So tonight was demo night for me:

Ace Combat - cool stuff, but just more of same, only prettier.

Beautiful Katamari - it's the PS2 game only in HD - while it's smoother, they didn't up the polygon-count, nor did they improve the textures. I call shenanigans.

Bioshock - "fucking amazing" is all I can muster

Stranglehold - I really should've played this before Bioshock, because after that, it sorta left me cold. Not that it was bad (it was pretty fun, and I can see picking it up when it hits $30), but Bioshock was on such another level, that this felt like I was playing a PS2 game in comparison.

I was gone all weekend so I finally got a chance to check out some of the new stuff.

Stranglehold -
Bioshock -
Track and Field - that's 400 down the tubes.

Bioshock was a major disappointment. I thought they totally ruined the potential of this game by making it a FPS. The game has such incredible level design and a very interesting storyline yet they turn it into a FPS. Granted the video at the end looked like you could do a whole lotta different crap, at the end of the day it's still a FPS. Also, I didn't care for the fact that it seemed like I was killing zombies.

Stranglehold on the other hand, while the graphics weren't as pretty was still a kick ass fun time. I'll pass on Bioshock and will be buying Stranglehold.

Bioshock is far from being a standard FPS. It sounds like you are just biased against the whole FPS genre, which is kind of weird since you obviously like TPS since you liked Stranglehold and the only real difference is the camera being behind the player character rather than in his eye sockets.

And Michael-Angelo's Sistine Chapel is just another religious painting...

Hyperbole, sure, but to me, Stranglehold was a lot more of the "same old same old" - like Max Payne, but with more destructible surroundings. Now while Bioshock's demo didn't show off too much, it has the potential to be something entirely different in the way it lets the player approach each situation with a wide variety of options. Not to mention, it's design and surroundings are unique and original enough that even if it was standard FPS fare, it'd still get a pass.

Ugh, wish i wasn't still waiting on my 360 so i can try out these demos. Itchin to try Stranglehold since i LOVED Max Payne.

Bioshock may be amazing but it's still limited by only letting you see what's right in front of you. When I was playing it I felt like the game could be great but that they dumbed it down.

Thats the art style, if the improved the graphics too much it would cease to be katamari

I downloaded the Beautiful Katamari demo tonight and really liked it. I'm a big fan of the series and I have the other two, so I expected to like it. I just hope it's a bit more creative/unique than the demo showed.

I also bought Madden '08 which is an unbelievably good football game. I played four games and loved every second of it. I'm also not a fan of the NFL or football in general, so I was surprised that I liked it so much. However, during the fourth game, my console froze and, upon disc inspection, I noticed some little scratches. One looked pretty deep, so I'm going to take the disc back tomorrow.

That's kind of the point. The game is about atmospheres and being scared of what you can't see. The thing stalking you could be right behind you. I noticed at least one spot in the game where a pair of glowing red eyes stare at you from an opening in a wall, and if you venture near it, the eyes disappear and you hear the sounds of the creature scampering away through some unseen tunnel. If you weren't paying attention, you probably wouldn't have even seen the eyes. If the game were an third person shooter, it just wouldn't be as scary, because you'd be able to see all around you.

What the hell is up my soul brotha? I was thinking the EXACT same thing last night when I played the demo! Although I wouldn't say it was a major disappointment (the demo did make me want to buy/rent the game) I did feel that the atmosphere and visuals really did not mesh well with the "standard-issue" FPS gameplay. I guess that's what it takes to be a big seller these days, but I think it could've been a better game had it been seeped in more adventure elements.. now it just feels like a standard fare zombie shooting game with bloody amazing surroundings.

BioShock Demo was amazing - a ton of fun with a fantastic atmosphere, felt more like an adventure game than an fps (sort of like the first Metroid Prime). Gonna see if I can pick it up today. That said, I love me some Pipe Dream, but hope theres some variety in the hacking later on. All that aside, it really does feel like the spiritual successor to System Shock 2. Plus any game where you get drunk visual effects after mixing two liqours automatically gains points.

Stranglehold Demo was okay - the engine is nice, and it reminded me of an action movie rendition of Shenmue. The controls are a bit wonky though and just don't "feel" right, loose on the movement controls. I did like how the demo had unlockables for playing through it multiple times. I agree with whoever said a good buy at $30.

Beautiful Katamari - I still don't full comprehend the love for this series, it isn't bad, it just isn't particularly great. Still funny with amazingly ridiculous music, though.

Flatout UC - Awesome engine, loving the particle effects and physics. The racing is fun, but not quite as polished as Burnouts (I suck at the Destruction Derby mode).

I'll agree, Bioshock was pretty darn good. I still may pick it up when it is cheap, since it is just a single player game.

Stranglehold was GREAT for me....loved the demo, will pick up eventually, the online looks interesting also.

Katamari - Seems ok, I really thought it was going to be a XBLA game, I guess I was wrong. $40 is still too much for this.

Flatout - There is a Flatout demo? Nice

It's on the Euro servers, had to make a secondary (thirdary?) account to grab it.

Yes, just swap the drives. Once you power on the 2nd 360, it'll go through the initial setup and it'll get updates from Live. After that, though, it'll be like the exact same thing you had before.

Downloading Hexic 2 demo, anyone else playing it yet? How is the battle mode online?

Thanks. And I'm sure it's been covered when you guys were discussing this in the past, but how does DLC work...for example, if I d/l a song pack for GH2 on mine, can my brother play them on his if I'm logged out and he logs in with my ID?

That I don't know. I can only speak to XBLA games and that's how it would work. Basically if you're visiting him, he could experience your XBLA games while you were signed in.

Seems reasonable the same would be true for DLC, but someone else will know more than me.

Does anybody know if there's a way to enable Japanese typing support? I'm assuming it's just a matter of changing the language settings to Japanese but it'd be nice to have my system in English and be able to send Japanese gamers a "Thanks for the game!" in their own language.

This might be a noobish type question, but all of this HD gaming shit really is over my head still.

I was going to hook up my 360 to my SD TV, but since I have a nice 20" monitor (which is close to my internet connection) I figure I should probably just use that instead. It only has a DVI port though. So if I get a 350 with the HDMI, and then buy an HDMI to DVI cable, I should be golden right? Getting a pretty optimal experience?

You don't have a VGA port at all? I didn't know they made monitors without a VGA port anymore.

My monitor only has a DVI plug (and it's old) but it came with a DVI-to-VGA adapter.

That should work great, though is there an audio-out built onto the back of the HDMI 360s?

It has a VGA port, but that's running to my computer. I assumed I could use this same monitor for both at the same time.

Actually, my computer has a DVI port, so would it make more sense to get a DVI cable for my monitor to run to my PC, and then use the VGA port for the 360?

Yeah, sounds like it.