The Old XBOX Megathread

[VerbalPuke]

Has anybody ever had a problem with the games being too dark and hard to see? GTA, Mass Effect, and Gears of War have been especially hard to see everything. It's like that on two tvs, one being HD the other not, while tv shows are still bright on vibrant on said tv's. Also, for some the coloring on brighter games is off, for example on Raw vs. Smackdown 07, the Hart Foundation's tops come out as blue on the t.v.

[The Quasi Juice]

I've been wondering; is there a proper way to quit a game, or do you just have to eject the tray and that's it?

[stokeriño]

I press the XBox button on the controller and then 'Y'.

[Vilge Duin]

Yeah, just quit to the dashboard.

Has anybody ever had a problem with the games being too dark and hard to see? GTA, Mass Effect, and Gears of War have been especially hard to see everything. It's like that on two tvs, one being HD the other not, while tv shows are still bright on vibrant on said tv's. Also, for some the coloring on brighter games is off, for example on Raw vs. Smackdown 07, the Hart Foundation's tops come out as blue on the t.v.

I find it depends on the game, but yeah I have encountered it. It's one reason I didn't enjoy Mass Effect. The game was overall just dark looking regardless of changing in game or TV settings.

It occurred especially with Lost Odyssey in odd places. When the game was running just regularly it was perfectly fine, but the moment a cut scene did the picture in picture thing it all went dark and ugly looking. Thinking about it I've only ever run into it with games using the Unreal engine.

Other stuff like Halo, Dead Rising, Oblivion and so on all look perfectly fine if not vibrant (especially something like Viva Pinata).

[stokeriño]

I've not noticed anything odd with Lost Odyssey yet. I've always assumed with these things that it's a bit of pot luck with whatever TV you happen to have.

[Vilge Duin]

It mostly occurred near the end. When you can often get up to three different "screens" going. Wasn't egregious to the games quality, just noticeable. Unless you've seen it it's hard to describe... Like a slight muting and darkening of the screen.

It all happened in that game for me with the picture in picture style stuff. Never any other time, when it was often vibrant and pretty. Thus why I noticed.

Anyways... How are you liking Lost Odyssey anyways? Not many people seemingly know about it unfortunately or just don't wish to play it. I thought it was a fairly standard if a bit bland RPG with a decent feel to it. The graphics are great as is some of the music, and the story starts out incredibly strong but tapers off into cliche near the end. And gameplay is typical.

Edited May 5, 2008 by Vilge Duin

[stokeriño]

It's very old-style (i.e. pre XI/XII) Final Fantasy, for obvious reasons. Luckily, I love me some old-style Final Fantasy. I'm on the second disc, having just entered the Black Cave. I fucking hate caves.

[Vilge Duin]

I hated the Black Cave, hah. The increase in enemy toughness was startling. Was thoroughly trounced a couple times. And the lay out was a touch confusing. Then I met the boss... >_<

Very satisfying to get out of there.

[zero]

I had to bump up the game brightness settings for GTA and Bully - the games looked fine during the day, but night time was just too dark. Luckily most games have in-game settings though.

[The Quasi Juice]

My X-Box 360 thingy: T-Zakjez

Don't ask.

[LL!]

Why?

[Fitzy]

He said don't ask. :/

[LL!]

That's precisely why I did.

[Ruki]

You evil bastard!

Oh, and guys, I no longer have CoD4...my friend decided he wanted it back.

[The Quasi Juice]

I even made a mistake, its Tzakjez. And I said don't ask, 'cause the name doesn't make sense to you obviously.

[Vilge Duin]

I must say...

That Gears of War 2 footage looks fucking wonderful. I wasn't that impressed with the first, but this thing... wow.

[Dan]

RLOD.

Balls.

[DT]

If anyone wants to throw down on Halo 3, my gamertag is BrumNasty. I'm on right now

[abundant]

New info about Fable 2, Banjo Kazooie, and Viva Pinata 2....

Fable 2

- Mini map is dead. Peter hates it. So he made a "bread crump trail". Which is a golden line on the ground that will tell you which direction to go. It works kinda like a GPS system, so it will change if you go another direction, and will guide you in the right direction.

- Magic system: You can either do a focused on one person attack, or a ranged attack. You can build up your attack in five levels. These five levels can be combined, so you can have level 1 be a fire spell, and then it builds up and adds level 2, which can be a slow spell, and so on.

- There will be 8 different spells in the game.

- You can buy every single house in the game. Each house will unlock something new. Either a sidequest, item or a skill

- The game is 20-30 times larger then Fable 1.

- The weather is completely dynamic, and will change as time progress. There will be different seasons.

- Cutscenes are somewhat interactive. You can use the d-pad to do different gestures, and they can change the outcome of conversations. It's not on the scale of Mass Effect, but it can be done so you have some interactivity with the game world.

- Peter wanted a sex minigame in there, but they had to drop it, due to the nature of the content. Now the screen just goes black, and your hear some moaning.

And yes, you can have unprotected sex.

credit to NeoGaf

Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360)

- RARE says they didn't want to make a hi res version of the old Banjo platformer.

- You create vehicles with parts you find around the levels.- GI says their first vehicles was a 4 wheeled kart with a spring attached to the bottom that allowed them to jump things. They later found a helicopter blade that allowed their kart to fly. Later they added balloons to the vehicle and put the blade on the back and created a hovercraft.

- RARE showed them a vehicle that was a monster truck that was able to detach its chasis to become a mini bike. When the bike ramped off a cliff it revealed collapsible glider wings and started flying.- There will be 1,600 parts including weapons that you'll be able to attach to the vehicles.

- The town is called Showdown Town.

- GI says that despite the large focus on vehicles it still features platform elements from the previous games like traditional platforming, tight rope walking and jiggy piece collecting.

- Showdown Town is 16 times larger than anything RARE has created before.

- Every level has a different intro. Nutty Acres begins with a credits spoof of 80's soap opera's like Dallas.

- Note collecting is back and will act has currency that'll allow you to bu vehicle blueprints.

- RARE says there are 15 different challenges spread across 6 different levels. There will also be side missions.

- slated for November

- Building vehicles is basically like playing with LEGO. You can <i>always</i> jump in and out of the vehicle editor and come right back to the game with the new design.

- Parts are easily placed and moved around. You don't have to worry about connecting the motor with the wheels for example. Just place everything so they stick together and don't get in the way.

- Vehicle designs can play a large role in missions. We saw one where you had to collect coconuts from a field and got a small truck that could suck them up. Unfortunately you couldn't fit all the coconuts in the truck and had to back and deliver them in a large barrel. We were then shown how you could create a helicopter with a hook, that could pick up this large barrel, fly to the coconut field and fly low to scoop the coconuts in the barrel.

- Physics are awesome in this game and everywhere! With one design I placed the foot-in-a-box weapon behind a propella, and when I tried to use it, the foot/boot couldn't get past the propella... well, until I used it enough times to actually kick the propella off the vehicle!

- Pixel art... imagine the possibilities (Rare already had an example of this, paying homage to a certain plumber)

- Multiplayer is great fun with the ability to either chose from pre-fabricated or own vehicle designs. It still needs some polish here and there, but showed great promise.

credit to NeoGaf

Viva Pinata 2: Trouble in Paradise

- Improved interactivity between the pinata's and the environments.

- Pinata's will mimic each others action and follow the leader around the garden.

- They'll be adding toys for the pinatas to play with like musical instruments, spaced themed toys, and trains that the pinata's will ride around the garden.

- 30 new pinatas.

- 2 new sub areas called Pinarctic and Dessert that'll allow you to travel to new locations and lay traps for the pinatas.

- A photo mode will allow you to upload pictures to the website.

- A drop in and drop out co op mode.

- Improved UI.

-slated for September

- I will only touch on one feature here, as GI already touched on many of the more traditional improvements. This feature is extremely cool though, in two ways.

1. VP2 uses the Vision Camera in combination with physical cards sorta like Eye of Judgement. It basically scans a small code on the card, when it's being held up in front of the camera, and this can both insert custom designed pinatas, unlock buildings or abilities, change the weather and many other things. We were told how Rare had designed a moose that got a big, red nose only around christmas time... and this could be passed around with these cards.

2. So the game also got a photo mode. Cool, but that's not the best! This photo mode is able to interpret the pictures and create the above-mentioned code based on the picture. Basically, you will have a card generator available on the internet! Imagine this: you have created this really cool pinata and instead of the tiresome task of sending it only to selected friends on Live, you can take a picture of it, get the code/card generated and share it on a forum. Instantly everyone will be able to get the pinata in their game and since the camera can also read from LCD screens, ipods, zunes etc., there is little to no hassle. Now THAT'S sharing!

credit to NeoGaf

There's a MS event happening tomorrow, so expect new footage, new release dates, and possibly some new games to be announced.

Edited May 12, 2008 by abundant

[Ruki]

I still have yet to play Viva Pinata.