Help me Xbox 360! Is it 2005?

AtomBomb

So I finally made the leap into the ranks of Xbox 360 owners. I got an arcade from Amazon, with the deal that also gave me a $100 amazon gift certificate. I have to spend it all at once, so I'm trying to figure out how to get the most fun for my buck.

Here's what I have in the cart right now:

Refurb starter pack (20gb HDD, headset, 3 months live) $50
Unreal Tournament 3 $12
Gears of War $18
Dead Rising $14
Viking: Battle for Asgard $13

Total: $107

I got the starter pack because I want to be able to download some games, mostly Megaman 9. I figure it might help with Netflixx, too. I know Gears of War is supposed to be good. I think Dead Rising is supposed to be good. I've like Unreal in the past and Viking was cheap and had decent reviews.

I'm open to most games. I don't think I want to get into any of the Guitar Hero type stuff. I'm not a sports fan, so I don't want to play Madden, but I don't mind less realistic sports games. I liked Super Mario Soccer on the SNES a lot, for example. An RPG might be nice, too.

I have a pretty decent PC, so that rules some stuff out. I have the PC versions of the Orange Box, Bioshock and ES:Oblivion.

Deebaser

Dead Rising is amazing

Daenris

You can grab Mass Effect for like $20 from Amazon. It's definitely worth it and you'll be all ready to go when Mass Effect 2 comes out in a few months.

RUNN1NGMAN

Does anyone actually play UT3? I never hear ANYONE talking about that game. If you haven't played Fallout 3 you might be able to get the non-GOTY edition for cheap. The original Mass Effect is pretty awesome too. I know both of those were on PC so you might have played them already.

Crackdown is supposed to be an awesome sandbox game and you should be able to get that for dirt cheap.

I can't think of anything else off the top of my head as far as games go, but I'll probably remember a bunch when I get home a look at my shelf.

illig

dead rising gets really difficult really quickly (as in frustratingly difficult, IMHO)... try it before you buy (play demo on XBL)

that said, i'd buy the old games cheaply on ebay (or locally.. .used at blockbuster, or gamestop, etc.) and spend that money on accessories... if the arcade comes with a wired controller only, you MUST buy a wireless one... once you go wireless, you won't be able to even imagine how you dealt with cables for so long ... that said, i could be thinking of the old arcade pack, so if it does come with a wireless controller, buy a rechargeable battery pack kit, or you'll spend a small fortune on batteries.

if you don't have an HDMI cable around, definitely buy one of those... playing the 360 in standard def is painful.

Jimmy King

illig wrote: »

dead rising gets really difficult really quickly (as in frustratingly difficult, IMHO)... try it before you buy (play demo on XBL)

Dead Rising isn't meant for you to play it in one shot. It's really meant for you to play it for awhile, die, and then start over with your now stronger character a couple of times. It's the most fun if you just screw around for the first 5-10 levels with no intention of beating it, just enjoy killing lots of zombies and maybe a boss or two.

RUNN1NGMAN

Jimmy King wrote: »

illig wrote: »

dead rising gets really difficult really quickly (as in frustratingly difficult, IMHO)... try it before you buy (play demo on XBL)

Dead Rising isn't meant for you to play it in one shot. It's really meant for you to play it for awhile, die, and then start over with your now stronger character a couple of times. It's the most fun if you just screw around for the first 5-10 levels with no intention of beating it, just enjoy killing lots of zombies and maybe a boss or two.

I wish this was explained a little better, because my typical Dead Rising experience is put the game in, play for a while, try and do some of the missions, die, and then realize why I haven't played it in so long.

Deebaser

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

Jimmy King wrote: »

illig wrote: »

dead rising gets really difficult really quickly (as in frustratingly difficult, IMHO)... try it before you buy (play demo on XBL)

Dead Rising isn't meant for you to play it in one shot. It's really meant for you to play it for awhile, die, and then start over with your now stronger character a couple of times. It's the most fun if you just screw around for the first 5-10 levels with no intention of beating it, just enjoy killing lots of zombies and maybe a boss or two.

I wish this was explained a little better, because my typical Dead Rising experience is put the game in, play for a while, try and do some of the missions, die, and then realize why I haven't played it in so long.

basically when you "save and quit" you start with the same character you died with and you get to get all the XP from the initial zombie attack photo minigame again. Between that and realizing there is an arrow/navigation system the game becomes a lot more enjoyable.

Jimmy King

Deebaser wrote: »

RUNN1NGMAN wrote: »

Jimmy King wrote: »

illig wrote: »

dead rising gets really difficult really quickly (as in frustratingly difficult, IMHO)... try it before you buy (play demo on XBL)

Dead Rising isn't meant for you to play it in one shot. It's really meant for you to play it for awhile, die, and then start over with your now stronger character a couple of times. It's the most fun if you just screw around for the first 5-10 levels with no intention of beating it, just enjoy killing lots of zombies and maybe a boss or two.

I wish this was explained a little better, because my typical Dead Rising experience is put the game in, play for a while, try and do some of the missions, die, and then realize why I haven't played it in so long.

basically when you "save and quit" you start with the same character you died with and you get to get all the XP from the initial zombie attack photo minigame again. Between that and realizing there is an arrow/navigation system the game becomes a lot more enjoyable.

And you can skip that photo minigame bit if you don't feel like doing it again, too.

AtomBomb

Thanks for all the ideas so far

So Unreal is out, I don't really want to be stuck playing against bots. Crackdown will take its place for $17. Mass Effect is $20 on Amazon, which isn't a deal, but I think I'll look for that one used in town. It's also possible that I may have bought it but not played it during the Steam sale.

The arcade comes with a wireless controller now, so that's good. I've also got an HDMI cable on the way, and if the Xbox gets here first I can always just switch the ones I already have around.

Darkewolfe

So, Modern Warfare 2 just came out. I heard that's pretty popular, and not as good on the PC.

Edit: Oh, I see. You're trying to find the best use of just $100. New titles are probably ruled out, then?

Jimmy King

Oblivion is another good bang for the buck game, assuming you like Elder Scrolls games.

AtomBomb

Yeah, new ones are pretty much ruled out right now. I know there are a ton of really good new games, but I figure since I'm so far behind I can start on the really good old games first. By the time I finish those maybe MW2 and Fallout 3 and the like will be $20.

vonPoonBurGer

AtomBomb wrote: »

20gb HDD

You might want to consider a bigger hard drive. I have a 20GB HD in my Xbox, and it's getting very, very cramped. You only get 13GB of usable space to start with (the rest is taken up by some kind of disk cache), and for me most of the remainder is being eaten up by downloaded Rock Band songs plus other random DLC. This is a bigger deal now that you can load game discs on the hard drive, some games really benefit in terms of reduced loading times. You'd probably only be able to fit two or maybe three games on the 20GB HDD. It could be a non-issue if you only tend to play one or two games at a time, and/or if DLC isn't a big deal for you. Then again, I didn't see myself getting into DLC either, but between various Arcade games, Rock Band songs, and select Fallout 3 DLC, I really find myself wanting a bigger HDD.

AtomBomb

Yeah, I was considering getting the 60gb. It's $90. I think I'll wait and hope that the bigger drives go under $100.

Had to run some errands for work. Stopped by a GameCrazy that was going out of business. Got Lego Indiana Jones, Sega Superstar Tennis and Supreme Commander, all for $7. And the discs don't even look like hockey pucks!

desperaterobots

Crackdown. For serious. Really really fun. Just get it cheap because replay value is negative 10,000.

Oh you're already doing that. Live Arcade has fun stuff, download demos aplenty when you're finally online and they'll keep you busy for a while.

I finally bought Ninja Gaiden 2 and Fable 2 and I've been having an awesome time with both, but they're still relatively expensive I think.

DekuStick

AtomBomb wrote: »

Got Lego Indiana Jones,

Excellent choice there. I have a raging hard on for all Lego * Games.

I've seen Ninja Gaiden 2 for $14.99 in Blockbuster before. Actually Blockbusters usually have little sections where they put their extra copies of older rented game versions in plain cases and sell them at good prices. Their quality is expected to be what you would get as a rental and may have numbers painted on it. You also don't get a proper game case but often the book is in there.