[360] CHROMEHOUNDS - GOOD NIGHT SWEET PRINCE

Yeah, I just downloaded it and gave both missions a run.

Tony is spot on for the most part, I'll just mention stuff I think he didn't touch on or I disagree on.

There is no direct COCKPIT view. There are individual weapon views which is basically a camera on each weapon. That's awesome and all, but a dedicated camera view with a HUD and the whole works would have been better.

And the music is terrible. Thank God for custom soundtracks. For an action game, it's got VERY plodding tunes. I'm sure better music would ramp up the excitement a fair bit.

But for the most part he's right. There is no dumb fire and lock on BS, you have to aim using the weapon view. This is nice for once. The pacing is slow enough and the mechs feel like there is an actual WEIGHT to them. I just hope the single player campaign fleshs out a bit and gets more interesting, as unlocking the SP achivements will suck if all the missions are so short like this.

The multiplay should be a blast though.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Even though I suck ass at the demo mainly the sniper mission, i am still getting the game. It seems like it will be a lot of fun online especially that you can have up to 6 players on a team instead of Mech's 4 per team.

I hope the map size in the demo is equivalent to the size of the multiplayer maps. cause otherwise the sniper mech won't be able to do much.

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haha was cruising around top360tag and noticed a few folks are already getting achievements for it.

For those here who want to play together, should we try and decide on a faction ahead of time? While haven't played any of the factions in detail, Tarakia is what I'd like to learn towards for even handed hound design.

Also makes it easier for us to play with what Fever is doing if we can't get any traction with a GFF based effort.

Also any idea on what preferred style everyone wants to play? I'm leaning towards Sniper or Defender but willing to play whatever works best for victory.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Just purchased the guide and slapped down my preorder for tommorow. Anyone else picking this up on launch day and want to try and get some multi going?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Launch day for Canada is THURSDAY, so I lose out on it until then. Seriously counting away the hours until launch. I'll probably get 150 GP in Frogger or something just trying to kill off tomorrow.

And before we decide on any mech classes, I think we should go through the or at least take a stab at each type. We can't really decide what we want to do based on only playing two classes from the demo, right?

Of the two I've tried though, I prefer the Sniper. However, I really wanna try the Commander. So let's see what each plays like first, eh?

FELIPE NO

So has anyone played the full version yet? It's been out since last friday here in the uk but my main 360 owning friend refuses to believe there's any other games apart from Oblivion. If my car sale goes through I should be picking up a 360 in the next week or so and I plan to get this with it, if it's as good as it looks.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Eh, I've been hearing mixed reactions about this game. It's either pretty good, or boring as hell. But I still want to check it out, since I'm a fan of mech games. I guess it would probably help if they released the damned demo all ready. But doesn't look like that's going to happen for awhile...

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I didn't pre-order it but if they have a copy when I check the store later today I'll probably pick it up. If not I'll probably get it whenever I happen to see a copy in.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

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Of the two I've tried though, I prefer the Sniper. However, I really wanna try the Commander. So let's see what each plays like first, eh?

Sounds good to me. To be really competitive in MP anyways people will have to spend sometime in singleplay racking up S ratings on all the missions.

I can post my impressions later but I am sure by tommorow all 283578387 internet gaming sites probably have some review or another. Did your friend at least download the demo Shin?

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It's either pretty good, or boring as hell.

I am sure the vast majority of Halo 2 gamers thinks Final Fantasy 7 is slow and boring as hell. Like I said earlier, whether you like Chromehounds or not will depend if you are a part of the arcade or simulation camp.

If you like to just turbo to the nearest hound, spam right trigger and try and rack up 80 kills an hour, Chromehounds is not your game.

If you think that spending 3-4 minutes walking to an objective, planning out your attack strategy, testing out your lego design against someone else's lego design and reliance on teamwork to win, then Chromehounds might be your game.

One source says that the avg time for a match seems to be 15 minutes for 6 on 6. (No respawns)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Vampiro

demo

Get the Japanese one. You'll need a Japanese hotmail account to do it, but tha't snot hard. Just make a new one, set your region to Japan, and then get a free Silver account. The demo's all in english so it's no worries.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

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I am sure the vast majority of Halo 2 gamers thinks Final Fantasy 7 is slow and boring as hell. Like I said earlier, whether you like Chromehounds or not will depend if you are a part of the arcade or simulation camp.

You make a good point. And I am looking for a more methodically paced Live game.

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Get the Japanese one. You'll need a Japanese hotmail account to do it, but tha't snot hard. Just make a new one, set your region to Japan, and then get a free Silver account. The demo's all in english so it's no worries.

Hah, thanks. I'll definitely try that.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ok, I haven't heard much about this, but if you can NAME your clan, then ROCKIN. We're gonna be the XELIUM HIGHGUARD in that case. If we can't, then oh well.

Here's the big question though. What nation are we picking? Here's a rundown to help you think about it.

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Tarakia = Lots of variety in parts - this is the standard to which most parts are compared to. High tech research - good options for building unique hounds. Their maps are mostly hills/grasslands/forests. Think equal firepower to weight to durability ratio.

Sal Kar = Unique and Rare. Some of their parts are just phenomenal however some of their parts are just so-so. Think great firepower to low weight to low durability. Most of the maps are desert / canyons

Morskoj = Strong and Low Tech. These parts are heavy, but the durability is strong and the firepower can be great. Maps are snowy and hilly with some forests. Think good firepower to high weight to high durability.

I'm thinking Sal'kar sounds interesting. Not only because of the look and feel of it, but because the part load out sounds pretty neat. In addition, I fear almost everyone will gravitate toward Tarakia. I don't want anything unbalanced like what happened with Mechassault 2 there for a bit.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, having played through the Soldier RT campaign and 4/7ths of the Sniper RT, I can say that Chromehounds is a fun game to play.

Unfortunately, most Internet review sites seem to be giving Chromehounds a poor to average review. Also, from reading the guide and trying out a bit of the RT's many reviewers do not know what the hell they are talking about. You can play a level of Call of Duty 2 and get a feel for what the game will be rated. You can also play 60 minutes of Madden 06 and then be able to assign it an accurate score.

IGN gives it a 6.9/10 which is "passable".

Posting some of my favorite tidbits that I've seen.

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Instead of drawing players along through the single-player portions with engaging narrative and characters, the only motivation for players is achieving good mission scores to unlock Hound parts.

Yes, the Chromehounds tutorial mission plotlines have the complexity of a Dr. Seuss book. So does World of Warcraft questing. Quests serve to teach you how to play your class and hopefully advance to Molten Core, Blackwing Lair, etc. Chromehounds at it's heart is an online game meant to be played over XBox Live. They sooo were not trying to make CH Front Mission. And my motivation for S ranking is to be an ass beater.

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Regardless of single-player or multiplayer modes, Chromehounds has a few nagging issues, two of which stand out prominently. First, movement around the battlefield is excruciatingly slow.

How about the maps are big? If I see you on the radar, I can get to you in 20 seconds which is not bad. Again, you don't see stuff in Mech Warrior move at Sonic the Hedgehog speeds either. Sim style versus arcade style people.

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Second, the combat system in the game requires little skill to score a hit with missiles.

Try going against my hound built with Anti Missle defenses. But I bet he'd never played enough of the game to even know about the existence of such parts. That and missles are short to medium range and requires aiming to hit.

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The Heavy Gunner is the worst offender. Burdened with several arrays of long range cannons, it could barely distance itself from a crippled turtle.

Don't make/play a hound that is burdoned by huge gigantic cannons that requires heavy legs to support them then? Heavy Gunners are artilary hounds meant for long range suppression and bringing down stationary bases. You want a Scout who LOL's his way to your base and levels it?

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The same goes for Hounds and other lesser mechanized vehicles. When they're destroyed they simply disappear under a plume of fire and smoke. It's a far cry from the splintering, scattering, and spectacular mechanical dismemberment players would want to see. Aside from that the framerate is generally smooth both online and off, though chugs a bit when too many explosions clutter the screen. Though we played the game on multiple televisions, we couldn't seem to escape significant V-Sync issues, which cause horizontal lines to scan through and distort the HD image.

What a dumbass. You bitch that destroyed hounds don't leave flaming wreckage when you blow them up and then compliment how smooth the frame rate generally is? You then complain that when there are a lot of exposions around, the frame rate does drop a bit? So an additional 11 independently animated burning hulks would improve performance in this area?
I will ignore the last sentence as he lost all "technical" credibility with me.

Lamepro:

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If you've got a hankering for mech combat, Chromehounds is worth a rental, but only if you've already played the earlier, superior genre entries for the XBox, and can't wait for something better.

<sigh>

I don't know anyone who would get Chomehounds to play 7 * 6 tutorial missions and then shelve the game away.

Gamebrink

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Another problem is that most squads that I found online were only one to two people large as the process of joining a squad is a bit odd and not at all user friendly. So most all of the matches being fought are one on one and very few are the max of six on six. And while one on one matches are ok, the game is designed for team play and with the way things work I don’t see large amounts of squads with over six people online at the same time being the norm, especially if it doesn’t sell well.

Yes, the Neroimus war can potentially be a bust if no one has the game. So as a reviewer who got the game hopefully a few days before the rest of us... what are the odds of you fielding a 6 on 6 match when all the people who have it are game reviewers? Also, how about people like me who want to play through the entire tutorial before I venture online?

TeamXbox's review is probably the most accurate as the author seems to of actually played the game, understands all of the game modes, the customization and the role types.

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FROM attacked Chromehounds in an interesting manner. They didn’t want to clutter it up with sim-like controls (the control set is very user friendly; almost pick-up-and-play), but the action is very simulation like, in terms of the battleground of the future. This is why role types are specific, and many of them plod along that some will consider “boring” speeds. Much of the fun of games such as Unreal, Quake, et. al is the exaggerated pace, so you can see why some gamers will despise a title like Chromehounds. But if you realize, and, as The Rock so plainly stated, “know your role”…Chromehounds is a diamond in the rough.


Clans, or groups of friends that understand battleground tactics will love that not all HOUNDS move at the same pace, that some are way more vulnerable than others, and that teamwork is not required, it’s essential. The single player action, although cheesy in some areas (story and transition), is a great primer for the delectable Neroimus War, with extensive opportunities to learn how to build HOUNDS for specific RT’s, and everything in between. Speaking of HOUND building, the Garage area of Chromehounds could be an entertaining, Erector-set game in and of itself. Both visual and performance mods are a the very top of all titles featuring Create-a anything.

However for reasons I explained earlier, the TeamXbox reviewer is off on this point:

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he biggest beef I have with the graphical portion of Chromehounds is the fact that these beautiful HOUND’s completely disappear after they have been terminated. The explosion and fire effects are spectacular, the particle fly to and fro’, yet these beast do a vanishing act when push comes to shove; what a let down.

I conceed that the audio sucks and the single player "story mode" is a glorified tutorial but other than that - Chromehounds owns.

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Really on Tarakia? I figure they would be #2. Morskoj with it's most powerful weapons I would think would be #1. Btw, if you are as good at CH as you are at Frogger I will be scared. I got my shit ruined in Frogger but doing ok on getting the S ranks so far.

FELIPE NO

Reviewers have been dropping the ball recently. It's pathetic. If you think Chromehounds got a bad rap, you should see Over-G Fighters. Reviewers are playing it on easy mode with the bad control scheme and complaining it's not an accurate sim. How stupid do you have to get?

Anywho. My guess would have been Tarakia. I could be completely wrong however! Hopefully there will be an ingame population meter or something telling you what country has the most players. I guess I'll have to wait another 2 hours and see.

And hahaha. Thanks for the compliment, but I'm not really THAT good at Frogger. Tube's better than I am, with another achievement over mine. Luckily that game gets a LOT easier with practice. So I'm sure you'll be able to do good too. =oo

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Alas, they only had pre-order copies. I'll get this eventually. Most likely as soon as I actually see a copy of it in somewhere. From reading the book on it I saw at Gamestop I'd personally probbly like either Sal-Kar or Morskaj. Obviously I've got to get the game to confirm my inclinations but I suspect that I'll probably either enjoy the role of scout, heavy gunner, or defender the most. Sniper and Commander are definate no's for me and soldier is just a maybe.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

UPDATE:

Tarakia has been wiped out ALREADY. That didn't take long. Oh well, after one of the other groups wins this war it'll restart. So that's all good.

Anyway, I signed us up for Sal'kar under the Squad name "XeliumHighguard". No spaces because 15 characte rlimit = . Anyway. I picked a generic mech and am working my way through singleplayer so I can build some other ones.

Of the ones I've tried. I really like Commander, Scout, and Sniper. Soldier's pretty rad too. Heavy Gunner is hard and I havne't got the hang of eyeballing distances yet. And I haven't tried Defender yet. But so far so good. =oo

Gonna pick the guide up shortly for collection purposes, (God I'm a whore).

Double Post:
Well, Tony and I won our first match against people after losing horribly to the computer a few times!

We gotta get better communication though, because one of those times Tony blew me up thinking I was an enemy. ;_____________________;

How ya doing, buddy?

Picked up the game about 20 minutes ago. I'll be trying it out soon.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I also just picked up this game. Haven't tried it yet though.

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Hah, I did not think Chromehounds would be the first 360 game I would pick up. I actually thought it would've been that table tennis game!
Anyway, my first impression of the game was actually a good one. It was a very slow start borrowing mechs on every mission but after the sniper arc things started get interesting, sorta.

From what I've tried so far I'm really liking the Sniper, Soilder, and the Heavy Gunner. Yeah, I like the slow yet powerful types . I guess I'll try the other mech designs once I start buying/winning more parts.

Originally Posted by Colonel Skills

Anyway, I signed us up for Sal'kar under the Squad name "XeliumHighguard". No spaces because 15 character limit = .

Being squad-less sucks. Do you have room for one more? I'm still getting the hang of the gameplay here but if you don't need a newbie person in your squad I perfectly understand .

Ok, its back to the tutorials exciting story mode.

I was speaking idiomatically.

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We gotta get better communication though, because one of those times Tony blew me up thinking I was an enemy.

LOL. We need a color/decal scheme to apply to our hounds.

Looks like Season 1 of the Neroimus war is over with Morskoj as the winner. Some Japanese squad put some serious beatdown with their week in advance. Morskoj has a slight lead over Tarakia with Sal-Kar being owned with 22% of territory.

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From what I've tried so far I'm really liking the Sniper, Soilder, and the Heavy Gunner. Yeah, I like the slow yet powerful types . I guess I'll try the other mech designs once I start buying/winning more parts.

Ugg I suck at Heavy Gunner. I get B rank on the tutorial. <sigh> Hopefully with some practice I can actually eyeball and hit something on a regular basis.

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Being squad-less sucks. Do you have room for one more? I'm still getting the hang of the gameplay here but if you don't need a newbie person in your squad I perfectly understand .

Ok, its back to the tutorials exciting story mode.

So far it's just me and Colonel. Plenty of room I am sure. Up to 20 per Squad.

I just completed all the tutorial missions so I am more than happy to share mission advice or any info. Hit S rank on all missions except for 3 Heavy Gunners.

General Tips:

1 - Assault Rifles (I think anyways) are the best weapons in the game. Pointblank - Distance shooting. Less than 1 second cooldown. Decent damage, almost instant hit and the shots don't obscure your vision.

2 - If you have trouble with getting S-Ranks on missions, design your own hound strictly around what you have to accomplish. A Soldier RT loaded down with assault rifles and rocket launchers can achieve the majority of the HG requirements. Another example is a Soldier can replace a Defender on some of the escort missions.

3 - Mobility is key. Lots of the missions involve keeping allies alive or preventing the enemy from reaching a certain point. Need a quick hound for those.

Was wondering informally what RT everyone wanted to do if we could all get online. Maybe someone can prove me wrong but in general I don't like Heavy Gunners and Defenders. Tactics Commanders are pretty awesome but you'd want at least 4 or 5 people before you consider using it as a spot. A Tactics Commander/Scout hybrid would be completely gimped for fighting but would own the information department. They can run around and expand their own NA network.

You can create and store a couple of hound types but my current online one is configured as a Soldier RT type.

Speed 73
Weapons: Triple Morskjov RFZ-3 Assault Rifles w/ added ammo and RFZ double stacked rocket launcher.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

This game makes more tempted than any other 360 title to go out and buy one. I'm forcing myself to wait till the Wii and PS3 come out for the price drop. Not to mention that CH itself costs $120. :eyebrow:

FELIPE NO

$120? Wait, what?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I'm guessing you're Aussie, HazelGuy? Because that's how much it is here. One hundred and twenty wacky Kangaroo fun buuuucks.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

The game shouldn't cost $120 unless you're getting the limited edition faceplate with it.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Even then that's asking WAY too much. Hell, I bought steel battalion for fifty bucks more and that came with a fucking huge controller.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.