Crackdown Agility Orb Sound

Oh snap, the man with the cushiest job in the gaming business, Major Nelson, offered up downloadable audio clips of that most magical of sound effects, the Crackdown Agility Orb! Oh boy, I can't wait to use this as my alert for everything!

Big ups, props and everything in between, Major!

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A Night at the Arcade: Alien Hominid

The Newgrounds cult classic 2d side-scroller finally makes its way to Xbox Live Arcade. The game was made available for purchase this morning and will set you back the usual 800 MS points. I never played the web version and it all looks suitably wacky, so I might be tempted to buy this after wearing out Crackdown and Heavy Weapon.

Curiously, Alien Hominid only supports local co-op but includes 7 minigames playable over XBL with support for 4 players maximum.

On a side note, the much-anticipated Worms has been certified and is due out for release sometime in the next few weeks. I played very little of the original PC version, however, I understand the hype that's surrounded it since day one. I have more fond memories of Scorched Earth, which is fond memories for Worms as far as I'm concerned.

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Halfway Til Bliss is the Bomb Diggity

"Halfway Til Bliss" by Atlas Plug (Tom Salta) is the theme song for Crackdown as far as I'm concerned. I fell in love with it after watching the famous Achievements video and last night I finally hunted down the track information in the Crackdown jukebox.

If there's been a common criticism of the game so far, it's been the unflattering descriptors aimed at the soundtrack. "Repetitive", "Forgettable" and "Generic" are just some of the adjectives that I've read in the reviews. Hogwash, I say. Sure there are no major artists licensed for the extensive soundtrack and there are a number of grating drum n'bass tunes thrown in the mix. And yes, not even a gem like "Halfway Til Bliss" comes close to matching anything Jeremy Soule can fart out on even his worse day. But c'mon... the tunes fit the game like a glove. A futuristic, gritty setting like Pacific City screams for a techno beat and that's what it has. Just because there's no license radio Top40 crap doesn't make the soundtrack any less effective.

Now if only I could find a way to just buy "Bliss" instead of the entire Atlas Plug album. The other tracks aren't bad, just nothing special.

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Ctrl+Alt+Del Crackdown Comics

Love it!

Cracked Up

Running Errands... For Justice!

I especially enjoyed the 2nd comic strip. Just another day in Pacific City, eh?

On a side note, I realize a lot of you probably hate Crackdown so I will switch gears soon and discuss other topics. Soon, I promise!

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Crazy SUV Jump in Crackdown

You gotta love YouTube.

I mean, where else can you watch a video of a guy triple-flipping the Agency SUV off the top of the Shai-Gen Tower?

We can all agree that the landing, involving the untimely death of an innocent Pacific City civilian is aces. The real gold in this video, however, is figuring out just how the heck the guy got the SUV up there in the first place. Where on earth is the video showing that?

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Do It: Play With My Box

Being the big spender that I am, I decided to spring for a proper domain name over the weekend.

You can now find this blog at: www.playmybox.com

The original Blogger domain still works, of course. Tell your friends, tell your enemies.

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Angry Gamer Confessional/Help Guide

Destructoid is an awesome gaming blog. I like to think of it as the red-haired stepbrother to elder siblings, Kotaku and Joystiq. While I will often find echoes of the same stories on the "Big Two" blogs, Destructoid dares to offer articles more off the beaten path.

They published an article about Angry Gamers before the weekend which I found relevant, timely and hitting a little too close to home. Frankly, I can relate and I'm none to proud to admit it. I haven't gone as far as punching holes in my wall over a game, but I have a couple broken keyboards and cracked SNES controllers to offer up as proof to my legacy of gaming rage.

I've chilled out in my older age, but you'll still find me muttering to myself or clenching my jaws when I'm being particularly vexed by a video game. Case in point: Crackdown.

First thing's first: I love this game. I've been hopelessly cracked out since last Tuesday's release and have not been able to look at my previous favourites, Gears of War and Vegas quite the same way. As good as it's been, however, Crackdown has reacquainted me with the demon within over the weekend. The game, at its heart, is a platformer and I have a history of frustration with these type of games, as do many other people I'm sure. Missing platforms and falling to your death are par for the course in your typical platformer. My Agent, while hardy enough to survive most falls, is just this much short of perfection when it comes to overall play control. It's so frustrating to be merrily hopping on rooftops and suddenly lose footing and fall several stories below. Sometimes it's not terribly convenient to climb all the way back up. Factor in massive crossfire from enemies, randomly placed propane tanks and the tactical disadvantage of not having the higher ground and repeated falling mishaps become quite maddening.

It's even worse when I've made some effort to climb up to a certain peak and fall back to ground level only because I was trying to avoid a grenade or do a nifty jump shot on someone. The oilrig battle with the Volk kingpin is a good example of this. Man, that was a grueling fight. Sure, it earned me some nice achievements but I was ready to dash my controller against the wall with all my falling, getting back up, falling, getting back up...

So it's a strange paradox with Crackdown. I've been so addicted to it yet I can't remember being so compelled to swear at my TV or break something simply because I made a mistake. Repeating to myself that it's just game does little to quell the rage. So yes, I would say that I am indeed an Angry Gamer.

Well, the first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem! (sigh)

Read the Angry Gamer story on Destructoid

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Wing Commander on Xbox Live Arcade

Heero let me in on this pleasing bit of news this morning. Publishing giant EA announced the upcoming summer release of Wing Commander Arena to Xbox Live Arcade.

Before any of you bust out into a geek-gasm, I should add that this is not based on the 1990 PC classic. Instead this is more of a casual, pick-up-and-play arcade-style shooter with a few token Wing Commander trademarks stamped on for good measure.

Given that the original PC version would easily fit within the current 50MB download cap for XBL, it's almost counter-intuitive for EA to contract out a developer (Gaia Industries -- who?) to create a brand new game -- likely a far inferior one, I might add, with much bias.

We'll see how this plays out. The Wing Commander franchise is very dear to my heart. I'm sure many gaming geeks of my generation have fond memories of flying out on countless suicide missions from the Tiger's Claw and Concordia, all the while soaking in the in-between missions drama that took place amongst the crew and pilots. This was, without a doubt, the first video game to successfully inject cinematic styling and pacing into gaming and has blazed a trail for many gaming franchises to follow.

To see the legacy of Wing Commander reduced to a forgettable Xbox Live arcade game is kind of sad. I will reserve judgment until the game finally drops, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high.

Edit: Forgot the link.

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God Instructs Man to Drop Xbox & Take up Prayer. Or Burn in Hell!

I was about to settle into a rather late-night session of Crackdown last night when I noticed a waiting message on the Dashboard. It was sent by a new friend on my list, a stranger who had sent me a friend request at random a few weeks ago. Never the one to exclude others, I accepted his request, but I have never had a chance to game with him.

I opened up his message, expecting it to be a game invite that he may have sent while my roommate was watching a DVD. It turned out to be a little more interesting than that:

Hey every1--God specifically told me that He wants me to be a man of prayer these next couple years. My 360 is what's stealing my time, so I'm selling it. Just know I love y'all :)
Email me sometime! -----@hotmail.com
I wish you guys the best

Now I am not a religious man, but I would think if God wanted you to dedicate more time to prayer, you could comply and still have room for a 360 in your life, no? In any case, I wrote back to him, awkwardly wishing him luck and resisted the temptation to ask him to sell me his games at discount.

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Crackdown: All Justice. All Lag.

Newcomers to Play With My Box might mistake it for being a Crackdown blog seeing as I can't shut up about that game. Sadly, no, I am not on Microsoft's or Realtime World's payroll.

Can we just talk a little bit more about this great game? I got my hands on the full retail release last night. The EB clerk pointedly asked me if I was one of "those people" who was buying Crackdown solely for the Halo 3 beta. I scoffed and told him, "nay". I told him how couldn't fathom why anyone would shell out the $79 CDN (tax included) just for a public beta test. It's true: before Halo, console gamers were pretty much up the creek without a paddle when it came to first-person shooters. But my god, the adoration for the Halo franchise is something I have yet to fully understand and embrace for myself.

I also got this dirty feeling while talking to the clerk, like I was justifying myself to him, you know? It reminds me of the days before mass MP3 downloading when I'd submit myself to the barely restrained condescension of the store clerks as I showed them my purchases. Oh, jaded and mighty clerk, do my selections meet your approval of hip? I'm glad those days are behind me but I got a recall of those experiences chatting with the kid working at EB. Well, what if I was buying Crackdown just for Halo? Dare you judge me, brother?

Back on topic. I hurried home from EB, whipped up an obligatory dinner and settled in for 4 to 5 hours of Crackin' good times with Heero.

Okay... maybe it wasn't Good Times from start to finish. We experienced a lot of lag as the night went on, to the point of not being able to play the game at all due to our connection repeatedly timing out. There was an obvious spike in activity on XBL, most likely due to Crackdown's launch but Microsoft should have saw that coming and prepared accordingly. I'm expecting a beefing up of their servers very soon, if they haven't already done so.

Lag issues aside, the game is quite polished compared to the very enjoyable demo. I've only managed to terminate 3 of the Los Muertos lieutenants and rank up my Agility and Firearms to 2 stars, so there is a lot more of the world to be explored.

You know me, I will be back with detailed impressions, possibly a full-fledged review within the week. For now, I have these observations to share with y'all:

• The melee attack when you stand next to any inanimate object remains and is still quite annoying.
• Ruthless difficulty is proving to be a nice balance. I've died several times already, no thanks to errant grenades and randomly placed propane tanks.
• They need to implement "jump in" co-op. Unlike the demo, you can now invite a specific friend to join your session right from the game's UI but it's a far cry from simply firing upa game and having a buddy jump in at any time he/she pleases.
• Auto-aiming feels a lot tighter, along with the feel of moving your Agent and the camera controls. No complaints here.
• This game begs for a recorder/instant-replay function. Even a low-level Agent can create quite the stir in the middle of the freeway. "OMG, you should have seen that!" just doesn't cut it after the nth monster car explosion.
• Lag. I'm hoping all the lag we experienced was just from the launch day rush. I really want to see how effective that netcode update is.

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Launch Day Fan Service for Crackdown

Today is the day. I cannot wait for my work shift to END. End already, end! I called my EB store an hour ago and they were just in the middle of unpacking the shipment of games.

Oh My God... it's here. It's finally here.

Terrorists, lambant wretches and dive-bombing kamikaze planes will be spared from my wrath for the next few days, at least.

In a thrilling bit of surprise news, Realtime Worlds and MGS have offered up 4 new, free Agent skins that can be downloaded on the Marketplace today. These new skins are sexy as all hell, featuring an afro-ed Chuck Norris lookalike, a ninja, a futuristic Killzone-esqe soldier and a cyborg.

Work end. Work end. Work end...

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A Night at the Arcade: Heavy Weapon

When I think of the Xbox 360, I think "next-generation" and "cutting-edge". I do not conjure up images of dinky casual games that you can play for free on your web browser. Yet why do I find myself regularly checking the new downloads on the Xbox Live Marketplace? And why, just a mere week after bringing my 360 home, did I spend several late nights exploding gems in between psychedelic interludes in Bejeweled 2?

I continue to ask myself this question after happily downloading the full version of Heavy Weapon, from PopCap Games. While I begrudgingly accepted the fact I would eventually be buying those nefarious Microsoft Points, I didn't expect to succumb so soon. I was really holding out for the XBL version of Double Dragon, which was recently confirmed for release but no specific date has been set aside from "2007".

To its credit, I must admit that Heavy Weapon has been a fine introduction to Downloadable Content (DLC) on Xbox Live Marketplace. The game is an unabashed throw-back to the hectic, arcade shooters of the 1980s, complete with cheeky humour and bright, attractive cartoon graphics. At 800 MS Points (roughly $10 USD), it isn't the cheapest, value-packed casual game around but it more than makes up for it with the additional play modes, coupled with 2-4 player offline and online co-op.

What ultimately sold me on Heavy Weapon was its basic similarity to Geometry Wars, minus the insanely brisk ramp up in difficulty! You are only attacked from an 180 degree range of angles, as opposed to Geometry's 360 degress of twitch-reflex madness. It's a fun, quick game to jump into and it provides that nice, light snack in between my regular, hefty servings of Gears of War and Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Credit also goes to Microsoft for making it so devilishly easy to purchase more MS Points the next time you find yourself tempted by more retro arcade diversions.

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Almost Time to Get (Crack)Down

I've cleared out my social calendar for the next few days (not difficult if you're me) and bid a tearful farewell to the demo. I'm ready for tomorrow's release of Crackdown. Are YOU?

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Gears of War Insanity

Last night Heero and I finally took the plunge and started a new co-op campaign on Insane difficulty. We managed to slog through the first two Acts before calling it a night.

Here's what I think about Insane difficulty: it's not that bad.

I do feel it is still incredibly challenging. Every single firefight becomes an exercise in maximum intensity, which is makes the game very thrilling to play. I still think Insane difficulty has been hyped up by the gaming critics more than it needed to be. If you've played through on Hardcore, then you are very well-prepared to face the challenges that await in Insane. The transition is much smoother than the shell shock of moving from Casual to Hardcore.

To not sound overly confident, I do realize that I still have to fight through Act 3 and deal with those wretched Lambant Wretches and that infuriating cart ride through the death tunnels. That's the one where you get exploding wretches falling into your ride. Joy. Still, I've learned some basic gameplay principles that should help out anyone thinking of trying their skills on Insane:

• Patience & Positioning: On the lower difficulty settings you really could get by most fights by parking yourself behind one wall and stopping & popping form the same wall until everything was dead. Not so on Insane. Besides having the patience to fully heal when absorbing fire from multiple sources, you really do need to master movement from cover to cover and also the art of disengaging from cover effectively to deal with grubs that rush at you with the shotgun. But above all else, it's having great patience and discipline, so you can effectivley squeeze off short rounds of fire before ducking back down for cover.
• It's the bee's knees: Enemies can take an enormous amount of punishment. You'll find yourself scavenging for ammo like a madman sometimes. Shooting out the knees of your foes is a great way to conserve ammo on your Lancer or shotgun. Once they're out of commission, saunter over for a quick coup de grace curb stomp or switch to your handgun and pump that bent over sucker full of executioner's lead.
• Active Reload: Master it. 'Nuff said.
  

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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Made Me Drool

The official website of the next action game set in the Star Wars universe went live a couple days ago.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed


Oh my golly. The home page through me off a bit with their badly formatted list of supported platforms:

Platforms: Next-Generation Platforms, Playstation 2, PSP, Nintendo DS

Which, upon initial inspection, I took to mean that the game was only coming out for the PS2, PSP and Nintendo DS. Silly blogger: that would be insanely stupid for Lucasarts to do such a thing.

The Xbox Fanboy 360 has scooped an impressive exclusive with a post featuring a couple sweet tech demos of the game's physics engine.

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Shadowrun: from RPG to FPS in 60 Seconds

Actually the 60 seconds thing is bunk; I just needed a somewhat catchy title. Team Xbox has posted the first in a series of articles focusing on the player-races for the upcoming shooter, Shadowrun.

Titled The Races of Shadowrun, (not the "Babes of" unfortunately), this first article is all about the Elves. The elves, you guessed it, are small and quick and have superior magical powers. Sigh.

Ok, I'll admit that I have not given Shadowrun a fair shake so far. Like a lot of people out there, I'm hung up on the history of that franchise. It started off as a pen-and-paper roleplaying game in the '80s and was ported to game consoles through out the '90s. I am a huge fan of the Super NES RPG that came out in the early '90s. That game stood out in a sea of cutesy Final Fantasy-esque RPGs that were the norm. It was gritty, mature and had a twisted sense of humour to boot.

When FASA announced that the new Shadowrun game would be a multiplayer-only first-person shooter, there was a collective "Whaaaaat??" from anyone who had even a passing knowledge of the franchise. To say it was a missed opportunity would be a massive understatement. It's like if Lucasarts announced a new game in the Star Wars franchise and it was going to be a Bejeweled-style puzzle game, with iconic characters' faces instead of coloured gems. Exaggerated? Maybe.

Having said all of that... the game as it stands is looking more promising as development moves along. Extra attention is being heaped on it thanks to it being the first cross-platform-play title, allowing Windows Vista users and Xbox 360 players to duke it out on the same servers. The FASA developers swear up and down that they have refined the controls so that PC players will not have a distinct advantage with their mouse-keyboard setups. It remains to be seen whether they can deliver on that promise, as well as the promise of a well-balanced multiplayer shooter that has the legs to last longer than your typical frag fest.

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Crackdown Review Round-Up

Enough advance reviews of Crackdown have rolled in by now for Metacritic to publish their summary of review scores. This works great for me, as I can finally cut down on the Crackdown posts and move on with my life. ;)

The sole new Xbox 360 release has posted up some impressive numbers, garnering a 90 or 91 from many reviewers and a surprising 70 from OXM.

Now I love scores and ratings as much as the next guy but I can't stress enough the importance of actually reading what the critics have to say. Many reviewers for the major sites and magazines are excellent writers and can articulate their thoughts about a game to the finest detail. Sometimes, they are just fun to read. The 1UP review in particular, while a bit hyberbolic, was written with some unadulterated fanboy zest -- like he couldn't wait to hammer out a review so he could return to playing the game -- that you can't help but get some entertainment out of it.

Naturally the forums have been buzzing this week as each new review hits the Interweb. Crack-fans are sulking a bit at some of the less stellar reviews while err... Anti-Cracks are nodding their heads, with some suggesting that the critics weren't harsh enough on what they believe to be a shallow, repetitive sandbox platformer. This is, of course, all a little bit silly. I say again: just read the reviews.

Even a "low" score of 7.8 from Gamespot is backed up by a very positive review. Jeff Gerstmann's complaints pretty much echo those of other reviewers, even the ones that have given Crackdown top marks. In the end, it's just a number, peeps. It's just a number.

Pre-order stands, big surprise. I would have needed to see some dismal, basement-busting scores to have even considered cancelling my precious pre-order at EB.

Check out the review scores for Crackdown

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Mad Crackdown Linkage Today

The anticipation is mounting.

8 more days until Crackdown drops down upon our Boxes. The Team Xbox forums are a'buzzin' today about the new IGN review, which scored the game a respectable 8.0. The actual review itself is quite detailed but would have you believe that the score would come out lower to reflect some of their complaints:

- Game can be finished in about 6 hours (on Easy difficulty)
- Low replay value
- Poor sound production and music
- Lack of story and side missions

The folks at Planet Xbox 360 recorded a special roundtable discussion on Crackdown for this week's podcast. The general consensus pretty much mirrors the sentiments expressed in the IGN review. Jump on that action here.

Edit: I just got back from le gym and lo, another Crackdown review! This one is from the fellers at Team Xbox. Check it

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Rainbow Six: Dante's Inferno

You know for a while I thought Co-Op Story on Realistic was going to be a cake walk. That was way back in dust bowl Mexico. For the past week and a half, Heero and I have been flummoxed by the Hell's Gate stage of the Dante mission set. Last night, we finally completed it with the help of 2 extra teammates. A full team is a must for this one: it's a long, grueling mission full of intense, infuriating firefights. Say what you will about the solo game; playing Hell's Gate on co-op has made me appreciate healable, AI-controlled teammates and CHECKPOINTS. Wow, there I said it. I thought it would be a cold day in Hell before I praised checkpoints.

It's been dandy Dante Sunday actually. Prior to shooting through Hell's Gate, I played through a satisfying grind session of Terrorist Hunt in Dante. This is a glorious mission for ranking up if you have a good team. The map is small and it's easy to split up in pairs and cover all the flanking points. We hit a pretty good strike, at one point being one man short and still beating the round in a mere 2:23.

Then the game started crashing. And the sound bugs! I really wish they'd hurry up and patch this game already.

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Crackdown Developer Blog

Hard to believe I didn't find this earlier: a developer blog on IGN for Real Time Worlds, creators of Crackdown!

Enjoy.

Real Time Worlds' Blog - Crackdown

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Settlers of Catan Coming to XBLA

For a time, Catan is one of those games that was adored by my small circle of gaming friends. I never saw the attraction of it: building roads, raising settlements and get this... never fighting. The closest you could come to inflicting violence on your opponent would be playing a bandit card that would steal gold or building materials. Oh, the bloodshed! Frankly, I don't think I could ever warm up to a non-violent game... or any game that depicts conflict so passively.

But wait, is that really the case or do I just have a bias against any game not built with 1's and 0's? I may have given bricks n' mortars Catan the cold shoulder, but what if an electronic version was made? Would I play it then? Do I enjoy asking myself rhetorical questions?

The news is out: the popular board game has already been developed into a video game and is due out for Xbox Live Arcade in Q1 2007. If my mental calendar serves me right, that's awfully soon. I found some tasty screenshots over at the Big Huge Games website and I have to say it is looking pretty sexy. The game will support 4-players over Live and can be played solo against CPU opponents. That's a big selling point for me, as I never got very deep into the subtleties of Catan and would get a lot of valuable practice by playing solo against some AI. Then there's the great selling point of being able to play at almost anytime over Live and not being restricted to playing against the same old friends.

So yes, I do have a bias against board games. I look forward to breaking this news to an old friend of mine and former Catan-fanatic just to see him do a backflip or something crazy and joyous.

Another point for the XBLA and Microsoft. But let's cut the crap already: Give Me My Double Dragon!!!

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What Kind of a Badass Am I Today?

I am a counter-terrorism expert; a highly trained close combat specialist proficient in the use of small arms, explosives and squad tactics. I am also an elite light infantry unit, armed with cutting-edge reconnaissance tools and the latest in long-range assault weaponry. I take down armies of Mexican rebel soldiers with silent, deadly force.

In my spare time, I freelance as a secret agent. I like to dress up in latex bodysuit. I am a master at taking cover at predetermined points and dual-wielding futuristic (but ineffectual) scoped pistols. When I lose my way, glowing arrows direct me to my next objective. The missions I am assigned to complete are very half-baked.

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Crackdown Preview Video Clip on OXM

I can hear you asking me, nay, crying out in frustration: Oh Maclintok, another Crackdown post??

I know, I know, I know. Yet again, I post about this wonderful game, but with a mere 12 days remaining until the full game hits retail shelves, can you blame me for stoking the fires of anticipation? It does not help that there continues to be so much out in the WWW to satiate our Crackdown cravings. First the Achievements montage, then the Shai-Gen preview and now, a very meaty, very satisfying game preview and interview with the producer and designers at Real Time Worlds.

It's hard for me to scope out video podcasts, being at work and all, but I managed to take this in near the tail end of my busy day. So here, courtesy of OXM, is your delicious Crackdown preview video

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Crackdown's Shai-Gen District Video Trailer!

Well kids, another day, another excellent Crackdown video. Games Radar has posted a new trailer that revolves around the Shai-Gen District, one of the 3 main districts/islands in Pacific City and home to the evil Shai-Gen Corporation.

I was pleasantly surprised to see many instances of playable, indoor environments, which is a great indication that the retail game will feature extensive indoor (and underground) areas that were not in the demo released last month. The architecture and general feel of the Shai-Gen district is quite different from the Los Muertos slums we've all laid waste to in the demo, so here's hoping the Volk island will be just as striking and distinct.

No real gameplay revelations are apparent in this video. The Shai-Gen gang bosses do look even more heavily defended, with elite-looking guards sporting some advanced weaponry. Taking one of these bosses down may not be as straight-forward an affair as it was with the Los Muertos heavies. I sincerely hope that, even with a fully-leveled Agent, they will force you to plan out some tactics in order to defeat these higher level bosses.

And finally, the music in the video rocks. Word from the Team Xbox forums suggests that the tune was produced by famed drum n' bass DJ, Dieselboy. Very cool.

**Important Note: Follow the link to the video and click on the image link on the Games Radar page that is labeled Crackdown - Shai-Gen District. You MUST do this, otherwise the video player will just play the PS3 advertisement, then stop.

Another Dope Crackdown Video - Shai-Gen District

[props to Soma on Team Xbox for the link]

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Xbox and Old Spice, Together at Last

So it's official: Microsoft has announced a cross-promotional rewards program in conjunction with Old Spice deodorant available to American Xbox Live gamers.

The details don't bear repeating much since I'm a Canadian resident, so I'll let Joystiq do the talkin'.

Overall, I think it's a smart, logical next step in the evolution of the Live service. Rewards, incentives, contests and prize giveaways have long been staples of building customer loyalty. This kind of promotional chicanery only pulls Live ahead of competing online games services even more. I do, however, mostly agree with commentor #6, AirIntake, who points out the amount of gaming and game-buying required to be eligible for these rewards. The system does favour long-time Live customers as well as seriously hardcore players. Oh, to be in high school and living with my parents again...

Hey Microsoft, if this program does well, how about a North American rewards deal next time around? As addicted as I am to my Box, I'd probably never get close to winning anything. It would still be nice to have the option to make an excuse to go on a game-buying spree...

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The 10 Commandments of Xbox Marketplace??!

Major Nelson is fresh from his vacation and ready to lay down the law. Or rather, he is beseeching us Xbox devotees to give him our feedback on the Marketplace. He will cull from these results the best and fittest to form the Ten Commandments.

This comes hot on the heels of Oxymandias' call for feedback on improving the Xbox Live experience. Sure looks like the community team is going full steam on this customer feedback kick. Definitely a far cry from the seemingly opaque, silent stance Sony takes up with their fan base. But I'm not hatin'.

Major Nelson's Marketplace 10 Commandments

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R6 Map Pack - 800 MS Points, Give or Take

There's a rumour printed in the March issue of the Official Xbox Magazine about a map pack for Rainbow Six: Vegas headed for Marketplace. This would be a collection of 10 new maps and 2 additional multiplayer modes, Assassination and Conquest.

This map pack is supposed to cost 800 Microsoft Points. As someone who's held out on buying any MS points thus far, I really hope that's not the case. Gears of War impressed fans with their free map pack release last month, although to be fair, they were only giving away 2 maps, not 10.

Oh well, unless I totally fall out of love with R6, looks like I'll be caught in a bind. There's obviously enough players out there who'd shell out the cash for the map pack and I'm sure a lot of them would be on my friends list, thereby forcing me to step up or step down.

Damn you, micro-transactions!

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GRAW 2 Demo Impressions: Short But Sweet

I was waiting on Heero the other night so we could join forces in tackling R6: Vegas' Calypso Casino in co-op story mode. That is one tough nut to crack with a 2-man crew! (I miss those single-player save points) So I had some time to kill before we fired up the game, so I thought what better use of my Xbox time than to test drive the GRAW 2 demo?

Whatever you may have heard about this demo is true. I played through this thing and it feels like it was cribbed from the tutorial segment from the full game. I couldn't have played it for more than 15 minutes before it very abruptly ended. They used a typical cliffhanger gimmick, right in the thick of battle. I won't lie; it left me wanting more... in more ways than you might think.

Allow me to explain: this is the same damn game as GRAW 1. I say this with much certainty, even based on my experience off a 15-minute demo-slash-tutorial. If you haven't yet figured it out from the teaser videos and screenshots, the Ghost Recon brand hasn't gone through a giant leap forward, play or technology-wise. You are still Scott Mitchell and you are still a badass elite light infantry unit with amazing technology at his fingertips. The setting from all appearances is familiar; it is again another Latin American dustbowl. Against this backdrop you are again blowing away all manner of tangos belonging to yet another terrorist or rebel militia faction. It all smacks of incremental upgrades and quick cash-in -- a GRAW 1.5 if you will.

And I still wanted to play more. Fancy that.

Two features really stood out while the whining critic in me was actively dismissing the demo. The first were the production values -- they were as impressive as ever. Everything looked crisper, from the environmental effects and Mitchell's new combat fatigues, to the gut-wrenchingly luscious explosions. Extra care had been lavished on the soundtrack. Whereas in the original GRAW it was a rather sporadic presence, the GRAW 2 demo featured a rousing score full of urgency and foreboding.

The second standout were the controls. Mitchell felt at once more solid and more sure-footed as I maneuvered him around. Every action, from attaching and unattaching from cover, to firing your weapon, has been considerably "tightened up". Sticking to cover, which sometimes felt unreliable in GRAW 1, felt very definitive and responsive in the demo.

There was also some icing on the cake, in the form of slightly smarter teammates, a "mule" mobile ammo supply vehicle and the enhanced UAV 3 Cypher. The UAV is a controllable airborne drone that you can send ahead to scan for hidden tangos before planning your approach. The demo allowed much more control this time around, allowing me to hold down the right bumper to get a full-screen view of what the UAV was seeing. Even better, I could use the thumb sticks to maneuver the drone with even more precision and get a more detailed view of the battlefield at the same time.

So this demo, by virtue of continuing to deliver its gorgeous presentation and hard-hitting action, has me very interested in playing the final, full game. I wouldn't call it a must-buy at this point, simply because the demo showed little else but the flash and bang, with no multiplayer samplings and really no real innovation beyond the core gamplay established by GRAW 1. I checked into Xbox 360 Fanboy today and was disheartened by their Game Trailers multiplayer video

That's right kids: a lengthy video extolling the awesomeness that will be the GRAW 2 multiplayer modes and not one single mention of a cover system. Chances are very good history will repeat itself. GRAW 2 may very well have full-featured gameplay in single-player and lose the cover system in multi. Why that is, well that is beyond me. At least the graphical quality looks to be intact. The GRAW 1 multi, with it's stripped down graphics and twitch-gameplay bias was a novelty act for me: worth a few plays but nothing to keep me around.

Somebody out there please educate me. Rainbow Six: Vegas and Gears of War have proven that you can have uniform play mechanics work for both single and multiplayer experiences. What would be Red Storm Entertainment's excuse for nixing the cover system in GRAW for the second time in a row?

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Crackdown Links Lovin'

There's a subtle shift going in with the public perception of Crackdown. The longer the demo has been out and more players have taken a trip through Pacific City, the less focus there seems to be on the much ballyhooed free Halo 3 beta. Gamers dig the demo. Sure there's a silent minority that detests the demo for some very valid reasons (lack of story being a huge complaint) but overall it's safe to say the demo has made its share new devotees.

Fans and news outlets alike are definitely giving the game some proper dues. I recently found some very juicy links on Xboxyde and Team Xbox.

Crackdown Achievements Video
Microsoft released a video montage detailing some of the more esoteric Achievements available in Crackdown. Watching this, quite frankly, gave me the chills and tingles in all my special places. Note the soundtrack, a hypnotic pastiche of brooding breaks, synthy-goodness and secret agent cool. I love the track and hope it will be included in the final game. Well, when the demo included licensed songs from the likes of Hybrid and Curve, my wishful thinking may in fact be reality.

Team Xbox chimed in with their own Crackdown coverage:

Things We Love About Crackdown

Crackdown Demo Mayhem Videos

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Your Gamerscore and You - Part Deux

I was probably supposed to follow up on my gamerscore post about, oh, 9 or 10 entries ago. Frankly, I've lost the gusto to continue on much more on that topic. I broke the 1000-point mark in my gamerscore weeks ago, so it's hardly newsworthy anymore... not that it would've been a banner headline if I blogged about it right away either. Well, let's see where this ramble takes us...

It's clear that the achievements concept has become a big hit and if the rumours are to bear any fruit, gamers will have even more reason to obsess over their gamerscores. Aside from bragging rights and personal pride, attachment to one's gamerscore does serve a more practical function, at least from the perspective of Microsoft and, more specifically, their departments responsible for monitoring codes of conduct. The latest issue of the Official Xbox Magazine features a revealing article about the life of an Xbox Live community watchdog, known only as "Chris". Part of the rather amusing story focused on an OXM editor's experiment to try and get himself banned from Live. He set up a dummy Live account and went about harassing teammates, griefing Uno opponents and generally acting like an obnoxious ass, all in the attempt to find out how far one has to push it before the powers that be take action.

It turns out he never got banned, even after a 4-day period of sending curse-laden voice messages and webcam-ming his crotch for all to see. It was later revealed on the weekly OXM podcast that although his account was not suspended, the editor indeed caught the attention of "Chris" and his fellow community watchdogs and had been put on a high-priority "to watch" list.

In the end, if you are someone who is intent on disrupting the experience on Live, you will find a way to do it by constantly changing up accounts. I think a large deterrent for doing that, of course, is the loss of gamerscore. Losing all those hard-won achievements just so you can continue to be an Ass, is simply not worth it for the overwhelming majority of gamers, even from the hardcore griefer set.

Gamerscore: addictive meta-points grind and invaluable EULA enforcement tool!

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GRAW 2 Demo

For the uninitiated, that's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. The supposedly ultra-brief demo of the sequel to last year's Tom Clancy tactical shooter hit the Marketplace yesterday morning. I set up the active download for the demo last night just before diving back into the original GRAW solo campaign.

Just an aside: I'm having trouble with GRAW. It's not that the game has a steep ramp up in difficulty as you progress through the missions, it's that the difficulty grading is so wildly inconsistent. I'm currently stuck in the Shantytown stage where I'm trying to escort a VIP out of a parking garage that's under heavy assault. The early part of that mission was a cakewalk, the difficulty barely elevated above tutorial-level. Escaping the garage, however, has been incredibly frustrating: my teammates are elite bullet catchers and nothing more and I'm provided almost no cover as I try to make a break for it outside.

Earlier missions had their share of tough spots too, mainly due to the fact I wasn't immediately aware of the controls I had over heavy armour support or I simply wasn't accustomed to the control scheme. As soon as I started getting the hang of things, BAM, they throw Mission 5 (Mayday! Mayday!) in your face. That's the night mission that sees you assaulting a castle from a chopper turret before infiltrating the castle alone. The mission was long and grueling, with spread out checkpoints and only a single area to re-arm and recover health. This damn mission nearly put me off GRAW entirely; I must have played it an upwards of 20 times before I finally licked it.

Frustrated again by Shantytown, I was tempted to fire up the GRAW2 demo but my eyes were jacked and done for the night. I'm fairly skeptical about the final game as it appears to be a quick cash-in sequel: same engine, mildly improved graphics and mildly improved play mechanics. Early demo reviews harp on the fact that other than being way too short (5-10 minutes total), it's more of the same, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. At the best of times, the GRAW gameplay is absolutely riveting.

I'll be back soon for demo impressions.

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