Xbox 360 Live roundup
Taking the 360 shaped baton from Paul last week i’ve spent most of my time checking out its online features and delving into a selection of arcade titles. Its certainly moved on a whole lot since its embryonic days on the original Xbox with a system that has you online from the moment the console is turned on. This ‘always online’ functionality means you can access Live (the 360’s online monicker) at any time to check which friends are online, send them messages, use voice chat and compare automatically uploaded high scores. It even updates you mid game when friends come online, creating a real sense of community not experienced on any other gaming platform.
Whilst the original Xbox’s Live was pioneering it suffered the well founded reputation that online gaming was a kind of no man’s land where anything went. If you didn’t like petulant teens calling you a ‘n00b’ at every opportunity it wasn’t the place for you. This time round however its been cleaned up by offering different gaming zones with Family and Underground at each end of the spectrum. Swearing in the Family zone will get your account banned. While the zones help to weed out the undesirables some will inevitably slip through the net which is where my favourite feature comes in - feedback. If you play with someone who is particularly irritating, say perhaps they sing an R Kelly song throughout the entire match, you can choose to never, ever play with them again. Genius.
They’ve also introduced Live Arcade - an online collection of retro classics (online 4 player Gauntlet anyone?) and modern arcade games available to download for a small fee. Here’s a quick round up of the most notable arcade games -
Geometry Wars Evolved - Asteroids meets Robotron in a vector based hallucination employing some lovely use of Newton’s laws.
Mutant Storm - another child of Robotron, it’s a shooter with an emphasis on speed, score multipliers and a unique difficulty system.
Marble Blast Ultra - Monkeyball, without the monkeys.
Outpost Kaloki X - entertaining sim game that allows you to build and manage your own space station.
Zuma - amidst the bland looking puzzle games this stands out with it’s nice characterisation and gameplay as you shoot marbles from the mouth of an Aztec Frog.
Wik and the Fable of souls - unique platformer that involves swinging from the trees by your tongue.
Hexic HD - deceptively complex but relaxing puzzle game.
Live is now an integral part of the console as opposed to a niche area for the hardcore gamer. Without it you’re only getting half the experience.