Games 5/2: Xbox 360 Elite, Pinball FX, Eureka Seven, Vol. 2: The New Vision
Xbox 360 Elite
From: Microsoft
Price: $479
Ask most people to describe the Xbox 360, and the words “video” and “game” are bound to come up, likely in sequence.
That’s what makes the release of the Xbox 360 Elite a bit puzzling. It’s the same Xbox 360 you know and maybe love, and it’s still a top-notch gaming system. But there’s no way Microsoft designed this with gamers in mind.
Beyond the brand-new black casing, the Elite’s most stark change is in its hard drive. Whereas the $399 Premium model shipped with a 20-gigabyte drive and the $299 Core model didn’t even come with a hard drive, the Elite comes stacked with 120 gigabytes of free space to fill. The Elite also features HDMI compatibility, and the box includes an HDMI cable that owners of high-end displays will appreciate.
It’s hard to argue with the HDMI upgrade, but it’s just as hard to figure out why anyone who uses the Elite solely for gaming would need 100 additional gigabytes of space. As long as the Core is around, developers are obligated to code their games in a way that minimizes hard drive dependence and game save files, which never were that big anyway. Downloadable content adds up, and pack rats who can’t part with downloadable demos may appreciate the space, but neither need warrants anything close to 100 extra gigabytes.
Rather, that 100 GB is reserved for people who have taken the bait and let Microsoft sucker them into buying downloadable TV shows they could record for free with a bottom-of-the-line DVR. If you want to pay for last night’s “Colbert Report,” it’s available on Xbox Live, and Microsoft and Comedy Central are all too happy to sell it to you. The timing of this system’s release is no fluke.
The name, on the other hand, is. While the Elite provides all the tools you need to pay for previously-free television, you still need to drop close to another $100 for a first-party Wi-Fi adapter. The PS3, Wii, PSP and DS all feature built-in Wi-Fi, and it’s almost comical that a near-$500 system with “Elite” in its name is the only holdout in the group. Throw in the Wi-Fi, and the Elite is a good value for gamers and videophiles alike. Without it, though, the math doesn’t add up.
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Pinball FX
For: Xbox 360 Live Arcade
From: Zen Studios
ESRB Rating: Everyone
Price: 800 pts. (roughly $10)
Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade has really blossomed in the last year, evolving from an overpriced experiment (the Xbox days) to a so-so retrogaming museum (Xbox 360 launch) to its current status as a bastion of well-made indie games and remade classics.
“Pinball FX” falls into the “well-made indie games” category. Despite the inexplicable use of “FX” in the name — “Xtreme” and “Mania” must’ve been taken — the game is bent on recreating the experience of pinball as faithfully as possible on a video game console.
Generally, it does a fine job. The satisfaction of launching a ball heavenward feels on par with the real deal, and “FX” generally nails the sensation of high-speed pinball.
Fair warning, though: That’s the only speed it knows. If the physics in “FX” feel snappier than you remember from real pinball, you’re not imagining things. The action never feels unwieldy, but the fast speed and inability to hit soft shots undoubtedly will irk pinballers who thrive on playing a more controlled game. Fast reflexes, as well as a little ESP so you can nudge the table when a ball appears headed for a dead zone, are paramount.
“FX’s” modest three-table count is acceptable given its modest price tag, and two of the tables — themed after street racing and secret agent theatrics — are built well and thick with mini-missions and unlockable surprises. The third table is decent, but the double-decker design is one only supreme players will ever put to any good use. That it also portrays extreme sports and “street” culture in a way only Borat would buy doesn’t help, though it is good for an unintentional laugh.
Graphically, “FX” looks terrific — like a real pinball table stuffed inside your television screen. The option to view the action from five different angles is a nice touch. The menu system leaves the door open for future table downloads, and the leaderboards do what they’re supposed to do. The omission of some kind of pass-the-controller multiplayer mode is a real oversight, but “FX’s” online component — in which up to four players play on the same table in a simultaneous race to achieve a certain score — is both a riot and a clever mix of faithful pinball and something not possible in the real-life game.
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Eureka Seven, Vol. 2: The New Vision
For: Playstation 2
From: Namco Bandai
ESRB Rating: Teen (drug reference, language, mild suggestive themes, violence)
If you like fudge cookies, you’ll likely enjoy double-fudge cookies as well. On a similar note, if you enjoyed “Eureka Seven, Vol. 1,” you’re similarly bound to enjoy “Eureka Seven, Vol. 2.”
Unfortunately, just as double-fudge cookies don’t solve the inherit downsides of fudge cookies, neither does “E7V2″ address many of its predecessor’s problems. Recommending this to fans of the first is easy, but it’s not the same thing as calling it a success.
First, some credit where it’s due: The game, at least from a storytelling perspective, pays good respect to the television show on which it’s based. Like its predecessor, “E7V2″ is a prequel leading up to the events of the show, and it mingles original characters from the first game with familiar faces who play a larger part on the show than here. The game’s script comes courtesy of the show’s braintrust. and “E7V2″ brings a clearer focus and a voice cast to replace “E7V1′s” mess of dialogue boxes and uneven narratives.
“E7V2″ also better balances the ratio between gameplay and storytelling, but it’s still completely out of hand — arguably an interactive miniseries first and a video game second. Considerably more than half of the “gameplay” consists of watching the story play out. That’d be fine if the adventure broke past the 20-hour mark, but it doesn’t even get halfway there.
Then again, maybe that’s not so bad, because the action isn’t exactly spectacular. “E7V2″ is chiefly a mech fighter, albeit one with a diverse variety of confrontations — airborne mech combat, ground mech combat, hand-to-hand throwdowns and hoverboard racing. But if you not-so-fondly recall the control and pacing issues from the first game, get ready to not-so-happily reintroduce yourself to them. Stiff controls abound, gameplay is either excessively chaotic or painfully slow, and the game doesn’t test your abilities even when it loses control.
The only reason to drop money on “E7V2″ is to see what happens between the first game and the show. Even then, it’s hard to recommend this one as a buy. The sequel is noticeably better than the original in several respects, but it so completely fails to address so many serious problems that it’s still hard to call it a better game. Unless you’re an insatiable fanatic who played through the first game multiple times, this is a rental at best.