posted
I am getting my 17 year old son an xbox this year with something called an "xbox live kit" and the dvd attachment thingy. I've decided I will get him 4 games to go with it. Could you help me with game suggestions please? He does not like role playing games and he does not like 1st person shooters. (He says those are much better on the PC) He told me that he likes 3rd person shooters and walk-arounds, whatever that menas.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Ignore what the kid is telling you, here are the games to get him, if you want to be worshipped:
Halo Knights of the Old Republic DOA Beach Volley Ball Enter the Matrix
Although, if you are afraid of your kid looking at too many scantily clad women, replace DOA Beach Volley Ball with Soul Caliber 2 or possibly Enter the Matrix
And again, IGNORE WHAT THE KID SAYS HE WANTS.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Hrm, ok. He said he absolutely didn't want Halo but perhaps he just doesn't realize how good it is. I have three games that came with the xbox: tetris worlds, star wars: clone wars, and mech assault. I am still going to get him the other 4 though because I know that stock games that come with consoles can be very boring and low value.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Nov 2003
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Uh.. you guys forgot 'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City' -- I havn't met many people that don't like it..
Posts: 690 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Halo's pretty overrated. The game bundle you're describing, sadly, also sucks.
My recommendations:
Knights of the Old Republic Shenmue II Dead or Alive 3 Fuzion Frenzy
The first two are single-player RPGs, with limited button-mashing and very, very long stories. (However, these "RPGs" are closer to walkarounds than traditional Japanese-style RPGs, so they're probably still what he's looking for.) If you don't think he'd like that style, substitute in a driving game; Simpsons: Hit and Run comes pretty highly recommended.
Dead or Alive 3 is a decent multiplayer fighting game for the XBox (with astounding graphics), and is less demanding in terms of memorizing specific combinations of buttons than many other games of its type; in other words, it's great to play with a parent.
Fuzion Frenzy can support up to four players at once without splitting the screen and consists of around two dozen "mini-games," most of which rely on just one or two controller buttons. Each game only lasts a minute or so and is easily explained to a new player, so it's good for parties.
I haven't played either yet, but I hear Hunter: the Reckoning and Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance are both good third-person shooters (with RPG elements built in.)
Grand Theft Auto is a great game, but it's NOT one I would recommend buying for your child unless you've investigated its themes thoroughly and are comfortable with them in your living room.
posted
I hear good things about Knights of the Old Republic. Halo will only be fun if he has a bunch of friends that want to sit around playing with the jeep. Console and PC first person shooters tend to be a lot different in style so if he says he'll hate Halo he's probably telling the truth. As for DoA volleyball, that's not very Mormon of you, T. I have to say that I thought this game was lame. I understand that there's supposed to be more to the game than the simplistic controls seem to suggest on the first pass, but I didn't take the time to, erm, "probe its depths." To complete my disagreement with T, I don't know if Enter the Matrix is the best game of its type out there. If your son is a rabid Matrix fan, go for it. Otherwise, you might want to give it a miss. What about the new Prince of Persia game? That's supposed to be fantastic. If he likes fighting games you could get Soul Caliber: 2. I don't really know what he means by walk around. Something like Grand Theft Auto? It's really hard to give advice without knowing the guy. Does he have another console? What games does he own for those? What about PC games?
Meh, ulimately I don't own an Xbox so my opinion probably isn't worth much. But I thought I'd share it anyway.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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I just realized you're also getting him a subscription to Live; you do realize that's a subscription, right?
There are some games out there that are completely different -- and better -- experiences over XBox Live; Crimson Skies springs to mind immediately, as does Tetris: Worlds. A number of the first-person shooters (like Unreal Tournament) are Live-enabled, and are much more enjoyable in multiplayer that way than over the rather crippled split-screen format that's otherwise required.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Scrap the whole idea, buy him a powerful pc and high speed connection, instal cs and you've got one vegetable coming up.
If you want the kid to have a futur buy only HALO and get him to play five hours a day, may win some cash in five months.
Posts: 139 | Registered: Nov 2003
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posted
Ignore the kid?! Common now! It sounds like your kid knows exactly what he likes, and most importantly, what he DOESN'T. Walkaround? Grand Theft Vice City, for sure. That's like asking for GTA 3. Enter the Matrix, highly recommended. You'll even like it, Dad. If you give the 11 button controller a chance! Ummmm, MechAssualt SUCKS, and Tetris has never been the same since Nintendo, it willl get old QuICK. He doesnt want Halo because he prolly has it or wants it for PC. Don't get him Halo. Street Ball 2 is an excellent game if he's into basketball. Very arcade style. The Two Towers game was good too, but that's borderline RPG. Depends if he liked the movie or not. Those are a coupla recommends from an overgrown kid.
posted
Again, I'd advise you NOT to buy him Grand Theft Auto. It's a good game, but it's not the kind of game you buy for your child. (Neither is Extreme Beach Volleyball, if it comes to that, but that wasn't a serious suggestion.)
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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As has been mentioned, the new Prince of Persia game (Sands of Time) is worth investigating, seeing as how he says he likes 3rd person games. Also, Soul Calibur 2 is a very, very good fighting game.
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I can definately see your point, Tom, for a child. But 17? I think as long as he isnt hanging out with gangsters and cleaning his gun nightly he should be alright.
Posts: 213 | Registered: Dec 2003
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Ugh, i'm having a very difficult time communicating well with this. Shoot the new guy. I was reffering to Grand Theft, but it doesnt really matter. I'm not trying to be argumentative, it's just coming out that way. All apologies....
Posts: 213 | Registered: Dec 2003
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It's not that I don't think, at 17, that he can HANDLE the rather mature themes in GTA. It's that I don't think his parents should be spending their money to expose him to it. If he wants to spend his OWN allowance on gang-style killings, car theft, and hookers, more power to him -- but (and call me an old fogey for this if you like) I'm rather uncomfortable with a parental endorsement.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My recommendations, mostly distilled from everyone else's suggestions:
Crimson Skies (to take advantage of Live) Prince of Persia (innovative and attractive platformer; getting rave reviews) SoulCalibur II or Dead or Alive 3 (fighting games, fun to play with friends or with you; SoulCalibur has cool weapons, Dead or Alive has otherworldly breast physics) Munch's Oddysee (if by "walkaround" he means "platformer", then this is one of the cleverest examples of the genre around today; plus it's old and cheap)
This sucks because your kid hates all the genres I like Halo, KotOR, Morrowind, and Hitman 2 are my favorite XBox games ... but you shouldn't get him the first three because he doesn't want them, and the last one's an iffy choice because of the reasons Tom is citing.
Do listen to your kid's preferences, though. Maybe he'll be surprised and like games he never expected to ... but more likely, he'll be surprised that you ignored what he wanted, or were totally ignorant about the games Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Sorry, T. a) it was after midnight and my funny had already gone to bed. Sadly my self-restraint was still awake or that post would have been a lot more interesting. b) I didn't want to pass up a perfectly good chance to make fun of you and then there was the line "probe its depths" which I thought was a delicious double entendre. Although, I feel I should once again point out that my funny was already asleep.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Brute Force (Third-person shooter) Soul Calibur 2 (fighting) SSX 3 (Snowboarding)* Tony Hawk's Underground (Skateboarding)*
Oh yeah, and apparently Max Payne 2 came out, but I haven't read enough reviews to know if that's really any good. But IGN did give it a 9.0, and that's pretty snazzy.
* Though I've played neither, I heard they're good, and their predecessors were great.
I would honestly listen to this kid. I asked for the violent games when I was that age and my parents refused. I bought them myself. They always got me racing games. In spite I would always say, "That game is a bad influence, it makes me want to go out and drag race on city streets!"
Listen to your kid's preference, it will you both much happier. You kid will be happy because he got the games he wanted, and you will be happy because he won't complain.
My parents just got me and Xbox for my 19th birthday this October, and they only got me Star Wars: Clone Wars and Tetris Worlds. Tom is right, that game bundle sucks.
*just bought and installed Xecuter Modchip 2.2 LITE Plus* Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Heck..I'd just give him the xbox system and a gift certficate to whatever store has the best selection of games. That way he can pick out whatever games he wants.
Posts: 512 | Registered: Jun 2002
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quote: In all fairness, they DID spend at least $175 on your birthday, which is really pretty generous.
Agreed.
Oh Tom, I never said I didn't thoroughly enjoy the gift (still do ), It's just those games got boring quickly. I have over 10 games now that I bought for myself. I play every day. It's one of the bests gifts I have ever recieved from my parents. I'm not ungrateful.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Project Gotham Racing kicks arse, but you do feel like drag racing afterwards. I had to avoid playing it directly before driving for that exact reason. lol. Tom, you make a *damn* good point.
Posts: 213 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I hated it. I played it for a full 2 hours and I never liked it. I kept playing because I thought it would somehow get better, and it never did.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Basically you can edit savegames so you can "beat" Halo and have all the movies and without actually going through it on legendary level.
That's one way. You can store games on your hard drive. That's not illegal as long as you own the game before-hand. That's a few things.
Of course, you could pirate copies from other people without owning the games, and that is probably why most people would want the chip, but I don't want it for that reason. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Very cool!!! Have you even tapped the ammount of space on your disk on the xbox? I think i have 30,000 pages already saved with it still registering 50,000+ available.
Posts: 213 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I have replaced my Xbox's hard drive with one 15 times larger.
(120 GB)
Basically, I'll never run out of room, and I never need to have my game dvds with me to play on it. I can travel with it without the game dvds which is a big plus for me. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Well, I did the labor myself. The Hard Drive was $80. Not that much. I own all the games I play just so you know. Well no, I rent sometimes. Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Whoa, is that normal 80$ for that size drive? Or do you know somebody? No need to explain ownership, I judge not. Posts: 213 | Registered: Dec 2003
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That's cheap for a 120 gig drive, but very doable. I find that you can get some serious deals if you watch the sales at the office stores, Staples, Office Max, etc.
One question I have. With the mod chip, does Live still work? From what I have heard moding it breaks that.
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Over Thanksgiving, I bought a 250GB 8MB cache drive for $79 from CompUSA. That's not a deal I'm likely to see again in a while, though.
I haven't modded my XBox, mainly because I'm very wary about playing with proprietary hardware; it'd be a shame if I turned it into an expensive paperweight if Microsoft ever releases a "patch" that checks for mods.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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If you even open the case, Microsoft's Xbox Live servers can tell, and you automatically are not allowed on the network with that particular box. It also voids the warranty.
Posts: 4229 | Registered: Dec 2002
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Halo, KotOR, Morrowind, and Hitman 2 are my favorite XBox games ... but you shouldn't get him the first three because he doesn't want them, and the last one's an iffy choice because of the reasons Tom is citing.![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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), It's just those games got boring quickly. I have over 10 games now that I bought for myself. I play every day. It's one of the bests gifts I have ever recieved from my parents. I'm not ungrateful.
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