Jason Chen

The Doritos game [more info here] is the best XBLA game I’ve played today. It’s also the only XBLA game I’ve played today. But it is good.

You can play as either a T-Rex or a Doritos truck. The game is “finished” in about 10 minutes, netting you the full 200 achievement points in the process. Hell, the game even talks about how easy it is to get achievements, since it’s a free download designed only to market Doritos. Well, it works. It’s not every day you get to demolish a couple blocks worth of buildings as a bionic T-Rex. Kudos, Doritos.

Whenever I’m talking to anyone about upcoming Xbox 360 games, and how there are a refugee boat-load of them, I always end up only listing a few and forgetting a bunch. Even googling for Xbox 360 release calendar turns up nothing. So here’s a list, for my own enjoyment and reference, of upcoming 360 games that I’m looking forward to buying/playing.

The Darkness 2/5
Beautiful Katamari 12/31
Assassin’s Creed 12/25
Gears of War (Windows) 12/13
Mass Effect 12/1
Rock Band 11/25
Call of Duty 4 11/11
Portal 11/2
Eternal Sonata 10/24
Kotaku 10/18
Blue Dragon 9/27
Halo 3 9/27
Stranglehold 9/12
Two Worlds 9/9
Bioshock 9/2
Alan Wake
Army of Two
Conan (Sucks)
Devil May Cry 4 (Meh)
GTA 4
Naruto
Lost Odyssey
PGR4 (Meh)
Unreal Tournament III (Meh)
Kane & Lynch (Meh)
Fable 2
Fallout 3

Oh yes, thwarted by Blockbuster again. Like Dr. Venture of whom the quote is taken, I’ve got an arch nemesis that despite (or perhaps because) of their bumbling, manages to take advantage of me at every turn.

I go to the local Blockbuster to rent a game. Not just any game, but BioShock–one of the “most wanted” list that I’ve posted before. Luckily, I find one on the shelf. But when I bring it up to the front desk, the lazy, mumbling clerk asks me if I called ahead. I said no (truthfully). He then goes and checks to see if there are any more. He says there aren’t.

After some questioning, he fesses up that there is one more, but it’s reserved for the guy who called ahead. That’s not standard Blockbuster procedure, but I didn’t want to be a dick and make a scene, since I wanted to come back to his Blockbuster again. So I leave.

When I get home, I two more Blockbusters to see if they have it in stock. One didn’t, but the second one said they had one. We call and ask them to hold it for us until we get there. Ten minutes later when we did get there, it turns out the only copy that they had was for buying, not for renting. Seriously? You’re Blockbuster, and you think someone’s calling you to see if you have any more copies in stock to BUY?! Gimme a break.

End result, no BioShock, but plenty of jackassery.

Yep, that’s right before I broke the 30,000 mark. The achievements have to be the greatest innovation of Microsoft’s unquestionably innovative console. Even when a game is mediocre, you’re going to want to rent it or buy it in the bargain bin just for the achievements. And if the achievements are easy, you’ll even put up with shit games.

But with good games, getting achievements is just a side effect of enjoying the game—you don’t have to go that far out of the way to get them. Which is nice.