by WillBaseton » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:07 pm
I would recommend Dead Rising, but you need an observatory telescope to read the text on that game without an HDTV. It's a really fun game, and absolutely full of replay value, which basically no 360 games offer. The reason for the timed tasks is because it's basically impossible to do everything in every playthrough, which leads to a lot of choice and varied ways to play the game. It's very fun, pokes fun at zombie stuff in a lot of ways, and has some great inside jokes about Capcom games. Mega Buster for the win.
Past that, you can get Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on XBOX Live Arcade for pretty cheap, if you like CV games. It's the same game it's always been, but without load times. So absolute thumbs-up from me.
Overlord is also very fun in a tongue-in-cheek, RPG-roasting way. Not to mention the minions are hilarious. I haven't beaten it, but it's just a really amusing game.
And the backlash about Blue Dragon is mainly due to its utterly juvenile characters and plot. I've said it before, but if you can sum up the entire plot of an RPG in four words ("I won't give up!" over and over and over again), it's probably got something wrong with it. If you can tolerate Saturday Morning Kiddy Anime storylines, you'll have no problems with Blue Dragon past its generally derivative nature, but the story is so painful to me that I personally couldn't in good conscience spend any money on it.
Personally, I'm not too keen on Mass Effect because it's turning out to be "KotOR, but a shooter". And personally, if I have the choice between a gun and a lightsaber, I'd pick the lightsaber every time. I just don't really like shooters, and mixing shooter and RPG is like putting bananas on a peanut butter sandwich: some people like it, but I'm just not a fan. Besides, look at what happened with Dirge of Cerberus.
I don't really have many more 360 games of note, just Samurai Warriors games, Phantasy Star Universe, Enchanted Arms, and Crackdown. But I did think of one game that might be amusing for you two to play. Earth Defense Force 2017 is basically one giant B-movie through and through. It's a budget title that basically just has you kill endless hordes of aliens, robots, giant bugs, and every other monster movie cliche in the universe. It's pretty boring in single player, but if you have two controllers, it's absolutely absurd fun in co-op. I wouldn't recommend playing it any other way, but it's at the very least worth a rental, since you can just spend all of your time destroying entire cities if you so desire.