A2K
Dec 13, 2003, 11:28 PM
Just hypothetically, if (key word, emphasis here) they made a PSO Episode I & II Plus for Xbox and released it in the US, there are a few things I'd like to see in the title.
First and foremost, the Xbox Live integration in the current game is great, but, undeniably a little half-assed. The whole Guild Card/Friends List thing can be a little more than confusing at first, and on the whole is pretty unintuitive. Make the Guild Card/Friends List integration better. You should be able to sort/view both lists by either Gamertag or character. I want to be able to see whether or not people in my list are actually playing PSO right away instead of searching each online name individually--I don't necessarily want to bother people playing Tetris Worlds or Rainbow Six 3 or what have you.
Ah, and, the game should keep a more active cache of people in games and lobbies. If/when more malicious cheating were to occur, being able to report it using the XBL feedback system becomes imperative. Unfortunately, if you were to be FSODed or something, the list would erase when you started the game up again, so... no reporting for you. Blah. Being able to send feedback even if you were dead would be a nice touch.
Actually, online support as a whole could stand to improve a little bit. Remember the Halloween quest debacle? I honestly don't think Microsoft or Sonic Team or whoever actually knew that there was a problem with it on the US servers. Streamline the whole process, or something, for chrissakes.
Stop with the Engrish? Or, rather, revise the in-game text, please. It's not horrible, just some punctuation and grammar things that need to be addressed--plural and singular agreement, verb things, general sentence structure online. It'd be nice to have a "real" Message of the Day like the Japanese's (just set your Xbox to Japanese and go online to see it) instead of the recent unrevised offerings.
Of course... include the offline content available in the GCN version of Plus. This one's practically a given. It'd be nice to have a facility to play at least some download quests with friends. Ah, and...
Do something about the whole Gamertag/Xbox Live required/your Xbox dies, your characters die with it shtick. It was a simple enough change--instead relying on serial numbers and CD keys, make it rely on your Gamertag. This, unfortunately, sucked a big portion of functionality from the game. You *must* have an Xbox Live gamertag. *must must must*
*sigh* Just come up with something better?
While playing offline, make the game Xbox Live Aware. Be able to get invites to PSO and other games, etc. Actually, if anything can't be done about the previous item this would at least bridge the gap a little better.
Cross-region play... but, er, you know, just automatically do that. Don't make it Plus-exclusive or anything. Actually, I'm guessing that this will take work by Microsoft rather than Sonic Team to do (connecting their different Xbox Live set ups around the world and whatnot), so, it's unlikely. But this is a speculative thread, so why shouldn't I add it?
Stick that camera trick back in... even if you can't actually take snapshots anymore because of some Microsoft verification thing or something, at least make the camera control thing available to those of us with a capture card!
Now... how to justify the cost of getting a game that's basically the same with a few tweaks? Simple: release this only as part of a double-pack along with a port of Episode III for $50. Hell, throw that free keyboard adapter you can send for right into the box, too. Current owners of the game get a brand-spanking new title along with an enhanced version of the one they own, and new owners, well, they get two titles for a pretty damn good price (both at a little more than "Platinum Hits" price for each). Hell, you can pick up this game for Xbox for around $20 now anyway, actually.
Well that's all... what do you think?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: A2K on 2003-12-13 20:29 ]</font>
First and foremost, the Xbox Live integration in the current game is great, but, undeniably a little half-assed. The whole Guild Card/Friends List thing can be a little more than confusing at first, and on the whole is pretty unintuitive. Make the Guild Card/Friends List integration better. You should be able to sort/view both lists by either Gamertag or character. I want to be able to see whether or not people in my list are actually playing PSO right away instead of searching each online name individually--I don't necessarily want to bother people playing Tetris Worlds or Rainbow Six 3 or what have you.
Ah, and, the game should keep a more active cache of people in games and lobbies. If/when more malicious cheating were to occur, being able to report it using the XBL feedback system becomes imperative. Unfortunately, if you were to be FSODed or something, the list would erase when you started the game up again, so... no reporting for you. Blah. Being able to send feedback even if you were dead would be a nice touch.
Actually, online support as a whole could stand to improve a little bit. Remember the Halloween quest debacle? I honestly don't think Microsoft or Sonic Team or whoever actually knew that there was a problem with it on the US servers. Streamline the whole process, or something, for chrissakes.
Stop with the Engrish? Or, rather, revise the in-game text, please. It's not horrible, just some punctuation and grammar things that need to be addressed--plural and singular agreement, verb things, general sentence structure online. It'd be nice to have a "real" Message of the Day like the Japanese's (just set your Xbox to Japanese and go online to see it) instead of the recent unrevised offerings.
Of course... include the offline content available in the GCN version of Plus. This one's practically a given. It'd be nice to have a facility to play at least some download quests with friends. Ah, and...
Do something about the whole Gamertag/Xbox Live required/your Xbox dies, your characters die with it shtick. It was a simple enough change--instead relying on serial numbers and CD keys, make it rely on your Gamertag. This, unfortunately, sucked a big portion of functionality from the game. You *must* have an Xbox Live gamertag. *must must must*
*sigh* Just come up with something better?
While playing offline, make the game Xbox Live Aware. Be able to get invites to PSO and other games, etc. Actually, if anything can't be done about the previous item this would at least bridge the gap a little better.
Cross-region play... but, er, you know, just automatically do that. Don't make it Plus-exclusive or anything. Actually, I'm guessing that this will take work by Microsoft rather than Sonic Team to do (connecting their different Xbox Live set ups around the world and whatnot), so, it's unlikely. But this is a speculative thread, so why shouldn't I add it?
Stick that camera trick back in... even if you can't actually take snapshots anymore because of some Microsoft verification thing or something, at least make the camera control thing available to those of us with a capture card!
Now... how to justify the cost of getting a game that's basically the same with a few tweaks? Simple: release this only as part of a double-pack along with a port of Episode III for $50. Hell, throw that free keyboard adapter you can send for right into the box, too. Current owners of the game get a brand-spanking new title along with an enhanced version of the one they own, and new owners, well, they get two titles for a pretty damn good price (both at a little more than "Platinum Hits" price for each). Hell, you can pick up this game for Xbox for around $20 now anyway, actually.
Well that's all... what do you think?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: A2K on 2003-12-13 20:29 ]</font>