Xbox 360 Marketplace and Arcade thread

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:45 pm

After playing the Dead Rising demo, I think I'll be picking this up. While it has sort of a humorous feel when it comes to the types or things you can use as weapons, and the ways you can use them (bowling for zombies anyone?), I think it still has the feel of the zombie movies I was looking for. I like how weapons will wear out, how they all do different types of damage and have different effects, and how if you need health, you get it by finding food at one of the restuarants, it makes sense. Also, I like how you can fight your way into a store, and have a few minutes to get your bearings and rest a bit before continuing your mission. You can't stay too long though; the zombies move slow, but they do keep moving. Having them lunging across the counter at the diner while I'm trying to eat a cake was wild.

Overall, I thought it captured the creepy nature of zombie films pretty well, even with the touches of humor here and there. I'm looking forward to this one. Time to get some stuff up on ebay!

Also, I downloaded the Table Tennis demo last night, and was surprised to find a pretty darn good game! Plays a lot like Top Spin 2, but quicker due to the small playing area. Me and my friend had some great volleys, and the controls felt very natural. I don't know how much it costs new, but if I can snag it for around $30 or so I might pick it up also. Another bonus was that my 3 year old daughter actually could play it pretty well, as you don't need to move very far it was easier for her to just mash the green button and still have fun.

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 2:56 pm

How to get the most out of you Dead Rising demo:

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/08/06/how-t ... sing-demo/

Good Stuff!!

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 3:27 pm

I must have played the Dead Rising time 10 times this weekend. I absolutely love it. There's just so much to do in the game and you don't even have access to the story that drives the action. I'll definitely be picking this one up. I'm hoping for a Fry's sale to reduce the cost but I still will pay $60 for it if I have to. This is the type of game I envisioned in the next generation of gaming. Running through hordes of zombies is so fun and the ability to use almost anything as a weapon is great. My personal favorite so far is the golf club. I like teeing it up and aiming for the zombies. I can't wait to try slapping hockey pucks at those zombie bastards in the full version!

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:24 pm

ScoopBrady wrote:I must have played the Dead Rising time 10 times this weekend. I absolutely love it. There's just so much to do in the game and you don't even have access to the story that drives the action. I'll definitely be picking this one up. I'm hoping for a Fry's sale to reduce the cost but I still will pay $60 for it if I have to. This is the type of game I envisioned in the next generation of gaming. Running through hordes of zombies is so fun and the ability to use almost anything as a weapon is great. My personal favorite so far is the golf club. I like teeing it up and aiming for the zombies. I can't wait to try slapping hockey pucks at those zombie bastards in the full version!

Not sure how many people know you can do this. Go into the cafe where you get the orange juice and go behind the counter. You will see a frying pan. Pick it up and turn around to the stove. You will then get an option to "examine". Hit the B button and your guy will place the frying pan on the stove and you will get some kind of cooking points boost. Now the frying pan is red hot and a very very lethal weapon. Go up to a zombie and get close and hold X and your guy will remove the zombie's face with the frying pan. In my opinion, one of the best animations in the game.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:32 pm

I completely forgot about Dead Rising coming to the 360! I remember seeing a preview for this game a few months ago and thinking it was pretty cool. Just played the demo and thought it was quite a riot. There's definitely a little humor involved, what with what weapons you can use (electric guitar, plant, grocery cart, etc) along with funny little comments by the main character. I'm quite impressed and if I can locate this game for around $50, I might just pick it up.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:22 am

A few of have Table Tennis here, Gurantsu, myself included. It's a nice 'chill' game to play online, and it plays well over live too.

I'm going to go ahead and take the plunge with Dead Rising as well. I can't stop playing the demo, so I'm guessing that indicates to me that I'll get enough hours of enjoyment out of the full game to warrant the purchase.

I'm amazed at myself for how much amusement I get out of popping zombies with long range golf shots or clunking bottom-floor zombies on the noggin with drinks thrown from the upstairs coffee-shop windows.

I also went back to play through the entire Saint's Row demo to give it a fair shake. I'm still not very impressed, and I tend to agree with Reeche that it has an unsavory vibe to it, like they missed the satire or something and landed someplace on the 'wrong' side.

And, according to Penny-Arcade, I'm not in the target demographic: http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20060804.jpg

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:10 pm

I didn't like the Saints Row demo, same old same old but without the sense of humor. Looked and ran great though, so for fans of the genre I can see it being a hit.

I found Table Tennis on ebay for $26, so it is now on it's way to me. I'll have to hop online with you guys once it shows up. I also picked up a copy of Top Spin 2 used over the weekend, and that is a lot of fun also (and my daughter likes it too, as long as whatever player she uses is wearing pink).

And at lunch today I plopped a fiver down to hold a copy of Dead Rising for me when it comes out Wednesday. The demo is just a blast, and the fact that the full game will only add more to it in the way of missions and areas made it a must buy. Plus, a friend of mine is finishing his house, and when his theater is done I'll be heading over there so we can all take turns playing on his movie screen (which is like 120 inches or something). The last movie we watched at his old house was... Dawn of the Dead, so we'll come full circle!

I'm very much a bottom feeder when it comes to games, especially when it comes to these $60 price tags on the new ones, and am more than willing to get preowned versions online to save money, but when a game really gets my attention then I have no problem supporting it with a new purchase. That being said, demos are more important than ever to me, as $60 is just too much to spend on a game you've never had hands on experience with. I learned that lesson after playing MLB 2K6...

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:38 pm

Dead Rising comic that illustrates the gameplay quite well:

http://www.hookedonpolygon.com/comic.php

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:45 pm

Joystiq reporting:

* Aug. 16: Texas Hold 'em
* Aug. 23: Time Pilot
* Aug. 30: Scramble
* Sept 6: Lumines Live!

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:55 pm

Hold 'em is gonna be tight as hell. Lumines as well.

XXXIV · Post by **XXXIV** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:01 pm

Danimal wrote:Joystiq reporting:

* Aug. 16: Texas Hold 'em
* Aug. 23: Time Pilot
* Aug. 30: Scramble
* Sept 6: Lumines Live!

Need more points...must have points.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:15 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:Hold 'em is gonna be tight as hell. Lumines as well.

I'll definately be getting Texas Hold 'em. I've been wanting to learn the game and this looks sweet. I just read an interview over at IGN that talked about some cool things.

IGN: Does Poker have huge potential on Xbox Live Arcade?

Greg Canessa: Huge. It's going to be a tent pole for us. We think it will be one of our major franchises for us this year. Poker is fun, it's quick and easy to play, and it's specifically designed around multiplayer play.

IGN: Will you be betting money?

Greg Canessa: We're not going to be betting money. We took a step back on poker and we did something very cool that hasn't been done before. Poker -- and this is one of my pet peeves around casino games on consoles and systems out right now -- was designed for those games based around money. And poker isn't just about money, it's about risk-reward. If there is nothing to risk, then people don't play right. So, that's why blackjack just sucks. After a while those games are just dumb. Because what is the point? It isn't a very fun game in and of itself from a play mechanic standpoint, and if there isn't any money, people stop playing it right. Poker, if there is no money, is then played wrong. People just go all in, all in, all in on every hand, and it's frickin' stupid. If there is no money or nothing to lose, they just ruin the game. If you try to play party or poker stars, I won't play anymore on points. I tried. So we took a step back and said, OK, this could be a tent pole franchise for us, a huge, huge franchise for us. We have Live. We have all the raw materials, we're going to build a poker game. What are we going to do? So we came up with this concept of virtual consistent bankrole. Virtual consistent bankrole is the concept of, it's not money, but it's a theoretical point system -- but specific to poker. It's not Microsoft points or GameScore, or anything like that. You have three different versions of the virtual consistent bankrole: one for single-player play; one for player-match play, and one for competitive play. And it's tied to your Gamertag. We track how many times you go to the ATM and we actually put you in the negative. You're going to start off with $5,000 or whatever, and it's tied to your profile. You can't lose GamerScore points, but it's tied to your profile and that's permanent. You can go into the negative. So if you choose to be an idiot and go all in, all in, all in, and you lose all your money, typically in these games you go to the ATM and you withdraw another $5,000 and you start over. You can go negative $5,000, negative $10,000, negative $15,000. That will do two things: it will be permanently tied to your GamerTag. It's non-erasable. Ever. The second thing is we have rooms. And the higher stakes rooms have entrée fees. So if you don't have a certain balance in your point account on your Gamertag, you don't get into the higher rooms. And that's where you make all the money. You're going to have to dig yourself out of your negative GamerScore by playing the low-stake rooms and playing well, or you're never going to get out of your negative situation.

IGN: Where does that show up in your GamerTag?

Greg Canessa: It will show when you're in the poker game. You'll have a point balance and when you're in the game you'll see everyone else's virtual bankrole and they can see yours.

IGN: So, you all of a sudden see people's priorities. Their bankrole shows their intent.

Greg Canessa: That's right.

IGN: That's a good deal.

Greg Canessa: Right, so in play-testing we've seen that people actually, suddenly, play right. They play the way they're supposed to play, and they don't go all in unless they have the cards or they really want to go all in.

IGN: This isn't related to Activision's game. This is going to be a Microsoft published game. And you haven't talked about this yet, right?

Greg Canessa: Right. So we have three play modes: single-player (against the AI), multiplayer (pick up games), and Tournaments (with up to eight players at a table) with ranked and unranked modes. It's called Texas Hold 'Em Poker. It's going to be really hot. We have put a lot of time into it.

IGN: Is it coming out this year?

Greg Canessa: It is currently slated for this year, but all the details are TBD.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:59 pm

vader29 wrote:
XXXIV wrote:
grtwhtsk wrote: Guys, what do you get with the purchased themes? Are you able to then use that for your avatar on live?
The gamer picture is the avatar...The theme is the background for Live dashboard.
Also if you can connect with your pc through windows media center or media connect you can use any picture on your pc for a background picture on your dashboard.

SPeaking of media connect, does anyone know if you can share music and pics if your xbox is wired to a wireless router and your pc is connected wirelessly to that router? I know you can do it if the pc and xbox are connected directly to eachother but now my 360 is in a different room. Windows media connect doesn't recognize teh 360 when i run it. MS wouldn't answer my question in an email. They say i have to call them. I'm not about to waste my time on hold just to get this question answered.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:39 pm

LAking wrote: Guys, what do you get with the purchased themes? Are you able to then use that for your avatar on live?

SPeaking of media connect, does anyone know if you can share music and pics if your xbox is wired to a wireless router and your pc is connected wirelessly to that router? I know you can do it if the pc and xbox are connected directly to eachother but now my 360 is in a different room. Windows media connect doesn't recognize teh 360 when i run it. MS wouldn't answer my question in an email. They say i have to call them. I'm not about to waste my time on hold just to get this question answered.[/quote]

Indeed you can. I stream my music and photos from my PC upstairs to the 360 downstairs via wireless. Configuring it is a bit ghastly, but there are a bunch of good knowledge base articles around. Once it works, it works beautfifully.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 7:57 pm

RobVarak wrote:Indeed you can. I stream my music and photos from my PC upstairs to the 360 downstairs via wireless. Configuring it is a bit ghastly, but there are a bunch of good knowledge base articles around. Once it works, it works beautfifully.

Are both your PC and your 360 connected wirelessly or just the 360? I got my sh*t to work when the PC was wired and 360 was wireless, but I cannot get them connected when they are both wireless.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:27 pm

So i've got my pc to recognize my xbox but the 360 can't see my computer. This is so frustrating. I really want to be able to stream my music into the living room. Anyone know what to do or a web site with a nice troubleshooting tutorial?

laurenskye · Post by **laurenskye** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 12:37 pm

If I turn my firewall off on my PC it'll work fine. I'm completely wireless.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:28 pm

laurenskye wrote:If I turn my firewall off on my PC it'll work fine. I'm completely wireless.

The firewall is already off on my pc. I'm pretty sure my router doesn't have a built in firewall either if that matters. I've tired reinstalling the .net framework 1.1 plus service pack 1 for the .net framework. I've tried using windows media connect 2 which is suppose to not need the .net framework. This is so annoying. I guess it's not a huge deal but it would just be great for small get togethers at my place. I could stream my entire collection through my nice sound system in the living room.

Fshguy · Post by **Fshguy** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:11 pm

Danimal wrote:Joystiq reporting:

* Aug. 16: Texas Hold 'em
* Aug. 23: Time Pilot
* Aug. 30: Scramble
* Sept 6: Lumines Live!

Time Pilot... Another classic... I want the original Spy Hunter...

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 5:59 pm

Did you redo the setup on the 360 for file sharing after you changed the network setup? I not 100% sure how it works but I would be both sides are binding to the MAC address.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:35 pm

bdunn13 wrote:Did you redo the setup on the 360 for file sharing after you changed the network setup? I not 100% sure how it works but I would be both sides are binding to the MAC address.

I really don't know what you're talking about

All i know is that when i go to media connect on the PC it shows the 360 as a device and i have told it to allow access to the folders i have designated. When i go to my 360 and go to "music" under the media tab it tries to find a computer running windows media connect and can't. THere is one thing i found that i will try when i get home. I have ot run "services.msc" on my PC and make sure windows media connect is "started". I have a feelig it is but we'll see.

vader29 · Post by **vader29** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 7:18 pm

LAking wrote:
bdunn13 wrote:Did you redo the setup on the 360 for file sharing after you changed the network setup? I not 100% sure how it works but I would be both sides are binding to the MAC address.
I really don't know what you're talking about All i know is that when i go to media connect on the PC it shows the 360 as a device and i have told it to allow access to the folders i have designated. When i go to my 360 and go to "music" under the media tab it tries to find a computer running windows media connect and can't. THere is one thing i found that i will try when i get home. I have ot run "services.msc" on my PC and make sure windows media connect is "started". I have a feelig it is but we'll see.

My 360 wouldn't connect to my computer through media center a couple of weeks ago and the pc showed that the 360 had access to it and I fiddled with something in Media Center Extender Manager on the pc to get it working again, don't remember exactly what it was I did but was just happy to get it working again.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 8:18 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote: Are both your PC and your 360 connected wirelessly or just the 360? I got my sh*t to work when the PC was wired and 360 was wireless, but I cannot get them connected when they are both wireless.

Yep, it's all wireless. DSL modem and wireless router are in Room A, PC in Room B (both upstairs) and the 360 downstairs.

It took a bunch of restarts and voodoo to get the damn thing to work though.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:50 am

RobVarak wrote:
dbdynsty25 wrote: Are both your PC and your 360 connected wirelessly or just the 360? I got my sh*t to work when the PC was wired and 360 was wireless, but I cannot get them connected when they are both wireless.
Yep, it's all wireless. DSL modem and wireless router are in Room A, PC in Room B (both upstairs) and the 360 downstairs.

It took a bunch of restarts and voodoo to get the damn thing to work though.

Haha, Rob. Voodoo explains my effort trying to set-up up my wireless network.

LAking · Post by **LAking** » Wed Aug 09, 2006 3:21 am

Got it working tonight. Don't ask me how. Actually i righ clicked on one of the folders i wanted to share and went to "sharing and security" and it said file sharing was not turned on or something like that. SO i turned that on and it's working. Woohoo! finally!