thoughthead

Those who know me well know I’m not much of a shooter fan. I’ll play though the occasional shooter that I think has an interesting story and unique gameplay elements (like Prey) or has just flat out fantastic and addictive gameplay (like COD2) but for the most part I don’t get all that excited about them. I never buy a console based on it’s shooters, they’re the kind of game I’ll pickup and play if I’m bored with whatever else I’ve got. There are a few shooters that I do play if for no other reason then that’s what 90% of my friends want to play, so if I want to play online with my friends that’s the game I have to play. Gears of War is such a game, as is the Halo series. Don’t get me wrong they’re quality games, just not my cup of tea. I usually have more fun conversing with my friends then I do actually playing these games. (more…)

          

In part 1 of this two part series I covered five of the 10 Xbox 360 titles that every Xbox 360 owner owes it to themselves to play. Part 1 covered some fantastic older titles that currently have greatly discounted MSRPs making for some great gaming on the cheap. Part 2 covers more recent titles that still fetch full or near full retail value. The requirements were more stringent for this second half as the games needed to prove their worth with the $60 sticker most of them still carry. Here is the better half of the 10 Games every Xbox 360 owner needs to play: (more…)

          

The Xbox 360 has been out over a year now, and after seeing two holiday seasons it’s got a good collection of games here. I know quite a few people who received Xbox 360′s this holiday and I’ve seen some questions as to which games people recommend. I decided to compile a list of 10 games every serious Xbox 360 owner should have in their collection, if you’ve never played some of these titles you owe it to yourself to at least give them a rental. Half of these titles are from 2005 and as such can now be found on the cheap be it from the discount rack or the used bin. There’s a lot to cover so this article will be delivered in two parts; the part 1 covers the budget games released early in the Xbox 360′s life. (more…)

          

A few days ago I had to renew my Xbox Live Gold Subscription. I honestly don’t play online very often. I’m really more of an off-line gamer but I keep the subscription around for the occasional game among friends, and more recently for when achievements call for it. I see a lot of people scoff at the subscription fee for Xbox Live; why pay when other platforms offer online gaming for free? If you had asked me if paying for an Xbox Live subscription was worth it about 2 years ago I would have responded with a resounding HELL NO! At this point however, if posed the same question I’d would assure you, it’s worth every last penny. (more…)

          

There is no arguing that the most popular debate in video gaming over the last five or so years has been Playstation vs Xbox: which one has better graphics, which one has better games, which one has the better controller, ad nauseum. As somewhat of an off-shot of that debate is the debate over “next-gen” disc formats, being HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray Disc. I use the term next-gen loosely because calling it that in any kind of seriousness would imply that storage mediums somehow evolve in easily packaged generations the same way video game consoles do. In-fact just using this term is the first sign that people are approaching this issue all wrong. (more…)