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View Full Version : SW at an all-time low! We need a good posting by Gadfly...


Glockstar
09-03-2003, 11:52 AM
... or Galvatron!

But apparently Gadfly's pre-occupied with F-Zero and Mario Golf, or something; and Galvatron is... well, Galvatron.

So I guess that just leaves me. Not good.

Especially when what I want to talk about is... the newest OXM Demo Disc!

First off... and I've said this before... the one-year subscription to the Official XBox Magazine with the bonus discs is easily, EASILY, the best $30 spent in all of videogamedom! Playable demos, video previews of upcoming games, and downloadable content... every month - delivered to your door!

Why oh why isn't Nintendo doing something like this with their Nintendo Power?!? Is it because they don't make enough games for the system to even make a demo disc worthwhile? Or is it because they're still pricks to 3rd party companies (and they'd prolly charge them about a million dollars each to put their stuff on the disc)?

On this disc (#23) we have, among other things, downloadable content for Splinter Cell (Kola Cell) and Panzer Dragoon Orta (unlock all of Pandoras Box). Bittersweet downloads as far I'm concerned. The PDO download is kinda cool, but I'd rather unlock everything myself - so it's also kind of devlish. It's tempting me! Kola Cell is definately cool; BUT it used to be that you had to have XBL in order to get these "content downloads". Now, being an XBL subscriber, I feel... like I've been submarined. Or maybe I'm just being a selfish old curmudgeon. Either way though, with XBL or without, only XBox owners get to enjoy this gaming perk!

The disc also has video previews for Fable (okay, enough already, I get that my character grows and ages... but what else does he do?!?), Sudeki (everytime I see a video of this game it looks different - now it kind of looks like a D&D Heroes/Gauntlet type of game - I don't know; still looks cool though), Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds (why does this game look good to me - did I hit my head, or something?), and XIII (I'll admit it looks very, very good - but I'm just not into killing people... so I'm still going to pass on this one).

This could very well be the best demo disc EVAR!, as it also has playable demos of Dino Crisis 3, Voodoo Vince, and Metal Arms - all 3 of which I am extremely interested in. And also ESPN NHL Hockey, Midtown Madness 3, and Outlaw Volleyball, but these other 3 are games that I have no interest in, already have, or already know I want - respectively.

DC3 and VV are XBox exclusives, MA is multiplat (and even coming to GC, yes?). Having now played thru each of these demos I have been able to draw some conclusions that will help me with my future purchases. Did I not tell you that these demo discs were a fantastic value?!? Hah!?! Though I'd like to write more about these games, I feel space running out on me - so I will keep it short:
- Dino Crisis 3... #@$% Capcom. Lots of the game was neat, and done very well... but only the frivolous stuff (cutscenes, environments, etc.). The most important parts, the gameplay and controls/camera, are rotten - just as everybody knew they'd be. I am done giving this lazy-azzed company my money! = NO!
- Voodoo Vince... reminds me a lot of Wario World for the GC, gameplay-wise. The controls and camera are just as GREAT as the humour and the graphics. There 1.1 things wrong with VV though. .1 is that you have no control over the Voodoo that you do, to your opponents - it's random. That's nothing though, really. The biggest thing wrong with VV is... Vince's voice. Oh, he's animated suberbly; he's got character/humor/personality/charisma/charm out the wazoo - but the voice is... not right. = Yes, I am definitely getting this.
- Metal Arms... I can't believe this a Vivendi game! This game is AWESOME! It basically controls similar to Mechassault (movement and firing) but with a double jump (like a platformer) and a genius favorite weapons assignment (better than any FPS). The camera is as awesome as the controls are; and so are the graphics, different weapons, and humor. I reckon this is a must have if you're looking for something with all of the above! = HELL YES!

Demo discs rule!

slade
09-03-2003, 11:58 AM
I'm looking forward to Metal Arms as well. It looked great on Extended Play especially when they showed that you could tap into and control other robots. It's nice to know that other facets of the game are good as well.

mass
09-03-2003, 06:18 PM
I have a lot of issues with OXM, beginning with the standard disc-boiling routine I have to go through to get the discs to work. The newstand price has gone up 30% in Canada. The quality of the vids is quite poor. The Halo 2 demo looked like crap. The magazine itself is fairly crappy. They lie out their rears. Next issue, the biggest news since Halo2. New issue shows up, no big news.

This mag is somewhat sloppily put together, and basically in another forum I got into it, with both the editor-in-chief and the art director over various editorial policies. Namely their slighting of sega with NO sega games ever gracing their mag cover, and their recent ass-kissing of EA and giving these bastards two covers for mass populist fare like Nightfire and LOTR:TT. I mean, c'mon, which developer was actually supporting the xbox platform with xbox only releases and which megacorp was basically thumbing its nose at the xbox and xbox owners with ports and no online support of live. But EA gets the covers and sega doesn't. Gee, I wonder what kind of perks Mike Salmon got from EA for the covers.