Is Xbox Arcade failing to deliver on its potential?

Buffalo wrote:

HSH28 wrote:The only charge PSN is leading is one were you can download new games that are also available at retail...and by lead you have to mean follow the PC at a massive distance and by charge you have to mean taking tiny baby steps towards it.

Whar does that even mean? Are you trying to discredit PSN because a few of them are available at retail level? Could somebody ask the same about half of the Live Arcade selection? Arguably they could. Your last sentence there is too silly to be worth comment, really.

HSH28 wrote:I like the fact the downloadable games are more or less unique (in terms of playing the games on that console) to the service

which is ironic in a way, because most of the PSN content is actually rather, y'know, unique. I note with interest that you've not once mentioned Flower in any of your diatribes. Maybe you're the one missing something and not us. Y'know, for once?

Neither of what you've said is in any way relevant to what he said as both go without saying.

Please leave the forum again sometime soon.

I'm not sure you are convincing anyone with that argument.

Steam is better than XBLA and PSN.

PC wins again.

On a personal level, I'm not a fan of old games. There's really no interest there for me and having to fork out 400, 800 or 1200 points for an old game just doesn't seem like a worthwhile purchase.
Case in point:

Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were uploaded to XBL last week and cost 1200points each. Which is roughly £12.
I went on ebay and bought the original Xbox discs for £4 each including postage. I saved £16 and got manuals and original covers with all the same features as what I would have got from MS in a downloadable format.

The pricing has to change drastically. I don't mind paying extra for something like Lost and Damned but not for some games that I've got little or no interest in normally but because they turn up on LIVE there's suddenly a novelty attached.
For the record, I'm not a fan of PSN either but at least Sony seem to be providing "fresh" IPs and new inventive experiences through the medium.

Winckle wrote:Steam is better than XBLA and PSN.

PC wins again.

Someone posted that if you get your disc game early you can't play it until release day and it gets validated,is that true?

Why would you buy the disc if you had it pre-loaded on steam?

chalkitdown wrote:Why would you buy the disc if you had it pre-loaded on steam?

Just what somebody said, they got the game early but couldn't play it, just wanted to know if that's true or not.

Rik wrote:

Winckle wrote:Steam is better than XBLA and PSN.

PC wins again.

Someone posted that if you get your disc game early you can't play it until release day and it gets validated,is that true?

I think it varies depending on the title and how the publisher has chosen to distribute their game, though it's probably largely true.

Ah, coming back into this thread makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Look, I think Tomvek's quite brilliant metacritic post has ended the argument between PSN and XBLA. XBLA wins.

In other news, I love XBLA, its brilliant. The demo feature is one of the best things about it! All the services should have this, PSN and especially the Wii! Nightmare waiting to see reviews before knowing whats good and whats not!

Rik wrote:

Winckle wrote:Steam is better than XBLA and PSN.

PC wins again.

Someone posted that if you get your disc game early you can't play it until release day and it gets validated,is that true?

That's right, if you buy the disc version of a steamworks game it won't let you play until the official release. BFD.

I say again, the size restrictions are there because of the problem of 20GB hard drives (and arguably the Arcade model, although I don't seriously suspect that anyone within MS actually believes that Arcade buyers will buy any XBLA games).

The PS3, with its larger hard drive configurations from the start, has not seen the need to limit its game sizes as a consequence. (LOLZ at people with 40GB models and lots of Capcom retail games.)

Buffalo wrote:

HSH28 wrote:The only charge PSN is leading is one were you can download new games that are also available at retail...and by lead you have to mean follow the PC at a massive distance and by charge you have to mean taking tiny baby steps towards it.

Whar does that even mean? Are you trying to discredit PSN because a few of them are available at retail level?

Quite a few were available to download well before they were made available at retail, too. While Sony botched the Siren release, once I had finally downloaded it all, I was able to play it months and months before anyone who waited for the Blu-Ray version.

HSH28 wrote:I like the fact the downloadable games are more or less unique (in terms of playing the games on that console) to the service

which is ironic in a way, because most of the PSN content is actually rather, y'know, unique. I note with interest that you've not once mentioned Flower in any of your diatribes. Maybe you're the one missing something and not us. Y'know, for once?[/quote]

Yeah, there's Flower, Riff, Noby Noby Boy...hell, even Linger in Shadows is a fascinating experiment. For me personally, the most innovative downloadable stuff has come on PSN. And I'm surprised, because I thought WiiWare might lead the way in that area.

Hero of Canton wrote:Yeah, there's Flower, Riff, Noby Noby Boy...hell, even Linger in Shadows is a fascinating experiment. For me personally, the most innovative downloadable stuff has come on PSN. And I'm surprised, because I thought WiiWare might lead the way in that area.

This.

I was having a chat with Rodders whilst playing Motorstorm the other week and we were saying how Sony seem to be like Nintendo were last gen. The PS3 and PSP mirror the Gamecube and GBA rather well. In that first party games are of a high standard and looking to try new and interesting things. I think this is why Sony seem to be winning me over this gen, much like Nintendo did last gen.

Eighthours wrote:I say again, the size restrictions are there because of the problem of 20GB hard drives (and arguably the Arcade model, although I don't seriously suspect that anyone within MS actually believes that Arcade buyers will buy any XBLA games).

The PS3, with its larger hard drive configurations from the start, has not seen the need to limit its game sizes as a consequence. (LOLZ at people with 40GB models and lots of Capcom retail games.)

The man has a point, if I want to play banjo kazooie with an acceptable load time I have to install it, which means uninstalling GTA since it only has enough space for a single game install.

Winckle wrote:The man has a point, if I want to play banjo kazooie with an acceptable load time I have to install it, which means uninstalling GTA since it only has enough space for a single game install.

Totally unrelated, but do you get a big improvement from L4D if you install it? The loading on that seems very s l o w.

Kiran wrote:

Winckle wrote:The man has a point, if I want to play banjo kazooie with an acceptable load time I have to install it, which means uninstalling GTA since it only has enough space for a single game install.

Totally unrelated, but do you get a big improvement from L4D if you install it? The loading on that seems very s l o w.

You might, personally, but since you're playing with 3 other people and the game has to synch all of you up, not in online multiplayer which is the whole point of the game. So even if you loaded faster, you wouldn't see any practical effect.

Kiran wrote:

Winckle wrote:The man has a point, if I want to play banjo kazooie with an acceptable load time I have to install it, which means uninstalling GTA since it only has enough space for a single game install.

Totally unrelated, but do you get a big improvement from L4D if you install it? The loading on that seems very s l o w.

Not really, I noticed that its slightly faster loading up the main menu but as I only ever play with my mates [who haven't got it on the HDD] I don't notice any difference as I think the game has to synchronize the start with everyone.

The Orange box install cuts load times by half though, well worth it if you have it.

Eighthours wrote:
You might, personally, but since you're playing with 3 other people and the game has to synch all of you up, not in online multiplayer which is the whole point of the game. So even if you loaded faster, you wouldn't see any practical effect.

I don't play online so that won't be a problem. How long do these installs take? I might give it a try next time I play it.

Kiran wrote:I don't play online so that won't be a problem. How long do these installs take? I might give it a try next time I play it.