I didn’t have an Xbox Live ID. I had a local account.
Ahhh. I didn’t realize you could even earn achievements without a Live ID.
Live will occassionally give away games - even good ones. Keep an eye out on forums (of which I can’t name any more, since I haven’t had a 360 for a while).
Is a RROD 100%? I mean - is there a chance you can get it to turn on, save your profile to a memory card/HD and transfer it?
I’m confused. You have a game night wherein you “need” a 360, but you don’t like any of the games? What gives?
How about you tell -us- what kind of games you enjoy, and then maybe we can make recommendations instead of playing the “How about X?” “No, I arbitrarily hate that genre” game?
All that said though, I’m not really that excited about the 360. I love Geometry Wars 2, Castle Crashers, and being able to play VOOT online, but in terms of actual “buy new on a disk” titles, the entire current generation of consoles is leaving me pretty cold.
-THAT- said, I find your stance on XBLA titles silly and unfounded. They do go on sale, and you can find deals on microsoft points, so the entire price is up in the air at all times. And honestly. Are there that many titles that you would buy at $5 that you wouldn’t buy at $15? For me, either it’s good and it’s worth $15, or it’s not and it’s not worth $5.
I’ll have to ask him but I’m pretty sure it’s dead.
It was get another XBox or listen to a full grown man who has been in the military rant about Microsoft for a few weeks.
And who said I didn’t like any of the games? I said I was looking for recommendations for the things that are different. I’m more than capable of locating sequels to stuff I own and the titles that get name dropped all the time.
I think you’ll find that every rejection I’ve stated was mentioned in the OP: I didn’t care about genre (besides FPS and and GTA clones; neither of which I hate as already pointed out), said no XBLA, and was looking for things other than the same popular titles that get mentioned over and over. I’m looking for the oddball stuff; I’m not going to exclude anything on that.
I can’t tell you what kind of games I enjoy because I enjoy just about any kind of games. My dislike of control schemes and distribution method are separate from mechanics. A quick sampling of things I’ve bought in the past month: the Sims 2, Dance Dance Revolution Mario Mix, Romance of Three Kingdoms VII, and The Witcher. You can’t resolve that into one easy picture. If you want me to explicitly exclude something because “I arbitrarily hate that genre” then no RTS or sports games (though I’m listening on Civilization Revolutions which will tell you how hard and fast that is).
Fuel. Was recently awarded the Guinness World Record for the largest playable environment in a console game.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI (not on the 360, sadly) is frickin’ awesome.
I know the answer to this already, but I ask anyways: do you guys play on Live?
I know we’ve been over that in the past: no and pretty much no desire to do so.
And FWIW, your somewhat recent mention of it was what made me snag this one when I spotted it lonely on the shelf. Of course I’ve got IX so it’s a step backward but something else recently reminded me of the period and I was in the mood so…
Civ Rev is turn based, not real-time.
See this is why I’m asking for recommendations; anything that hasn’t had massive piles of people talking about it long term has just slipped below my notice. I could have sworn someone said it was an RTS implementation of Civ but I guess I’m wrong.
You didn’t lose your Gamerscore. All Live profiles are stored on the hard drive or memory card. The 360 has no on board memory.
Swap out the HD and you’re golden.
Oh, and good call on already having Culdcept Saga. Greatest game ever.
Understandable. I lost the franchise when it went to the PlayStation, and lament the fact that the next one is going to be on the PlayStation 3, and am hoping for a quick release to PC. I have played silly amounts of time on XI, with the goal to beat it on every scenario with each of the three main factions, and then to go in with a custom person and whoop ass, and to finish up on the last scenario under the worst circumstances and beat it that way, too (in progress).
No, it’s still turn based, but it’s very stream-lined and simplified. They took out almost all of the micromanaging, and sped things up so that you can complete a game in a couple of hours, instead of the eight plus hour marathons of the PC version. They also added a few simple mechanics that are well-suited to a console version of the game. It doesn’t have nearly the staying power of a “real” Civ game, but it’s still an entertaining diversion, particularly if you buy it at used prices.
There should still be a demo available on Live, if you want to try before you buy.
If you’re looking for a party game, go for Rock Band II. I’m guessing I won’t have to tell you much about this one.
If you want something really different, try Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. It’s about 10% platformer, 90% vehicle-based problem-solving. Takes a while to get into, but when you get used to building your own vehicles, it’s really addicting.
If you want to sneak up on and murder historical figures, try Assassin’s Creed. A sequel is coming soon, but the first one is still gorgeous and engaging, though repetitive.
If you want to Blow Stuff Up Real Good, try Earth Defense Force 2017 (if you can still find it). The graphics aren’t gonna win any awards, but it’s just so damn much fun. Plot: you’re a soldier defending Earth from alien invaders, in the form of giant ants, giant spiders, bigger giant ants, giant robots, flying saucers, a walking fortress, and a few giant cyborg Godzillas. You get two guns (from a list of about 170) at a time, and unlimited ammo. It’s absolutely insane.
Too bad you didn’t care for Left 4 Dead; I’ve found it to be one of the best FPSes to come along in quite a while, due to the emphasis on teamwork. But you really need to play it on Live to get the full experience.