XBLA Arcade Sales

[Darren870]

Little late but the sales are still going on. I suspect Monday will be the last day:


Goes on Sale for Cyber Monday:

Beyond Good and Evil – 240 MSP (70% off)
Mortal Kombat Kollection – 400 MSP (50% off)
Risk: Factions – 200 MSP (75% off)
Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale – 600 MSP (50% off)



Is on Sale Right Now:

Battlefield: Bad Company - 25% off
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 25% off
Civ Revolution - 25% off

The Baconing - 600
Bejweled 2 - 200
Bejeweled Blitz Live - 200
Fancy Pants Adventures - 400
Flotilla - 200
Happy Tree Friends - 400
Magic 2012 - 400
Outrun - 400
Phantasy Star 2 - 200
Sega Soccer Slam - 600
Stacking -600
Super Meat Boy - 400
Weapon of Choice - 200

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood: The Da Vinci Disappearence - 400
Homefront Fire Sale Map Pack - 120
Homefront The Rock Map Pack - 200
L4D2: The Passing - 270
Pinball FX 2 Classic Pack - 400
Pinball FX 2 Core - 400
Pinball FX 2 Marvel Pack - 400

[Gapporin]

I heard that Outrun Online Arcade will be delisted sometime soon, so now would be the perfect time to pick it up if you're interested in it.

[The 1 2 P]

I'll be grabbing the Mortal Kombat Kollection.

[Darren870]

I heard that Outrun Online Arcade will be delisted sometime soon, so now would be the perfect time to pick it up if you're interested in it.

I've been debating with this. Is it any good?

[Colorado Rockies]

Beyond Good & Evil HD for 3 Bucks?
Wow.

[c0ldb33r]

thanks for the heads up

i just grabbed Outrun and tomorrow ill get MK and Beyond G&E :D

[davidbrit2]

I've been debating with this. Is it any good?

It's alright, but it's missing a lot of stuff. The Japanese PS2 version is the most faithful port.

[Darren870]

Super Meat Boy is a great purchase for 400 points for anyone interested.

[Capybara554321]

bg&e for me

[Leo_A]

I've been debating with this. Is it any good?

I've spent a lot of time with it. It's well worth $5 (I was more than happy to pay twice that at release for it). It's been worth every dime.

Postives
-It's the only version that runs in HD. Not even any of the arcade releases have done that.
-A few graphical improvements compared to Coast 2 Coast (You see the Space Shuttle launch, for instance, which wasn't in the Xbox/PS2/PSP releases of Coast 2 Coast).
-Convenience since there's no need to swap a disc in if you want to do a couple of runs between games.
-It's still Outrun 2 (Or more correctly, it's the additions brought to the game in Outrun 2 SP).
-Fixed the scoring so it's faithful to the arcade cab.
-It's the only version still online. While multiplayer is a ghost town, online leaderboards add so much to this game and greatly extends its replayability. The Xbox originals haven't been the same since we lost the leaderboards.
-Achievements are fun to go after, although that's short lived since they're easy.

Negatives
-Frame rate isn't as smooth as Coast 2 Coast. That was a steady 60fps except in two spots on a single Outrun 2 SP stage where it drops to 30 on the Xbox (And a few more such spots on the PS2 build). In this version, you actually go below 30fps on occasion (Especially at a couple of spots on MIlky Way on a fast run).
-You lose the original 15 Outrun 2 tracks, you lose reverse tracks, and you lose the variations like the night versions of a few tracks.
-You lose modes like practice mode, mission mode, etc.
-You lose several cars.
-You lose many music tracks.
-Tuned cars are no longer visually modified.
-The voicework is of much lesser quality than C2C and it cuts out at various places before it finishes.
-Textures occasionally fail to load for the next stage, especially if you're online and encounter a bug where you go a different route than the leader did.
-You lose various other things like the original sets of heart attack missions, the unlockable Outrun, the unlockable Sega Super GT and Daytona 2 courses, etc.

The XBLA size limitations of the time really crippled this and kept it from replacing Outrun 2 and Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast. But the convenience factor, running in HD, and online leaderboards that are still active make it a nice $5 complement to Outrun 2 and Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast.


The Japanese PS2 version is the most faithful port.

I own it and the improvements seem rather minor. It adds Logitech wheel support (At the cost of online multiplayer, although that doesn't matter now), the spots where our PS2 version would drop to around 30fps have been improved a lot, it includes polygonal versions of the end animations like the shuttle launch, PSP linkup has been removed so you don't need a PSP and a PSP copy of the game to unlock everything, the sound effects on the end credit sequences had to be removed since they had no spare RAM left, the dove animation is still missing on Goal C (It required more than just animated textures like the space shuttle to do those, so they're still missing).

I still prefer the Xbox build. It just looks and feels the best to me. I never did listen to the Turbo Outrun tracks that much, anyways (I either stuck with the original 1986 Outrun tunes, or 1960's music off my hard drive).

[c0ldb33r]

just a reminder to folks to download the games today before the sale expires

[klausien]

Thanks for the tip on the 400 point MK Kollection!

[dystopian]

Super Meat Boy is a great purchase for 400 points for anyone interested.

Couldn't agree more. Best game on the list, though I've only played around half of them.