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| | November 16, 2007
The Xbox 360 gets casual… literally!
Okay, so you’ve probably guessed by now that I’m a very omnivorous gamer. As long as a game is good, I don’t care what platform it’s for or what genre it’s pigeonholed into; just bring it on! With that in mind, I’ve never really been able to understand the sort of people who rabidly favor one platform to the exclusion of all others: it boggled me back in the Atari 2600 vs. Intellivision days, and it still makes me scratch my head. | |
| Basically, I’ve always felt that the decision to purchase a gaming platform should be based entirely on… wait for it… whether it supports any games that I really want to play. Not because everyone on TV says I need it, not because I happen to like the company that made it, and certainly not because the guy next door has one. But the day that some developer releases the perfect “must have” game for a new platform, that’s the day I’m lining up to buy them both. The only way I’d like them even more would be if the tasty “must have” game was in the same package as the hardware necessary to run it (and, since I’m basically greedy, if the whole thing was offered at a discount… mmmm, discount).
All of which is just a long-winded way of explaining why I’m not going to talk about anything at all on MSN Games this week, because the big news in casual games doesn’t involve your PC or the Web. If you’ve recently been within fifty feet of a videogame store, you’ll probably equate the Xbox 360 with hardcore action titles like Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4. But the 360’s best-kept secret is about to get a lot less secret and a lot more convenient. Just remember that you heard about it here first!
Xbox 360 Arcade
Since day one, the Xbox 360 has featured classic board, card, puzzle, and pop culture games on its LIVE Arcade marketplace. And every week or so since the console’s release, they’ve added more games to that list, including some you’ll probably never see on the PC! Honestly, it’s been an excellent casual games platform all along. But now they’ve decided to prove it by releasing a version of the Xbox 360 aimed squarely at casual gamers, complete with some of the best titles from LIVE Arcade. And yes, it’s even discounted. Check this setup: | |
| Better still, if you have broadband access in your home, you can connect to Xbox LIVE and download a crazy amount of additional content, from TV shows and movies to classic cartoons, theatrical trailers, and a whole horde of surprisingly dirt-cheap games.
You get all of this in one package, and you can even pick it up at Toys R Us while you’re shopping for holiday gifts. (Because hey, after all that shopping, you deserve something for yourself. Big time. Don’t get me started on the joys of holiday shopping.) And of course, since it’s an Xbox, if somebody in your family happens to crave Halo 3, they can play that as well.
When you are darn good and finished playing UNO.
More more more more more more more!
Looks like it’s a slow afternoon, so I’m going to take a bit more time out here and list off a few of my favorite casual games from Xbox LIVE Arcade. If you pick up the new Xbox 360 Arcade, or any other 360 package, I highly recommend these treasures!
3D Ultra Minigolf
This game is a natural pick for me, since I know the location of every minigolf course within 20 miles of Seattle (and mourn all the ones that have gone out of business in the last couple of decades). There’s just something about trying to thread a golf ball between the obligatory windmill and the concrete dinosaur that perpetually amuses my inner child. But only in a videogame will you find yourself putting through the Old West, in a bumper car arena, or on the moon.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Classic cool! This is one of the best “platformers” ever created; if you like the sort of side-scrolling action game that consists of leaping through an obstacle course while fighting monsters, Castlevania: SotN is addictively awesome. And since I never finished playing it back in 1998 on a friend’s Sega Saturn, I was doubly happy for the opportunity to finally see both endings!
Catan
Once a Settlers of Catan junkie, always a Settlers of Catan junkie: I downloaded this game the instant it was available on LIVE Arcade. I’m amazed by how well it captures the look and feel of the boardgame, and I met some really nice (if brilliant and devious) people while indulging in a few multiplayer rounds. Best of all, the Achievements I’ve earned give me permanent bragging rights to anyone who happens to check my gamercard.
Hexic 2
Hexic on steroids (sorry, on “vitamin supplements”), this game is currently an Xbox 360 exclusive. I know I’ve talked about it before, so I won’t belabor it here; let’s just say that I’m still really digging Hexic 2, and that I still can’t beat our community manager in battle mode. She’s hardcore.
Outpost Kaloki X
This may sound weird, but if you’ve ever had the urge to run an intergalactic lemonade stand, Outpost Kaloki X has you covered. Seriously, though, it’s an adorable little resource-management strategy game all wrapped up in a nifty plot and loaded with humor. Doesn’t matter whether you’re a diehard strategy game veteran with 400 hours of Age of Empires under your belt or somebody who just likes making things work, this game is fabulous.
Time Pilot
Oh… my… goodness. I was nearly incoherent with joy when Time Pilot showed up on the LIVE Arcade list! If you lined up all the quarters I spent on this game back in the video arcades of my youth… well, I don’t know how far it would stretch, but it would certainly buy a lot of lattes. Wow. Talk about nostalgia, although I distinctly remember being better at this game than I seem to be these days. Obviously I need more practice! For more 1980’s arcade fun, there’s also Joust, Xevious, Centipede, Mrs. Pac-Man, Robotron, Paperboy, Galaga… the list just keeps going. | |
| Tech Talk
All righty, since we’re talking Xbox this time, I’m going to answer a couple of questions I’ve heard about the difference between Xbox LIVE Silver and Gold accounts. In particular, whether you can download demos and other online content with a Silver account. So here’s the rundown…
Xbox LIVE Silver = the standard LIVE account that you can get for free (even if you don’t have an Xbox, which seems silly, but hey, if you’re thinking of getting an Xbox in the future, but you’ve already thought of the perfect gamertag, you can get your Silver account now and reserve the name!). A Silver account allows you access to all the downloadable content in the LIVE Marketplace, which means yes, demos and gamer pics and movie trailers, oh my! You can also download and purchase full Arcade games, get add-on content for your games, and automatically check for version updates. And if your friends are on LIVE, you can set up a friends list, and send instant messages to all your buddies (you can even link your account to Messenger and get messages while you’re playing Xbox games). So basically, a Silver account = almost everything that Xbox LIVE has to offer.
Xbox LIVE Gold = the premium LIVE account, offering all the same perks as Silver, plus multiplayer goodness and live voice chat with your friends. If you want to challenge the world to your favorite games, or see your gamertag and consummate gaming skills called out on the Xbox LIVE leaderboards, Gold is the way to go.
In short (I know, I know: too late), Silver is for people who prefer single-player games or who play head-to-head games against local friends on the same screen; Gold is for people who like online multiplayer. Easy as that.
See you next time! | |
