I’m going to get an Xbox 360 for Christmas and I was wondering about Xbox Live. Right now I’m a little upset that I’ll have to pay $50 a year if I want to play my games online, but I’ve heard people say it is worth it because the Xbox 360 has the best online features. But I haven’t heard too many reasons why Xbox Live is worth $50 a year when the other systems’ online services are free.
So why is Xbox Live so great? Is the $50 a year a clever scam on Microsoft’s part or is Xbox Live so much better than the competition that the price is justified?
I haven’t had any experience with PSN or the Wii network, but Xbox Live is reliable, frequently updated, stocked with free-to-download content for your games, game demos, themes, music, movies via streaming Netflix as well as movie trailers, music videos… the works.
$50 is a little steep in my opinion, considering they charge for all that other good stuff anyway even if you have a Silver account (and the taste in my mouth is sour what with a month or two essentially lost due to hardware failure and a lack of compensation and information), but what you get for that amount is stable online gaming with plenty of nifty little demos and classic games for download like Duke Nukem 3D, a revamped version of Bionic Commando and plenty more. Not to mention you can buy a Gold subscription for 1, 3 or 13 months.
Compared to what I’ve heard regarding PSN, the gameplay is way more stable and theres far less lag. Not to mention Xbox Live has like 14 million people on it.
You can download demos and buy games and movies and shows on XBL regardless of your XBL status (gold v silver). Gold allows you to subscribe to netflix on your 360 and it allows you to play games like Halo 3 and GoW2 online with people. If playing online with people doesn’t interest you and neither does netflix, do not buy an XBL subscription.
As Sorc mentioned, they offer the best service of the 3 for people that are into that stuff.
It should be mentioned that Silver is free for anyone with an XBox360, and you can still download virtually everything. The perks of a gold account are:
You can play games against other people online
You can stream select movies off Netflix, which is actually pretty cool, for anyone who hasn’t tried it yet
Some demos and game add-ons are available to gold account members first, and silver account members have to wait a week or two.
Also, I’m not sure how many demos do this, but I know at least one demo - Age of Booty - allows you to play online for free with the demo for two days. I think other games should follow this trend.
I agree. Everybody went bananas over Castle Crashers, but I was rather unimpressed. If a trial online period had been included in the demo I probably would have bought the game. Left 4 Dead featured an online only demo and that games gone through the roof.
Yeah, Castle Crashers is boring as all fucking hell by yourself. Thankfully, when I played the demo, I played it with my friend - we were both like ‘oh yeah, let’s buy this’ lol. I think I would have just said ‘neat’ and never thought about it again if I had played the demo by myself.
You guys are crazy, I played the demo with three people and thats the most formulaic and simple game on Xbox Live (besides, say, Geometry Wars - the problem with these games is that they are remakes of classic, classic games that have been remade and remade over and over) I have literally played thousands of iterations of these games. Castle Crashers is EXACTLY like Gauntlet except prettier.
I think the Gauntlet you played is significantly different from the Gauntlet everyone else played Are you talking about a new one or something?
Castle Crashers like a beat em’ up game, a la Golden Axe, River City Ransom, TMNT, or Final Fight. I don’t think I’ve played any of them that had projectile magic or air combos, though. I will say that the TMNT games are kind of close to the sheer amount of stuff you can do when you attack someone, but Castle Crashers is light years ahead of games in its ilk…except maybe the Gauntlet game you were talking about. If you know a Gauntlet game that’s like Castle Crashers, then fuck, I wanna play it!
You shoot arrows and swing swords/melee in Gauntlet (sure, there’s a little magic, but doesn’t that add depth? thus making Gauntlet better?) which is exactly what you do in Castle Crashers. Projectile magic? Air combos? What Gauntlet are YOU play? Im referring to the PS2/Xbox release. Anyways, I just have to say that I was thoroughly unimpressed.
The one on the Xbox/PS2 was a mix of side scroller and top down, but when I say top down, I mean more of an angle. Really though, the gameplay is the same besides the point of view, if that’s what you’re trying ti nitpick over.
Point is, if the game is so fun an online demo would’ve shown that.
Are you talking about a new one or something?