Hi Dramacius

I recently picked up a 360 really cheap and just dabbling with it so far. I am hopeless at the shooting games (Halo, COD4 and Bad Company) too used to the mouse/keyboard combo on the PC, but starting to find my way with Over G Fighters. Also have IL2 arriving soon. Love this on the PC. Check out the inde games on live too. Had a lot of fun with an elite-a-like called Space Pirates From Tomorrow as recommended by our very own Pinback 😉 It's not multiplayer unfortunately. Now if only there was a Frontier-a-like for the 360.................... 🙄

I have that one too 🙂

I have a refurbished one from eBay with a nice 60GB hardrive.

I like FPS's but I've been more or less trash at them because I was used to mouse and keyboard controls when I started playing them on the Xbox.

The only non-shooter game I could recommend would be Tom Clancy's HAWX

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/ ... index.html

Well I got my 360 the other day, its the new 250gb slim model. I am totally addicted to Forza 3 and am looking at getting the new F1 game, but I need to get Xbox Live first (its my only gripe about the 360 is having to pay for the Online Multiplayer).

I am also most of the way through Red Dead Redemption which I am really enjoying. I have got GTA4 but I just can't seem to get into it. I also have CoD4:MW GRAW2 and a few other single player games that I don't play any more.

Anyone want to add me my gamertag is SPYKUS

Congratulations on your new 360. As I mentioned in another thread, check out Project Sylpheed if you're into space sims.

Also, Geraldine, you mentioned OVer-G fighters. That's another game very similar to Sylpheed in that the reviews were terrible, but the game was actually quite good. I have to admit after playing the first stage in Over-G fighters, I thought the game was garbage. But I had nothing else to play at the time so I stuck it out and by the 3rd stage I was absolutely hooked. How far have you gone? You know there's a way to unlock the F-22 Raptor, yes? It's extremely hard though, I've come very close to pulling it off a couple of times but I still haven't done it. Supposed to be the best plane in the game.

Hi Shant

So far I have only dabbled with it as getting used to the 360's controls is tricky for me, but so far so good! 🙂 As for reviews, dont forget that the vast majority of titles on the 360 tend to be FPSs, anything that is outside that genre tends to be frowned upon my reviewers, even IL2 was slated in some reviews and that is a fantastic flight sim. This FPS bias, has forced me to look into the back catalogue of the original X Box (I have one of those too, but no online capability because Micro$oft shut down X Box Live 🙁 ). The old X Box had a greater range of titles spanning lots of different genres in my view and that is why I still use it to this day. Mind you, I still use my Amigas too 🙄 Dont get me wrong though, there is nothing wrong with FPSs, they provide a lot of fun for many, but it is nice to have a wider choice when gaming on the 360.

the problem is FPS games are cheap and easy as they are mainly copy pastes of previous games. Developers are lazy and are only looking for the $$ which is currently generated by the popular genre's that take no thought or imagination to develope or play. FPS titles to name a few - Halo (quake clone(which is actually a Doom Clone)) - CoD series (was original once but has become the most copy pasted game I can think of) and any number of arcade style driving games... Sims or any sort be it flying, space, driving or any other have just been dropped by most, even the multi award winning Flight Sim games from microsoft have been stopped) until recently anyway, I heard a rumor they have started production on a new Flight Sim game.

So howcome you got banned from XBL, Geraldine? Unfortunately, same thing happened to me with my 360 because I had mine modded to play copied games. IN the end it was worth it for me as I also have a ps3 which has free online so I never bothered to sign up for XBL. Still, it's nice to be able to download demos, game trailers, DLC and such which I can't do anymore.

I didn't get banned Shant, I was talking about the old version of X Box Live, not the modern version there is now for the 360. Old X Box consoles cant use the new service and so can't go online anymore because Micro$oft was not making any money from a obsolete console. So the service was shut down. This meant that the multiplayer component of many games (eg Halo 2) were killed off at a stroke, very bad show on their part. 🙁

Still a great console though and the games are really cheap to buy these days. Just bought Baulder's Gate Dark Alliance for £1.50 off of Flea Bay. This little gem is too good a game to die, but unfortunately, it will not run on the 360, you need the original console. Mind you there are always promises of better emulation of the older console on the 360, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Ah, I see. Wow, they killed online play just like that? So all the die-hard Halo multiplayers around the world were 'switched off'? Damn that's harsh.

Yeah, you're right about the Xbox. I had mine for years and had racked up many games that I still played from time to time. Then one die, my console did what most Microsoft products do eventually: die. I remember the last game I was playing too, it was called Jade Empire. I don't remember much about it other than I was very impressed initially and was having a lot of fun with it until my system died. Never played the game again, as 360s aren't backward compatible. Truly a shame. That's why I LOVE my current 60Gig PS3. It is one of the only ps3 models that ARE backward compatible. And much like the xbox, you can buy great games for a few dollars. I'm planning on buying the original Deus Ex tomorrow, if Gamestop carries it, and I can literally get it for pocket change.

Have you any plans of picking up a ps3, mate?

I thought about a PS3, but they are frightfully expensive here in the UK. Might consider one further down the road. 🙂 The sad fact is though I do prefer retro games and because of that, I am up to my eyes in Amiga bits and bobs. Presently upgrading my Amiga 4000. Almost finished tho! 😉

actually 360's are backwards compatible, there is a list of xbox games that work on 360.

you need to have the latest console update and a hdd, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911314?sd=xbox .

here is the list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360 .

That list represents such a small number of games out of the massive catalog of games that exists. With the older ps3's, they have true backwards compatability where anything and everything from the ps2 works.

Granted, they're more expensive than regular ps3s. But most people who sell them don't even know about the ps2 functionality. I'm willing to bet you can find a used ps3 like mine, with full BC, for just over $100.

Yep that is true, and Micro$oft are not in any hurry to update the 360 to expand on backwards compatibility because there is no money in it for them. What I think they will do instead is re-release some games on Live, but of course you will have to buy them all over again as a download 😡

you are both quite right and the backwards compatibility of the 360 stopped being expanded on in 2008 (november I think) Most games are now available on the arcade but yes again you would have to pay for the privelige of playing them or you could get a old 360 and get it hacked to play on private online servers... It is not illegal to do that but it is illegal to copy games to play on said xbox. to get a pre owned original xbox is about £30 now to get it hacked is only about £10 now so for a mere £40 you can have all the backwards compatibility you want and still have a very active online community.

I believe this software ( http://xbmc.org/ ) has its own online service.

Now THAT is very interesting Dramacius. Could I use this to re-enable my old Xbox's online capability? If so, I must investigate this further! Thanks for posting that 😉

EDIT: A quick investigation brought up this link for the original X Box version http://www.xbmc4xbox.org/

It's at Beta 2 status, so I will be keeping an eye on this! 😎

not a problem at all, I saw something about it a few years ago but never look further into it, its amazing what usless information the brain stores away for just these occassions...