September 28, 2006

Marketplace Overload

There has been a lot of activity on the Marketplace lately thanks to X06. I love it. Here are my impressions on the items I have downloaded:

Demos:

Lego Star Wars II - This was fun. I enjoyed the first one. This one is more of the same, only set in the original trilogy universe. That is a plus in my book. Good demo, although not as much fun if you are playing by yourself.

F.E.A.R. - This is the same demo that appeared in the OXM a month ago. It is entertaining. The weapon fire feels great and the slow-mo action is very cool. Some freaky moments in there too. Graphically it is not as impressive as I would have liked, but it was just a demo, hopefully the final product is more polished visually.

Trailers:

Battle Stations Midway - Some WWII Fighter Pilot game I have never heard of before. Looked blah.

Import Tuner Challenge - Another one of those racing games. Looked absolutely terrible. They showed an in-car view that looked laughable compared to PRG3's stunning cockpit view.

Eragon - Some fantasy/adventure game that looks right out of the LotRs universe. Again, it looked absolutely terrible. Are all these games running on the same system that has Gears of War, GRAW and PGR3? Because they look like they are running on a regular Xbox. Completely underwhelming.

The Darkness - The trailer is ok, but I want to see gameplay already. This game is high on my list of games to watch, but show us some gameplay!!!

Forza 2 Physics & Damage Trailer - Wow, this game is going to be fantastic!!

Shrek 3 - Meh. Again, this game does not show off the 360 in any positive way.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men - Looks interesting storywise. The verdict is still out. Entertaining trailer though.

Halo Wars - Holy freakin' hell this was bad-ass!!! An army of Spartans?! Oh hellz yes, can I have some more!!!

Rainbow Six Vegas - This game needs to come out already. I want it. I am a little concerned with the frame-rate however based on this trailer. I hope it is smooth. The Vegas Strip looks phenomenal.

Lost Odyssey - The marketplace demo is cool. Very good CG. I saw the extended portion from the Microsoft X06 press conference though, where you actually get to see the game being played, and I was completely disappointed. Typical RPG circa 1985. The turn based battle system looked archaic and boring. Oh well.

Splinter Cell: Double Agent - This game is still not wowing me the way I would like. It looks like the last SC game with better graphics. The animation appears completely reused from last gen, which is a major bummer.

Assassin's Creed - From what I can tell the Marketplace trailer is made up of footage from the live demo that was played at the press conference. Very impressive stuff. This game looks great right now.

Blue Dragon - Pretty long trailer for this very Japanese RPG. You know what? I though it was great. Silly me. It is mostly CG and showed zero gameplay, but I was completely entertained. I liked it.

Bioshock - I'm salivating for this game, especially after finally seeing it in action. This trailer is not gameplay however, but it is still very, very cool and atmospheric. This game cannot come out soon enough.

Marvel Ultimate Online - CG trailer just showing you different Marvel characters. As an ex-comic book junkie, this trailer was awesome to watch. The CG character models looks very nice. Very detailed.

COD3 - Real-time trailer, although it does not show gameplay. Was a little boring at the beginning, but it picked up the pace by the end. Looks like physics come into play in this one, with some destructible environments. Pretty cool trailer overall.

Viva Pinata - This game looks gorgeous in still pictures, but if they can't get that frame-rate smoothed out, I don't know . . .

I believe that is all I've downloaded so far. I hope there is more goodies in the near future.

Oh, I purchased Doom for Live Arcade. The game looks decent enough considering how old it is. It runs silky smooth and very fast and it controls great with the 360 pad. I look forward to strolling down memory lane with it. Hopefully Powerpuff gets it so we can try it co-op.

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