That’s sadly been the trend ever since gaming went online. “Why sell ONE copy of a multiplayer game when we can make each player buy their own? As for people who have friends and family who they interact with in meatspace—screw 'em. Not our target demo.”
I’ve been having fun playing the LEGO games with my kids on the PlayStation lately though.
I have to admit that it bugs me that my SO hogs the consoles with his FPS games. We either need a second TV, or more compelling mulit-player games. In fact, it’s the primary reason I want a second TV. I bought a game on Veterans Day, and I haven’t been able to play it yet because somebody is monopolizing the TV with his BF4.
Don’t forget the quality of abuse you get on Xbox live.
Microsoft has really put together a strong community of racial slur throwing pre-teens (and those who are older with equivalent maturity).
My kids had a ball with Lego Star Wars on Xbox 360 (the one that combined all six movies into one game). That’s the only one we’ve done so far. My kids are still a tad young for the Indiana Jones and Harry Potter franchises, and the other Lego titles don’t actually interest me so much.
They really like Portal and Portal 2 as well.
I may eventually get an XBone, or maybe a PS4, but I’m in no hurry. I don’t have any particular brand loyalty as such. My wife had a PS2 when I met her, and I’ve played a couple of games on it, but I never got around to getting a PS3. Once I was introduced to Halo in 2003, I had to get an Xbox. But none of the launch titles for the Xbox 360 interested me particularly, so I waited most of two years for Halo 3 to be released before I bought a 360 (the attractive Halo 3 edition, as it turned out).
That console is six years old and still works fine. I had to send it in for some covered warranty work (the E74 code) which took a few weeks to fix, but other than that it has given stalwart service, though the kinda puny 20GB hard drive did fill up pretty fast.
Captain Optimism that I am, I thought I’d give the green box a noble semiretirement and get a new Halo 4 edition 360 when that came out last year. So far that new Xbox has performed perfectly well (though the Halo 4 game itself I find quite a disappointment). Since my current Xbox is relatively new and the Xbox 360 game library is deep and rich enough that I’ve still barely scratched its surface, I’m in no hurry to get a new console. I’ll happily wait until a new title stokes my interest enough to warrant getting a new console, the way Halo 3 did. I suspect that may not happen until Fallout 4, however.
As far as launch titles go, it seems to me that by their very nature they’re going to suffer a bit, for a couple of reasons. Number one: the hard rollout date for the console means a hard rollout date for a game that wants to be a launch title, whether it could really have used some extra development time or not. Also, it makes sense that the games will improve once the developers gain more experience with the strengths and limitations of the new hardware architecture.
I also recommend Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes. I stayed up way too late last weekend finishing the game to unlock all the characters (for, uh, my kids). But at least GOTHAM was able to get a good night’s sleep.
Some of us hold a grudge against Sony, and so their offering is off the table.
Oh, so it’s like wine? 50 free points?
Well, sure. Thanks the gods Microsoft has never done anything shady.
Really has the WiiU become such a weird gimmick nobody has bothered to mention it?
The XB1/PS4 have four times the Ram, four or five times the shader thruput, lots more storage space (though, admittedly 5400 rpm is slower than Flash).
Essentially, the WiiU is a generation behind.
Play Borderlands 1 together. For a whole year non stop, then play Borderlands 2 for a year. Then ween yourself off by playing GTAV and DMC solo for a bit, this seems to be working for me.
But yeah, fave co-ops are;
Borderlands 1 & 2
Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
Halo (all)
Perfect Dark (4 player split screen)
Gears of War (all)
If shooters aint your bag go with Bomberman or Mario Kart.
Why aren’t there more 4 player split screen games? I heard that you could do it with Halo 3 or Reach but you had to abuse a glitch to enable a function that was in place but then sealed off from use. It’s bogus, man! I want to play with 3 friends in the same room on one machine, last time I tried it emerged that the only game that I had that could fulfil this requirement was the port of the ancient “Perfect Dark”. In my day we’d play 4 player Goldeneye on a 14 inch cathode ray tube until our eyes bled (about 6:00am), and like it! Now we’ve got bigger screens and higher spec machines, they have just elected to remove that brilliant past time of lounge crowd gaming. Drat those dastards! If you were fortunate to have two machines, two tellies and two copies of the game all hooked up together I think you ought to be able to have 8 player shootem ups in the same room.
Is it better than the first Lego Batman? It’s OK to admit that you like playing the Lego games. I enjoy the heck out of 'em. It’s puzzles and smashing. What could be better?
Full disclosure: playing Lego Pirates of the Caribean with my 4 y.o., but I’m finding it difficult to make progress unless I play the level through by myself first. He only cares about the smashing, not the puzzles.
Racism is ubiquitous on Xbox Live but it isn’t nearly as prevalent as the homophobia.
Depending on how much money you have it is definately an either or situation, at least in the short term.
…and depending on how much money you don’t have it could be a neither/nor situation.
My point was that many make this distinction between “PC gamers” and “console gamers” as if they are mutually exclusive. More and more of us are bi-platform (or bi-curious).
Unfortunately XBOX comes off as creepy stalker girl.
'Oh Hi I’m going to watch and listen to you ‘everything’ except i’m totally not! Except I might change my mind later after you’ve gotten used to me. Don’t pay attention ot the rumors i"m giving everything i"m totally not recording to some guy with sunglasses and a suit.
I’m getting a GcW Zero.
I didn’t play the first Lego Batman but the sequel is pretty fun, especially since you get to unlock all the DC heroes & villains. I have 3-year-olds so I usually help them along through the puzzles in the actual levels then set them loose in free play mode across Gotham city.
I’m keen to get a wii U, but to be fair it’s a different thing altogether.
You buy an xbox or playstation as a cheap PC gaming replacement. Nintendo is all about 1st party fun.
Nintendo first party games tend to focus on fun and gameplay rather than number of polygons. It’s no more behind than the latest board game, it’s just different.
I agree, “impressive hardware specs” and “enjoyable gameplay” aren’t that strongly correlated. If they were then “Angry Birds” wouldn’t be one of the most popular video games in history.
