I know we all have been waiting anxiously for the BIG arrival of Game Room as part of the Block Party. Some insanely awesome games were released this month, and to top it off we now have even more reasons to love the Xbox 360 – the GAME ROOM.
To start this off, I will let you guys know a little bit about Game Room. Game Room is a place where you can kick back and play awesome arcade games. You may download classic games such as Centipede and Asteroids Deluxe from Atari Inc. and other favorites from Intellivision, Konami Corp. You can then play those games on your own or use multiplayer mode, it all depends on the player’s choice. Though, Game Room is specifically designed to provide the original Arcade feeling, when you go and challenge friends to endless games, eat popcorn, and basically “hang-out.”
Some people might say this sounds a lot like the Xbox Live Arcade, though in reality the two are contradicted. Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is where you download games for huge amounts of Microsoft Points. Game Room is where you download “classic” retro arcade games for small amounts of Microsoft Points. The biggest factor between XBLA and the Game Room isn’t the cost of the games, but the games themselves. In my opinion, XBLA arcade games aren’t quite “arcade” style games. They are rather games that you might play on a Wii, the type where the games are good enough to be on a disk but not quite good enough, if you get my drift. The other factor about Game Room is that it provides the old-school look, sound, and feel of a retro video game arcade.
There are many cool things about the Game Room, besides the games it offers. First of all, Game Room is free, yes FREE! How can you reject such an offer? Second, the games aren’t too costly, in terms of Microsoft Points. Game Room has a cool setup in which it offers players three options: 400 Microsoft Points grants a dual-platform license for one game (for unlimited play on Xbox 360 and PC), 240 Microsoft Points gets you the virtual arcade cabinet on one platform (Xbox 360 or PC), or 40 Microsoft Points is just “two quarters” worth of playtime on a select title. This offers players to try the game before buying it, which is awesome. Though, I feel that the “two quarters” option should be deleted and there should be a limited free trial. Also, most people seem to be interested in the 240 Microsoft Points offer because not many people play on the PC, so why waste extra Microsoft Points?
Other cool things about Game Room are:
• Your avatar is a part of the game. Your avatar will act as you in a real Arcade, which makes the experience come to life.
• You can customize your Game Room to make it more appropriate for you.
• You can change themes according to your likings or the games you have, etc.
• Challenge your friends to beat your high score by sending custom challenges and taunts across platforms, earn Achievements, unlock levels, and climb your way to the top of the universal leaderboards.
• And much more.
Although this sounds fun and exciting, it is nothing until you actually give Game Room a try. You may find this to be even better than the original video game Arcades, I know I did. I still can’t get over the fact that it’s FREE.
Xbox Evolved writes:
"I know we all have been waiting anxiously for the BIG arrival of Game Room as part of the Block Party. Some insanely awesome games were released this month, and to top it off we now have even more reasons to love the Xbox 360 – the GAME ROOM. "
booted it up earlier but I thought it was pretty dumb. Not sure what exactly MS's aim is behind Game Room but it's not aiming for me.
I tried it out earlier, pretty neat what you can do with the challenges and stuff. Not too bad
I kind of enjoyed that feeling of being in an arcade. Hopefully we'll see some interesting releases soon though, not too interested in what's available at the moment.
Tried out the demo (or whatever you'd call it). Kinda neat for a curiosity, but I doubt I'll be spending any more time with it.
"Innovative" gets tossed around so much around every new thing that comes up and I certainly don't think GameRoom is innovative at all. Charging for simplistic games, literally nickel and diming, and paying for owned games is all silly IMO. I don't understand the point-- is it to simulate an actual arcade experience? Offer games anyone can access on the net with better graphics with an "arcadey" vibe? I can do that in Home, for free, and I'm not a big fan of Home, and I'm not trying to start a war, but in all honesty, I do not see the point of GameRoom charging for this.
Perhaps Natal games will offer something unique or innovative but right now I see this as nothing more than a glorified arcade collection of games I can play on my PC. At least they don't have you running around like in Home, the experience seems straight forward but a complete waste of Microsoft Points.
I like the idea of this however I need to know if it will just be old school (like atari) arcade games or if there will be more modern ones. Probably as time goes by but I know sega has a slew of great arcade hits that would rock this service. Just to name a few:
outrun
after burner
space harrier
galaxy force
power drift
golden axe
thunder blade
daytona
virtua racing
virtua fighter
Same goes for capcom. Please capcom...support this service with UN squadron, final fight, knights of the round, carrier airwing, mercs,
Lots of arcade games to line up a quarter at the top of the virtual cabinet.
DONT go to open zone. their is a douche there with a potential alan wake spoiler. its in his username so stear clear
on topic, i love the idea of a game room. especially if the games library would be as impressive as mame32 emulators! however the price of these could be slightly off putting
This is XBL's version of PS HOME? O, I bet this is a WONDERFUL idea since it's from MS.
really? hmm, didn't know that. Might actually check this out now. Download packs free to download the games and play them or just download then pay to play them like with quarters aka microsoft points?
None of the games are free. You are downloading the content, not the games themselves. They are $3.
It was kind of cool to play Adventure from the 2600. Not sure I'll be doing it again though...nostalgia can be a b1tch.
Adventure and Yar's Revenge were the only games I was really interested in revisiting, and they're both...not as good as I remembered.
I just hope they expand the library to include a bunch of games.
I got four arcade games in my apartment on playstation home myself, and Namco has an arcade that is kinda like what Microsoft has,
http://www.siliconera.com/w...
except that the Microsoft version looks more "Arcadey", to butcher a word; plus, it looks like Microsoft will have a wide variety of games, which is a good thing.
The thing that annoyed me about this:
Game Room itself shows up as free
Game Packs show up as free
But as soon as you try to play a game: BOOM. Have to buy it. And the pricing itself is too high. 240 points for Adventure? Come on, I could go to a used game store and get the cartridge version for $.50. And then to top it off, they give you a 5G achievement just for starting the game so you can't delete it from your profile.
If I ever get free Microsoft Points (HA!), I might try it. But right now all it did was irritate me.