I thought I'd start its very own thread and give my thoughts on the system and some games.

The first game I played came with the machine and that was Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Fighter. Great game and my machine only froze once. I was hoping for just a bit more but love that you had to control 3 soldiers, a Bradly, a tank and an Apache Helicopter; not to mention the arial drone. When playing the two person game the game is not the same and has a completely different feel. I was saddened that quick missions were removed like they had on the previous versions for the X-Box.

The second game I played was Elder Scrolls; Oblivion. I played this from the end of November till last week. I finished every quest with the exception of some of the Master Skill ones and currently reside at level 37 as a Redguard Warrior. I tried upgrading these skills from level 34 up to 37 but nothing can stop me so is getting a little boring. After my ACL surgery I played as much as 12 to 18 hours a day and discovered everything and I mean everything on the map. Still wonder what the Isolated House is that has no marker or quests attached to it. I cannot count the times this game froze on me or told me to insert my disc into a X-Box 360 Console or told me to clean the disc; very dang annoying to say the least and thankfully I saved a lot; over 2000 times. At times I could hear the machine clicking and knew it was going to crash and when removing the disc from the machine little white marks could be seen that I could wipe off with my fingers, clean with a soft cloth and then back to playing. Some days it never crashed and other days non stop. All and all a great game and I may go back to it to finish upgrading every skill level. The Oblivion in the title obviously represents the main quest but I believe the Elder Scrolls represents the Thieves Guild Quest which I found to be the best quest of the guilds to play.

The third game I played was Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent. I started this Friday night and after only 21 hours I'm done it; and I repeated a few levels so could have been done in less time. I am saddened by how short the game is. The graphics are awesome, the game play is great and I loved playing it but feel jilted as I wanted more and there wasn't anything. Granted I played all of the other Splinter Cell games X-Box had but still, much too short of a game. I also did not like that you could not save multiple times. One save over wrote the other so you could not go back to a previous saved spot. The reason I wish they had this is they give you options to take a dark route or the good guy route. I would have liked to save it at each juntion and played each scenario out until they meet again. I should also point out the system crashed twice during this time.

I believe they rushed the X-Box 360 out too fast and from what I see on-line there are so many machines experiencing problems. Is the one I have one of those, that remains to be seen but with Oblivion problems and these crashes it makes me question it. However on-line it appears the Oblivion game has been giving a lot of people problems. There are some clearing features to free up some memory to get rid of choppiness and stuff that I used but there were times I was going to take my machine back during that time. In the number of years I played the X-Box not once can I recall it crashing and this is from the day it was released. I think they were in such a rush to beat the PS3 and whatever else was out there that they forgot about the people buying it; very sad.

Games on my list to get now are Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Las Vegas, Gears of War, Halo 3 (release 11/30/2007) and WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007.

So, tell me your thoughts on these games if you've played them. Tell me about the games you've played and your thoughts as I may want to also play those games. Tell me problems that you have had with your machine. And tell me if by going on X-Box Live are there downloads for this machine to fix problems as I could not see anything when on it though I only browsed.

Thanks

most people who seem to be experiencing problems find it is to do with overheating of the console. There are many after market coolers made for the 360, and many report improved results having added them to the machine.
i am not on 'live'- online gaming has never appealed to be honest, so I have the 'core' system- no hard drive or modem, just the machine and a memory card. My mother has the same set up, and neither of us have had any problems with our consoles whatsoever. it is possible that you have a genuinely faulty machine Dereck, but improve ventilation and clearance space around it, and if it is on the floor, put it on cardboard instead of directly on a carpet. These are all things that have been said to work.

Game wise, Gears of War and Oblivion are the cream of the crop so far. Gears suffers the same as Splinter Cell, in that it is short in story mode, but it is an essential experience, and I understand that the online games are a lot of fun.

'Dead Rising' was a lot of fun, and had great scope, but did get a bit repetetive if I am honest. The same could be said of 'Just Cause', although taking a helicopter up to 10,000 feet and bailing out for a glorious free fall never gets tired

WWE vs Smackdown '07 is tremendous. the graphics are photo realistic in places (the undertaker in particular), and the gameplay is as refined as you would expect at this stage in the series. It wont make any new fans though- its still the same game as it was on the last gen consoles.

Same can be said of Fight Night Round 3. At first I didnt like this as much as FN2, as it is slower paced, but now I am in to it, it is much more involving and satisfying. Best of the series IMO (and the graphics- )

If you happen to see 'Full Auto' at a knock down price (its an old game now), buy it- it is essentialy 'Burnout: Revenge' with heavy weapons Possibly the most fun arcade racing game I have ever played- an ignored gem.

My next purchase is going to be 'Crackdown'. A massive free roaming (think Oblivion/GTA) game where you are a superpowered cop cleaning up a future-city overrun by gangs. All the playtests are saying its breathtaking, and takes 'sandbox' gaming to a whole new level. Thats right, better than any GTA, with added superpowers

I am also delighted that we are going to get Virtua Fighter 5, Resi Evil 5 and Assassins Creed later in the year.
Rumours are also rife that Namco are considering dropping the Sony exclusivity of the Tekken series, and will release Tekken 6 on the 360 in the future. Lets not forget that Soul Calibre 2 was an xbox exclusive on first release, and that with 10 million 360 owners out there, its a bigger financial incentive to widen their brand.
For these reasons, and the success of dead rising, it is thought that Devil May Cry 4 may be developed for the 360 by capcom as well.

Thanks Cord. The unit sits on top of my stereo cabinet as I have it hooked up to the stereo that acts as a line switchers to I can run it through the HD on my TV. Plenty of space underneath it and behind it and it never seems to run hot, nor more so then the regular X-Box did. I do find that this machine is not near as quiet as the X-Box. On my next game if I have problems then it is back to the store with this unit. I've only had it since mid November so that is about 10 weeks.

I'm going to look into some of those game.

The PC version of Oblivion also suffered from an horrible computer port. I can play FEAR with every option maxed out except soft shadows, and the frame rate never drops even in the most intense of firefights (and FEAR has some intense firefights), yet oblivion got laggy if there are more than a few people fighting at once, and I am only playing at medium graphics.

I'm still kind of upset about how the Splinter Cell:DA multiplayer has been nerfed. They made it easy for n00bs. Argh, I spent all that time getting good at it and then they decide to make the next game way easier.

You're right, I thought it was easier as well. I thought perhaps I was getting better at it but nope, it was easier. In the other version it took me awhile to find and figure out things but this time it wasn't to hard. The time clock for doing the missions while in the bad guy's layer I did not like too much as there was no way I could to my primary objectives plus all of the secondary let alone the bonus stuff; there just was near enough time especially when you can only walk and do not have the option of running.

Like I said earlier, not very long of a game and yes it was fairly simple. I never came up against any mines I had to disarm. I never had to avoid cameras or use any equipment to disable them. I could never understand how to use the map so didn't. I had an assortment of weapons and tools that I never ever used whereas in previous games you had to and it was instrumental that you did. It was missing too much and I think that they tried to sell you on the graphics. I liked that I had to get control of the helicopter. I liked that when skydiving that there is problems and you had to figure out how to get the second chute out. I liked the swimming through the water and pulling schmucks in by dragging them down or cutting through the ice to grab them. I like Splinter Cell and the graphics were awesome I just hope the next one is harder and longer.

My cuzin has gotten like 3 replacements and they have all gotten screwed up.
It's nice but a piece of crap.

Bought Tom Clancy's "Rainbow Six Vegas" on Saturday.



I only got a short time to play it but like Splinter Cell Double Agent, it was a short game to finish. The graphics are premo and the shooting and the layout is awesome; can't wait to try it with dual players. I finished it tonight and I stopped the dam from being blown up and the missle from causing any damage and my character said "it is far from over" and I was thinking, yeh ... more game. WRONG ... "TO BE CONTINUED" appears on the screen. Doh! Now I have to wait for the next game to come out to continue where I left off.

On Sunday night from 10:00 PM to 3:30 AM a buddy of mine and I played Fight Night Round 3.



The graphics are also premo. You can chose from so many fighters. Though I never played it before, after playing twice I caught on and began to improve immediately and starting winning every match. We worked our way through all of the weight classes and once to the heavy weight my buddy took Muhamad Ali who kicked my butt repeatedly. I couldn't beat him with anybody so started to challenge him with other weight classes such as Oscar De La Hoya and Sugar Ray Leonard; who I came close to beating him with but the power and speed of Ali was just a little too much. Then we went head to head with Ali for the best of 5 and I came out on top.

Next games I think I will get is the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw and then Gears of War.

I created 'Cord' as a heavyweight in my image, and am currently 41-0-0 with 41 KO's and undefeated heavyweight champ in career mode. just turned 30 (in the game) so technicaly I should be just in my prime .

Tomorrow sees the release of 'Crackdown' in the UK. GTA with superpowers. Hope Den has a lot of books to get through, coz i aint going to be much on conversation for the next 3 weeks

Crackdown, I was wondering about that. It came out on the 20th and is selling for $59.99 CAD however today was the last day for the sale and will be $69.99. Here is the write up:

"It’s time to take out the trash. As a super-human, cybernetically enhanced, heavily trained super agent it’s up to you to take down the Volk, the Cai-Shen Corp and La Muerta in a wide open sandbox of a city. Car in the way? Pick it up and toss it down the block. Perp climbed the fence? Hop over it and keep on truckin’. It’s up to you to take the law and the laws of physics into your hands."