XBOX Archive
These posts are all in this one category.
Halo 2's official release date is 4/4/04 (better known as April 4, 2004).
Supposedly this is from sources in the "know" but I haven't seen an official announcement yet. April 4th, 2004 is a Sunday, which is strange because games are usually released on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays.
Some Halo 2 videos keep you busy until then.
If you're looking for a great game for these cold winter nights, and your thrust for Halo 2 is driving you nuts, I highly recommend Metal Arms: Glitch in the System for XBOX. (Metal Arms is also available for Playstation 2 and GameCube, but the visuals won't be as nice, you won't have in-game Dolby Surround Sound, and you wont have the hard drive for saving games and faster load times.)
Metal Arms can be called a Halo-clone because it has that style of "3D run around shooting things" play, but I think of it as a an original game of that genre (which was originated by ID Software with Wolfstein 3D back in the day, but that's another story).
I'm not good at reviewing games (I'm still getting hammered for my SSX3 review), so I'll be brief, and then link to a semi-professionally written review:
- Great Halo-style multiplayer, with several Halo-style customizable game types.
- Great single player missions, with professional voice acting (including the source of Homer Simpson's voice, Dan Castellaneta), good story, and a ton of levels.
- Not only are there cool vehicles to drive, you can also control several different kinds of robots.
- Taking over other robots (and "recruiting" them with a special grenade so they fight for you) in multiplayer is a great new twist. There's even a multiplayer mode that only gives you other robots to use to take out your friends.
- Great sound, graphics, controls etc.
- Lots of in game humor, and not stupid humor - actual good stuff.
- Awesome explosions - mechanical parts go everywhere.
- Multiple ways to solve levels (guns blazing or using your head).
- Two very cool gangsta robots that try to sell you stuff... you just have to see (and hear) to know what i mean.
- Upgradeable guns!
- Lots of beeped out bad words from pissed off robots! (Games need more of this! Nobody that gets shot simply says "umph" - they cuss up a storm!)
Things that I don't like:
- No XBOX Live (for playing online with Internet scoreboard and voice support)
- No XBOX System Link (for connecting XBOX's together locally)
- You must find hidden computer chips to get all of the multiplayer maps. There's a ton of multiplayer maps, and the chips are fun to find, but I don't like being forced to play alone in order to be able to play all of the multiplayer maps.
- Best Buy never seems to have it in stock for XBOX. I don't know what Best Buy has against XBOX, but every one I go to never has the new games out, and if they do, they aren't on the shelf with the rest of the XBOX games, they're hidden somewhere else, like by the XBOX demo machine or in the hallway in front of the refrigerator section. What's up with that?
Overall a great game for most ages. Lots of bleeped out cussing, great satisfying explosions, good brain work, and great levels. I had a lot of fun playing with my family and my youngest brother played single player for three days straight.
TeamXBox.com has a more detailed review.
There's also the official Metal Arms site.
Okay, I never post game release news, so you know this must be good. SSX 3, the sequel to the insane and over the top snowboarding games SSX and SSX Tricky, is now available.
Why am I looking forward to this game? SSX Tricky is my second most played game on XBOX (besides Halo, of course). While the graphics are only so-so for an XBOX game (because it's a Playstation 2 port and it's from EA), it's the game play that makes the game near perfect. It's not too hard to learn, it's always fun to play against somebody, and there's always new places on the maps to find and new tricks to randomly find. I still don't know what buttons do what, but I know how to do a Tricky Trick, how to grind the rails, how to land, and that's pretty all you need to know.
My younger brothers and sister play SSX Tricky whenever we're all home for the holidays, so I'm looking forward to getting them SSX 3 for Hanukah this year. I've gone snowboarding once before, and SSX is similar to real snowboarding in that you are on a snowboard and on a mountain side, but it goes so much futher that it's practially a new genre. Check out the videos below to see what I mean. You simply can't do what you can do in this game in real life. I'll go outside to play football or basketball, but I will not try these tricks in real life, and you will not find courses as creative as they are in this game anywhere in the world.
My one grip? EA is acting like a bratty little kid by not supporting XBOX Live and XSN. XBOX Live gives XBOX users easy online play against other gamers in your same skill level along with full duplex voice so you can talk against those you are playing. XSN is the XBOX Sports Network, it adds statitics tracking, leagues, ladders, competitions, and more. The Playstation version has online play, but it's the typical no-frills 1-on-1 Playstation style, not even close to what Live gives us.
SSX 3 Videos:
Clips: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_2.wmv
Long Trailer: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_3.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_peak1.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_peak2.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_peak3.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_halfpipe.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_allegra.wmv
Gameplay: http://www.gametrailers.com/gt_vault/t_ssx3_elise.wmv
SSX 3 Reviews:
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/sports/ssx3/review.html
http://xbox.ign.com/articles/455/455455p1.html?fromint=1
SSX 3 Official web site:
http://www.easportsbig.com/games/ssx3/home.jsp
So go get SSX 3!
UPDATE: (Tuesday evening after buying the game)
Don't get SSX 3!
Well I bought SSX Tricky and I'm not happy. There were a few problems with the first and second SSX, such as the slow load times, slow interface, lack of multiplayer options, and so-so graphics.
And guess what... ...They didn't fix any of those problems with SSX 3.
The load times are much worse. The XBOX has a hard drive which games use to move data to from the DVD-ROM to speed up load times. Hard drive reading is much faster than loading off the DVD player. SSX 3 seems to cache some data to the hard drive the first time you play but after that doing something as minor as going to the menu requires a hefty load time.
The usability is far worse. Trying to be way to cleaver, you have to navigate the mountain to find the different events. What's' wrong with a menu? You can't see which ones you still have to do this way. Well there is a menu, but it's slow and painful to use too.
As a rule, since the XBOX has a built-in hard drive, all XBOX games should constantly be saving. For some reason (probably because it's a PS2 port), you must choose to save, at which time it asks what you want to name the save file (why, i have no idea), where you want to save it (the hard drive, duh!), and then asks Are you Sure, and reminds you not to turn off your XBOX while it is saving. THEN it asks are you sure you want to overwrite the save file already there. Then another message comes up telling you it saved, all which must be dismissed by pressing a button. This has been going on since SSX 1. Damn it, EA, just save the game constantly with the date and time as the filename. There's plenty of room on my HD.
The biggest problem with SSX 3 is that it's not SSX 3 Tricky. The two best features of SSX Tricky were the announcer Rahzel Brown and the rift from Run-DMC's It's Tricky when you completed a series of good tricks. There's no voice telling you what tricks you did, or other help, but there is an annoying voice telling you when you have new email (yes, the game sends you lame in-game emails which make AOL chatrooms look mature).
The biggest gimmick of this game is that you can supposedly race the entire mountain at once because all of the tracks are connected. I never saw the point to this, I personally like short and to the point tracks because otherwise my thumbs and wrist get sore. There are races that race the entire mountain, but they are long and boring. Plus it really sucks to loose your first-place standing on the last leg of a 15 minute race.
There's also annoying tie-ins with the Honda Element and 7UP such as Element posters in the game and 7UP snowboards that you can buy. If they are going to have any ads, they better be snowboard related. Why must every EA game have ads?
Finally, SSX 3 looses the famous voices (Macy Gray, Lucy Liu, David Arquette, Billy Zane, etc) adds crappy mainstream music such as old Chemical Brothers tracks, and ads a pointless money system so you can buy new clothes, sun glasses, trading cards, posters, and much more crap that has absolutely nothing to do with the game.
I don't know what happened to SSX. I blame EA, which continues to develop for the lowest common denominator (the four-year-old Playstation 2), and then deliver mediocre ports to the XBOX.
I'll still play it, and I might change my mind. I didn't like SSX Tricky as much as SSX at first because of how much more complicated it got, and SSX3 is 10x more complicated than the first two.
We'll see. All I know is that's a good trick!
Here are some awesome Half-Life 2 videos taken from E3.
Old Half-Life 2 Videos:
- A brief Half Life 2 teaser (11 MB MOV)
- Tech demo of some of the Source Engine's light and physics capabilities (48 MB MOV)
- Talking with an almost real looking Alyx and Doctor (24 MB MOV)
- Gameplay inside an abandond hospital (23 MB MOV)
- Gameplay outside in a European city (29 MB MOV)
- Gameplay of using swarms of Starship Trooper-like aliens to help attack enemies (37 MB MOV)
- Gameplay of the incredible 4-story tall Striders walking around and attacking in a European city (my favorite) (34 MB MOV)
- Gameplay using the magnet gun (25 MB MPG)
These videos are from the PC version but the game will also be available for XBOX. It is expected to be in stores this Fall.
UPDATE (May 19): New 25 Minutes of Half-Life 2 (64 MB WMV). Better quality than the Quicktime videos above, but you might need to increase the contrast in Windows Media Player a little. This includes all previously circulated QuickTime videos and more, such as driving.
UPDATE (May 29): All of the video links are now dead. You should be able to find the videos elsewhere. Sorry, the bandwith from you guys downloading them was a lot more than expected.
"STRIDER!!!"