1UP says 1/15/08 for Ikaruga.

A Tuesday? That's a weird date to list. I'll assume they mean the morning of the 16th, then.

Either way, much, MUCH earlier than I originally imagined.

Oh damn, Ikaruga coming out so soon. Must...buy...more...MS points...

Ikaruga has a different game mechanic--Polarity, where you absorb certain colored bullets and deal more damage to opposite colored targets (deal less damage to same color). I'm not sure if another shump uses the same gameplay mechanic so if someone wants to correct me, please do so. I guess another reason why Ikaruga is loved so much is because TREASURE for one, and because the game flows nicely, great presentation, whatever. Regardless, it's an excellent game and I would encourage anyone that hasn't played it to get it. Assuming you have some interest in shumps.

Also completely off-topic rant: I really wish Arc System Works would release Guilty Gear XX Accent Core on some console (preferably on Live since I have an Xbox 360) with online play with great netcode (I'M LOOKING AT YOU GGXX#RELOAD). Maybe include it with *gasp* Overture if it ever gets a stateside release. /end useless rant

Bah, I'm tired.

Anywhoo, since this now makes purchase a possibility, how much is it supposed to be, or is a price even announced?

It was notable because it radically changed shmup conventions, doing away with powerups with an elegant and simple system and effectively becoming a shooter-puzzle hybrid, moving away from the more traditional twitch play.

I respect it greatly as a hand-crafted gaming experience, it has unbelievably good music and aesthetics and the action is fast, inventive and a lot of fun. If you're not fond of shmups however, you won't appreciate what it does quite so much. It is still a shooter, it is unforgivingly hard, and I personally felt the color chaining system made the gameplay more restrictive than the more freeflowing and improvisation encouraging style in something like Radiant Silvergun. It's not a game I'd recommend for someone starting out with shmups, let's put it that way.

And shootan refers to FPS games~

Treasure played around with the polarity concept in Silhouette Mirage, but no other shmups have really employed the system, othen than Kenta Cho's.. um.. homages.

The brilliant, brilliant Radiant Silvergun first employed the idea of chaining multiple enemies of a certain color, but it used a different kind of weapon powerup system.

No price announcement yet, and I wouldn't put it beyond a 1200 MSP price point, although 800 is reasonable too. It's big name enough that they very easily could charge the inflated price. I don't see it being any higher or lower.

According to this article on 1UP, Goldeneye for XBLA almost existed, but was cancelled. Due to things like "Several characters wouldn't make the cut due to licensing issues with certain actors." and "the reason GoldenEye for XBLA died came down to money". It wa going to have online multiplayer, and chances are, the Facility map would still be there.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUCK

Can Silver Live accounts still purchase and play Live Arcade games?

Yes I believe so. They just can't do the multiplayer. I think that's about it. Unless I'm missing something....:confused:

Thanks. With the price drop in effect, I'm seriously planning to get a 360, but I'm still not sure about XBL Gold.

You get 1 months Gold subscription free when you purchase your 360.

But this works on the first 3 accounts created so technically you get 3 free months free of XBL Gold.

I just made 3 accounts, after they all expired I just kept the first one I created. Its damn annoying they only accept Visa or Mastercard debit cards so I'm forced to use the prepay cards.

From some of your posts, I would assume you also are from the U.K. and if that is the case, I've got a question for you. Which stores sell the prepaid cards? Do they also sell prepaid cards for M.S. Points? I also do not use a Visa or Mastercard. If I buy anything from Live, it will be by way of cards.

Alot of places sell them, GAME, HMV, Play.com, Amazon.co.uk, Tesco's, etc... just enter the code in the dashboard and the subscription should come up for you to select. Some games also come with free 48hr gold subscriptions, a great backup if you run out and haven't had time to get another card.

Yes they also sell MS Points (I think max is 5000) but this is a seperate card from the above. You just enter the code in the dashboard and it credits your account with the MS points.

If you don't have a VISA or Mastercard this is the only way to go.

I'd suggest that having a 360 without a gold membership is pretty silly as so much of the benefit of 360 ownership is the online play. It's only £40 for a year and you don't need to spend any MS points after that to get easily £40 worth of enjoyment in a year.

I can understand some people's reservations about having to fork out money to get Gold membership, but as Shin says, it is worth it in the end. From my limited experience of using the PSN (the PlayStation 3's online network) it doesn't hold a candle to Xbox Live. It took me seven hours to complete a large update for GT5:Prologue last night. Seven fucking hours, because the download was not only slow - I have a pretty good connection - and it kept randomly failing for no good reason (it didn't help that it didn't cache its progress so I had to keep starting the download over each time).

Of all the gigs of demos, videos, updates and everything else I've downloaded over Live I've never once had any issues.

Live has it's moments of being rubbish, but Microsoft are generally quite good at trying to fix it, and when they really balls up they do attempt some form of compensation (though admitedly, last time, that was the crappy XBLA title Undertow).

I've got a question I feel a tad bit stupid for:
My 360 is plugged into a 22", 16:10 TFT. So, it's running on 780i (or was it p? I keep forgetting that, but I can't set it to the other one anyway...), and I was wondering... If I want the best possible picture quality, hi-def and all, should I set the screen to a 16:9 or 16:10 setting?

I'm not quite sure about what looks better really... And there's no easy way of "benchmarking" the screen, wether it looks allright...

The 360 doesn't have 16:10 output. More than likely, it never will.

Run your monitor in 16:9 mode.

Shiiiiit. Has anyone had to send their console to MS for RROD? My console died literally right when I put GTA IV in. I did get it to work a little after and play about 4 hours + 15 minutes of multiplayer, but now it's completely toast. I just got my box to send it back to MS and my fiance told me to prepare to wait a month. He's already on his 4th 360 but he got his consoles replaced through GameStop and not MS.

It is actually closer to 2~3 weeks from the date that it gets shipped back to them, if you are in the US.

I've sent 2 back to MS and both came back in exactly 16 days from when I shipped them out.

Hm I guess in all it will be almost/approaching a month without the 360. It's already been 8 days, I'm not sure how long it will take MS to receive from Hawaii but I doubt it'll be drastically longer. As long as they give me a console that I don't have to return again in a few weeks..it's bad enough not being able to play GTA but now I have a Hexic craving and I can only play it on my phone right now which..sucks.

That reminds me...I just got my 360 not even two weeks ago and in the box I noticed MS had an offer for some extended warranty.

Is that even worth it? I heard somewhere that MS will fix RRODs up to two years from time of purchase, as long as your 'box isn't modded or anything.

Erm, what? Yeah, your box has a chance to fail. The warranty means you can send it in. What does worth have to do with it? It's not like you have to pay them for the warranty.

According to that brochure it was an extra $60. :shrug:

What, really? I thought that was extended to all consoles, before it was implemented, and after.

Hmm. I must be mistaken.