#290957 - 29/11/2006 18:02
Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31599
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I picked up an Xbox 360 last Friday. With Gears of War out, I couldn't resist any more. I got: Gears of War, Call of Duty 2 (was a freebie at the store that day), Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and a used copy of Halo2 for the original Xbox. My Live Gamertag is MunkyBrains if you wanna friend me. (Monkey Brains was already taken.  ) Now I'm wondering what games I can get for the thing that would be good 2-player games for me and my GF to make use of the second controller I got. Doesn't seem to be much in the catalog along those lines. (Other than sports and racing, which aren't really her style.) Fantasy and adventure are OK, she likes watching me play Oblivion while she pokes at her laptop. I suppose that if I really wanted those kinds of games, I would get myself another Gamecube and be done with it. Tons of party games for that console. Anyhoo. Until I do that, any suggestions in the meantime? Original Xbox games count, too, as long as they're compatible on the 360. By the way, Guitar Hero 2, when it comes out for the 360 soon, is on the short list already.
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#290958 - 29/11/2006 18:16
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 2489
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Sorry can't recommend any games as I just got an Xbox 360 last Thursday But I'd be interested in suggestions too. Playing Gears of War and Project Gotham Racing 3 so far and loving it. I'm ShinyDiscoPanda if anyone wants to add me.
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#290959 - 29/11/2006 18:37
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
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Weird. I always assumed you were married. Not that it's any of my business.
My wife likes Dance Dance Revolution. Do they make that for the 360? I don't know if your girlfriend is into that sort of thing, but it's the most popular chick game in my household fwiw.
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~ John
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#290960 - 29/11/2006 18:50
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31599
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Yeah, the married thing is past-tense. It's been over a year. Don't like to talk about the personal stuff in public forums, hence no real mention of the D word here on the BBS other than indirectly.
GF loves DDR, but has a PS2 and some nice pads at her house, so gets her DDR fix there. Might just invest in a pad and a version of DDR for the 360 just so she's got the additional location in which to do it.
I, personally, do very poorly at DDR, despite having given in many valiant efforts. There's something about the disassociation between the up/down arrows being BESIDE each other on the screen that messes me up. I have no trouble with left and right, and have no trouble seeing combo moves coming, but the up and down arrows screw me up totally. For starters, it seems they're in the wrong order for my brain. The choice of whether to put the up arrow in column 2 or column 3 is arbitrary, but for some reason it seems to be backwards from what my brain thinks it should be. And it's not configurable. So frequently, I'm pounding on the "Down" pad when the arrow on the screen is clearly pointing up, and vice versa. It's odd, it feels like a form of dyslexia, except that I don't have dyslexia in the slightest.
It's amazing watching a good DDR player work their magic. Some of the harder patterns are just mind-boggling how quickly they come and how a good player can just do them intuitively.
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#290961 - 29/11/2006 19:02
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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I'm going to cast my vote for "watch the girlfriend jump up and down a lot" over "teach your brain that left is up and right is down".
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Bitt Faulk
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#290963 - 29/11/2006 19:50
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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Doesn't really fit any of your requirements but Viva Pinata is surprisingly fun. I got it with a 360 after not being able to find a Wii.
Have you checked the live arcade stuff out ? There are many classic games on there that are two player.
_________________________
Matt
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#290964 - 29/11/2006 22:42
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: msaeger]
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veteran
Registered: 08/05/2000
Posts: 1429
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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Yes, here are my fave Live Arcade titles:
Uno is a good one - but only one player at a time, I think. Would be hard to do 2 players at the same console, as you can imagine.
Zuma is also great fun. 1 player too.
Tony - ya gotta get Geometry Wars, but more for you, not the g-friend.
Robotron - I love the original so much, I had to get this.
For non-live arcade:
Table Tennis - cheap and really fun
Gears Of War - had to include it, even though you already have it.
COD3 - you already have COD2 --- COD3 is a worthwhile upgrade. Sell COD2 on eBay. I think I got $27 for it...
I sent you a friend request. Let's play something together when we see each other on line.
- Jon
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#290965 - 30/11/2006 01:12
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Kameo has a co-op mode in it, and is a decent platform game.
Lego Star Wars II has full drop in drop out co-op support (but sadly no live support on the 360).
Beyond that, check out the arcade. All the games have demos, so you can see if they offer multiple player support.
I'd recommend looking into getting a Wii. It will let you play the GameCube games and also the newer Wii titles likely to be a blast multiplayer with your girlfriend.
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#290967 - 30/11/2006 01:41
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14494
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
the married thing is past-tense
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#290969 - 30/11/2006 15:34
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31599
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
It will let you play the GameCube games
Will it let me plug in the original GameCube controller in those cases? I might just. GF hasn't done Monkey Ball yet. Gonna be a while before I can afford to do that, though, sudden unexpected expenses came up, literally 24 hours after purchasing the Xbox.
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#290970 - 30/11/2006 15:54
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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You most certainly can plug in Gamecube controllers. I have all four Wavebirds working. There are even ports for the GC memory cards.
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Matt
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#290971 - 30/11/2006 17:45
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31599
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
There are even ports for the GC memory cards.
I should be looking up Wii specs myself at this point, but does the thing have a hard drive and can it save the games there?
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#290972 - 30/11/2006 18:06
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Quote:
Quote:
There are even ports for the GC memory cards.
I should be looking up Wii specs myself at this point, but does the thing have a hard drive and can it save the games there?
It has built in flash memory, so yes, you can save directly to the unit, but there isn't an abundance of space. Furthermore, VC games are saved to the same internal memory, so the space could fill up fast.
On the bright side, I have about 4 save files and 4 VC games on there, and I've only made a small dent in the storage. Plus, I believe both save games and VC titles can be stored on SD cards (but don't quote me on that).
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Matt
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#290973 - 30/11/2006 18:06
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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It has built-in flash memory which is expandable with SD cards, but it looks like GameCube games require the use of a GameCube memory card. Weird.
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Bitt Faulk
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#290974 - 30/11/2006 18:12
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Quote:
It has built-in flash memory which is expandable with SD cards, but it looks like GameCube games require the use of a GameCube memory card. Weird.
The Gamecube portion of the machine feels essentially entirely seperate from the Wii side of things. There are no parental controls, only the GC controllers work on it, and as you said only the GC memory cards can be used.
I don't mind, though. I love that I can lovingly store away my wonderful Gamecube, if only for posterity. Funny, I had no problem parting with any of my handhelds (original Game Boy, Game Gear, etc), but I've held onto every single console I've ever owned. I don't remember the last time I broke out the N64...
Sorry to turn this into a Nintendo thread, Tony. I didn't want to be the first person to shift the topic in that direction, but it certainly does seem to fit your objective better. After all, this is what Nintendo is trying to do, and they're succeeding. I showed the Wii to the father in the family who lives next door. Their family has never had a console in their house as far as I know, and apparently he's been talking about it non stop since he played. He's been calling stores all over trying to get one.
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Matt
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#290975 - 30/11/2006 19:52
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
I should be looking up Wii specs myself at this point, but does the thing have a hard drive and can it save the games there?
Yes, as others have explained as well. 512 megs of built in flash to use for Wii save games, Mii storage, channels, and the virtual console games. An SD card can also be used for the storage of these items. However, GameCube save games must be saved to a GameCube data card.
Hardware wise, the Wii is simply a faster Gamecube. It uses the same CPU and GPU out of the GameCube, so when a GameCube disc is put in, it simply clocks the chips down and kicks off a slightly different rom to run it. The eject on the slot load drive is seen as opening the cover, and the wireless cabilities of the Wii are totally invisible to the GameCube. It can't play LAN games, and Wii controllers simply blink indicating they can't find a console.
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#290976 - 01/12/2006 02:08
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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It definitely does *not* use the same GPU as the Gamecube. ATI didn't split the engineering teams of that graphics chip and the one for the 360 because it was going to use Flipper. Both the Wii and 360 graphics chips are based on what WAS to become R500 from ATI. The retail R500 design was pulled from retail development because they sold Nintendo and Microsoft on the designs. That's also the reason the retail R5XX ended up still being based on R300 architecture (the original R400 had already been scrapped in favor of jumping straight to R500 - ooops! and was also replaced with an R300 derivative called R420). That said, I don't know how the final chip design panned out and how many gates were chopped/added to either hunk of silicon that went to MS and Nintendo. BTW, the only reason the Playstation 3 doesn't have an ATI chip in it is because ATI was allready in bed with MS and Nintendo. Sony had to go with Nvidia because they were simply the only option left after the Cell was found to be completely broken in the graphics department. Ok, TMI...
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#290977 - 01/12/2006 03:55
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Thanks for the insight, I should know better then to trust the blogger "news" sites. Digging around, this is more info them most sites have on the "Hollywood" GPU. Reading about the 360 GPU off Wikipedia is interesting: Quote:
Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R500", "C1", or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include “Intelligent Memory” – a section of on-die memory that has logic built in (192 parallel pixel processors) to do features like anti-aliasing, thereby giving developers 4-sample anti-aliasing at very little performance cost. Another feature of the ATI Xbox 360 GPU is the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically load balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units. This differs greatly from contemporary PC graphics chips that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/pixel).
Sounds really similar to the NVidia 8800 GPU out now, so it looks like a unified shader approach is the next leap for graphics chips.
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#290978 - 01/12/2006 13:15
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Well, both the Wii and 360 projects were super secretive at ATI, so they may have actually gone any of many different ways with the final chip. But it's not the same part that's in the Gamecube. I'd have to get some more intel, but they may have done what they did for the retail R420 with it instead of basing the design on the then proposed R500 tech (which was removed as a retail project when these announcements were coming around).
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#290979 - 11/12/2006 16:36
Re: Xbox 360... Girlfriend games?
[Re: tfabris]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Try Viva Pinata, she might like it, it's colorful and cute, and it's got Pinatas.
I'm willing to bet you could find a used copy at a Gamestop, and that way if she doesn't like it, you can take it back for a full refund, unlike with a new game.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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