About 6 months ago i bought my first xbox360 after owning a PS3 from its release day. So, yesterday i decided to go on live.
If only I had known what I was about to go through. Just a piece of information to keep in mind during the post, I live in Greece.
To begin with, in order to obtain a golden membership, so that i CAN play online I had to get some sort of prepaid card which is virtualy impossible to
find where I live. I went to every single electronics store around a 10km radius and most of the sellers hadn't even heard of the thing before.
But luckyly i was able to overcome that obstacle thanks to the internet. And so i did, i bought a card online from some site and to my surprise
they didnt steal my money :). So far so good. It is now that i was about to face this ridiculus and irrational system that Micro$oft
has created. After getting the code of the prepaid, I went to XBL then to my acount and then redeem code. I put in the code and BOOM
Information cannot be retrieved from Xbox Live(or something like that) error. But that didn't stop me, I was determined to go online. And because
of that I went to Google. After searchin for about 20 minutes, I found out that the error occured because the country I had registered on my XBL
, United States that is, was different from the country of my Xbox, and since I live in Greece I thought I should just change the country i had on Xbox.com
. Sounds simple. To my surprise even that simple task was impossible to do for some reason. When I went to their website, after looking for 10 whole minutes
in order to find the contact information, I found out that for some reason the counrty was the only unclickable option on there. But that didnt stop me either
. Once again, I used my friend, Google, and kept on searching for like 30 minutes on how to change the country. Apparently the only way to do it was
through my WindowsLive acount which was associated with my XBox acount. Finally, I thought I was getting somewhere...Yea right. Ok so I went to MSN.com
and changed the country on my WindowsLive acount, pretty easy. After that, I went back to the xbox site and of course the country there was still unchanged.
I was getting really pissed out at that time, so much that I thought "maybe it would be easier to just make another acount on XBL. After all, my gamerscore wasnt that much just 1500 or something. And so I did... I created a whole new acount from scratch and a new email, with every piece of information
beeing completely identcal to each other(email and XBL). Ok, I thought, what can go wrong now... Apparently there was something! After spending at least 3 hours trying to
figure it out and then retrying my prepaid code I got this massage saying"XBox live is not available in your Country"...Without much thought, I, once again, searched in Google
for this just to find out that there's actually nothing I can do and that I was at a dead end. But after searching a bit more, I stumbled uppon a post saying that if i actually put in a fake country on my WindowsLive , where XBL is available, then something could happen. Of course nothing did so I changed the country on my Xbox aswell and FINALY they accepted my code!! Great after 7-8 hours of searching and smashing my head on the keyboard I had done it.
Now, to conclude, I'm not saying that Microsoft sucks or anything like this, its just that they have so much bureaucracy that even the most simple tasks are hard to do. On the other hand though I have to admit that the online experience is very rewarding by herself and, in my honest opinion, better than the PS3's.
A few days ago i got a copy of Red Dead Redemption, which is a great game, probably the best i've played this season but to my surprise, the thing i really loved about it wasn't the fancy graphics and the smooth animation, it was the voice acting.I mean its litteraly the first game I have played in my entire life where the characters are so realistic.Besides beeing very detailed in the design, they give the illusion of having a personality.I dont know who's job was to make that work(dialogue writter or voice actor) but they have definately made a great work.My favorite character is Nigel West Dickens who is made by the combination of some very natural animation and the voice of Steve Rimpici. With that beeing said I can finally understand the importance of good voice acting, it can really take the game to a whole new level.
Watch the cutscene in the begining of the video and you'll understand
In 2010 alot of worth mentioning games has been released but only 10 of them made it to my list.Let's go check them out.
10.Star Ocean-because it has an amazing and seemingly endless storyline which kept me interested for a very long time
9.Dante's Inferno-because eventhough many consider it a GoW ripof, i think it has an incredible gameplay and great graphics
8.Dragon Age Origins :Awakening -because its an expansion of my favorite game of 2009, thus earning a place in this list
7.Mass Effect 2-because of the very emerging plot it has and its rpg features
6.Battlefield Bad Company 2-because in a world where CoD is considered the peak of videogames, its nice to see games like this that really ARE good
5.God of War 3 -because of the very intense overall experience it gives to the player
4.Splinter Cell : Conviction-because of the storyline, graphics, sound, animation, .....
3.Red Dead Redemption - because of the vast open world and the out-of-this-world graphics
2.Heavy Rain -because after all these years im really happy to see that the game industry is taking it to a whole new level
1.Alan Wake -because after six years of production and testing, Remedy managed to create a masterpiece.The graphics, the physics , the sound, the storyline...All of them add up to create this tittle which is really a genre defining game and definately a must-have for everyone.
This list regards only the games that were released before May 24.
So, 2 days ago I got a copy of Alan Wake and I decided to spent some time on it without having many hopes for a good game as this is not a genre i am really fond of. To my surprise, it turned out to be and amazing game, easilly one of the best titles I’ve played this year.I mean, the experience was so intense that I didn’t even let the controller for a moment before I finished it.
Alan Wake utilisies Remedy’s own engine, its called Alan Wake Engine and imlpements a Havok component to produce extremely realistic physics.The graphics of the game are also amazing, absolutely natural transactions between day and night, fully volumetric and high detailed shadows projected everyware, dynamic rendering and a depth of field of about 2 kilometers without a single loading screen and of course not the slightest drop in the frames per second
Although the technical features of the game are out of this world, the main asset of Alan Wake is it’s storyline.Alan Wake, a bestselling crime fiction author is unable to write anything for the past 2 years. In order for him to relax and get some inspiration, his wife Alice Wake convices him into going for vacation in the idylic small town of Bright Falls.Upon their arrival Alan has an intense fight with Alice and leaves the cabin where they were supposed to stay in the middle of the night, knowing that his wife wouldn’t follow him because of her fear of the dark. Not long after that Alan hears his wife’s terrified screams coming from the small house and momments before he reaches her, Alice falls into the Cauldron lake.Alan dives too in an attempt to save her but he blacks out and wakes up 1 week from then with his car stuck in the bark of a tree. This is where the main plot sets in following Alan in his endavors with the goal of saving his wife.
The sound in the game is also great, with the volume of speech increasing and decreasing according to your location in the field, high quality recording and of course incredible voice acting, it just adds up to the whole experience.
Now something, and possibly the only thing I didn’t like.Because the aspect of the game is third person, the camera is placed above Alan’s left shoulder and a bit up. Those who, like me, are used in having the camera in the right side, could push the right analog stick and the camera went to the right. But, here’s the tricky part, the camera, after a bit, would go back to the original possition, thus forcing me to spam the button.
Overall the game was an amazing experience.I got so emerged into the plot that when I finished the game I was having second thoughts before walking into the dark. A must-have addition to your collection.
Graphics : 10/10
Sound : 9/10
Gameplay : 9/10
Storyline : 10/10
Overall : 9.5/10
ARTWORK AND TRAILER
There has been a lot of fuzz lately (and I mean a lot) about Microsoft’s new peripheral device that was announced back in the E3 of 09. Countless sites have wrote about it and rumors have spread like wildfire as it is widely believed that with that, the whole “gaming experience” will change.
But what is Project Natal? Some say its nothing but a usual overhype from Microsoft, others, embrassing the positive side, support it fanaticaly and can hardly wait until the release date.Peter Molyneux has even said that the introduction of Natal in the gaming world will be similar to the one of the mouse in the computer systems. For now all i can say is that untill the next E3 where a lot of things are going to be revealed I try to keep a neutral stance against it.
Natal was first mentioned in last years E3.Until then little is revealed but the following information is confirmed so you can rest assured. What we know is that a company named 3DV initialy inteded to sell the product to Nintendo , whose boss, Satoru Iwata, refused saying that he would only invest on whatever he though would appeal to the Nintendo audience.After that Microsoft saw an opportunity there and started the development of Natal somewhere in 2008.Natal consist of a peripheral device(pics and demo at the end of the post) which contains an RGB camera, a depth sensor, a multiarray microphone and a custom processor all that running a software enabling Natal to run on every Xbox 360 console.
Now all these may sound exciting but I remember about 5 years ago that I used to have something similar to that…hmm what was it called….oh…Eye Toy ! and it even run on PS2!!So what sets Natal appart from eye toy and other similar devices?Acording to Microsoft Natal is nothing like the rest of ‘em.Unlike traditional 2-D cameras and controllers, Project Natal tracks even the slightest of your body movemets in 3-D space, it also understands several emotions by analyzing the pitch of your voice and evenmore, it is claimed to be able to understand facial expressions, making it able to recognise each person individualy.
Now eventhough I really want to believe all the above from Microsoft, I simply can’t. I mean, c’mon lets be realists, motion controllers are not even close to the accuracy required to replace standard controllers, and I don’t see how Microsoft with theoriticaly no experience on that field will manage to fullfil all their promisses.Additionaly, as stated from a developer, “Natal is not made to replace the controller”.From my point of view it seems like an overestimated addon for the xbox which in the worst case senario will end up like eye toy and sixaxis.
Now to conclude, eventhough I am not convinced from Natal I like the fact that motion sensors are getting back in fashion and I am sure that the due to the market competition that exist,these systems will be pushed to their limits in the near future.
**Rememebr to leave a comment if you have something to add, thanks**
PICS AND DEMO
It has already been a great year for the gaming audience with lots and lots of prestigious game releases, among them beeing:Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption and of course God of War too, BUT the year is not over yet and a ton of great games are on course to arrive before 2011 so lets check them out.
Call of Duty:Black Ops, the next installment of one of the best FPS series ever made, is going to be hitting the shelves on November 9th.Its storyline will unveil with the Cold War at the background.
Ubisoft has also announced the arrival of another sequel to last year’s Game of the Year.Im talking of course about Assasins creed:Brotherhood, which is claimed to be the last of the series.In the third season the player returns to playing Ezzio, the legendary assasin, with the difference that this time he will not be roaming Venice but instead, Rome.The sequel is expected to arrive at the 4th quarter of 2010 and is rummored to have intense multiplayer functionalities.
And speaking of multiplayer, Sony recently announced the release of Little Big Planet too, giving now the ability to creative funs of the game, not only to design levels but also create games which they could later share with their friends.This too is expected at the end of the hollidays of 2010.
Finally, Square-Enix finds a place in this post with the announcement of Kingdom Hearts:Birth by Sleep.The fans of the series will be excited to see Mickey and the rest of the Disnay heros in another adventure coming out this September.Unfortunately it is only getting released for PSP.
OTHER TITLES COMING THIS YEAR
Starcraft 2 -27 July 2010-
World of Warcraft:Cataclysm -Summer 2010-
Quantum Theory -TBA 2010-
Hallo Reach -Q4 2010-
Super Mario Galaxy 2 -23 May 2010-
**Leave your comments and suggestions, thanks J**
