Game Suggestions

[Outrider]

Well since you are so stubborn and planned to get The Force Unleashed later on anyway at a "bargain price" you might as well get it as your third game if you can't think of anything else by time you get there (free sure is a bargain, after all)

The difference is that I have no strong urge to play that game now, so I'd rather pick up a game I want to play now for free and pick up one I'm lukewarm about when I can get it for $20 bucks. But, yeah, like Sord, I've been pretty unimpressed by what I've played. Referring specifically to the 360 demo, I thought that the main gameplay was fun enough, but the camera was terrible as well as how the game decides who you're trying to use a force power on. It was neat, but the fact that I think the Jedi Knight games did some things better can't be good for it. (Plus, I've read through the narrative, and uh... wow. It's more fan-fictiony than the New Jedi Order/Yuuzhan Vong story was.)

Ninja Gaiden II is a great game, until you get into some of the later parts... Which pretty much boil down to "Hey, look, a Ninja! *infinite rocket salvo*." It's still fun, and you'd have to be daft to think I'm making a joke here.

The one on DS is surprisingly well-done, as well. I think there's a demo on the Nintendo Channel on the Wii, but I haven't touched mine since the last time I played Brawl. :/ It's worth trying, though, assuming you're not so closed-minded as to not try a demo of a game, simply because of the developer - I'm certain that other people can vouch for this one.

As for other games... You have a DS, so The World Ends with You is the obvious choice, if you don't have it already, and Sonic Chronicles is surprisingly good for a BioWare game. Any idea of it's possible to but a DS game and a 360 game, then get another 360 game free? >_>

For your 360, I can recommend Lost Odyssey if you're in the mood for severely old-school RPGs, or Infinite Undiscovery if you crave a little more action and some of that "open-world, MMO-feeling" sort of massiveness, but without the redundancy usually attributed therein. I would suggest Gears of War, but with the sequel just around the corner, you may wish to wait on that one.

I guess it depends on what you like, and what you're in the mood for.

I played through a good chunk of the Xbox Ninja Gaiden and found it rather bland and uninspired (not to mention it had some of the worst character and creature design I've EVER seen in a game - but that's pretty much par for the course for Team Ninja judging by their DOA designs.) I played the demo of the sequel and - look at that! - it's like the first one but the whole "everything looks like it was shoved through a laminating machine" issue was even worse. No thank you on that one. Maybe in a few years when I want a quick action title to play here or there, but not now.

I did like the DS Ninja Gaiden game, though. It's mostly because I'm fascinated with games that are transitioned well to handhelds. (Off-Topic: Oh God, Super Monkey Ball Jr. is amazing.)

I've been tossing around the idea of also picking up a few DS games in a separate purchase, and now that you mention it, the trio of Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, The World Ends With You, and Sonic Chronicles does sound quite tempting. My issue with DS games is generally that I already have too many games to play on it. The fact of the matter is I've got a list a mile long for DS/GBA games I'm still working on (I just picked up Drill Dozer a few weeks ago) and I hate to add more to the pile. Still, this is a pretty tempting time to pick up some games I've had my eye on.

I was cautiously optimistic about Lost Odyssey, but reading about it and watching videos just make me feel like it's not what I'm looking for. I enjoy turn-based RPGs, but Sakaguchi games can get incredibly into themselves and I'm just not sure if I can dedicate myself enough to it. (It doesn't help that I played through Final Fantasy XII and it made me feel like there are a lot of unnecessary things going on in turn-based RPGs.) Infinite Undiscovery sounds ok, I guess, but as mentioned, I just played through FFXII a few months ago and I'm not sure if I could do another "single-player MMO" game so soon.

I've played through Gears and while I thought it was fun, I'm not sure if I like stop-and-pop more than run-and-gun. In addition to that, the game is seriously lacking when it comes to its narrative. (To be fair, Gears 2 is supposed to have remedied this to some degree.) Gears 2 definitely looks pretty cool, but again, it's release falls outside of the sale.

Still trying to decide on this. Thanks for all the suggestions though, everyone. (Mad props to Kent for the laundry list of options.) Any other good offers you guys can think of?

[Cracka_J]

I'll go ahead and recommend Vesperia as well. Symphonia was the only other game in the series I had played before, so I was rather taking a risk on Vesperia also.

I can't say I've been one bit disappointed with it. Yes, it has typical anime inspired characters. Yes, it has cheesy english dialogue. Yes, it has a typical jrpg storyline that you eventually get attached to. Yes, it has an interesting, fast paced and creative combat engine. O wait...about that last one.

The gameplay for Vesperia is really the meat and potatoes. The game engine relies heavily on discovering new combos for your character and managing commands for your team. You can play as anyone in your party, or specialize as one character if you feel they fit your needs better.

The ability system also reminds me of a "reverse engineered" FF7 materia system. Instead of linking your ability to weapons, weapons instead have abilities linked to them that you can learn over time. Once learned, you can equip a new weapon and still manage your abilities so you can apply the one from the previous weapon. It's pretty interesting and allows you to turn a character that's even designed to play slow into a combo fiend. Really, if you enjoy live action RPG's like PSO/U, you won't find the combat in Vesperia going stale.

The character models are actually unique in themselves, as your weapon you use in battle is always displayed in towns/fields/etc. Certain characters have clothing like leggings, gauntlets, shields, etc., that upon changing, will update the visuals on the character model. Pretty nice little effect.

Also the tales series are like FF, all individual unique storylines. You don't have to play symphonia to get into vesperia, but there are those little throwbacks in towns and stuff that people will pick out if they did play the other games.

[Aisha379]

Referring specifically to the 360 demo, I thought that the main gameplay was fun enough, but the camera was terrible as well as how the game decides who you're trying to use a force power on.

Yeah I had that trouble too, but then I tried the PS3 demo and it was way better. So thats what I bought the game for.

[Outrider]

Yeah I had that trouble too, but then I tried the PS3 demo and it was way better. So thats what I bought the game for.

Really? That's kind of interesting. I mean, generally these multi-platform games are the same as far as gameplay goes.

Regardless, I don't have a PS3, so that's out. Still, that's something interesting to consider.

[McLaughlin]

Other things I can think of...

Dead Space
Fable II (if the deal lasts until Tuesday)
Dunno if you like DMC games, but I enjoyed DMC4
The Orange Box?

Though, if I were in your shoes I'd go for the DS triple threat mentioned earlier. I don't have as many DS games though. :/

EDIT: TFU was cool, but I beat it the day after I rented it, including all the Holocrons. I almost never buy single-player Action games. Definitely at least worth renting though.

I dunno if you're into gear grinding, but if you are, you might want to check out Too Human. That one was pretty cool. There's a demo on the Marketplace.

[Outrider]

Other things I can think of...

Dead Space
Fable II (if the deal lasts until Tuesday)
Dunno if you like DMC games, but I enjoyed DMC4
The Orange Box?

Though, if I were in your shoes I'd go for the DS triple threat mentioned earlier. I don't have as many DS games though. :/

EDIT: TFU was cool, but I beat it the day after I rented it, including all the Holocrons. I almost never buy single-player Action games. Definitely at least worth renting though.

I dunno if you're into gear grinding, but if you are, you might want to check out Too Human. That one was pretty cool. There's a demo on the Marketplace.

Again, Dead Space and Fable II don't come out until after the 19th, so I can't pick them up for this deal.

I already have all my Half-Life stuff on PC, but for anybody else on the fence, I can't stress enough how much they need to get Orange Box.

I'm thinking about also picking up some DS games on their own (I enjoy the videogames, after all), so that's become a separate issue.

I tried the demo of Too Human and was not a fan of the combat. I'm sure it's obvious by now, that I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of the big action games (DMC, Ninja Gaiden, God of War) except as time-wasters, but I actually think I would love Too Human if it played like those games instead of using their bizarre thumbstick combat. I loved Eternal Darkness, so I wish I could get into Too Human. Is there anybody who owns the game that would like to weigh in on it?

[Aisha379]

Really? That's kind of interesting. I mean, generally these multi-platform games are the same as far as gameplay goes.

Regardless, I don't have a PS3, so that's out. Still, that's something interesting to consider.

Yeah, I'd throw something on the 360 version and it'd fly off in a totally different direction and I'd be like "wtf stupid demo".

But on the PS3 version, stuff was pretty much spot-on accurate except if theres a lot of enemies around you (even then, nowhere near as bad as the 360 demo).

Maybe thats an issue of controllers themselves and not the game, I'm not sure really...

[amtalx]

As far as Too Human goes, everything except the combat fails immensely. Story, voice work, delivery, art direction, interface, CAMERA, everything. Needless to say, if you don't like the combat, you'll hate it. It took me a solid play through and access to the next difficulty before it started being fun. Even then, its just a dungeon crawler.

[Sord]

I know someone mentioned The World Ends With You, and for once in this thread I'd actually like to back a game up. It's a good game, and can be easily balanced to any ones skill level, though some of the later bosses seem outright hard even on easy mode. This is the only DS game I've made a point to ever actually buy (before I just borrowed from my friends collection.) I've had my poor unused DS for...3 years now I think? And I have one game to show for it, TWEWY.

I know you said you like turn-based, but despite the fact the combat is real time it's very fun. It's one of the few games that actually give very good use to the touch screen and stylus. It took me 20 hours I think, to get through the story. That seems a long time for a handheld to me. There's also extra content unlocked after the game, including a bonus parody chapter that gave me another good hour or so of game play. Also you can just run around freely to kill and collect if you feel like it as well.

The biggest downsides with the game is there really aren't as many pins as they say there are. By that I mean, there are certain pins that pretty much do the exact same thing. Though the reason there is multiples is because of pin brands (pins that are popular in a certain area get bonuses.) As per story, I hope you like reading, cause there's a lot of text-based story and only a cinema every chapter or so.

The one thing that I really like the most about this game is the way you can set the difficulty. On top of having three or four modes (can't remember specifically) difficulty settings, you can also adjust your HP bar. Lowering your HP bar will increase your chance of picking up pins, while your difficulty setting will determine which pins you have a chance to pick up. You can also chain battles, so that you fight a slew of monsters without HP recovery between battles (chain battles also up drop rates and I think exp, can't remember.)

The dual screen fighting takes awhile to learn, and by the last 1/3rd of the game you'll pretty much have to learn to use both, because even on easy the AI on the top screen just isn't enough for tough story battles, and no where near good enough for the later bosses. They also get more complex as you switch partners.

The clothing brand and food bonuses don't really have to be paid attention to, but they can help if you take the time to manage accessories. I usually ignored it cause I didn't feel like changing it so damn much. However, what pins are popular in what area is definitely something you'll want to pay attention to. Though if you want you can just fight with your unpopular pins in that area until they become popular and give you bonuses (the more you fight with a pin in the area, the more that pin's power increases.)

[Aisha379]

You were absolutely right Dan. Too Human is a horrible excuse for a game and I'm sorry I ever doubted you ='(

I know. Its okay though.


And The World Ends with you is also a great game. I was just trying to think of a 360 one...and usually the "buy X get one free" deal always means the cheapest game is the free one, so you might be better off just buying that in a seperate purchase and getting another console game for free...