The GHZ Forum

So I got an Xbox, finally. A friend of mine gave me Halo 1 and 2, Fable, and the two KOTOR games for free, which was something of an incentive. I picked up Half-Life 2, JSRF, and Stranger’s Wrath on my own. Anybody have any other suggestions? I’m thinking Panzer Dragoon Orta (my first foray into the franchise), Shenmue II, Stubbs the Zombie, and Ninja Gaiden. Should I give Blinx a shot? Is Psychonauts worth buying again if I already have the PS2 version?

you already have more games than I own on Xbox. But you should get Panzer Dragoon Orta that games is pretty sweet.

If the XBOX version of Psychonauts is just the same as the PS2 one sans the slowdown and ocassional frameskip, I'd give it a shot. And I heard Far Cry Instincts's pretty fun too.

Import Shenmue II for the Dreamcast if you really have to play it (which you do). The Xbox version has English voice acting that can be sort of grating at times. Psychonauts is slightly better on the Xbox, but not enough to warrant a repurchase. Ninja Gaiden is gold, though.

Panzer Dragoon definitely, it's the best game on the system except for Psychonauts. Ninja Gaiden's pretty good too - even though it's basically another Ninja-May-Cry, the level design is much richer and more interesting than is the norm for such ilk. Beyond Good and Evil is one of my favorites, but there are other (probably less glitchy) versions you can get. Also, I will continue to defend DoAX if you're comfortable enough in your masculinity to concede to playing a big, glossy dollhouse sim. (Shame about that sequel...)

I would, uh... I would avoid Stubbs the Zombie......

So hey, am I the only guy who thought Psychonauts kinda sucked? Great art direction and a killer script, but underneath it all was just a stale and frustrating platformer.

What was wrong with DoAX2? I played the first one and didn't really get it but I kind of admired it anyway.

Your point about Psychonauts becomes painfully noticeable at the end of the game, Popcorn. The levels are a hell of a lot of fun when you first explore them and with the context of missions and story. Once each level is complete, though, revisiting them is about as exciting as playing DDR without the dancepad.

How's Otogi? I've heard the name dropped once or twice and it looks like it might be okay.

Senbei wrote:How's Otogi? I've heard the name dropped once or twice and it looks like it might be okay.

Luckett swears by it, but he's stupid and funny-lookin'. It's very shiny, but shallow and unrewarding. Or at least that's my take on it.

And, by the way, you've bagged yourself a lot of really good Xbox games there. I'm a big defender of the Halo games, space marines and all, and the first KOTOR is a hell of a lot better than I would have expected a Star Wars RPG to be. Orta is beautiful, and worth playing on Hard once you can handle it. For my money, Ninja Gaiden is by far the best of the Devil May Cry/God of War crowd, and Half-Life 2 might be the best game ever made.

If you haven't played Shenmue yet, do so at any cost, but try to play Shenmue 1 first, if you can.

I understand Outrun 2 is also pretty good. I own the Japanese version because Silv mentioned something about more cleavage, though I have no Japanese Xbox to play it on. I played the arcade version for about 5 minutes and it was pretty cool.

Popcorn wrote:So hey, am I the only guy who thought Psychonauts kinda sucked? There wasn't nearly enough butt sex and everybody knows I love the cock.

Point.

Popcorn wrote:What was wrong with DoAX2? I played the first one and didn't really get it but I kind of admired it anyway.

The balance, mainly. The whole appeal of the game is to amass swimsuits, but now each girl will only wear a specific few that she "likes", even if they're from her own inventory. It's pointless to collect dozens and dozens of nice suits only to have each girl wear the same 2 over and over again. It's kind of a shame, because the suit designs are more interesting (and, of course, skimpier) - there aren't nearly as many "dud" suits as the original.

The volleyball's been screwed up, too. It was not deep or especially engaging in the original, but it was a sufficient twitch diversion. All you really had to do was press the right button on time and you could win consistently, but the added "depth" in the sequel just makes it more frustrating and impossible to develop a rhythm. There are alot of other new minigames, but they all suck. I was really disappointed.

Ninja Gaiden is also on my list of games to eventually pick up.
Which is better, NG, or NG Black?

(I'd be playing it on the 360, so take into account any compatibility problems of which you're aware.)

Nobody's mentioned Escape from Butcher Bay. I guess people don't think too highly of it? (Never played it myself.)

About the only XBox games I've put some time into are Halo, Halo 2, and DOA 3.

DOA 3 is pretty good for a fighting game that's not as deep as Virtua Fighter, but more technical than something like Smash Bros. or D.O.N. Stadium.

Outrun Coast 2 Coast is by far the best game on XBox, it looks simply amazing and there's so much extra content. It's really a must have if you like arcade driving, since it's not racing usually. And like others said, go for Ninja Gaiden Black, funnest 3D action game I've played. House of the Dead III is great too if you're into light gun shooters, though make sure you don't play it with a controller.

Everything else I have on XBox I thought was lame, including Panzer Dragoon Orta and Shenmue 2(first one is great, of course).

And yes MiraiTails, Ninja Gaiden Black is best. It's basically the same game but tweaked everywhere to make it better/harder and it has the downloadable stuff already on it. It froze once on 360 for me though(I only played it once), but so did all the other BC games on 360 plus I'm sure it has sound glitches; I assume the freezing is rare though.

Ninja Gaiden Black is best. It's basically the same game but tweaked everywhere to make it better/harder

Good heavens, wasn't it hard enough?

Itagaki deemed some of the moves made it somewhat easier when exploited correctly, so he toned them down, added enemies' counterattacks when they are used, or ditched them altogether.
Details.

Also, for anyone that dug Ratchet: Deadlocked, they'll probably like Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict.

I got to play Outrun 2006 in an arcade in Japan and it was probably my favorite game out of the ones I played. Then I borrowed it for my PS2 and got kind of bored with it after a couple hours of play. I didn't unlock much stuff, though, so maybe it gets better.

Popcorn wrote:Luckett swears by it, but he's stupid and funny-lookin'. It's very shiny, but shallow and unrewarding. Or at least that's my take on it.

It is shallow and unrewarding! Also fairly frustrating at points. However, I found the sequel to be pretty fun as it allowed for a few different styles of play through multiple characters and had a number of well designed levels. I can only remember one that was particularly frustrating that involved escorting (surprise!) a floating visage of yourself to a mirror or something. At the very least it was very, very pretty.

I too would recommend Orta and BG&E. I wasn't aware the Xbox incarnation of the latter was particularly glitchy, though, and I played through it.

Get yourself "Phantom Dust". Not only is it a great game, but it's probably the greatest budget game ever created.

Breakdown! It's a bit difficult in spots, but the first-person perspective really helps to bring you into the game, and the story's not bad.

Depending on whether or not you like racing games: The Project Gotham Racing series are excellent. 2 has a good difficulty curve for beginners and apparently has got really good online modes.

DOA 3 or Ultimate are quite good as well.

MiraiTails wrote:Ninja Gaiden is also on my list of games to eventually pick up.
Which is better, NG, or NG Black?

(I'd be playing it on the 360, so take into account any compatibility problems of which you're aware.)

Nobody's mentioned Escape from Butcher Bay. I guess people don't think too highly of it? (Never played it myself.)

Get NG Black. It's more balanced, more tweaked, etc. Yeah, it's harder, but it also has a brand-new easy mode ("Ninja Dog Mode") where you get special power-ups that make defeating enemies and stuff a lot easier.

The easy-mode bonus power-ups also have the delightful side effect of dressing you like an eight-year-old girl.

All my "must" games have been commented on the thread, I can only add Conker Live and Reloaded that is the same excellent game it was in N64 with better graphics and if you like to frighten in front of a Japanese ghost story the two Fatal Frame/Project Zero are great too (and with audio 5.1 are greater xD), the third was only released on PS2 thou

I bought Phantom Dust a year ago but I still have to mod one of my 2 PAL xbox, the game was not released here in Europe and I am curious about the last game of the Panzer Dragoon series creator.

Orta is worth playing on hard someone said? I must have totally sucked ass at that game then cause I had to turn it to easy and still had a bit of trouble on the final boss. As for Ninja Gaiden, I never played Black (didn't want to rebuy the same game), but I didn't think it was that hard. It just had a few spots that were tough, like Alma and the two versions of that Doku guy. As far as other games go to recommend, the Xbox was kind of plagued by shooters, so if you want to get Live I bet a few are still kicking. Other than that, it's all kinda been mentioned except the stuff that came out on everything else.

By the way, I kinda agree with Popcorn on Psychonauts. It was a great and fun game, but in the end it was just another platformer. I didn't go back to any of the worlds, but the end was pretty fucking frusturating having to save that fat kid and then race against the water. Still a kickass game though, in the end isn't it the art direction and story and little things that tend to make games stand out? How often does some huge new gameplay mechanic get introduced that makes a game new and original. It always usually just a slightly improved version of something thats been done before.