Microsoft's Game Room launched yesterday. It basically lives in the Games on Demand blade of XBOX LIVE MARKETPLACE. The good news is that Game Room, the application is free. You just download it. But then, there are the free game packs, that you MUST download in order for Game Room to work. These game packs are fine, but why don't they just live on the service as it is a completely separate entity to begin with. As much as this is a Microsoft Published game application, it seems like they took every step to make sure that Game Room was not and is not a part of XBOX LIVE ARCADE. Which seems really strange.
Once you launch the service, Game Room checks the "game server," which I guess is the place where ranked games are posted and challenges are checked on. The server seems to go up and down a lot. Every time, I've started the Game Room app, the server has been down. But while I'm playing it seems to be on and working. at least most of the time. This whole thing seems very inelegant and it would, I think been better to simply change the interface and structure of XBOX LIVE ARCADE rather than making this whole new thing.
Once you get into Game Room; you can play a bunch of games; once. Another words, you can play Tempest as much as you want as long and you just keep hitting reset. But if you move away from the game then you must either pay per play, which is 40 Microsoft points. There is the option to buy the game for XBOX 360, that's 240 Microsoft points, and then you can buy it for both the PC and XBOX 360 for 400 Microsoft points. I think the pricing is pretty good, except that some of the Atari and Intellivision games that are a little more simplistic like Adventure or Outlaw seem like a rip off for that many points. While some of the Arcade games like Tempest seem like a budget buy. So I guess they cancel each other out. But I would suggest to everyone to play the demos for ALL GAMES first before you buy it.
The games themselves are pretty good. In fact, most of them are system perfect. Whether they be from the Arcade or a home entertainment system. There are Arcade games, Atari 2600 games, and Intellivision games. All of which are pretty good. I only purchased 2 games; but if I had more time to burn I would have probably bought 4 or 5 games. But considering all the games coming out for review, I don't have time to play Game Room games all day.
You can customize your arcade rooms. Considering you can place lots of items and change the theme of lots of rooms. The future of the system certainly has promise. But the personal Arcade you get has enough room for are 6 rooms. Which at this point, just makes finding games in the Arcade a pain. One of my friends didn't place ANYTHING in his Arcade because he felt that there was just too much space and he wasn't going to buy that much stuff. So he didn't buy anything and has been playing in my Arcade. Yes, you can; through the Game Room app, you can go to your Friends game rooms and try out games or compete in Challenges that your Friends have sent you.
While Game Room seems like a good idea. It also seems like we have seen all this before. I didn't buy Tempest on XBLA, because it was 400 points so I bought it on Game Room for 240. But I'm not going to buy another version of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, etc... Because the versions on XBLA are great. The Atari and Intellvision games could have been put out in a XBLA bundle for 1,000 points and call it a day. There really doesn't seem to be a NEED for this service; even if it's pretty good. It's not connected enough to XBOX LIVE and if we have to rely on this "game server." What is going to happen on the weekend or when there are 100 games out there instead of 20-30? I kind of like the execution of the Avatars in the Arcade space. But I would have REALLY liked to see an XBOX LIVE ARCADE version, rather than something where the customer must pay all over again for games they all ready have. Add me to your Friends lists(HadesTimer) and visit my Game Room anytime, I have Tempest and Centipede. Hopefully the concerns I have will be fixed in the future with some killer games. More Arcade games, folks that is what will get me to spend some money.
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