tv and a monitor or HDTV is huge. Project Gotham 3 and Dead or Alive 4 especially benefit!

I' ve heard that PGR3 without the cocpit view and on SD TV doesn' t look much better than PGR2 - that would suck for me (SDTV OWNER) :)

True, mostly. My brother doesn' t have a HDTV or a big monitor (like me) and just has to use his SDTV and it doesn' t look THAT much difference as far as the cars themselves are concerned. The track (road) and courses look much better though. There actually aren' t as many courses as in PGR2 either which i thought was cheeky!

maybe they' ll release some downloads for aditional cities like with pgr2.

may i direct anyone without an HD viewing medium to www.tigerdirect.com, or more specifically http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=37
it is a computer bitz site that i have used reliably for ages, it' s got everything from $299 17" flatscreen' s to $2,8900 dollar 61 incher' s, and all in glorious high definition. but be warned, most of these are technically monitors, and don' t come with attached speakers.

I can vouch for playing 360 on a 17" LCD monitor through vga. It does look great, although the colours can look ever so slightly washed out (which I compensated for by turning up saturation).

Only thing is it can be tricky to get a resolution that works in PGR3 and certain backwards compatible xbox games. Non-widescreen just isnt supported enough! 640x480 res reverts visuals to ps2 standard, but I suppose a normal CRT would look better at this res, especially those sony trinitrons they' re good..

I agree - the cheapest way to enjoy 360 in HD is to buy the VGA cable and use your monitor.

I don' t think HD is worth the sacrifice of big TV - that' s what consoles have always been about.

I guess it depends , but 17" ...so damn small.

Yea, ur right, but it' s all I' ve got atm! Still I love to be able see those tiny textures details and small writing in places. It' s the little things that count! hehe..

Sure - I' ve never said it' s without it' s good sides :)

I don' t think HD is worth the sacrifice of big TV - that' s what consoles have always been about.
I guess it depends , but 17" ...so damn small.

..Definitely...

...gaming and movies are ALL about huge viewing screens...

....I' d rather stick to my Xbox + NG Black and PS2 + Resident Evil 4 on my phat-@$$ed 28" windscreen TV, than play crappy launch games on a sh*itty 15" LCD.....

...i do cry into my pillow every night over DOA4 though....

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