Xbox 360s highs and lows: videos, demos, backward compatibility, borrowing games

(tags game, Xbox 360)

I really love the possibilities of the Xbox 360. Or maybe this is the first time I've had a console that was more than just put in a game and press the power button. (I'm discounting the Xbox 1 because I never used the CD player or Xbox Live). I've spent a fair amount of time exploring the free demos and videos.

I download the free trailers to action and FPS games. The one I like the best is second trailer for Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. I liked it so much I downloaded it in 720p after watching it in 480p a couple of times. Maybe I'm just a sucker for corny dialog. "It may be dangerous, but it's my time to dance with the angels!" :-/ Other videos I just meh and delete. Ninja Gaiden II, Shin Sangoku Musou 5, Devil May Cry 4, etc. I want to see gameplay, not CG masturbation thats not in game. I've also been downloading Halo 3 trailers. I really like the one where Master Chief says "Not yet." I don't understand why he starts off with a pistol while bubble shielding and then switches to the assault rifle while running, then attempts to take tens of grunts with nothing more than a boot kick? You couldn't do that even in Normal difficulty.

Then I've been spending sometime eliminating demos and stuff from my console. Meh delete Meh delete Meh delete, oh this demo is a keeper, meh delete, ... So far I want to buy Prince of Persia Classic, Crackdown (Riot Act) and Stranglehold. Crackdown's demo is the one of the few I've played over and over and over. I kept on fighting the urge to run out to the store and buy it. Prince of Persia Classic is just nostalgia factor. I don't want to play the SNES version over again. And Stranglehold is fricken kewl like that. Its an guy Chow Yun Fat as the lead bad-ass. I still have yet to play it on Hard-Boiled mode though, that would be duck and cover galore. Oh, I've never played Max Payne so I'm a slo-mo virgin. It concerns me that the retail game is less than 10 hours long, though.

Backward compatibility is a pain though. My 7000 yen purchase of the Capcom Classics Collection Volume 2 for the Xbox 1 goes down the drain, because MSFT doesn't let it run in this region. I only tried two games right now, but this doesn't bode well for my other imported games.

And yes I asked a friend to lend me Perfect Dark Zero. Well its been two weeks since and I only find out that he lent me the game case and manual, but no game disc. It's egg on face for both of us. :-(