I need a new game for the XBox - suggestions?

The Game Room
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I am bored. I have played all my games unto death - I buy games very carefully, so I don’t really have a lot. I need a new game but I’m not sure what to get. And it has to be for the Xbox; I’m sorry but I am almost totally a console player now. I have a really hard time with PC games now, unless they are strategy.
My favorite recent-ish games are:

Mass Effect
Oblivion
Fallout & Fallout NV
Assassin’s Creed

I do not like:

Red Dead Redemption
Any of the Grand Theft Auto Games

Hated:

Resonance of Fate

Basically I like RPGs, with lots of play time and gazillions of sidequests. I don’t want cartoony particularly though. I did play Eternal Sonata and liked it but the story sucked big-time. I’d like to have a deep story to get into. I consider myself a fairly good RPG player and am willing to try “difficult” games, but I don’t like dying every two minutes either - I like a learning curve but not so steep you can’t get it. I like a story that’s given out in segments but not in dribs and drabs like Resonance of Fate.

I would prefer a game in which I could play a female UNLESS the main character is already a man (like Assassin’s Creed). If it’s a man, I’d prefer not to have some teeny-bopper and would like some maturity in my games. I don’t mind darkness, but don’t want unrelenting darkness either (Prince of Persia: Sands of Time is OK, Warrior Within is most assuredly not).

I know I sound really picky and the problem is, I am. At $20-$60 a pop, one has to be a bit picky on video games! I don’t have more than 20 games for the Xbox, but am hoping to maybe pick up a used game with some of your suggestions.

Any ideas? I do read reviews but the review of Resonance of Fate really threw me off. I can’t tell you how much this game annoyed me. :frowning: So I figured I’d come to you guys. Justin Bailey?

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Dragon Age?

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Oops, sorry, I own both of them and have played them often.

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Alpha Protocol

It’s a spy game, combining RPG and shooter elements. And it’s the most reactive RPG I’ve ever played – every little decision you make affects your game play. Seriously, EVERYTHING. If you’re an asshole to character #1 and nice to character #2, a character #3 will notice and treat you differently than if you had done the opposite. If you bust down doors and kill everyone in sight, a character in a different city will have heard of you and respond to you differently than if you were diplomatic and cool. If you let people live rather than execute them, the entire ending of the game will be different. This is just the tip of the iceburg. Even what you choose to wear is commented on in-game.

It’s a very short game (~15 hours by my guess), but the value comes in the replayability. I seriously have played this game three times in a row without a break because it is that awesome. You have a fixed main character (male) but his personality is entirely based on the choices you make. I (female) was also impressed by the way the game handles the other female characters – they all have distinct personalities and are integral parts of the game’s story, you can romance them or not (they’re not just love interests), and most importantly, the game doesn’t set up the romances to be a reward for saving anyone’s life (which skeeves me out in other games – “Hey, I saved your life! Now you have to fuck me! :cool:” Ugh, no). It’s also got a bit of humor to it.

The game is set up so that the very beginning is a training mission (with tutorials), and then there’s a section where you put your skills to use in Saudi Arabia, and then the game opens up and lets you move between three cities (this is the meat of the game). I usually avoid shooters because I kind of suck at aiming, but I had no problem with the shooter aspect in this game.

I’ve been thinking of starting a thread about this, in fact…

Edit: If you played Dragon Age 2…Lord. You know how basically none of your choices mattered one whit in the end? Alpha Protocol is the diametric opposite of Dragon Age 2.

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Yes, I do, which irritated the piss out of me. Actually, what really irritated me was when the Head Mage went all batshit but the ending irritated me, too. I WANTED TO BE THE BOSS.

I’ll check out Alpha Protocol. I don’t mind shooters too much - I’ve gotten pretty good at them, on a slow scale from Oblivion with arrows to Fallout to Mass Effect and finally to CoD Modern Warfare (which I adored, btw).

ETA: I looked it up; it says it’s very buggy?

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Awesome, you won’t regret it. If you’re curious, check out the first two posts in this Something Awful thread for more info about the story, gameplay, etc.

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It’s not that buggy, and I think most of the bugs are confined to the PC version. So far, the only bug I’ve encountered on the 360 (after 2.75 playthroughs) is that in one mission, if you go through a certain door to get into a building, the game thinks you behaved a certain way in the building, regardless of your actual behavior.

There are certain"feature, not bug" elements, like pistols are very weak until you put at least five points into them…things like that. A lot of the negative reviews I’ve read genuinely sound like the reviewer never played more than the opening level of the game and then decided it was shitty for the most trivial of reasons. Also, it’s from Obsidian, and Obsidian has a reputation of putting out buggy games, so people just put 1+1 together and assume this game is unplayably buggy. Not so!

If you can get this game on sale, there is no excuse not to buy it. :slight_smile:

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Gotta second Alpha Protocol, an excellent game and a hidden gem.

When it came out it got some decidedly mixed reviews and the game certainly has it’s flaws but it’s better than the reviews gave it credit for. The gaming press seemed to want to sweep it under the rug for some reason without giving it much of a chance. Also I believe gallows fodder is right about the bugs being a PC thing. I’ve played through the game twice on the XBox and never had any issues.

I started a thread last year shortly after it came out. There’s some detailed discussion of the game’s strengths and flaws there, but also be warned there’s also extensive discussion of the game’s story and it’s unboxed spoilers.

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Alpha Protocol is also one of my favorites.

I don’t know if this qualifies as a “bug” or not, but it’s the most important issue for a new player to be aware of: the character skills are not at all balanced and not all builds are viable. More specifically you need to pick a ranged weapon and invest points in it. Your Stealth/Martial Arts guy may have had a great time sneaking behind goons and breaking their necks, but when you get to the level’s boss, you’re going to need to shoot him.

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Mika, not sure if you’re a driving game fan, but Forza 3 can sort of be considered a “driving-RPG” of sorts, you start with a “low level” car (inexpensive) and as you win races, you earn both driver experience points (opens up new racetracks) and your car “levels up”, you also are awarded credits (gold pieces) that you can use to either buy better cars, or upgrade your car with performance and cosmetic mods

Every time your driver class goes up a level, you are rewarded a new car for free…

IIRC, the level 2 reward car is a Fiat 500 Abarth, level 3 is a Alfa Romero Brera, level 4, a VW Scirocco, soon you’ll be winning new Ford Mustangs, Chevy Camaros, Maserati Gran Turismos, Lexus SC400’s and who knows what else…

Just as an example, I was able to take a 230 HP Class E (very low rating) Chevy Camaro IROC and turn it into an 850 HP Class R3 (entry level racecar class)

Forza is just loads of fun

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One other thing about F3, it’d do it an injustice to call it a mere “racing game” as it is a true Driving Simulator, the cars handle, sound, and look like they do in real life, the Saturn Ion in the game behaves just like my real Ion, the Dodge Neon based SRT-4 behaves like a real Neon, it follows logically that all the other cars must also be just as accurately recreated

There’s just something fun about starting out with your real car in the game and seeing how far you can upgrade it, or driving a car you could never afford in real life

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Maybe Assassin’s Creed II or Brotherhood if you liked the first? ACII should be relatively cheap, too.

I was about to recommend Demon’s Souls, but I guess it’s only for PS3.

Edit: Oh, but it’s ‘spiritual sequel’, Dark Souls, will be on the 360, but not early October.

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If Dark Souls is anything like its predecessor, it’ll be extremely difficult and won’t have much of a plot, though.

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If you like the Dragon Age games, you might like Dungeon Siege III. It’s an action RPG (and a little on the short side, only 12 hours or so), but I had a lot of fun with it.

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Fable III

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I’ve been addicted to the Xbox Arcade game called “Might and Magic: Clash of Heros.” It’s a anime-cartoony RPG (which I ususally don’t like) with an addictive as hell puzzle battle system. I couldn’t stop playing it last night.

Clash Of Heros

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If you have an Xbox Live account, I recommend a couple Arcade titles;

Stubbs the Zombie; an old Xbox title, yes, it’s a zombie game, but with one crucial difference, you get to BE the zombie, eat yummy braaaaiiins, and turn the townspeople of Punchbowl (an idyllic '50s style view of the future, with flying cars and suchlike, but also with 50’s style morality and clothing, it’s the '50s with hovercars

'Splosion Man and 'Ms. 'Splosion Man; a classic side-scrolling platformer with an utterly brilliant, hillarious, twisted sense of humour, deceptively easy to learn, but very hard to master, you have one control button, you play a sentient humanoid explosion, trying to escape from the lab you were created in, you do this by 'sploding, any of the xbox pushbuttons cause you to 'splode, and you can chain up to 3 'splosions together before you have to recharge (wait a few seconds)

both 'splosionoids are basically insane, and tend to spout random chatter throughout the level, also there are bonuses hidden throughout the levels, for SMan, it’s cakes (the cake is a lie), for MSman, shoes

the developers also drop all sorts of little movie references and inside jokes in the games, in the demo to Ms. 'Splosion Man, you fight the remains of the end-level boss from SM (a giant robot called Mighty Eternal), ME is in pretty bad shape, and not altogether sane himself, after you disable him in the first encounter (he complains during the battle “not fair, dude…sto-to-to-top doing that-t-t-t”) and you’re running from him , he breaks through the wall at one point… “he-he-he-here’s J-J-J-J-Johnny!”, and after you finally defeat him, he…

opens a panel on his wrist, taps a few buttons, and you see a few “Predator” style fonts in the wrist panel counting down, as he laughs a very “Predator-esque” laugh as Ms. 'Splosion Man runs from him before he self-destructs…

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If you liked Assassin’s Creed, you’ll love the sequels.

I hated Resonance of Fate as well - awful, awful game. But both Lost Oddessey and Last Remnant are very good Final Fantasy style JRPGs.

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I’m really surprised you didn’t like Red Dead Redemption - what was it that turned you off it?

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Morrowind? After having played Oblivion, it may seem clunky but perhaps you’ll like it.

You mention Mass Effect. You did play Mass Effect 2, right? If not, rent it.

LA Noire might be a good rent too even if you disliked GTA and Gee-GeeTA.