Live the Month 360 Special - December/January
Well, a lovely new Club Skill, a lovely new Xbox, and therefore, a lovely new Live the Month. We would like to apologise for dragging this edition out for so long, but we had to wait until we all managed to get our hands on Xbox 360s and for when CS10 launched, which is now!
Seeing as it has been a long time, let’s reintroduce the Live the Month team. There’s Chris Holmes, our absolutely raving mental Live the Month leader who takes no prisoners, Stune, our very own un-chav boy racer who plays PGR3 with automatic gears and first person view (scary, I’m sure you’d agree) and then we have Chris Burnside, who does all other kinds of things on Live. Some say they could complete The Behemoth on The Nurburgring faster than Dr. Who in a Tardis. While others say they can log into Xbox Live just by winking at their 360, but all we know is that they are called Chris, Chris B and Stune. So, without further use of invaluable hyperbole, let’s Live the Month.
Xbox Live News
- The Xbox 360 was finally released this month, on 22nd November in America, 2nd December in Europe and 10th December in Japan. We are sure we didn’t have to tell you that, but we do it for dramatic effect you see. Anyway, with the 360, there are brand new implications for Xbox Live, such as the Live Marketplace, where you can download all kinds of things such as add-ons and other various bits and bobs for games, new themes, gamer pictures, and Live Arcade titles. In addition to this, you can bring up your friends list, message centre and recent players during any moment in any game, simply by pressing the big green X button (the Guide button) on the 360 controller. Also, you can have a private chat with a friend on a totally different game, meaning you can stay in touch whatever you are doing. There are many more features to discover, but we want you to experience them for yourselves, as that is what the 360 is all about, self-discovery.
- The first piece of downloadable game content was released this month, on 360 launch day in Europe. This was the Kameo Winter Warriors Pack, which gave Kameo a revealing Santa suit and the elemental warriors special Christmas skins (rock creature becomes bauble creature; plant becomes Christmas tree, etc.)
- On launch, there were many trailers (films and games) and playable game demos in the marketplace, and this got better throughout the initial week, such as the Aeon Flux film trailer and a trailer for Narnia. On the demo front, Kameo, Madden and NBA Live were ready on launch, with Need for Speed Most Wanted and FIFA Road to the World Cup arriving at the end of the week.
- Also at the end of the week, some card-based and board games were released for Xbox Live Arcade, and these were Hardwood Backgammon, Hardwood Hearts and Hardwood Spades. Overall, we recommend just downloading the trial versions, as these will keep you amused for a short amount of time when you’re not on PGR3 or PDZ, for example.
- This might just be our last piece on the original Xbox Live, so it seems fitting to give you a news update on the game that introduced everyone to the true power of Xbox Live, Halo 2. In Halo 2 this month, a playlist update that caused a huge amount of upset was released. Head to head, and Major and Minor Clanmatch were all cast back from when they came. For all your clan needs, a new playlist has been released, simply called Clanmatch. Team Snipers has now become ranked, so you can now see what your hidden rank was all that time you’ve been playing it. For all those of you who have loathed the laggy games in Big Team Battle, there is now a 6 vs. 6 option, which obviously features less people, and more tactics. Following on from this, Team ActionSack was released.d to guests and featuring no ranks, this is the perfect way to have fun with a team in weird gametypes such as “Ninja Assault” and “Balltacular”. The last playlist added is Rumble Armory, which gives you some powerful weapons to take down other players, like a real life Rambo.
Live the Month Diaries
This is the part where we write about our experiences on Xbox Live that occurred this past month. Be prepared some thoughts more psychopathic than your own (Chris), life in the eyes of a PGR3 addict (Stune) and the wildcard of the bunch (Chris B).
Chris Holmes Diary - Gamertag: homez99
Live through the eyes of a Psycho
Well, I can’t believe it. In the space of a month I have said goodbye to one of the only Live games I’ve known in my relatively short existence on Xbox Live, Halo 2. An epic Live title that inspired, annoyed, entertained, angered and indulged us all in its epic glow for a full year, and its still going on with the power of the backwards compatible emulator on the 360, but why would you play an old game on your bright shiny new box?
I used up my remaining hours with my old Xbox on Halo 2, playing with some of my old buddies on my friend list, shouting at people who annoyed me, and generally had a lovely time, until the thought dawned on me: what will I be playing tomorrow? I thought the answer to that would be obvious, Perfect Dark Zero by all accounts, given my usual basis of having an itchy trigger finger in the games I usually play.
So, the next morning comes, and I brave the early morning black sky and empty roads to beat the milkman to my local games store, to only find 5 other gamers buying their 360s. After buying it and arriving home with my new bundle of joy, I set it up, which is a simplistic process that any old person can do. A few plugs here and there, avoiding the earth-splitting potential of the PSU (or to give it its cynical name, the power brick), and plugging the Ethernet cable to the usual slot, plugging the 360 into my switch, then sitting back as it turned on. Migrating your old Live account is easier than making a cheese sandwich, as all you have to do is enter your gamertag and .net passport email address and password.
Loading up, I discovered I would be on my own for most of the day, because most of the people on my friends list were at school/work/etc. so I just use this to discover the inner circles and play some games.
Due to my aforementioned love for shooting titles, I played Perfect Dark Zero first, and on Live, it feels solid to play and works well. However, there was some lag on some occasions, weird voice echoing with the bizarre headset, and other such obscurities. Strangely, as the day went on, the headset actually got better, and games became lovely and playable, and I whittled away the hours playing some enjoyable multiplayer, but the best experience was yet to come.
After eating some well deserved lunch, I saw a few people on my friends list on PGR 3. Looking through my collection of games I purchased at launch, I found out that I did indeed purchase the game, so decided to give it a bash, even though I normally absolutely detest racing titles. After playing through the career mode for a little while, I shortly discovered that I really liked it, and from that point onward, I was hooked. My skills are severely lacking on Live with it though, as robrymond and Swift Robber pwn me on nearly every occasion. However, I didn’t cry, because I was actually having fun.
I was totally not expecting to enjoy this title, as I found the previous iterations to be too difficult for me, but this felt great. This game is unbelievable. It is sharp, sophisticated, grand, beautiful and downright awesome, and delivers an experience so fantastic; it feels like naughtily eating chocolate cookies in the middle of the night. I was astonished by how much I liked it, and am subsequently very happy that I got it.
This month, you are likely to find me all over PGR3 like a hot radiator, so add me to your friends list if you feel desperate for someone to laugh at or to respect on the offchance of me beating you. Be warned, if you just join a game I’m already in, that game may include Swift Robber, who is a mental child who thinks he is a Geordie, or robrymond, another mental child who hands pwnage like it’s a flyer from a hobo, and then there’s Stune, who will just destroy everyone.
Chris Burnside’s Diary - Gamertag: CazzBside
The Unpredictable Wildcard
‘Vroom’
The world speeds by; a high definition combination of gravel, skyscrapers and sky. Opponents whizz past in both directions as my mind wanders; this is it then, the start of a new generation of gaming. Two years of hype rolled into a box half as wide and twice as thick as my TV, but more importantly (for this column, at least) the next big step for Microsoft’s Live Service. Exactly what then, has changed?
‘Crunch’
The wall jumped out at me! It wasn’t there last time! (I enjoy preparing my excuses *before* I head onto the Live servers). One more go of single player, then I’ll join up with my friend for a game over Live; he’s playing Kameo anyway.
‘Ding’
“[Friend] wants to chat”, appears on the bottom of the screen.
‘Click, click’
“Hello?”
The race starts, as usual the computer cars lead up until the first corner, until I rear end them and they spin helplessly into the nearest barrier.
“Alright matey, what are you up to?”
I swerve, the Enzo in front of me pulls away, and I’m getting desperate.
“Just practicing on some PGR (all the cool kids use abbreviations, you see), you?”
The gap closes. Less than half a second in it…
“Yeah, I’m on Kameo, fancy a game on PGR over Live?”
Less than a quarter of a second... Round the first bend...
“Sure, throw me an invite once you get on there”
Round the second…
“Will do matey, see you in a little while”
Side by side now…
‘Click, click’
I hit a wall and spin 360 degrees (apt, perhaps) and the race is over. The most important race I’ve had yet. The race in which it became clear that the line between online and offline no longer exists.
See, with the 360 there’s nothing stopping you from playing on a single player game whilst also talking to your friend who could be, for instance, playing on a completely unrelated single player game, or watching a DVD, or listening to music. When Microsoft said that things would become seamless, they really weren’t joking. And to be honest, that’s the thing that strikes you most with regards to the Live service; just how smooth the transition between online and offline play is, almost to the point of it being unnoticeable. Think of the 360’s Live more as an extension of the original Live service than a brand new service altogether and you’ve got the general idea. The phrase ‘don’t fix what isn’t broken’ fits wonderfully.
On the implementation side of things, we’re already starting to see some impressive ideas coming from developers, not least of which is the Gotham TV that’s implemented in the aforementioned Project Gotham Racing 3. For those of you that haven’t read about this feature, it basically allows you to watch an online race live and as it happens. Trust me, there’s nothing more hilarious than loading up a live stream and watching the start of the race; the inevitable car crush of the first bend and the horrific undercutting that occurs as players joust for position. The only way they could possibly improve the feature is if they had live audio feeds from the players, it would put the cap on a wonderfully implemented feature.
Of my other games Call of Duty 2 has been getting a good going over and, while opting for a slightly stripped down online mode, still manages to be one of the more exciting games in the launch line up. The only thing that irks me with CoD is that you’re unable to create rooms which only people on your friends list can join. Therefore you could potentially be playing a friendly, good mannered, if slightly bloody game online only to be joined by one of the “OMGZORS, SHOOTERED IN THE HEADS!” crowd. That is, of course, provided that they’ve managed to tear themselves away from Halo 2.
Before I’m done though, a quick word of warning; the service is not without it’s niggles (to be fair, it’s expected in the first couple of weeks). One that plagued me on a couple of games was the ear bursting problem of constant echoing. Think of it like playing Live at the bottom of a very deep well. Thankfully it’s not been a problem for a number of days now, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft have acted and removed the problem already.
First impressions, then, are that Microsoft clearly knows how to implement an online service of the highest calibre. This isn’t something that feels like it has been bolted on anymore; the Live service now forms the absolute core of the 360. With so many more exciting features available to them developers must feel like they’ve been handed the greatest online canvas ever created. Me? I’m just wondering how the three of us are going to cover all the amazing features in one column.
Stune’s Diary - Gamertag: Stune
Live in the eyes of a “professional”
Well I'm still trying to get over the fact I finally managed to get a 360. The next generation of gaming is finally here. What better platform to once again begin my obsessive state of ‘Professional gaming’, yes ladies and gentlemen that’s what it says on the gamercard so it must be true.
Being a massive enthusiast of racing games I found myself irresistibly drawn to PGR3. Rightly so because it rules online!
Where to start is the difficult bit. Each race track has 5 time trial scoreboards, that’s one for each car class. Of course every class has a dominant car but in many cases there are several different competitive cars in each class. Yes I’ve already achieved some top times, but I have found it fun to see how high I can get in the cars people don’t expect to see high up on the scoreboards. One of my best achievements so far has to be third place on a London track called ‘Her majesties Pleasure’ in D class. The TVR Sagaris occupied all 10 of the top spots, until I drove my Noble M14 into third place that is. In almost all the car classes there are many cars which already commonly get overlooked.
Despite the many tracks the game offers for time attacking there are also several kudos events from the single player Gotham Career which all have online scoreboards. People have really gone to town with the cone challenges and the world’s best have even managed four times the amount of kudos needed to earn a platinum medal in some events
There are two main overall scoreboards, one for speed, and one for style. The Speed scoreboard is based on your speedy performances in ranked games. Whereas the style scoreboard adds up your total kudos points earned in ranked games. PGR3 features a matching system very similar to Halo 2’s to find people around your level. Due to the format of the ranked races you are likely to have one player in your race that has mistaken the game for bumper cars and likes to have a good smash up for getting down to real racing. Sadly this means the fastest driver won’t always win the races. Thankfully there are a number of different ranked racing events, some featuring the full 8 players which tend be the most hectic, while others which feature 4 or just 2 players are a little less chaotic.
In all races I use the fantastic in car view, as well as manual gears for the ultimate immersive driving experience. There is a cool feature when playing unranked games to force all players in your lobby to use Manual gears and in car view, which I find amusing to implement. I’m likely to be playing PGR3 a lot in the next month so feel free to add me to your friends list and give me a race.
Xbox Live Calendar
Wednesday 14th December - Play McFly on PGR3 for Game with Fame. Happens between 5 and 7pm, see the Xbox Live Calendar on Xbox.com for more details.
Friday 16th December - Fragdoll Friday. Play the girls on Far Cry Instincts tonight!
Saturday 17th December - Winning Weekend: Kameo Elements of Power. You can play this all day long to have a chance of winning some lovely goodies.
Saturday 20th December - Mystery Gamer: Burnout Revenge. Seek out the mystery gamer and get ready to play him to win some prizes!
Friday 30th December - Girls Night In: The PMS clan will be playing a mystery 360 game online tonight, and our guess is PDZ, but please don’t take notice of us, we’re just young squires. To jump in? Add PMS Rinny to your friends list before 8.00 PM to take part.
For more events, please jump to the calendar on this link: http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/community/calendar/week3.htm
The Wrap Up
Well, it looks like we have come full circle to the end. We will not cry, but it will be a tearful month until January, where we will talk about Need for Speed Most Wanted on Live, and hopefully one of us has some more money to buy some new Live games such as Quake 4. I hope you have a lovely month on Xbox Live, and if you have an Xbox 360, well done, you have joined the elite club, you have jumped in, you have pushed the button, and pwned thee grandfather. If you are still on the original Xbox (my heart bleeds), I hope you enjoy your month on Xbox Live as well, and take care.
Chris Holmes, Steven Embling and Chris Burnside
