Topic: Xbox 360 impressions so far. Now with Dead Rising rant.

[Cobra951]

Actually, I haven't been playing with a guide either.  Not really.  There are a few specific things that I wanted to know about, and that's when I ran across the Zombie Genocider achievement.  As I said, I didn't cheat in learning how to do it.  It became fairly obvious when I realized the carnage vehicles do, and that those vehicles respawn when you go between areas that have to be loaded from the disc.

There's no boss involved in getting complete access to the tunnels.

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The key is hidden in a store room, somewhere in the middle of the map.  Otis will even tell you (if you bother with the damn phone, which thankfully works as you drive) when you first enter the tunnels that he left the key in there somewhere.  It's good to get it at the beginning of a game, when you have plenty of time to run around.

Yes, definitely, I feel the game was a great purchase now.  For a while there, I felt cheated.  Glad I was stubborn enough to stick with it.  Had I acquired this game in some other way, as I have some PC games (er, eval versions, yeah . . .) then I doubt I would have had the motivation to stick it out.


Edit:  On a wildly different subject, the vs CPU and puzzle/mission packs for Lumines Live will debut at 100 pts each for about a month, starting on the 24th.  (Regular price after: 300 pts each.)  Q? and M$ have gotten hammered for the distribution model used by this game, and to some extent, I agree with the criticism.  It's a lousy precedent.  The total cost for base and advanced single-player I think is around 1800 pts, or about $22.  Add more packs at the expected 400-pt-apiece price, and you end up paying more for the game than you should.  At 200 more points total, though, the whole thing ends up costing $25, which is not bad for what you get.  This is not an ancient arcade game, or even a rehash of an ancient arcade game.  It's something pretty special, I think, and $20-25 is not a bad deal.  Plus you really don't need to buy the whole shibang, if all you ever play is challenge mode.

There will be an extra skin for Gold members, free.  I'll make sure to grab it before my gold expires early next month.

[Cobra951]

I have now beaten Dead Rising finally.  That last guy was very annoying.

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I tried punching him rapidly, but he'd always get me in a choke hold from behind, and drain away a bunch of my health.  I tried finding something to make it easier, but to no avail.  The hunks of meat (zombie arms) barely dented him, if at all, and it would have taken forever even so.  I was successful clearing out most zombies around the tank the 2nd try, but that helped me very little.  It's nearly as easy to walk over them.  When I was almost dead the 2nd time, I realized that kicking and punching him from the lower part of the tank seemed to help.  He never got me in a hold while I stayed off the turret, and he'd always seem to want to climb back on to it.  Otherwise, I'd hop up & run across the turret, then drop down on the other side of the tank.  He killed me, but on the 3rd attempt, I used that technique with a lot more health, and it worked.  His dealing with the height changes delayed his attack & defense just enough.

I'm now in infinity mode.  It looks like I can't save, it's ridiculously late, and I don't want to leave the 360 on for the next 6-8 hours.  Ugh.  I gotta get some sleep.

Edit: I aimed a box fan at the 360, and left it on while I slept.  (I swear this thing needs more cooling.  I'm concerned about longterm damage.  Maybe there is something to all the horror stories about failure rates.  If it's true that the GPU is soldered on rather than socketed . . . but I digress.)  I went back to the game this evening, and managed to survive 4 days, 20 hours and odd minutes.  Dammit!  Just missed the 5-day achievement.  I got 2 health books right off the bat too, but I still ran out of food/drink.  There must be something else I need to do to stretch it out.

Infinity mode is much more open-ended than the regular game.  There is no structure.  All you have to do is figure out how to survive.  Heath drops slowly, so the real challenge is finding food & drink.  You can otherwise go anywhere and do anything.  That weapon from the Zombie Genocider achievement makes the occasional hairy fight much easier.  I can't see going through that again soon, though.  It takes so long, and the way to improve times is to do very little that's risky.  So I can see a lot of dead time, sitting in a safe corner, just waiting to eat/drink when enough health goes away.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, I think infinity mode completely sucks because it rewards you for crawling into a corner with your stash only venturing out when necessary.  It really should have been tweaked.  I read a couple of guides on how to do it and more or less determined that I have no interest in it whatsoever.

[Cobra951]

If you're going for the leader boards, definitely, that blows.  I treated it more like a sandbox.  I investigated every store, every book (some of which are worthless here, and anywhere after leveling up all the way--too bad I didn't find them earlier), every weapon.  Blinding zombies with novelty masks and road pylons is hilarious.  In one hardware store, you get an infinite supply of pylons, and I ended up putting the things on every zombie I left standing (over 20 of them). 

I discovered that the sickle is the best meelee weapon in the game.  It's perfect for crowds, because you knock down who's behind the lead zombie when you yank off his head.  (You learn to line 'em up.)  And while they're on the ground, you can do a wide slice down low by holding the attack button longer.  I never had to worry about getting grabbed after an attack while I had the sickle.  It also gets a double boost in duration (6X or 9X, I still don't know if it's 3+3 or 3x3) at least (with 2 books, bladed and tools . . . I think).  [Edit:  Make that a triple boost.  There's another book that affects it.  So that's either 9X or 27X duration, depending on whether each boost affects the previous one, or only the original duration.]  I even learned to use the disorienting change in perspective during the attack animation to advantage.  Works for a quick look around.

Toward the end of the 5th day, it became heart pumping.  I'm running out of health, and I'm running around like a madman trying to find food items, or someone to fight so I can get what they drop after they die.  I ran over zombie crowds, hopped across ledges, skateboarded through the hordes.  Man, too bad more of the game couldn't be this way.  They should definitely have made it tougher for you to stay alive without doing anything.

[Quemaqua]

Yeah, it's great as a sandbox mode.  I meant to say that I have no interest in earning the achievements for it because the path there is incredibly boring and stupid.  Infinity mode itself is great fun.

[Cobra951]

The game has become an obsession.  I played through the 72-hour mode once more just so I could get the last achievement I really cared about, which is Punisher (10 boss psycopaths defeated).  Now I have the full Megaman outfit & functional hardware (3 achievements total involved.  The helmet is a freebie, in the toy store inside the theater).



I'm sure I'll end up playing it again.  I'm so hooked.  I hate the roll forward glitch more than ever, but I still want to be neck deep in the dead.   

[TheOtherBelmont]

Hahahaha what the fuck, I didn't know there was a Megaman suit in the game, that's so awesome.

[scottws]

I didn't either, but I was stuck with that fucking helmet forever in the game.  It was ridiculous.  I never understood how the people I was talking to weren't like, "Dude, what the fuck is that on your head?!  I just can't talk to you while you're wearing that.  You look like a freaking moron."

That said, the full suit is pretty awesome.

I still don't even remember how I finally got to take it off.

[Quemaqua]

I can't remember if it was Sy or Pyro who was going around with the lego guy head.  It made the cutscenes so fucking funny.  I about died laughing.  Then Sy was going around with this crazy demon mask... it was actually pretty disturbing combined with a short-shorts outfit.  I have scary memories of that.

[scottws]

Haha, that's true.  My previous post makes it seem like I was pissed, but I did find the cutscenes funny.  I looked like some crazed lunatic but the other characters were totally oblivious.

I was kind of pissed though that I couldn't get rid of it very easily.

[gpw11]

Well, I now need a 360 and this game.

[Cobra951]

In order to take it off, you need to change clothes.  I downloaded about 6 outfits from Live (free--I don't pay for that kind of stuff).  They end up in the storage lockers around the security area.  Those will completely replace what you're wearing, I think.  Another thing you can do is find a new hat somewhere, like a baseball cap or something.  I wore one of those for a while, as well as a hat with a full brim.  I had that demon novelty mask too.  Cutscenes definitely were funny with that.

Actually, I think you can "return clothes" at the theater store, and that will remove the helmet too.

[HxCeddie]

I saw how you mentioned Assault Heroes before Cobra (which is awesome), but have you tried Geometry Wars. Unless I missed it somewhere in this thread, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the game. It is probably one of the most addictive games to come out for any system. Me and my friends would smoke and play the game for hours, trying to top each other's high scores. Highly recommended.

[Cobra951]

I've seen it on Arcade, but it didn't draw my attention.  I sprang for Lumines Live, which if you can get over the stigma of the distribution model, I highly recommend.  The last 2 packs, which finally complete the game, debuted at 100 pts each just yesterday, and will stay there for a month.  Then they go up to 300 pts each after that.  Free new skin for Gold members too.  (Skin for Goldmembers?  "Oh, behave!")  "Heavenly Star", which becomes a new Challenge Mode entry all by itself.  (It's not really new.  It's part of Lumines 2 on the PSP.)

I'll check Geometry Wars out next time I go rummaging for stuff.  Thanks for the tip.

[Quemaqua]

Geometry Wars has been much talked about, but it honestly never appealed to me on any level.  I just really don't care and it doesn't seem like the kind of thing I'd come back to play more than a few times even if I enjoyed it a lot initially.

[Cobra951]

How does that rate?

The one problem they have (not me) is that there's plenty of game right there, in the trial version.  That pic shows the only time so far I've ran out of time.  The previous 6-8 attempts I lost all my ships with time left on the demo clock.  The high score persists too, at least during each session.  So I have little motivation to pay for more just yet, if ever.

Edit:  Heh, now I'm at 183,130.

[HxCeddie]

I haven't played the game in a very long time, but I remember my high score being just under 4 million. I know at one point I was in the top 100 players, but I honestly haven't played the game in about 6 months.

P.S. - The game is really freaking addictive for such a simple game, isn't it?

[iPPi]

Use bombs zomg.

[Cobra951]

Uh, I do!  That's the demo version.  It times out in 4 minutes.  I can hit the time limit now consistently.  Hmm, it's only 400 pts ($5).  That's pretty good, really.  They want 800 for Mutant Storm Reloaded, which I don't like as much, even though it has the exact same play mechanics.

[gpw11]

psssssst........Gridwars.

[iPPi]

psssssst........Gridwars.

It kinda works... but Geometry Wars is better. 

Anyway, the game is free anyway if you got the Premium console since it comes with the Xbox Live Unplugged Vol. 1 disc that has the game included.  Only gripe about that is the fact that you need the disc in the drive to play it, and there's no way to get the game onto your hard drive.

[Cobra951]

Yes, I agree that Geometry Wars Evolved is better than Gridwars.  I went ahead and spent the 5 bucks, but I can't get much further than I did in the demo, not yet anyway.  Things get very fast and hairy.  *Sigh*  Reflexes not what they used to be, I guess.

[poomcgoo]

Anyway, the game is free anyway if you got the Premium console since it comes with the Xbox Live Unplugged Vol. 1 disc that has the game included.

I didnt 

[iPPi]

I love Geometry Wars.  Such a simplistic game that is so addicting.  I upped my high score to 961k this weekend.

[Cobra951]

I wish I could do better than 400 and some odd K, but I can't normally even do this good.  The difficulty spikes way too quickly for me.  I do a lot better with Assault Heroes, meaning I seem to improve some every time I play.  On Geometry Wars, it's a solid stone wall.

[HxCeddie]

When I first played geometry wars, I had a lot of trouble getting past the 500k mark. What makes it a lot easier is to keep moving around the arena in a circle without getting too close to the edge so that you die if anything spawns. Just keep doing this until everything is in the middle, chasing you, and you'll be up to the millions in no time. Also, always use bombs if you have a high multiplier because you'll keep respawning bombs  if keep that multiplier up. Man...all these g-wars talk makes me want to pick it up and play it again...if it wasn't for my stupid broken thumb...

Hope the strategies help you guys out!

[iPPi]

Part of the game is also luck.  I mean, if you get a load of snake spawns it's gonna suck and things will get more difficult.  Sometimes, if you just get some easier spawns to deal with it all works out nicely.  I mean obviously, once you get passed the 300k mark it doesn't matter anymore since the spawns are almost continuous, but it's a good idea to try and conserve your stuff until you really need it.  Using the bombs and losing lives early on is bad.

[Cobra951]

Right.  I try to conserve a life that has gotten past a 3X multiplier, but I get blindsided every time.  The line between wasting bombs and getting clobbered seems so thin.  Also, the resetting multiplier is a big source of frustration, as is the fact that you earn nothing for clearing the screen with  a bomb.  It makes the game very unforgiving.  I do use the circling technique as well as I can, and it does help.