Having recently purchased an Xbox 360, I want to talk about a few aspects of the system that are doing interesting things for gaming as a whole.
First up, the idea of achievements is inspired: push the abilities of gamers by offering up challenges and awarding badges that basically say “I managed to do this”. The reality is, however, a little different. Many games miss the point of the achievements and hand them out for simply playing through the game, the awards becoming little more than milestones. The interesting games get you to go outside the realms of the normal game: Dead Rising gets you to put novelty masks on a number of zombies, Geometry Wars gives you an award for not firing for the first minute (making for a hectic start). This is an excellent way of extending play. I remember doing similar things when I was younger i.e. playing through Street Fighter 2 without using any special moves etc. To have this style of gameplay recognised is pretty good. The flip-side of achievements is the gamerscore: points you get for having gained achievements. This measure is completely worthless. Given that points aren’t (and can’t be) standardised, higher scores are achievable simply by playing the easiest games with the weakest achievements. No fair comparisons can be drawn.
Secondly, Xbox Live Arcade. I was a doubter. How could a series of essentially cut down games be worthwhile? While there is a lot of crap on the service, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a killer app. It’s a perfect blend of twitch gaming and synaesthesia, an addictively flowing game where the interface melts away and there is only neon light. You get into the zone incredibly quickly with this game, and immediately want to get back to it if you die. Incredible stuff.
Lastly, Dead Rising. I love zombie films, and I like playing games. Take the best setting from the former (a mall), put it in the latter, and add a mix of comic book humour, a massive home-made armoury, and an innovative game structure to produce something that I will waste far too much time on. While the difficulty curve can be rather steep at times, any frustration can be seen off by simply grabbing a nearby item and taking it out on one of the thousands of zombies nearby.
All that said, if you know me and have a 360 yourself, my gamertag is VKPS. See you on Live.