Various Impressions: 360

Here are a few quick eyes-on impressions of 360 games:

Rock Band 2: Rock Band two has a decent challenge set out in front of it. Beat Guitar Hero. So far from what I've seen, I believe it can do that. The developers have said they've improved the guitar peripheral itself, making the strummer sturdier and more precise, and the buttons quieter. The real upgrades are in the software though. The game is much more user friendly now that various upgrades have taken place, such as your band member is no longer tied to one instrument, your band does not need a leader to function, only a chosen storage device, and the ability to play songs in a rock music video mode, simulating a music video. The developer said that they listen to the fans, and to me it shows. Rock Band 2 looks to be more of the same, with little changes, like Guitar Hero 2 going on to Guitar Hero 3, only it looks good. This game is basically automatic fun, I don't think you need more convincing of that. This is looking like the way to go over Guitar Hero.

Fable 2: Now while I don't have any new info since the press conference, I would like to make a few comments on how I think Fable will turn out. First of all, I think anyone still holding this game up to their previously crushed expectations of the first game should walk away from that and start with a fresh and open opinion. Now to my thoughts, it looks like the emphasis is going strongly onto the way you and your world around you change. The ability to travel to another players game furthers this idea.



Peter Molyneux stated that the co-op wasn't focused on the fighting. So it's my guess that the focus of co-op is seeing what your world could have been, on how your decisions really do effect the world. Hopefully their is enough of a substantial change that it's worth going to a friends game to see how it differs. Now, stepping away from that, remember, I have not played the game, but from what I have seen I must say the combat looks fairly simple and pretty boring. Perhaps I have yet to see the advanced moves so I'll save judgement for that until later, but at the time being I am not impressed. Will co-op and the supposedly awesome dog be enough to hold this alone? Maybe the combat is better than I expect? We will have to wait and see.