I finally touched the 360 controller. I read on the net that the Smyrna Walmart had a demo unit so I went to check it out and sure enough there it was all by it's lonesome. I don't know if you guys have ever paid in attention to the walmart demo units but they put the tv above your head so you have to look up the entire time. This led to neck strain which is part of the reason I didn't stick around too long playing. The other reason I didn't stay was because I had already played two of the demos on my PC.
Kameo, Call of Duty 2, King King and Hexic HD were the playable demos, they also had a lot of movies but the ones I watched (PGR3 and NFSMW) were the old E3 trailers. I played Kameo first, it looked good, not great but some aspects of it were pretty impressive like the textures. No matter how close you got to an object the texture detail held up, non of the blurry texture crap from this gen. What really hindered the games looks was the aliasing. This was a problem in all games, it was not as bad in Kameo as it was in King Kong but it was definitely noticable. You could switch between 3 forms, the fuzzy guy with the spikes on his back, the armadillo dude, and the boxing plant. I'd say the fuzzy guy was the most fun to play, picking up the trolls and sticking them on back, impaling them with the spikes was very satisfying. Once they are on your back you can throw or use them as weapons, beating other trolls with them. I had as many as 3 trolls on my back at one point. The armadillo guy could roll up into a ball which was useful for getting up ramps and traveling through corridors metroid style. He could also launch himself into enemies and perform a cyclone move, basically moving in a circle very fast. The plant was cool too though I didn't use him much. I didn't finsh the demo because I died and didn't want to start all over so I went to the next game, Call of Duty 2.
Right of the bat I can tell you that this game looked better on my PC, again the main thing that was holding it back was the aliasing. The textures were not up to Kameo standards either. I didn't play much of this since I've already played through the whole thing three times. Play the PC demo, add a little aliasing and you have the 360 version.
Then I played King Kong. I wasn't all that impressed with it on the PC so I wasn't expecting much from the 360 version and I was right. I guess the light and fog looked a little better as well as King Kong himself but the difference was minor.
The last thing I played was Hexic HD (internet explorer only). It was just hexic on a console but I can see my self spending some time with this and other arcade games, kicking back listening to my custom soundtracks and playing casual games. The achievements should add to the replay value too.
The controller itself felt great, I couldn't get to the upper shoulder buttons like I wanted to because of the thing Walmart was using to hold it. That white conroller thing is going to be filthy in a few weeks.The console looks just as great in person as it does in pics. It was laying horizontally behind the glass with the games. Even though they didn't have the stand alone kiosk they still have the memory unit port for downloading content. You couldn't really check out any of the multimedia features. You would think they'd have some music, pictures and movies on the system to see how it all works but all you get is a summary of the features.
Even though I wasn't all that impressed with what I saw I still can't wait to get one. Maybe it was hooked up to a crappy monitor? I was too close to the monitor? Anti-aliasing wasn't enabled in the demo? I don't know but I was expecting more visually. I have no doubt that the final games will look great but the setup at Walmart needed some work.
Comments
I jumped into King Kong first. I haven't played it on the PC, so I had no refernce to the way it looked. I did think it looked much better than I had expected. I watched our friend play it first, and there were subtle details like the reflection of light on the wet rocks, that looked great. i put the controller in my hand and took a shot at the demo. i wasn't put off by the graphics or the game play. i wasn't sure what buttons did what, but i was able to beat the 2nd part of the Kong demo where you have to fight 3 t-rexes and several smaller raptor looking dinos. for me it was pretty fun.
i played kameo next after letting my neck take a break from the strain of looking 85 degrees up from horizotal. i was very impressed with the textures, lighting and models. it is a game where you can tell that they have definitely put some time into the polish. game play was fun. i thought it was cool that with the big ice yetti dude, you could either use your enemies as a club. lol. the violence is so comical that it's funny. especially as the plant dude. i just find it amusing when he goes into a series of punches. the armadillo-type guy has great facial features. and when he rolls up, it is just as notydredz described. rare deserves some props for getting this game out as a launch title. some may be turned off by its cartoony appearance, so, some are going to miss out on what i think will turn out to be one of the best launch titles to own.
call of duty looked like a very solid choice for a preorder for anyone who likes first person shooters. as with Kong, i hadn't played the PC demo. i was impressed with the lighting and fx in the game. the texture maps weren't the best in the world, as they didn't hold up as you got as close as possible to them. but that could be, as notydredz says, from the fact that it's developed for both 360 and PC. there was so much action going on i shot several of my own guys. oops. the smoke was something i've never seen on a console game. it actually had depth to it, and bellowed rolled as you might expect real smoke to do. one other thing i thought was a bummer was the inability to shoot up some of the objects you would expect to fall apart or explode. case in point, there were some vases that i was shooting at but they didn't crack, break or explode. but that is soooo minor in the overall gameplay.
then i tried Hexic in the arcade. well, ok, it's exactly what it is. but i could see getting some mindless addiction to it.
the xbox live blades pop up instantly when you hit the button. the demo unit had no problem pauising the game immediately, bringing up the blades, and then returning you to gameplay. it was pretty seamless. nice job microsoft.
the controller was very comfortable. it was just as comfortable to hold as the logitech wireless controller. it actually felt no different to me, except that it has added 2 new shoulder buttons. all 3 of us kept forgetting that these new shoulder buttons were there. the only problem i see with it is that the color is bone white. i suspect a lot of people will have dirty looking controllers, some dirtier than others depending on one's personal hygeine.
the console, taunting us from behind the glass that made it untouchable, looked much smaller than the original xbox. i would guess that it's very light since the power supply is now external.
if you find a walmart in your area with the 360-- GO PLAY IT.
you can use this cool google map to locate one by you as they are reported
http://www.risingconcepts.com/frapper/xbox360kiosks
zoo3