Saw the Xbox 360 yesterday in action for the first time, and it is outstanding. Can’t wait to pick on up.
Currently, I am playing Half-Life 2, which is ok, but not as much fun as I remember the original Half-Life.
I have Brothers in Arms 2 and Call of Duty- Big Red One waiting in the wings from a friend.
Gary Farber
I take it you trust Sony, don’t mind the rootkit thing, or their DSM-crazed history, and don’t mind helping them continue with these strategies?
Vladi G
XBox is Microsoft. What does this have to do with Sony?
apotheosis
For my money, the big payoff of Half-Life 2 was Ravenholm.
Bob In Pacifica
Do you think that playing these games may adversely affect one’s ability to understand the real world? As an owner of Madden 2006 I know that it certainly assuages a certain primal element inside me. But do they do harm? And shouldn’t we all be outside playing until our moms calls us home?
ImJohnGalt
Just finished Call of Duty 2 on the PC. It was good, although I think it lacked the visceral fear that I felt running up on the beach at the start of Medal of Honour. Also, it was pretty easy. The worst part was switching between the Russian Front, the British Army and the Yanks. Because you kept jumping around, you didn’t have that same level of custodial feeling toward your character (Davis, Taylor, or some Russian Name I forget, depending on which scenario you were playing).
I liked Half-Life 2, but agree that Half-Life 1 was much more fun – perhaps because it was just so novel. I still think the games are far better on a PC than any of the consoles, but maybe that’s just me.
I *have* just started playing F.E.A.R. on the PC, and have jumped out of my shorts on several occasions. Do *not* play this with headphones on in a dark room.
Jeremy
Just saw it today and Call of Duty blew me away! I haven’t bought a game system in about 10 years and I’m getting very tempted!
Steve S
I don’t know how you can play Call of Duty on a console. It’s easy using the mouse on the PC, but a joystick? Weird. I have an original Xbox, just for Grand Theft Auto, and I hardly play it.
ImJohnGalt – How is Cod2 in multiplayer mode? I appreciated the original CoD, although my favorite all time is still RTCW just for easy of playability.
I’ve been playing BF2 a lot lately… But unlike CoD or RTCW, the maps don’t change. It’s the same thing over and over.
Mac Buckets
I’m still cold-turkey on games after this summer’s Katamari Damacy addiction, but I can’t wait for the 360.
Joel
Currently I’m playing Galaga, Ms. Pac Man, Gyrus, and Tempest. All video games that require more than 2 buttons should be banned. They are against God.
HankP
Have to disagree with you, I’ve played FPS games since the original Wolfenstein and Half Life 2 is the best PC game I’ve ever played. The graphics (especially on a good PC with a good gaphics card) ar fantastic, the story is great, you feel driven forward without being on rails. I can’t wait for the sequel, due out soon.
bago
F.E.A.R. was rad. Enemies doing round the corner spray and pray while you go into slo-mo, cap three guys and deliver a scissor kick to the head as you reload. BAD-ASS!
Slightly repetetive levels, but if you have a good vid card the carnage and chaos caused by 3 people spraying automatic weapons in an office building is a precious sight to behold.
Condemned for the 360 uses the same engine. I just hope F.E.A.R. get sported to the 360.
jobiuspublius
Half Life is a tough act to follow. I think it will be decades before anything surpasses Half Life. I still play multiplayer NWN from time to time. I avoid gaming now. It makes me feel useless.
Gary Farber
“XBox is Microsoft. What does this have to do with Sony?”
I’m afraid that the calls my ineffably huge brain are constantly put to in solving All The World’s Biggest Problems are far more important than my paying attention to mere details of “fact,” such as you bother to mention, you little, little person. The depth of my piercing insights is so beyond mere human understanding that it is beyond your ability to comprehend just how every unimportant it is that I might confuse one petty Earth corporation with another. I have higher concerns!
Sony, Microsoft! What difference?! It is enough that I brought up a Pressing Social Issue.
Look, Halley’s Comet!
Patrick Lightbody
I’ll be up late Monday night and early Tuesday morning in hopes of grabbing one of the first shipments. None of the initial games look too exciting, but I always have to be one of the first whenever it comes to new stuff like this. I’m really curious to see how MS changes video gaming with the enhanced Xbox Live.
Plus, Halo 2 at HDTV 720p can’t be a bad thing. Nor wireless controllers and the fact that it can hook up right to my monitor :)
Matthew J. Stinson
I think Half-Life 2 is more fun if you forget about the story and try having fun with the game physics.
Brothers in Arms and Big Red One? Man, John, you are always a sucker for killing Nazis.
jaime
I declined to buy Madden 2006…only because that would screw up my 2005 franchise.
Jeebus…No wonder I’m not married.
ether
Big Red on sucks the big one.
Get Battlefield Modern Combat.
Play on Xbox live.
I guarantee you will be addicted.
I killed 800 people last week.
:)
JohnGalt
Steve S, I haven’t played CoD in Multiplayer. For some reason I have just never gotten very excited about multiplayer, in any game – I *still* don’t understand Unreal Tournament’s appeal. Not sure why, but it could be either because most multiplayer experiences I’ve had have been with 12 year old kids typing profanity and playing with hacked characters, or because the senseless killing without moving a story forward gets to be pretty boring after a while.
YMMV, however.
Steve S
LOL! Most of the people kicking yer ass are 45 year old fathers of 3. :-)
As for senseless killing. I guess that’s what I enjoy about it. I don’t like having to worry about saving where I left off, I just want to play for 30 minutes and then quit out.
Krista
I bought Civ IV the other day, brought it home, all excited to waste ungodly amounts of time…only to find out that my computer doesn’t meet the system requirements. It’s 4 years old, so I don’t really want to put any more money into it, but we can’t afford a new one until income tax time. So for now, it sits on my shelf, taunting me.
JohnGalt
Somehow, the idea of 45 year-old fathers of three typing in l33tsp34k and cursing on a server that will have it’s share of 12-year-olds depresses me even more.
Patrick Lightbody
Bah! Microsoft really pissed me off this morning.