Well folks, as most of you regular readers might know, I just bit the bullet and got me an Xbox 360 last week. So I thought I’d post a blog about my first experiences with it. Let’s rock:

Why get an Xbox 360?
There are lots of reasons why I finally got an Xbox 360. Number one is the recent price cut. Oh sure it wasn’t that BIG of a price cut, but even at 50 dollars less, that’s an extra controller right there (the Xbox 360 controllers are great, by the way). And plus, I do have a job and enough money saved up, so I can splurge and buy nice things for myself every now and then. It was kind of an early birthday present to myself, too. There’s also finally enough games on the Xbox 360 that I’m interested in playing to warrant a purchase. We’ll get to those games in a minute. And another reason for me to ‘jump in’ is the Xbox Live online stuff is amazing. Microsoft really did it right. It’s great to be able to see who is online and what they’re playing and to be able to talk with them and play games with them with ease. And play games with my little brothers. NO FRIEND CODES! WAY ahead of what Nintendo is doing with their online stuff. Of course, in Nintendo’s defense, you get what you pay for since the Wii online stuff is free, and you have to pay for an Xbox Live membership. Speaking of Nintendo, the last reason why I got an Xbox 360 is that even though the Wii has been doing great in sales–I think the Wii has had a pretty rough first year as far as quality games go. It’s just not cutting it. I love the Virtual Console stuff, but only one game I played on the Wii this year I thought was worthwhile, and that was Super Paper Mario. Sure there’s some Wii games coming up I’m looking forward to, like Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (and yeah, even Furu Furu Park), but other than that, not much else. And again, after playing Super Mario Strikers and having to put in an EXTRA friend code to play online with friends and have nobody show up, I realized that Nintendo’s online stuff kinda sucks right now. And since the PS2 is kind of on the way out and the PSP has NOTHING coming up that I want to play, I figured it was time for a fresh new console. And that’s why I got an Xbox 360.

Setting up
I had actually xet up an Xbox 360 before, last year when my little brothers got one for Christmas (I was Santa). So while it took a long time to get everything out of the box, setting it up was mostly easier than I thought it would be. I only hit two snags. One was I was having trouble going online at first, but that was only because I wanted to set up my online stuff before setting up a gamer profile. I guess you have to do that first. By the way, my gamer profile is Klonoa360. Here’s my gamer card thingy:

Setting up my wireless adapter and everything was pretty easy after that. The only other trouble I had was a dummy thing on my part. I had set my Xbox 360 on its side, because I heard that if you have it standing upright, it can scratch discs. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I didn’t want to take any chances. But when I went to open the tray to put in my first game (Ridge Racer 6), I couldn’t tell how you could put the disc into the tray! Then I looked at the silver part of the tray and saw the XBOX360 letters were upside down. Turns out I had the whole system upside down! DUH! I was wondering why my wireless adapter wasn’t fitting quite right! Hopefully I won’t get the ‘red ring of death.’ Everyone I know who has an Xbox 360 has had that happen to them. But I did save all my warranty information, and Microsoft has good customer service so I’m prepared if it happens.

There are still a couple of quesitons I have about my Xbox 360 that I was wondering if one of you kind people could please help me out with:

1. Can you play DVDs on the Xbox 360 like the PS2 can?
2. Can more than one person use Xbox Live or must I only use my Klonoa360 account to sign in?

Xbox 360 Games
I thought I’d list the games I’ve been playing and looking forward to playing on my Xbox 360.

Ridge Racer 6
This is the one I’ve been playing the most of. It’s really the only FULL game I’ve got on the Xbox 360 right now. Well, I do have another game, but I’m not telling you what it is right now. You’ll have to wait until another blog for me to talk about THAT particular game that also stars with two R’s. Anyway, I’ve actually had RR6 for a while now. When my little brothers got their Xbox 360 last Christmas, I ran out and got RR6 real cheap so I could play it on their system when I set it up Christmas Eve night. RR6 really isn’t that much different than other Ridge Racer games. In fact, one time when I was playing, one of my other relatives passed by and said, “Don’t you already have that game?” So yeah, it’s kinda the same, but still fun and simple arcade style racing. Some of the cool things I’ve done so far in RR6 are: play online with people around the world (and get my butt beat, too), racing online with my friend and being able to talk with them with the headset thing, and downloading a FREE Pac-Man in a UFO car! There are TONS of cars you can download for free, too! And you can play Pac-Man on the ‘loading’ screen, so you know I like that. PS: The Ridge Racer lady is cool.

Burger King Games
Back when Burger King was selling those cheapy Xbox games starring their mascot, I snagged them even though I didn’t have an Xbox because the whole idea of games with the King cracked me up. Sure the games aren’t very good, but for the price, they’re fun for a laugh. Maybe I’ll play them some more sometime and see how many achievement points I can unlock!

Pac-Man Championship Edition
I have quite a few Xbox Live Arcade games, too. This was the first I downloaded, of course. Pac-Man: CE is BRILLIANT. It’s one of the games that actually really made me want an Xbox 360 in the first place. I didn’t mind spending 800 points on it because if it were in arcades, I would’ve spent that much on it with quarters anyway. The whole ever changing maze idea is great. I kind of wish there was a two player simultaneous mode, or an endless mode with no time limit, but that’s just being nitpicky. As it stands, it’s a GREAT game. One funny story is that my little brother Jeff downloaded a couple of songs from his ‘Best of Van Halen’ CD onto my Xbox 360. Then he had me play Pac-Man: CE with “Jump” playing in the background. He said the combination goes good together since that’s the only song I’d know since it was so old and I can play it while playing an old Pac-Man game. I swear that kid is hell-bent on making me feel old! I’m only 30. Well, in a month I won’t be. At any rate, I love Pac-Man: CE and I’ve unlocked all the achievement points for it already and everything.

TMNT Arcade
I used to love playing this in the arcade, so playing it online four players with friends was worth the 400 points, even if in reality, the game hasn’t really aged as well as other beat ’em ups have. I always play as Raphael because in the arcade, his joystick was on the far right of the cabinet, so I didn’t have to squeeze between smelly players to play. Some of the achievements are pretty darn hard to get!

Hexic
Not bad for a freebie! It’s just a simple match the colors game with honeycomb arranged pieces you rotate. There’s quite a lot of skill and strategy to get the special pieces, though. But I really like this game. I thought about downloading the sequel, but I figured the first one will do me for a while.

Aegis Wing
Another freebie. This one’s a 2-D shooter. Sure it’s kind of repetitive and short, and the graphics and gameplay aren’t mind blowing. But hey, it’s free. And still pretty fun. I want to play this online sometime, too. I like the overdramatic music they play. “DUN, DUN, DUN-DUN, DUN…”

Speaking of free games, my friend sent me a link to where you can get a couple of free Xbox Live Arcade games if you bought your Xbox 360 recently like I did. I’ll post the link here. All I had to do was enter a code and my Xbox 360 serial number. It was pretty easy. My friend says he thinks the games you get are Robotron and Frogger. I wouldn’t mind having those for free! Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/17/recent-360-and-live-buyers-get-two-free-xbla-games/

Bejeweled 2
A few weeks ago I bought a disc called Xbox Live Unplugged. I figured that getting six Live games for less than 20 bucks was cheaper than buying them through Live points. Unfortunately, not all the games are good. Bejeweled is a good game and all, but I think I liked playing it better on my DS with touch screen control in Zoo Keeper. I need to get Puzzle Quest at some point, too.

Geometry Wars
A lot of people rave about this game. It is fun and looks great, but all it is really is Robotron with shapes. So I really don’t see what’s so AMAZING about it. Plus I’m not very good at it.

Wik: Fable of Souls
I thought I’d like this game since it looked kind of 2-D platformish, but it’s awful. Play control is not good at all (all you do is jump) and goals are unclear. I haven’t even tried the other games on the Unplugged disc that much or at all: Texas Hold ’em, Backgammon, or Outpost Koloki (sp?) X.

Here are some games already out, and upcoming titles I’m looking forward to playing on my new Xbox 360:

Kameo: Elements of Power
i already know I’m getting this game as a birthday present from one of my friends. He has this game, too, and we want to play it two player co-op online. A lot of people bash Rare’s games, but I liked their N64 platformers like Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. And heck, I didn’t think Star Fox Adventures was THAT bad either. So I think I’ll like Kameo, too. I remember seeing it at E3 a long time ago as an upcoming new GameCube game!

Viva Pinata
Part Animal Crossing, and part Harvest Moon, this colorful pinata raising game was another of the first Xbox 360 games I wanted to play. I’ll get this game eventually, I know. I’ve already gotten my feet wet with the demo. I’ve seen the Saturday morning cartoon, too, but it’s kind of bland.

Blue Dragon
I have the demo of this. This is a pretty standard turn-based Japanese RPG. Two things it has going for it are character designs by Dragon Ball guy Akira Toriyama (though I wish the game was cel shaded). And the music was done by Nobuo Uematsu, who did all the music for the old Final Fantasy games (you know, the good ones). But I probably won’t get Blue Dragon right away either, unless GamerDad has me review it. It’s still 60 bucks, which is a lot, and I don’t have time to play super long RPGs like I used to. That’s why I haven’t gotten Dragon Quest 8 yet because even though it’s cheap, it’s really long!

Eternal Sonata
Now THIS jRPG, I WILL get right away. I’ve already preordered it so I can get the special faceplate. I hope I get Polka. 🙂 I played this demo at a friends house and fell in love with it. It’s another game that caused me to get an Xbox 360. I love the premise for this game. The famous 19th century piano player Chopin has a dream on his deathbed about a world where people with incurable diseases can use magic. There’s lots of references to music in this game, so what with me being a closet music nerd, you know I like that. I also love the battle system. It combines turn based gameplay with real time actions like a Tales RPG. In fact, Namco could’ve called Eternal Sonata a Tales game and nobody would’ve noticed. When it’s your turn to fight, you have a limited amount of time to run around the battlefield and hit enemies. And you have different attacks depending on if you’re in the sunlight or the shade. Too bad the music wasn’t done by Go Shiina. It’s actually done by the composer who did all the other Tales games besides Legendia, and that composer’s music is SO bland. Luckily the game will have piano pieces written by Chopin in it, so that might liven things up. At any rate, I can’t wait for this game. It comes out right after my birthday. Make sure to download the demo if you have a 360, and click here for more information about the game:

Beautiful Katmari
The series is getting a little stale and the Xbox 360 demo I played is pretty disappointing, but I’ll give the game a try anyway because I still like it. It’s bascially Pac-Man, really. And maybe the downloadable online stuff will make it a little fresher.

Soul Calibur 4
I don’t really like most fighting games because I stink at them really bad, but I like Soul Calibur games so I’ll probably get this. You all can beat my butt online. I’ve been looking at screens of this game and the visuals look REALLY GOOD (especially the ones with Cassandra, Sophitia, and Taki in them, ha ha!).

Old Xbox Games
I never had an original Xbox, so provided these games will work with the 360’s backwards compatibility list, I’d like to try some old games like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet Set Radio Future, Toe Jam and Earl 3, Grabbed by the Ghoulies, and Voodoo Vince. Of course, I don’t know if I’d have time to play them! Any other old Xbox games you think I would like?

Jeff is also looking forward to playing some Xbox 360 games that I don’t have as much interest in. He likes the Ace Combat games, so I bet he’ll want to play Ace Combat 6. He’s kind of interested in Dead Rising, too. But he says the only thing he likes doing in the demo is putting Servebot heads on the zombies. And he wants to give Halo a try since everyone talks about it so much.

And, well, that’s about all I have to say about my new Xbox 360. If any of you have any tips or secrets about the system that I don’t know about, or game recommendations, please tell me. And Nintendo fans, don’t worry, I still like Nintendo systems and games the best. And there’s a lot of Xbox 360 games that I don’t have any interest in, like BioShock. Sorry. So until next time, maybe I’ll see you on the Xbox! –Cary

Tags: Misc