Xbox 360 Game Room, thoughts?

[MegaDrive20XX]

Did anyone download and try it out? So far, I love the concept but with so many lock ups and issues I'd say this one needs a patch badly. However, the Konami Arcade classics they haven chosen to start it off with are quite impressive. Shao-Lin's Road and Battantlis was a big surprise.

[thetoxicone]

I downloaded it to play some crystal castles, have tried much other than that.

[phreakindee]

My Video Review of MS Game Room:


I'm enjoying it, if I don't think about it too much. It's really a microtransaction nightmare, but I'll get to that.

I had no issues with freezing, crashing or server errors that keep getting reported on - on either 360 or Windows versions. The games themselves aren't bad for starting off and the achievements for playing in the game room itself are nice. There are tons of nice touches, like the arcade ambience option, the retro themes and objects, realistic arcade machines (even down to actual control panels and glowing coin boxes), and the extras like Mascots are awesome. I like the medals system too, it gives a great incentive to get better at a game I normally wouldn't.

However, they are two totally different versions - Win and 360. You have to make separate arcades for each platform, which sucks. You also have to pay extra to use the machines on both, so pick one platform and go with it. I'm staying with 360, more friends there.

And it's EXPENSIVE! Or, it can be - haven't bought but a few games myself. Of course, if you have Namco Museum or something from XBLA, the games don't carry over. But worse is how costly everything gets.

Here's the thing: to unlock new items for your arcade, you have to earn medals to level up. To do that, you have to buy arcade games. But once you unlock the few medals for a game, you have to buy another game to get more medals to unlock any more stuff to customize your arcade - otherwise things get bland quickly. The games needed to level up are only $3 each for each platform, but here's the math:

15 medals per game
20 medals per "level up"
50 levels to unlock all arcade items

so...
1000 medals needed = 66.6 games needed

@3.00/game...
~$200 to unlock all items, not including "extras" ie. mascots

not to mention there aren't 66 games yet. This sucks. But the concept is interesting, I hope eventually you can walk around in the arcade with your friends, as the ambiance is incredible.

[otoko]

I'll let you know if I get my 360 back, or play it again...

[Leo_A]

Do the games have normal achievements, or just the medals you mention?

[phreakindee]

Do the games have normal achievements, or just the medals you mention?

No game-specific achievements at all. You get three sets of medals per game, at gold/silver/bronze. These are for high score, survival (longest play) and total time playing the game. These medals add to your arcade's level, with enough medals you gain a level and certain levels give achievements - sort of an odd role-playing deal.

[Shadow Kisuragi]

Leo,
To answer your question, yes: there are normal achievements.
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/g.../achievements/

They require that you purchase enough games to earn the medals, however.

[phreakindee]

Do the games have normal achievements

To clarify, the games do NOT have achievements. The Game Room, however, does.

[jcalder8]

Damn I thought this was going to be about a games room that was totally decked out in 360 stuff.

[Dobie]

I liked the concept, but a couple things put me off (other than the price). Having avatars in the arcade makes it incredibly difficult to see the game you are trying to choose, because their gigantic heads block the marquee and screens. Not as big of a problem for games with side art, but for the games with generic "Atari" or "Konami" on the side, you have to scroll around or wait for the avatar to "move" in order to see what game you want. Maybe there's a way to bypass this? Also, the glitchiness and slowness of the arcade application, combined with the fact that all purchases are tied to Game Room, and not directly accessible from the dashboard turned me off.

That said, it is nice to see a company like MS support older titles like this. If you listen to this week's Major Nelson podcast, he interviews one of the developers behind the Game Room. The sheer amount of work and research the Game Room team put in to find the license holders and obtain the rights is impressive and deserves some props. I can tell that he's enthusiastic and into retro games... I just wish I LIKED the final product.

[tholly]

I'm confused about the difference between the 240 pt purchase vs. the 400 pt purchase of games.

What are the differences? Is it just playing on Xbox for the 240 and Xbox & Windows for the 400? I don't use Windows (only own a Mac), so if that is the only extra thing I would get for the extra 160 pt, I can safely skip that then?

[MegaDrive20XX]

I'm confused about the difference between the 240 pt purchase vs. the 400 pt purchase of games.

What are the differences? Is it just playing on Xbox for the 240 and Xbox & Windows for the 400? I don't use Windows (only own a Mac), so if that is the only extra thing I would get for the extra 160 pt, I can safely skip that then?

400 let's you play the game on 360 and PC, since you can carry over your profile. Yet, imho spending the extra 160 is pretty stupid, since I don't find myself playing on both platforms.

[Octopod]

I'm confused about the difference between the 240 pt purchase vs. the 400 pt purchase of games.

What are the differences? Is it just playing on Xbox for the 240 and Xbox & Windows for the 400? I don't use Windows (only own a Mac), so if that is the only extra thing I would get for the extra 160 pt, I can safely skip that then?

Exactly. The 400 point purchase gives you access via 360 and Games for Windows Live.


Edit: WTF? It took me less than a minute to type up my post, not 6. Yet that last post was not there before. Odd.

[The 1 2 P]

I downloaded it and enjoyed the free 5 point achievement I got. I walked around the arcade and didn't see one thing I wanted to spend my 20 tokens on. It's a very cool concept but until they have games I want to play I won't be spending very much time in there.

[Nature Boy]

Am I the only one who gets 'server unavaialble' when I boot it up? I can play and stuff, but I can't see anyone else's arcade or progress.

[grolt]

I've been playing the shit out of Battlantis lately. Great game! A nice medieval variation on the Space Invaders theme with good graphics (especially compared to all the pixel work of most of the Atari/Intelevision games). The music is pretty robust too, especially considering the time the game was made. Most of the other games I'd heard of, but that was a blind spot for me and I'm really happy that the Game Room introduced it to me.

So when you pay 40 for one play, is that like one continue, or just a single sitting? If it were a sitting then that would be worthwhile, because yeah, you could just grind through it until you get the medals you want. Otherwise though, it's buy all the way. I've got three now, Adventure, Yars and the aforementioned Battlantis.

[davepesc]

So when you pay 40 for one play, is that like one continue, or just a single sitting? If it were a sitting then that would be worthwhile, because yeah, you could just grind through it until you get the medals you want. Otherwise though, it's buy all the way. I've got three now, Adventure, Yars and the aforementioned Battlantis.

It's just like playing in the arcade. You get one play, until you lose all your lives or reach some kind of "Game Over."

[The 1 2 P]

Am I the only one who gets 'server unavaialble' when I boot it up? I can play and stuff, but I can't see anyone else's arcade or progress.

I got that message once but it still let me enter the arcade. As for not seeing anyone else's arcade, it may just be that no one on your friends list has downloaded it yet. The first time I tried to view my friends arcade not one person had downloaded it yet. But the next day I finally found one person(who is still the only person on my friends list to have downloaded it) who had and I was able to visit her arcade to get that achievement.

[mezrabad]

I haven't played it yet, but thanks for letting me know it's out!

I am put off by the price, but only because I feel I've paid many times over already, either in the arcade or on consoles to play a lot of the games. Yet, at the same time, it would be cool to have them all in the same interface and playable from my couch... though I'm sure I could probably do the same thing on my Dreamcast or my modified original Xbox.

[Lerxstnj]

For those that could not see/read all the games...
Here is the current list:

Adventure
Armor Battle
Asteroids Deluxe
Astrosmash
Centipede
Battlantis
Crystal Castles
Gravitar
Lunar Lander
Red Baron
Combat
Finalizer
Football
Tempest
Jungler
Millipede
Outlaw
Road Fighter
Realsports Tennis
Sea Battle
Scramble
Skiing, Mountain Madness/Super Pro
Space Armada
Space Hawk
Shao-lin's Road (Kicker)
Star Raiders
Super Cobra
Sub Hunt
Tutankham
Yar's Revenge

And the old Activision games are coming next.