THIS WEEK'S GAMES (4/28/10):
Basketball
Megamania
Night Stalker
Pitfall!
Rack 'Em Up
RealSports Volleyball
Super Breakout
What is Game Room?
This trailer kinda explains it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxiC5h08-aI
Essentially, they're taking the best parts of Sony's PlayStation Home (your own little "area" to tool around with, virtual arcade games, your own customized Avatars) and leaving out the bad bits (creepy-ass avatars, people continually wanting to dance with you/rape you and asking if you're a chick, fucking
queues to play virtual arcade games!).
The Game Room application itself launches for free. To get some actual games though, it'll cost you. The pricing is such: $3 per game per system. $5 per game if you want to play it on both 360 and PC. If you pay $3 for one and want to play it on the other system, you can upgrade for the additional $2 instead of buying it again. A really neat feature (not sure entirely how useful it is to most people though) is shared save games; I can finish the first two levels on Centipede on my PC and then pick up that saved game on my 360. Players have the option to individually purchase single rounds on a game (coin-op style) for 40 MS Points ($.50), but I can't see any sensible people actually doing this.
Also, if I buy, say, Crystal Castles, you can totally come chill at my arcade and try a free demo of it if you're unsure about the game (which makes that 50-cent idea even more ridiculous).
Please note that these games are presented
exactly as they were in their original arcade/system form; no enhancements or tweaks of any kind, except for the ability to hold down Left Trigger (or its equivalent on PC) and start rewinding if you fuck things up.
What games are available for Game Room?
Here's everything so far
Adventure
Armor Battle
Asteroids Deluxe
Astrosmash
Battlantis
Centipede
Combat
Crystal Castles
Finalizer
Football
Jungler
Lunar Lander
Millipede
Mountain Madness: Super Pro Skiing
Outlaw
RealSports Tennis
Red Baron
Road Fighter
Scramble
Sea Battle
Shao-Lin's Road
Space Armada
Space Hawk
Star Raiders
Sub Hunt
Super Cobra
Tempest
Tutankham
Yars' Revenge
Old games? Psh. I'm all about the meta-gaming.
Game Room has you covered! Each game comes with nine medals individually, which work toward your overall Game Room Achievements. It comes with an Achievement list totaling 1000 points. Click the spoiler to see the Achievements.
There are 56 achievements with a total of 1000 points.
My First Theme (5 points)
Place a Theme in your arcade
Theme Filler (20 points)
Place 5 unique Themes in your arcade
Fancy Arcade (20 points)
Theme an entire arcade with unique Themes
My First Mascot (5 points)
Activate a Mascot in your arcade
My First Decoration (5 points)
Place a Decoration in your arcade
Proptastic (20 points)
Place 5 arcade Decorations in your arcade
My First Game (5 points)
Place a Game Cabinet in your arcade
The Visitor (5 points)
Visit a Friend's arcade
Show Me! (5 points)
Visit the Showcase Arcade
The Player (5 points)
Play a Friend's Game Cabinet
Room Filler (20 points)
Fill an entire room
My First Win (5 points)
Win a Challenge
My First Challenge (5 points)
Send a Challenge
Challenge Chief (5 points)
Win 10 Challenges
Challenge Master (20 points)
Win 20 Challenges
Too Cool for my Score (20 points)
Beat your own High Score in a game
My Blisters have Blisters! (5 points)
Play a game for 1 hour continuously
Arcade Junkie (20 points)
Spend 4 hours total playing games in your arcade
Retro Addict (20 points)
Spend 8 hours total playing games in your arcade
Go to Sleep (20 points)
Spend 16 hours total playing games in your arcade
Machine not Man (20 points)
Spend 24 hours total playing games in your arcade
Matchstick Eyes (20 points)
Spend 36 hours total playing games in your arcade
My First Medal (5 points)
Win your first Medal
Medal Variety (5 points)
Win a Medal of each Type (Point Buster, Survivalist, Time Spender)
Double Trouble (20 points)
Win 2 Medals of each type (2x Point Buster, 2x Survivalist, 2x Time Spender)
Medal Collector (20 points)
Win 3 Medals
80s Skilled (20 points)
Win 6 Medals
Game Beater (20 points)
Win 9 Medals
Arcade Hustler (20 points)
Win 12 Medals
Retro Expert (20 points)
Win 15 Medals
The New Old Schooler (20 points)
Win 18 Medals
Medal Enthusiast (20 points)
Win 21 Medals
Arcade Shark (20 points)
Win 24 Medals
Can't Touch This! (20 points)
Win 27 Medals
Retro Master (20 points)
Win 30 Medals
Check My Skillz (20 points)
Win 33 Medals
Minted (20 points)
Win 36 Medals
Medaltastic (20 points)
Win 39 Medals
Fly Skillz (20 points)
Win 42 Medals
Medal Masher (20 points)
Win 45 Medals
I Like Shiny Things (35 points)
Win 48 Medals
Level Up! (20 points)
Reach Level 2
Level 5! (20 points)
Reach Level 5
Level 8! (20 points)
Reach Level 8
Level 11! (20 points)
Reach Level 11
Level 14! (20 points)
Reach Level 14
Level 17! (20 points)
Reach Level 17
Level 20! (50 points)
Reach Level 20
Medal Smasher (20 points)
Win 10 Medals of each type
Medal Mad (50 points)
Win 20 Medals of each type
Point Buster (20 points)
Win 5 Point Buster Medals
Point Slammer (20 points)
Win 10 Point Buster Medals
Survivalist (20 points)
Win 5 Survivalist Medals
Survival of the Fittest (20 points)
Win 10 Survivalist Medals
Time Spender (20 points)
Win 5 Time Spender Medals
Time Crazy (20 points)
Win 10 Time Spender Medals
Wait, what are all those "Challenge" Achievements?
So this is pretty neat. You may have surmised from the rewind feature that the game is constantly tracking progress. What this allows you to do is to make your own challenges and send them out to your friends. So, let's say I make a certain point total in a certain amount of time on a certain level; I can use the challenge process to throw this out to my friends and hope that they man up. They probably will, since these things count toward your Game Room Achievements.There are other modifiers on this idea, but I'm a bit unclear as to what exactly those are, so we'll see more as Game Room is released.
Sounds awesome! Sign me up!
Naturally the more friends you have vested in playing these classic games, the more you'll enjoy it since you'll have some new challenges heading your way. Send me a PM or post in the thread with your Gamertag if you want it posted in the list:
Archgarth - DoctorArch
AZChristopher - AZChristopher
BitTWist - BitTwist
CDiggity - CDiggi7y
CowShark - CowShark
Damagemanual - damagemanual248
ShadowoftheKatamari - Kuribos Hat
UnbreakableVow - DesmondHumeWins
Yellow Ranger - fireboy80x
Posts
I don't really do the whole multiplayer thing either, outside of Rock Band, and even that's with people I know
But taking on the challenges of people here on the forums in single-player modes? Shit yeah, I will do that all day
Might be that starting lineup. What can I say? If I had an arcade, it would have Super Contra, TMNT, Pac-man, and other fun stuff like that.
Like Mega Man Legends? Then check out my story, Legends of the Halcyon Era - An Adventure in the World of Mega Man Legends on TMMN and AO3!
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAME
Game Room just seems to me to be another way for Microsoft to Nickel and Dime people. There's even free flash recreations of many, if not all of these games. I'll try it, but I doubt that myself or anyone I know would be willing to hand over any money for individual titles.
Last I checked you were limited to one visitor in your game room at a time and they can only play a demo of your games. What's the point of having an arcade or a virtual world if you are the only person who can use it? Rather quick launch the games instead but I guess I am not part of the population that likes playing private virtual room managers.
Also, the pricing is terrible. I can buy the Atari 80 Classics in One! pack for $15 off steam (or $3.97 used on amazon) that comes with 13 of these games along with 67 others, or buy just those 13 from Microsoft for $39
As for .50 a play. Gametap has 14 of these games in their $5 a month bundle, which would be cheaper than giving each of those games one try each, along with access to about 300 other games.
So really you are left with that, achievements? Surprised they have not started selling gamer points for cash at this point.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Cykstfc
I'm pretty interested in that rewind feature.
Twitter
I mean, that's like, one burger at Burger King. Without a drink or fries.
$1 a game would be more reasonable, but MS already knows that.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51
I believe I've heard something about an alternate method (i.e. quicklaunch), but don't quote me on that.
Things have been strangely quiet about this leading up to its release.
EDIT: Also FyreWulff, man, what's wrong with your state? Double cheeseburgers are $1 at Burger King
I noticed the achievements mention levelling up. Can someone explain how you level?
The OP will be a bit more fleshed out when it hits
I think he's going for something more...flavourful? I mean, I get the double cheeseburgers, too. But only because they're cheap.
Which is also why some people aren't feeling this. They're cheap. Anybody who believes there is a better alternative to this isn't going to be happy with this no matter what. But I'll keep an eye on this next week. I have about the same interest as that Hasbro collection, but I just don't see too many people on my friends list who also have it.
Which would make this the best legal way of doing this, right?
Either way, it's certainly the only way it's done on consoles right now
Still, some people are just cheap anyway. On the surface, $3 seems a bit pricey and for me, I'm not too hyped on the initial list of games. But I'm not opposed to this. 1 vs 100 needed a companion anyway.
It seems no one cares though
Well, it's not original, it's not really free, there are better alternatives, the game selection is weak.
I mean, put quotes around any of those and you have the basic arguments in a nutshell. And that's before starting a Console War about it.
As I said, I'm interested, but I need to see more of it in action. As long as it isn't such a bad rip like the Hasbro thing (I don't care how 'convenient' it is to not have discs, $70 for the 'full' set of games is a freaking rip off compared to B&M store prices.) I'll likely get in on some of this.
Zephos, add me as a friend so I can try out Lunar Lander when you get it. I've never played it.
Twitter
Have you been known to Jungle?
Are you a Jungalo?
I think GiantBomb did more to raise awareness of Jungler than anyone else in the history of humanity.
I'll definitely download this, as the absurd weekly release schedule practically guarantees they'll have something that interests me at least once or twice a month.
PSN ID : Xander51 Steam ID : Xander51