Blog

Welcome to
the Button Mashers Blog.

Updated every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday
...unless it rains!

Home
Archives
Podcast

Button Mashers is a periodic audio podcast covering a range of topics in the gaming industry. This blog was created for myself, Tetsuotrunks, as well as a few guest co-hosts, to contribute our 2 cents on topics that really don't warrant any discussion, or to just express things that we'd like to get off our chests. Check back often, as we update frequently and feel free to leave any feedback.

June 2008
SMTWTFS
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Powered By Greymatter

Blog
Button Mashers Blog


Home » Archives » June 2008 »
Stab v.2
By Biccy on 06.06.08 at 11:12 PM CST
So last week I took my stab at what I thought the Wii was coming to. While they've made a major step into casual gaming they've left the likes of more hardcore gamers fishing through the sea of "improvement" to find the occasional gem.

A lot of people who bought Wii's have solved this problem by selling their souls and buying a 360. That's certainly what I did. So to stop my Wii sobbing that I'm picking on him, I'll take a stab at the 360 as well.
Oh and I apologise if this seems a little all over the place. I'm shattered.

When I first bought my 360 the immediate problem was that I had a good chance I might lose my arms from carrying the damn thing. It's damn heavy for a console. I'm really half expecting there to be a warning label somewhere on the box saying not to carry for long periods of time, taking regular 15 minute breaks before attempting again. After lugging it home, taking off all the green plastic and then watching my dad laugh at the size of the power plug for a good couple of minutes I started to set it up.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT PRESS RANDOM BUTTONS ON IT. This later came to bite me in the arse when, on my first day of having it, I got a red light. Seems I had disconnected the hard drive and it was now loose.
Anywho, after finally setting it up twice (I set it up once, then had to move it to a new location) I turned it on. It's loud. Very loud. I had to turn up my TV quite a lot so I could hear it over the 360. You eventually get used to this but Joshie can be quieter than that thing.
So after all these little things I came to my next problem. For some reason it would never start up first time, I always had to turn it off and on again. This has now resolved it's self but still pretty worrying.

These aren't really massively important things but the Wii didn't have any of this stuff to do. I didn't strain myself getting it home, it took me two seconds to set it up and it's been working fine since then.

But this is where, so far, I've found most of the problems with the 360 end. With my small selection of games I currently own I've had a lot of fun and most of the time, it doesn't end with one play through and then never picking it up again. I've pretty much played Gears of War since I got my 360 and am still playing it. Mario Galaxy? Haven't played it again since I gave up trying to get all the purple coin stars. Metroid Prime 3? Haven't played that since I completed it.
This is mainly down to one big fat juicy 360 feature - Xbox Live.

They really hit the nail on the head here. I've been told it could be better, but it's got all the good basics. Most games have online play, co-op and multiplayer, the newer games have a good system to keep your party together when doing matches and the icing really, voice chat. Being able to talk is so much easier than having to type. I played Phantasy Star Online with the on-screen keyboard and that was a nightmare. Even with a regular keyboard you don't want to stop and give them a message. It really allows for fast interaction or just casual chat.

The only bad thing I've heard about the games is that a lot of them are FPS. I think I was lucky then that I came in late to the 360 as it's allowed for different titles to appear that I can choose from as well as picking up some good FPS of course.

The 360 just seems to fill that yearning I had with the Wii that I wanted something a little more towards the hardcore side. I don't regret getting a Wii but as many people have said, the Wii and a 360 make an excellent combo to have.
Comments