Official X-Box Discussion Thread

Is the Xbox magazine worth getting? I checked one issue of it that one of my friends picked up and thought it was interesting. The price kinda scared me off, though.

 

For now I think it is just for the demos and the DOA3 Bonus Pack. Once X-Box Live launches and we're able to download demos, we'll have to see. Subscription price is $39.95 (62% discount from the retail price) Also, they've been putting Developer's Commentaries of Halo on the last couple of Discs.

 

I think its worth it.

I saw something they put with my magazine, and it was 2 years subsciption for $50. That is basically $2.00 an issue.

To me, the demo's are at least worth that if not more, plus you get a magazine with it.

If anything, the demo's help me stay away from a lot of the bad games out there.

 

Cool, thanks for the info. I might have to consider picking up a subscription for the next year which will get me into prime Xbox Live season.

 

I WAS a subscriber of the Official Xbox Mag, but I did it with the "free" offer card from inside the box of my Xbox. The card stated that you can cancel at any time you wish. Well, I found myself unhappy with the Official Mag, and decided to cancel after 3 issues. I continued to get bill after bill, followed by a threat of Collections activity. I was beyond pissed. Thankfully, when I called in a 2nd time, I spoke with a real nice lady who wiped everything out at once.

 

I like the demo disks, and the information about upcoming games. But I wouldn't trust the reviews. It seems to me that they really only have three grades: 8.5 and up, 7-8.5, and 4.9 and under. If you compare their reviews to say IGN.com's, or Electronic Gaming Monthly's, they are always higher. Plus I personally don't like the way the magazine is treating the X-box. I understand they are in competition with PS2 and Gamecube, but the magazine goes out of its way to make the X-box not only seem superior, but that the other game systems are complete crap. It's like an official fanboy magazine. In one article they called Final Fantasy X inferior... inferior to what? Up until that point the X-box had no RPGs, or at least none worthy of anyone's attention. It's comments along those lines that make the writers seem immature, especially when placed with their inflated reviews. Often in reviews they will have comments like "while the game play and plot may be poor, the game really takes advantage of the X-box's capabilities." Well, who wants to have a pretty game that sucks? The Official Playstation magazine suffers from this problem from time to time as well, handing out higher than deserved scores to first party games. I think in time the X-box magazine staff will tone down reviews so that only the best games get those 8s and 9s as they deserve. Until then, the magazine is worth it for the demos, preview information and the booster packs (even though there has only been a DOA3 one so far).

 

I've noticed that with a lot of game magazines. A game that I hear isn't any good has a 2 page ad in a magazine and gets a good rating from them. A game I hear is good has no ad and gets a lower rating.

That's one thing nice about the internet. The sites that rate the games don't usually depend on those same games for advertising revenue. Plus, we can read reviews from other gamers who've played the game and are most of the time a lot tougher on them.

 

I've seen a lot of magazines that have large ads, but still give poor reviews. I think the best course is to always remember that magazines that are "official" want you to buy their products. Game Informer might as well be official for everyone since it's a Gamestop publication and gives a lot of things inflated reviews, not to mention sometimes about two months late when people already know the game sucks. I wouldn't doubt that they are holding off those reviews. The reviews I trust the most are IGN.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly (though they seem to love "old school" a bit too much at times. Sorry, I didn't buy a super console to play old scrollers).

 

Hehe, the OXM gave Kabuki Warriors a higher rating then Azurik. When I saw that I knew that whatever little credability they had towards game reviews went out the window. Kabuki Warriors can be beat by smacking the controller against your butt, the same cannot be said about Azurik.

Here's the rating:

Azurik: 3.7

Kabuki Warriors: 5.9

Now thats just bizare. Granted Azurik's an average game. But Kabuki Warriors is just horrible. Hell they even gave Shrek a better rating(5.3).

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I forget what they gave New Legends, but even they didn't rank it high... that thing bit, and bit hard.

 

What's the word on Outlaw golf? Has anyone played it yet?

 

I haven't played it yet.....But I'm curious as to how it is. Everytime I go into my local Blockbusters, it is rented out.

 

Any good games coming out I recommend to my wife to order for the video store she works at. I mentioned that someone said that Outlaw Golf is out all of the time, but she asked if anyone had actually played it.

 

I haven't played it, even though this month's X-box magazine has a demo. It's supposed to be funny, and lewd, but still a decent golf game. Granted this is coming from X-box magazine, and they're biased. I know one of the golfers is a stripper... CGI strippers just aren't enough to pull me away from Morrowind.

 

I only rented it, but it New Legends wasn't bad after you got into it. It was fairly limited in scope but it was definetly aimed at anime fans. It reminded me of Ninja Scroll actually.

 

I agree that their ratings can be a bit skewed sometimes.

 

I just thought it was glitchy. I would frequently jump and land on someone's head, and stay there. Or I would fall into places I couldn't get out of, but the fall didn't kill me either. It definitely wasn't as good as the hype surrounding it months before it came out, talking about all the character animations and such. Reminded me a lot of Oni, and that's not a good thing.
Yet, I have hope for Bloodrayne.

 

I had the opportunity to rent Outlaw Golf over the weekend. Blockbuster finally had it in stock! I love the visuals in the game, and the sound is fairly decent. The part of the game I do not like it the control. What was the developing team thinking making the right analog stick responsible for hitting the ball? You must pull back the right stick to start the power meter, and then you have to push it back forward as straight as possible to hit the ball straight. If you are off to the left or right too much, then you slice it. I miss the old "hit the button once to start the power meter, then hit it somewhere in the tiny color section for accuracy, then hit it a 3rd time when it is back toward the left". Outlaw Golf is a decent game, but to me, only worth a rental.

 

Does anyone else get a black screen sometimes in game play, then a message something like the following, "Disk cannot be read, it is likely dirty or invalid. Hit A to retry."

I've gotten it in Morrowind maybe ten times (usually whenever I have gone too long without saving, it always seems), but no other games. Granted, since Morrowind, I haven't played anything else on the X-box. So I'm just curious if it's the game, or my X-box.

 

Does anyone else get a black screen sometimes in game play, then a message something like the following, "Disk cannot be read, it is likely dirty or invalid. Hit A to retry.

I have gotten a similar popup from my Xbox when I try to boot a game. Once I've closed the tray, and the disc starts to spin, the Xbox struggles, then gives me that message. I usually eject the disc, wipe it once with a disc cleaning cloth, then put it back in. It always works the 2nd time.

 

It's morrowind only and it's not just you. The two things that will most commonly make it happen is being in Vivec (it'll randomly crash in that area) and bringing up the map. Apparently it seems to be directly related to the game save size in that the error doesn't happen untill your game is 160 blocks or over.

 

Jirin, thanks for the Outlaw Golf review! I wont be buying it, sounds like the play control sucks on it, despite being a cool concept. Morrowind is tops on my list now!!

 

Not a problem. I was really looking forward to Outlaw Golf. I was hoping for a more simple control scheme, since the game didn't appear to be aimed at "hardcore golf gamers". I just bought World Series Baseball, as I have been longing for a good baseball game besides High Heat 2002 for the PC. While it has some flaws, it is a great game. I am thinking also of purchasing 2002 FIFA World Cup, as I've always owned a soccer game for my systems. However, I've never been a fan of EA's World Cup games, as they're too limited in choices. I want an actual FIFA game for Xbox, but have not seen any news/announcements that one is in the works. Too bad. I shall attempt to rent Morrowind soon, as the local Blockbusters are having a rental promotion where you can keep rentals for 1 week, rather than 5 days!!

 

I agree, thanks for the Outlaw Golf review. I'll tell my wife to keep it on the order list for the video store.

I played some Morrowind over the weekend. Unfortunately, it was a busy weekend and I only got to play for about 2 hours total. I had some fun, but it just seemed to start so slow. Of course, when you can only play for a half hour at a time, any RPG is gonna be hard to get into. I'm hoping to give it another try when I have some more free time.

 

I have to say I am really looking forward to Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance for xbox.

It is going to be out this fall.

All the other systems get it in the summer of 2003.