Great 360/PS360 exclusives

[Rii]

Of late I've been vaguely entertaining the idea of buying into the Xbox 360 ecosystem at some point. Maybe. There are ancillary factors - interoperability of accessories with PC, likely carryover of Kinect to any successor system, media server functionality - but, unsurprisingly, games are the main consideration. In that respect my interest has been piqued of late by Vanquish, Child of Eden and the upcoming Catherine.

So my question is: what else should I be looking at? There's no magic number of titles which is going to flip the decision switch to 'buy', but the more the better!

EDIT: Changed thread title to better reflect nature of discussion evolved therein.

[Jams O'Donnell]

Shadow Complex. SHADOW COMPLEX!

[thegooseking]

Would it be too obvious to say Red Dead Redemption?

I originally bought an Xbox mainly for Fable II, which is still Xbox-exclusive, but since Fable III isn't very different and now on the PC, that's not such a strong exclusive any more.

If you like JRPGs, I can definitely recommend Lost Odyssey. It kind of plays like PS1-era Final Fantasies, though with a somewhat more grown-up story (somewhat). It's definitely better than the Final Fantasies from X onwards; it's kind of a return to form for the series, even though it isn't part of the series.

[Kaira-]

Deadly Premonition, which came out of nowhere and pretty much became my GOTY 2010. (Also, shameless promotion of my review for it, if you are interested)

I liked Alan Wake, though the combat got really repetive towards the end. Nice still, but don't bother with the DLC unless you really like the game.

[8-bit]

resonance of fate was one of the best games I played last year, its a great jrpg with an action, but still turn based battle system that works fantastically well. it has a lot of nice characters and played with some expectations I had for the story rather well imo. Its a shame nobody but me and five other people played it because I want more, and I don't often say that.

Vanquish was nice, but the game starts to fall apart at the end before finishing very suddenly on a cliffhanger. Bayonetta is the best game from platinum (just not the ps3 version) if you can put up with the character its by far the best devil may cry style game ever made. doesn't have a story though, just game and pop culture references stacked one on top of another with splosions in between.

I thought castlevania was uneven at times but I still enjoyed it, and I liked alan wake a lot. many people didn't like that game because Alan was annoying, but then the whole point was that he is a hack so it seems to be a big success to me.

[Anthile]

Nier. Nier. Nier. I only type this thrice because this message is too short otherwise.

[SMiD]

Alan Wake bump. If you solely focus on combat, you'll get bored after a short time. Focus, rather, on the story, and you'll be much better off. I thoroughly enjoyed the title. Also, since Final Fantasy was mentioned in here, avoid XIII. Unless you like holding forward and tapping A every once in a while; game is such a downer from XII.

[Miker]

Shadow Complex. SHADOW COMPLEX!

I played the demo and was a bit underwhelmed. It's frankly rather ugly, yet it still has noticeable issues with framerate. Is it really that good? I'm a huge Metroid/Castlevania guy, but Shadow Complex just had zero charm for me.

[8-bit]

its no super metroid but it does the job well enough, tbh its not that hard to be seen as a great game when there are about five total that can be classed as metroid like on the console. for what its worth I thought outland was better, but thats more like fusion, only without the crushing disappointment of being a linear 2d metroid.

[Vexing Vision]

Brütal Legend. Apart from the horrible RTS part, it's a fantastic game with pretty much THE best soundtrack made ever. Like ever.

[sinister agent]

Both very old now, but Crackdown. Dunno about the sequel, but Crackdown is just sheer lunatic car-throwing, building-jumping fun. I spent much of summer 2007 playing this with a friend (I only had one controller, so we just took turns, and even simply watching was often hilarious) until stupid o'clock, and will fondly remember that summer for many years. You can probably pick it up for about three quid now, too.

Dead Rising. It's both brilliant and bloody terrible - the controls are awful, the text is undreadable, the bosses are horrendous (AND they respawn), the escort bits are infuriating, FUCKING BASTARD OTIS NEVER STOPS FUCKING CALLING WILL YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP OTIS GODDAMN IT.

And yet it is so much fun. You can literally spend the length of the game splatting zombies with sledgehammers, footballs, and children's toys if you want to. And then play it through again with more skills.

Picture, if you will, a pair of frightened Japanese tourists hiding in a book shop in an American mall infested with zombies. They look nervously out of the window, and see a man with a camera running past, wearing a zebra-striped dress, workman's boots, and a child's plastic superhero helmet, closely pursued by a clown bouncing along on a giant spacehopper, cackling and juggling a pair of miniature chainsaws. That'd Dead Rising, that is.

Gears of War 2. Yes, yes, I know, it's puerile, ultra-macho, angry homo-repressed gorrilla-man nonsense, but it's actually a very well-designed and enjoyable game. The multiplayer is a laugh (split screen and bots, too), and there's a terrific horde mode where you and a friend (you'll probably need a few, certainly on most maps) have to fight off ever-escalating waves of nasties. A vast improvement on the fairly clunky and frustrating original. Don't worry about ruining the plot - the writers did that before the game was even released.

[Man Raised By Puffins]

Crackdown - Rather slight open-world romp, but blessed with an excellent "feel" and driven by the compulsive need to collect more orbs.

Earth Defence Force 2017 - "The government has named these extra-terrestrials Ravagers, they are currently attempting to establish contact with the Ravagers. Are they our friendly galactic neighbours or are their intentions more sinister?"
Pleasingly old-skool lo-fi co-opable bug/robot shooter. EDF! EDF! etc.

Brütal Legend - A bit disappointing (sparse world, truncated story), but a Double Fine game nonetheless.

[sinister agent]

Oooh, yes, EDF is brilliant. Budget low-fi giant bug/robot fighting madness. And you'll care about the completely anonymous, disposable mooks so much. They're so sincere, it's adorable.

There's a sequel coming out (I think) later this year that looks much more visually impressive and polished, but it may still be great fun. I'm looking forward to that one.

[Kadayi]

If you are going to venture into console land you're probably better off opting for a PS3 that way you get RDR as well as all those Sony exclusives that are never going to come to PC ever regrettably like Uncharted, MGS4 etc etc. The way it stands I think we'll start seeing more and more 360 titles (esp download) migrate to the PC over time. Especially with good press like this:-

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...g-in-the-dust/

acting as a motivator to developers.

[TheLastBaron]

Brütal Legend. Apart from the horrible RTS part, it's a fantastic game with pretty much THE best soundtrack made ever. Like ever.

Hmmm, I really liked the RTS part, and yeah the soundtrack is superb.
Another vote for Alan Wake.

[8-bit]

Alan Wake had a cracking soundtrack too, we need more Nick Cave and David Bowie in games. the Poets of the Fall songs were good too, loved the way they worked them into the game with a fake band, episode 4 was definitely the high point for me.

[Rii]

Thanks for the suggestions folks, keep 'em coming!

Hypothetically, if I were to venture into the Haloverse, which title would be best? I don't mind delving knee-deep in lore, indeed the lore is the main reason I'm interested at all.

If you are going to venture into console land you're probably better off opting for a PS3 that way you get RDR as well as all those Sony exclusives that are never going to come to PC ever regrettably like Uncharted, MGS4 etc etc. The way it stands I think we'll start seeing more and more 360 titles (esp download) migrate to the PC over time. Especially with good press like this:-

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...g-in-the-dust/

acting as a motivator to developers.

I used to have a PS3 and have already checked out most of the exclusives there that appeal to me, most notably Metal Gear Solid 4, Flower and Wipeout HD. And Sony's controllers are still unergonomic sacks of shit.

Still, I admit that Shadows of the Colossus HD has caught my eye given that I never got to it on PS2. And the Blu-Ray would be useful. I could theoretically be convinced.

[Kadayi]

Still, I admit that Shadows of the Colossus HD has caught my eye given that I never got to it on PS2. And the Blu-Ray would be useful. I could theoretically be convinced.

That is a lovely game (along with Ico). Plus the Last Guardian is down the road.

[SMiD]

Rii, for Halo, I've only played Reach. But from my limited understanding, that's the one you'd be most interested in. People don't like ODST for some reason, and I don't think people are still playing 3 on MP. I'm prolly not the best person to ask, but there you go. My $.02.

Plus, for lore, it does set the back-drop for the whole rest of the Halo story.

[sinister agent]

I've not had a PS3 in the house for years, but I can say that of the few exclusives I've played, Resistance is not amazing, but is a decent shooter with some interesting weapons and a great health system that's a sort of halfway point between regenerating health and health packs, so probably worth getting cheap. It's kind of old-schooly in its shooting, very vaguely reminiscent of Doom. No cover system, none needed. The multi was quite a laugh, too, though a bit unbalanced (I played offline).

Uncharted is a polished and utterly, utterly gorgeous cover-based shooter with a B-movie plot and high production values. Cheesy as hell and predictable as the day, but still rather entertaining and generally likeable. The final boss is dreadful, though, leaving a rather bitter taste in the mouth.

MGS4 is one of the most insultingly terrible games I've played in my life.

Otherwise, I can't say, but only because I haven't really played much on the PS for about three years. I'm led to believe that the 360 and PS3 are roughly level these days in terms of game availability. I'd certainly rather have Crackdown and EDF than Uncharted, but the PS3 does have the advantage of free online multiplayer, which may make a big difference depending on how you like to play.

Just make sure you give them a false address.