ninjabee.com

Yup...like we all knew..er...suspected, Mad Tracks will drop on XBLA this week. Commence the typical discussion.

http://www.xblarcade.com/node/630
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/ ... 50760.aspx

Just about to say that...It looks pretty damn fun! Might actually buy it.

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Fastest reply...ever!

Yeah...I will definitely demo this. Hopefully it turned out well. Never tried the PC version.

lol, I just read it on Gamerscoreblog, and was about to post it. Oh well. It does look really fun though. It's been a while since I played a fun racer (probably since MKDS).

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Really fun game. I have been craving an arcade style racing game, but couldn't decide on one. PGR3 is too hardcore for my racing tastes. The weapons/gameplay and such remind me of XG3 and Mario Kart's love child...which is a good thing.

The spring engine and other factors eliminate a lot of the aspects of other racing games I dislike. I bought the full game.

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That monkey is going to pay...

I don't really like the spring all that well, but it does make it different I guess...

The demo was fun, but the full version looks way to short. They have DLC coming that makes it longer, but I don't want another Lumines situation. Is the full version good enough to really be worth a $10 buy?

For offline multiplayer I would definately say worth the $10. For single player, eh not so much. Haven't tried it online yet.

The courses are great though in the later parts. Imagine those toy car tracks which go in loops, jump over each other, flip you upside down, crash areas and that sort of thing (almost like some of the Marble Blast levels) reminiscent of XG3. The battle modes play similar to Mario Kart or like what Novadrome should have been. Then there are mini games like foosball and pool which fill out the game in multiplayer, but are rather dull solo. Those are rather similar to Super Monkey Ball, which is alright but only fun with a group in the same room in my opinion.

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That monkey is going to pay...

Nice review, I'll have to go more in depth into the trial, or maybe if I get more positive reactions from the other members I will buy it.

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I just realized that pages two and three of adventure mode are DLC and not part of the original game. Without that the value drops considerably. Unless the DLC is free the real dollar value I would give this game is more along the $5 mark...actually more about $3.34 (I rounded up because I am feeling generous).

Bah, crap like this is really starting to annoy me. Worms is charging 150 points each for 2 static images! [seems there is small animation in the backgrounds, but I still feel this is far from a good value] are they serious? Two pages of alternate mode Mad Tracks as DLC (one page is racing without a rewinding engine as for a goal, not exactly new or complex content). The price on the Solitaire decks and Catan skins are ridiculous also. There are more, but I am assuming you all know about them since they most likely irk you also.

Now I have no issue paying for DLC, just make it an appropriate price. Worms is adding static images, that should be cheap say 150 points for both. Add another set of challenges and 200 points for a scenerio pack would seem reasonable to me. Reskins of a card deck seem more about the 75 point value (just under a dollar) to me at most. Things that add gameplay like scenerios or such should be worth more points than a reskin.

Marketplace is starting to feel like buying a car. You see the sticker price but you don't find out that the car doesn't come with a gas tank installed so that will be a few hundred points extra just to leave the lot.

Um...seems to be rant day...weee~!

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That monkey is going to pay...

I agree 100%.

I haven't purchased Mad Tracks because I'm not sure I'd love it yet. The handling of the cars isn't great (but I'm a racing genre fan and like my casual racing sims) and I'm not sure I'd be dying to play it more.

As for the 2 additional map packs that will be DLC: I also have a big issue with showing us immediately when we get the game that we're cheated out of 2/3 of the content planned for the game. Lumines also made this mistake. If it's DLC, don't show it to me on the main menu when I boot the game for the first time!!!

Initial customer satisfaction has to be increased for XBLA to survive. A few companies (including Ninjabee ) have done a good job in this area, but as an average XBLA is not living up to being good purchases no matter how fun the game content is.

If I don't like a retail game or if no one plays it online anymore I can resell it and get at least something back. The whole XBLA concept is to not only reduce distribution costs, but also to sell more copies by mere fact that it is not a physical item which can be resold. It is a good concept, but the publishers (including MS) are destroying the foundation of the idea and therefor their income.

I was waiting and waiting for Double Dragon to be released only to find out that it has serious play issues. The whole point of re-releasing a game is to fix the issues not offer a game which has more slowdowns than an 8bit release had (I know not the exact same game, but a current generation release should not drop under 5 fps ever).

Castlevania was a good re-release overall. They played with the audio in some funky ways to get it to a smaller size, but there is no gameplay loss. Alien Hominid has put me off from buying any The Behemoth games ever again. No sound at all in sections...brilliant! Now, lets nickle and dime for minutiae content....brilliant!

As long as things like this keep getting released people will be less and less interested in XBLA games. If you always have this "yeah, but they probably messed XXX up like they did in XXX other game" in your head you won't be likely to purchase anything.

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That monkey is going to pay...

That's why I am extremely picky as to what I buy on the marketplace. Most stuff on there is a waste of money to be honest. I don't buy those older arcade titles anymore, as I can play them elsewhere. HD is really not a factor for me when playing games.

I have been picking and choosing games that have some pretty damn high replay value, because let's face it: It is the most expensive time to be a videogame player, way more than it has been in the past. Wireless is fun, but they need batteries, or a charger. Games are fun, but they get gimped out so x company can make more than the already crazy $60 beans off of it. Themes are fun because they...wait, they are a waste of money. Money money money. Christ, I can't believe how much "the cost of liv...err...gaming" is these days. Even paying for Xbox Live is kinda annoying me, with the returns being fewer and fewer. No more free map packs like on PC, no user created content, etc.

How the hell am I gonna afford a freakin' PS3??

Maybe I'm just cheap.

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You're not cheap...you're frugal and it pays to be a skeptic these days because of exactly what you're talking about: high cost of gaming.

I suppose that's one reason I'm still so high on indie titles on XBLA in general. The good ones offer just as much gameplay time and fun as a retail title for far less money. Of course, that's just the "good" ones.

As for user created content -- another reason waiting for Band of Bugs is killing me. Finally, an XBLA title that rewards the community for doing its thing -- playing, being passionate, and creating content around the core gameplay.

And speaking of milking the customer: I've been playing Crackdown a TON lately and I can honestly say I'm having a blast. However, two things irk me just a bit and partly because of their juxtaposition.

One: Looking at in game ads. Ocean's Thirteen huh? Interesting...
Two: "There's a Rooftop Race nearby agent!"...and then I bust my butt getting up on top of some huge building only to be greeting be "You must download content to play this race" or whatever it says.

Again, I love the game and I'm not typically bothered by these things. But when I'm paying to look at ads and then they encourage me verbally to do something in the game and then tell me it'll cost more money...that irks me.

Hmm...you need to play co-op.

I haven't thought of the rooftop race thing, that guy just blurts out crap all the time. Like, "I can see my house from here"...underground. Or "Impressive ascent agent"...driving down the road. Or "Cover! Cover!" when there is nothing going on.

I'm pretty sure the new races and such are already on our HDD's, but we just gotta "unlock" them. bah...I'm not paying 10 bucks for that. Also, I kinda like the advertising, it's not intrusive. It's not like they make you run around as The King for a certain amount of time, or turn your vehicle into a Fantasticar or something...wait, that actually sounds cool...

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You should be bothered by them. It isn't as if it is game one in a trilogy that has an ending followed by a teaser ad. With Crackdown it is almost one step away from laughing at the consumer for purchasing an incomplete game. As much fun as I have had playing Shadowrun it has that same aura to it but less blatent.

A game should be functional on its own or it is not a complete game. Send a message to the inboxs of players who have a specific game on their played list or something*, but if they choose to not purchase it do not modify their purchased content...or offer a refund with copyright laws not allowing returns in most states.

*At most I would accept an ad on the loading screens or such, but nothing that impedes gameplay from the original content such as the race alert you described. That just isn't nice.

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That monkey is going to pay...