If you've been considering finding out for yourself what the buzz surrounding Microsoft's Xbox 360 is about, now is the time to do it. Order either an Xbox 360 or Xbox 360 Core system during the month of October, and we'll throw in a pre-order of either of Microsoft's highly anticipated titles, Gears of War or Viva Piñata as a free thank you gift. Gears of War and Viva Piñata are $59.99 and $49.99 values and will be released this coming November.
To receive your free gift, simply add your choice of game, along with an Xbox 360 gaming console, to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout. Your Xbox 360 will ship immediately and your game, on its release date (see the game detail pages for these dates). But remember, this offer is only good throughout the month of October, so order yours today.
Joystiq attended New Line Cinema and Microsoft's special "A Match Made in Hell" event last night, which could also have been called "Torture and Joy." Torture: sitting through Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning. Joy: Gears of War hands-on. If you have the means to turn a full-size movie theater into your personal gaming arena, then do it. You'll never look at gaming the same way again.
Only chainsaws link GoW and TCM:TB together. The Lancer gun in GoW has a chainsaw attachment on the end of it that can be used for gore-ific melee attacks. Chainsaw someone in front of you and see their head rip off, their guts burst out, blood spray everywhere. Your opponent getting ripped in half from head to crotch has to be the most dramatic, and you can actually see everything inside. It made the audience scream with delight every time someone playing the game on the big screen would meet their death, or dish it out, this way.
Plus, this blogger has to admit that he was so very wrong about Gears of War. After playing this game in person, I'm a convert. There is something about getting your head chainsawed off on a megaplex screen in front of more than 200 screaming people that can make you reevaluate the gameplay.Load times are very short, in-game menus are simple straightforward, on-screen prompts provide a Gears of War for Dummies primer for the uninitiated. The controls echo most standard FPS-type games, and players who push the start button will get it right when they drop into a game. They'll also find it hard to adjust without a learning curve. Your main gun gives off a ton of recoil, making it tough to stay centered on your opponent, even when at point-blank range. The weapons loadout in multiplayer didn't include frag grenades, only smoke, although the Microsoft rep showed off the single-player level where the frags exploded with a satisfying crump and ensuing debris cloud. Winding-up action of tossing them is still weird, and makes your player look like David trying to take down Goliath.
Several of the in-game actions take a second or two to charge up. Hold down the A button to sprint, or "roadie run" as the Microsoft rep called it, and your character hunkers down and sprints forward like he's changing out a microphone stand for Aerosmith. Sprint kicks in a half-second later, and while running you can't change directions easily or look around. Which is more realistic than your basic run button and makes crossing the map challenging. The melee attack has to charge up as well. You can't just hit the B button and immediately impale someone with your chainsaw. Hold down the B button to activate the chainsaw and then hit it again to attack. Although there is a satisfying bonus of being able to B whenever your chainsaw is on to rev it up and inspire fear in the enemy. The "active reload," which can cut down on reload time and beef up your bullet is the "reload mini game." Hit the reload button, and a bar fills up underneath your ammo gauge. Hit the reload button again when the gauge is in a tiny white area and you'll be rewarded with an extremely fast reload and more powerful ammo. No one paid much attention to this during multiplayer but it is definitely a skill people will want to master once they spend some real time in the game.
Having no radar to tell you where your friends or foes are, adds a lot of suspense. Creep through abandoned ruins, search for the enemy, suddenly hear a chainsaw rev behind you and get your head shorn off. It'll make your hair stand on end when you hear that sound out of nowhere. This makes teamplay extremely important, since you can't just run off on your own and try and find the enemy. You have to provide cover and give constant updates to your teammates about your status. This also forces you to pay more attention to your squad. If you get downed by enemy fire, and a buddy reaches you in time, he can revive you by hitting the X button. However, if the enemy gets to you first, he can also hit the X button and crush your body into pulp with a "curb stomp." Very satisfying.
There were a couple of small bugs in the gameplay. One locust horde (the non-humans) player was hit by gunfire and he started jetting huge sprays of blood from an artery like a firehose. When he crouched behind a car, the blood pumped all over that too. Blood kept pumping for the rest of the match, causing us to wonder how many pints the average locust horde can hold? The guy should have bled out onscreen and been an albino by the time he finally ended up on an opponent's chainsaw. Hopefully that's a quick fix on Epic's part. The duck and run system seemed buggy at first, but once you actually use it a few times, it becomes easier to understand. You use the same button to run and to duck/cover, so if you run too close to cover you'll end up crouched there. Use the sprint feature sparingly, unless you are trying to hit the afterburners and run away "like a chicken!," as one audience member kept shouting.
We spoke with several players afterwards who said various versions of things like "It f*cking rocked!" The only complaints we heard were people yelling at players who couldn't understand the control scheme. Trying to tell someone how to drive from the backseat yields the exact same feelings. We didn't play the single-player version, so I still can't address the issues with the enemy AI, but the multiplayer impressed a lot more than expected. The game ships with eight maps, and Microsoft promises that additional maps will be available at some point for download. The only game type on display was the four on four team deathmatch, but others will be available in the finished product.
Originally posted by: ivol07
FIFA '07 Demo is available for download.
I also just picked up the Vision Camera. On buy.com it's pretty cheap. I figured I'll mess around with it and if I don't find a use for it I'll ebay it.
Buy.com link
List Price: See Details $39.99
You Save: $7.00
Our Price: $32.99
Shipping: FREE
Buy.com Total Price: $32.99
-$10 Google Checkout= $22.99
Originally posted by: JohnAn2112
Originally posted by: ivol07
FIFA '07 Demo is available for download.
I also just picked up the Vision Camera. On buy.com it's pretty cheap. I figured I'll mess around with it and if I don't find a use for it I'll ebay it.
Buy.com link
List Price: See Details $39.99
You Save: $7.00
Our Price: $32.99
Shipping: FREE
Buy.com Total Price: $32.99
-$10 Google Checkout= $22.99
Doh! It says Google Checkout is not available for the Vision camera. I guess they changed it. $23 is a really good price too.
Let me tell you a little story that I experienced just the other night. I bought my 360 back in Feb, and I started getting lockups this past Wednesday, eventually leading to the 3 red lights error. I was pissed to say the least, as you never think it'll actually happen to you. I knew MS would want to charge me to fix it, as I was atleast 3 months out of warranty.Originally posted by: anonmouseuser
So my console has the flashing 3-ring problem. I called MS and they want $139 for the repairs. I feel a bit ripped off. Anyone have any suggestions on a fix? I see that some 3rd party websites offering repair services. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Let me tell you a little story that I experienced just the other night. I bought my 360 back in Feb, and I started getting lockups this past Wednesday, eventually leading to the 3 red lights error. I was pissed to say the least, as you never think it'll actually happen to you. I knew MS would want to charge me to fix it, as I was atleast 3 months out of warranty.Originally posted by: anonmouseuser
So my console has the flashing 3-ring problem. I called MS and they want $139 for the repairs. I feel a bit ripped off. Anyone have any suggestions on a fix? I see that some 3rd party websites offering repair services. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
I decided to go to Walmart, buy a brand new 360, and try to return my old one. I still had the original box with all the original baggies and things, so when I purchased the new one, I left it unopened incase something went wrong. So I packaged up my broken 360, along with all the accessories, minus the hard drive. I wanted to keep my hard drive, and kept it hoping they wouldn't notice it missing. I went back to Walmart about 3 hours later to return my broken 360 with the receipt of the new one I purchased earlier.
Here's where I started to get really nervous. The first thing she did was look through to make sure everything was there, and thankfully, she overlooked that the hard drive wasn't attached to the top. If she noticed it, I planned to say I forgot it in the car, then go get it really quick. This is where I started to get really nervous.....she calls a special retailer number for Microsoft, and checks the serial number for warranty status. Of course, it tells her it's out of warranty, but luckily she doesn't even realize what I'm actually doing, because she tried it 2 or 3 times and got confused as hell. What resulted was a few phone calls to electronics and a couple of managers to see what to do, at which point I knew someone would know what I was up to.
She seeked out the head-guy in electronics, who I figured would definitely catch on. She couldn't find him, and talked to some other lackey who had no idea what was going on. She then tried to contact 2 or 3 different managers to see what to do, and after my waiting for 10 minutes, she finally rang up the refund to get me on my way.
Needless to say, I was going through what I was going to say the whole time I was standing there, but I got really lucky at not being caught in an embarrassing situation for myself. But now I have a brand new 360, one that I'm going to buy the extended warranty for, and an extra hard drive that I'm going to sell on eBay that will pay for said extended warranty .
Not the most ethical, but it's a warning for those who are thinking of doing what I did. I wouldn't try it again, and I wasn't really expecting to get an extra hard drive out of it, but in the end, it worked.
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Let me tell you a little story that I experienced just the other night. I bought my 360 back in Feb, and I started getting lockups this past Wednesday, eventually leading to the 3 red lights error. I was pissed to say the least, as you never think it'll actually happen to you. I knew MS would want to charge me to fix it, as I was atleast 3 months out of warranty.Originally posted by: anonmouseuser
So my console has the flashing 3-ring problem. I called MS and they want $139 for the repairs. I feel a bit ripped off. Anyone have any suggestions on a fix? I see that some 3rd party websites offering repair services. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
I decided to go to Walmart, buy a brand new 360, and try to return my old one. I still had the original box with all the original baggies and things, so when I purchased the new one, I left it unopened incase something went wrong. So I packaged up my broken 360, along with all the accessories, minus the hard drive. I wanted to keep my hard drive, and kept it hoping they wouldn't notice it missing. I went back to Walmart about 3 hours later to return my broken 360 with the receipt of the new one I purchased earlier.
Here's where I started to get really nervous. The first thing she did was look through to make sure everything was there, and thankfully, she overlooked that the hard drive wasn't attached to the top. If she noticed it, I planned to say I forgot it in the car, then go get it really quick. This is where I started to get really nervous.....she calls a special retailer number for Microsoft, and checks the serial number for warranty status. Of course, it tells her it's out of warranty, but luckily she doesn't even realize what I'm actually doing, because she tried it 2 or 3 times and got confused as hell. What resulted was a few phone calls to electronics and a couple of managers to see what to do, at which point I knew someone would know what I was up to.
She seeked out the head-guy in electronics, who I figured would definitely catch on. She couldn't find him, and talked to some other lackey who had no idea what was going on. She then tried to contact 2 or 3 different managers to see what to do, and after my waiting for 10 minutes, she finally rang up the refund to get me on my way.
Needless to say, I was going through what I was going to say the whole time I was standing there, but I got really lucky at not being caught in an embarrassing situation for myself. But now I have a brand new 360, one that I'm going to buy the extended warranty for, and an extra hard drive that I'm going to sell on eBay that will pay for said extended warranty .
Not the most ethical, but it's a warning for those who are thinking of doing what I did. I wouldn't try it again, and I wasn't really expecting to get an extra hard drive out of it, but in the end, it worked.
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Let me tell you a little story that I experienced just the other night. I bought my 360 back in Feb, and I started getting lockups this past Wednesday, eventually leading to the 3 red lights error. I was pissed to say the least, as you never think it'll actually happen to you. I knew MS would want to charge me to fix it, as I was atleast 3 months out of warranty.Originally posted by: anonmouseuser
So my console has the flashing 3-ring problem. I called MS and they want $139 for the repairs. I feel a bit ripped off. Anyone have any suggestions on a fix? I see that some 3rd party websites offering repair services. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks.
I decided to go to Walmart, buy a brand new 360, and try to return my old one. I still had the original box with all the original baggies and things, so when I purchased the new one, I left it unopened incase something went wrong. So I packaged up my broken 360, along with all the accessories, minus the hard drive. I wanted to keep my hard drive, and kept it hoping they wouldn't notice it missing. I went back to Walmart about 3 hours later to return my broken 360 with the receipt of the new one I purchased earlier.
Here's where I started to get really nervous. The first thing she did was look through to make sure everything was there, and thankfully, she overlooked that the hard drive wasn't attached to the top. If she noticed it, I planned to say I forgot it in the car, then go get it really quick. This is where I started to get really nervous.....she calls a special retailer number for Microsoft, and checks the serial number for warranty status. Of course, it tells her it's out of warranty, but luckily she doesn't even realize what I'm actually doing, because she tried it 2 or 3 times and got confused as hell. What resulted was a few phone calls to electronics and a couple of managers to see what to do, at which point I knew someone would know what I was up to.
She seeked out the head-guy in electronics, who I figured would definitely catch on. She couldn't find him, and talked to some other lackey who had no idea what was going on. She then tried to contact 2 or 3 different managers to see what to do, and after my waiting for 10 minutes, she finally rang up the refund to get me on my way.
Needless to say, I was going through what I was going to say the whole time I was standing there, but I got really lucky at not being caught in an embarrassing situation for myself. But now I have a brand new 360, one that I'm going to buy the extended warranty for, and an extra hard drive that I'm going to sell on eBay that will pay for said extended warranty .
Not the most ethical, but it's a warning for those who are thinking of doing what I did. I wouldn't try it again, and I wasn't really expecting to get an extra hard drive out of it, but in the end, it worked.
Eh, you guys are right....I'm going to take the hard drive back tomorrow to keep somewhat of a clean slate. And I wouldn't say nothing in exchange was had, just telling others not to try what I did. After I had got myself rolling into it, I realized it was a bad idea.Originally posted by: DonVito
Way to publically confess to larceny. This place really makes me scratch my head sometimes. Here's my advice: don't confess to committing crimes when you get nothing in exchange.
SEGA is proud to announce the start of the Open Beta for Xbox 360 on October 11th!. This will be the first chance to play the newest addition to the long running Phantasy Star series. The Beta test period is expected to run until October 18th and will allow participants to play through a portion of the online game. We encourage users interested in the Multiplayer aspects of Phantasy Star Universe to check out all there is to see in the Beta environment!
Getting started is extremely easy! If you want to participate you must have an active Xbox Live Gold account. The Beta will be available for download on the Xbox Marketplace between October 11th and October 12th. Once you have the beta downloaded, you'll be able to play immediately! Once online, we highly recommend the following activities to get the most out of this Open Beta period:
[*]Create Your Character - Construct the perfect avatar with the robust Character Creation tool that enables players to change their character's body shape and dimensions, hairstyle and color, facial structure and features, and more!
[*]Meet New People - Head out to the lobby and meet new people! Visit various shops for weapons, clothing and other items and then join or create a squad to embark on missions with new friends.
[*]Explore the Universe - With three expansive planets to explore, discover the adventures that lie ahead on Parum, Neudaiz, and Moatoob.
[*]My Room - Create your personal online space by adding items and elements from your adventures, and decorating your My Room with various themes and wallpaper. In here, your Partner Machinery is able to create new weapons and items for you to use in battle, trade with friends, or sell for a profit. Players can also exchange Partner Cards and visit friends in their My Room!
[*]Customize Your Look - Head to one of the various Clothing or Parts shops located across the Universe and outfit your character with the newest styles.
[*]Try Different Job Types - Speak to the Guardian Representative located on the fifth floor of the Guardian's Colony to freely change between the three class types: Hunter, Ranger, and Force.
[*]Create and Sell Items - Craft items from the base materials you find during your adventures using your Partner Machinery. You can even sell these items within player-run Shops!
[/quote]Originally posted by: Queasy
Phantasy Star Universe Open Beta - Oct 11th to Oct 18th
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Eh, you guys are right....I'm going to take the hard drive back tomorrow to keep somewhat of a clean slate. And I wouldn't say nothing in exchange was had, just telling others not to try what I did. After I had got myself rolling into it, I realized it was a bad idea.Originally posted by: DonVito
Way to publically confess to larceny. This place really makes me scratch my head sometimes. Here's my advice: don't confess to committing crimes when you get nothing in exchange.
You guys have a way of making a person feel like a douche ......
[/quote]Originally posted by: Queasy
Phantasy Star Universe Open Beta - Oct 11th to Oct 18th
Originally posted by: UpgradeFailure
Originally posted by: Queasy
Phantasy Star Universe Open Beta - Oct 11th to Oct 18th
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Eh, you guys are right....I'm going to take the hard drive back tomorrow to keep somewhat of a clean slate. And I wouldn't say nothing in exchange was had, just telling others not to try what I did. After I had got myself rolling into it, I realized it was a bad idea.Originally posted by: DonVito
Way to publically confess to larceny. This place really makes me scratch my head sometimes. Here's my advice: don't confess to committing crimes when you get nothing in exchange.
You guys have a way of making a person feel like a douche ......
Originally posted by: CVSiN
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Eh, you guys are right....I'm going to take the hard drive back tomorrow to keep somewhat of a clean slate. And I wouldn't say nothing in exchange was had, just telling others not to try what I did. After I had got myself rolling into it, I realized it was a bad idea.Originally posted by: DonVito
Way to publically confess to larceny. This place really makes me scratch my head sometimes. Here's my advice: don't confess to committing crimes when you get nothing in exchange.
You guys have a way of making a person feel like a douche ......
bleh... grand larceny and fraud.. nice one.. pay the 130 bucks like everyone else including myself had to..