Xbox 360 Features

The Future Importance of Graphics

We’ve
reached an interesting point in this generation as far as graphics are
concerned. Consoles are starting to show their limitations (especially the 360) and with PC’s
getting their fancy new range of high end video cards, games on the PC are
looking a lot better. There’s a lot more to good graphics than a high polygon
count, though, and it’s not always stuff that can be represented in a screenshot. Graphics are
never going to be “perfect”; there is always going to be that one rough edge or
texture that isn’t quite mapped right. The debate of whether graphics matter or
not will most likely never end, but where are they going to end up by the end
of the next generation of hardware?

Xbox 360 Games to Expect in April

April doesn’t have many big hits but the two it has, Mortal Kombat and Portal 2, are guranteed to be humongous hits.

Michael Jackson: The Experience
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: April 12^th

Michael Jackson: The Experience, already released on the Wii, will now finally be arriving on your Xbox 360 (and PS3 if you’re that kind of guy) console and will feature Kinect support. So you can kind of dance like Michael but not really. Not at all actually. I don’t exactly see the point in this project but maybe MJ fans will love it.

WWE All Stars Preview

WWE All Stars is WWE and THQ trying to venture away from the hardcore wrestling fans that they dedicate their Smackdown vs. Raw franchise to and trying to be a bit more kid friendly focused. From the gargangeous models of the wrestlers to the fun juggling of characters that you can sometimes do, one thing is for sure, WWE All Stars is silly.

What We Want: Gears of War 3

Gears 3 has finally been given a release date, there are definitely some 360 owners that won’t be too bothered regarding this game. But for the most part, Gears 3 is going to be on the vast majority of our lists. Gears of War 2 will be almost 3 years old by the time the Gears 3 comes around, and Gears 2 did do a lot different and better than the original. However, there are some things that it didn’t do too well, and there are some changes that most fans are going to want. The big one has already been confirmed, that being dedicated serves, and there’s quite a lot of new weapons on their way, but let’s talk about some stuff that isn’t a sure thing.

The Hard Drive and Cloud Saves

It’s amazing
to think that not too long ago the idea of having a gaming console with a hard
drive was simply a pipe dream. And even more bizarre when you remember that
there was a time when you couldn’t save your game at all. Now here we all are
with our triple figure gigabyte hard drives and installing games like it
doesn’t even matter.

The original
X-Box was the first traditional home console to come with a hard drive, but it
didn’t come without its disadvantages, this being one of the main reasons that
Microsoft lost so much money on the system. This was before the days of
detachable hard drives or being able to save to a USB drive or even downloading
an online profile. More importantly this was the time when console gaming was
largely offline, Playstation 2 game cases even came with memory card holders in
them for the times where you would take your saves to your friends house. Including
a hard drive was a great idea, but it was too early for it to really take off.

The Evolution of Game Mechanics

Game
mechanics have undergone somewhat of a renaissance over the past decade.  It’s almost crazy to think that a game like
Dino Crisis 2 was once classified as a third-person shooter. Games
have always been defined by their mechanics; it’s what determines their genre. Fifteen
years ago there was no separation between shooters, but now we have first-person
shooters, third-person shooters, over-the-shoulder shooters and rail shooters. The
scope for defining games has increased dramatically in recent years due to the
extensive evolution of game mechanics.

First, let’s
look at shooters. Back in the Doom days, you couldn’t strafe (I’ll give the
youngsters this sentence to go find their socks that just flew off) and your
gun was at a fixed position and you couldn’t even aim up or down. You also held
enough weapons to kit out a small army and your progression through the game
was akin to hunting for keys and defeating large numbers of enemies. Compare
this to a modern shooter where you can strafe, your weapons are limited far more severely
and you progress through the game as the narrative unfolds. Platformers are
another good example, thinking back to the Sonic era where everything was about
speedy progression though controlled levels. Now when you look at a game like
Ratchet and Clank, the leap forward between the two is astounding when you
consider that they classified under the same genre.

What We Want: Assassin’s Creed III

Sequels are coming out on almost a bi-weekly basis, and a majority of those sequels either suck or don’t do enough iteration on their previous installment. So we here at the Player Affinity Xbox team decided to start a feature where we state what should change in the next installment of a popular (or not so popular) franchise.  The game doesn’t have to be announced, it just has to be an inevitable release. Without further ado, let’s start this thing out with Assassin’s Creed 3.

Warning: Spoilers for the Assassin’s Creed franchise are below

Xbox 360 Games To Expect In March

What a month for games. It seems like there’s one you should pick up every single week this week. But which one will be the most anticipated?

Fight Night Champion
Developer: EA Canada
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 3/1/2011

I’ve always had a fondness for the Fight Night games in my heart. They deliver consistent hard hitting games, and that was only further proven with their last installment in the franchise, Fight Night Round 4.

Marvel Vs Capcom Character Wish List

With Marvel vs. Capcom 3 just a few days  away and Capcom finally announcing the list of
characters that will be available in the game, I am left to ponder what
characters would have been nice to have in this installment. For this article,
I am only going to make a wish list of 6 players.  Three on the Marvel Side and three on the
Capcom side.  Otherwise, this article
would be about twenty pages long due to all the characters that I would have
loved to see in this game. 

Survival Tips for Dead Space 2

For those of
you new to the awesome experience that is Dead Space 2 you’re probably having
one hell of a time playing through it. However, just in case you’re having
trouble surviving the hordes of necromorphs I’ve got some very useful tips to
help you on your way. Don’t worry, I’m not going to state the obvious things
like use stasis on groups of enemies or use melee when possible. The game has
already told you that.