I finally purchased an XBox 360. I’ve avoided doing so for almost four years now for a few reasons, primarily among them the expense and glut of M-rated games (and concurrent dearth of games I actually want to play). I will not buy or play an M-rated game; it’s a personal choice that I don’t expect is terribly common (or even popular), but it’s a significant factor in my game purchases. Beside that, I still have good games I want to play on my trusty PS2 that I haven’t made time for yet. I really don’t need a new console and more games.
And yet, there was a good deal on Amazon (an Elite model with LEGO Batman and PURE, two games I’d want anyway, for $300 with a $50 gift certificate), the IRS returned some of our money, and I really want to be able to play A World For Keflings when it comes out (hopefully soonish!). I’ve been working on XBox Arcade games for three years now, and I worked on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 for the 360, but I’ve only ever played them at work when testing things. It will be nice to be a “mere” gamer, seeing my games from the other side, playing them because it’s fun, not to break things. My wife and little girl like Keflings, too, and it’s instructive to see how they play the game (I can’t get away from researching games, after all).
I will dearly miss the dev cheats and unfettered control camera, though…
I can also admit that I want to try out games like Batman: Arkham Asylum, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Infinite Undiscovery and Final Fantasy XIII. Thanks to XBox Live Arcade, I also finally got my hands on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a game that I’ve wanted for a decade, but didn’t ever manage to get for the PlayStation. The machine was still expensive, and I still don’t have a lot of time… but I’m actually pretty happy, if decidedly spoiled, to have my own little XBox.
Quite expectedly, my gamertag is “Tish Tosh Tesh”, for anyone interested in stalking me in the world of Keflings. I can even show you which parts of the games I built. They are my babies in a way (I see them more than my own kids during crunch time), so I want to show them off a bit. :)
Good for you for sticking by your convictions, even if it does start to limit your game choices more and more. If only more people had that strength of character when it came down to actually making a difficult choice!
I don’t play M rated games either, or watch R rated movies. You said it Anderoth. Heck I’d settle for people standing for anything decent, they don’t even have to agree with me. Relativism is like moral quicksand.
Hmm, just bought an M-rated game last week. I don’t do so very often though, I go with my gut. I’d love a 360, but I think I want a PS3 more…
If the most recent PS3s were backwards compatible and still at the $300 pricepoint, I’d probably have one by now. There are simply more games on that system that I’d play, including PS2 and PS1 games. The XBox library as a whole just doesn’t interest me nearly as much, though it really is nice to pick up that Castlevania SOTN game and finally be able to play the games I’ve worked on.
The whole XBox Live multiplayer thing doesn’t do much for me either, but it will be fun to maybe see others in the Kefling games and show them around. The Live Arcade is pretty cool, though; it’s almost as good as the indie scene on the PC.
As for M-rated games, I don’t care for them, but Libertarianish as I am, I’ll fight for the freedom to make them and play them. To each their own, I just can’t help but be disinterested in that rather significant component of the XBox library for my own gaming. The GTAs, Gods and Gears of War, Modern Warfare and so on just aren’t a selling point for the system for me.
Tesh are you going to the Indie game night at Wahoo on the 22nd? I’ll be there, it’d be great to meet you there. I should have a bunch of new content for my Indie game then, too.
I’m going to do what I can to be there. I’ve not been able to get to any yet, despite *working in the space the meeting happens in*… but I’m going to try to be there.
We bought our backwards compatible PS3 for 230 Eur last November, which would be 300 USD roughly.
Europe is usually way behind NA in respect of price development, so I would be surprised if you couldn’t find an appropriate offer.
For some reason XBox never convinced me, probably because we use consoles mainly for Couch-Co-Op, and Live-Networks can’t compete with that on a cold day.
What’s the reason behind skipping “m-rated”? I understand that the rating criteria are different from ours, mainly in the way of looking at sex and violence. GTA’s Hot Coffee was set on “Adults only” in US because of the “pornographic content”, while Dead Spacce was taken from open sales in Germany because of “violent content”.
By the way, the different categories make buying Down loadable Content problematic.
We just bought a DLC Pack for Borderlands, just to find out it does not fit to our rating version. Eight Euros flushed for nothing. Now this could be a reason for me not to touch rated games.
I did find it interesting that a Live dev didn’t have a 360! I really really recommend the Indie game, ‘Miner Dig Deep.’ Not hugely in depth, but very fun. Civilization Revolution is fun if you don’t already have for the PC(It’s in the full X-Box game section.) Trying to remember the other gems on there…Trials HD is an Arcade game with lots of bang for it’s buck. Definitely peruse the Highest Rated and Most Downloaded sections of Indie Games and Arcade Games. I don’t like all of them, but you can get a lot of gaming for minimal money.
Side note: Why in the hell don’t Live Marketplace points get cheaper with volume? If I’m gonna max out and spend the $62.50 for the most points you can buy at a time, it’d be nice if they tossed me an extra few hundred points. I know you don’t have anything to do with that, but it drives me crazy. I’ve spent $100′s on there, if not over $1000.(USD)
Tech, yes, it would be nice to get a little customer appreciation for bulk purchases. I’m not sure why they don’t do that, but it might be an effort at equality. *shrug* I’m definitely going to prowl the top rated stuff, though. I was happily shocked to see Castlevania SOTN on there, and I’m sure I’ll find other gems, whether new or old.
Usiel, it’s more about self-censoring than worrying about potential problems with not being able to play games. I simply don’t like what passes for “maturity” in the ESRB rating system. I find it to be puerile, base and disgusting, whether it’s sexual, violent or profane. Avoiding that sort of content is purely a personal moral choice.
Since I don’t care for those games, they simply aren’t on my purchasing radar, and don’t serve as an enticement to buy a system to play them on.
360 is cool, worse come to worse and you can use it as a netflix box for your tv. I had one for Final Fantasy XI, but didn’t play it all that much outside of it. I’d stay out of Live though, but if you are skipping all M rated games that will keep you out of it by default. Since most FPS are M rated that is.
dang nice stuff bro.