Because I know very little about “new generation” console gaming, I was a bit overwhelmed when I stumbled upon a bunch of Xbox 360 stuff in this game lot from Joe.  You might recall that I recently got a PS3 which shot me forward into the realm of new generation gaming, but I still had very little experience with the equivalent Microsoft console.  Believe it or not (I’m walking on air; I never thought I could feel so free…), I’ve owned an Xbox 360 for a long while but have only ever experienced Dragon Age.  The console was one of those things in my entertainment stand that mostly served as a DVD player rather than a gaming console, but I think I can safely say that I might have a few more exciting things to dabble in with the games and things we got here.

We got a bunch of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games with some wireless guitars.  I’ve only ever played Guitar Hero on the PS2, so this might be a nice change.  We don’t have any of the other instruments for Rock Band and with our space constraints, it’s unlikely that we will any time soon.  We also got a game called Brutal Legend which seems to be in the same vein as the other game series mentioned here.

There were a handful of games here that I might pick up sometime, like Grand Theft Auto IV.  I’ve played a bit of Vice City back in the day but never finished it.  If I ever get around to trying out Perfect Dark for N64 and enjoy it, I might also consider picking up Perfect Dark Zero and giving that a whirl sometime.

As well, some fun games that I know I’ll appreciate were also included.  Lego Batman is something that I’ve always wanted to play but haven’t.  I can shamefully say I’ve never played a Lego game but completely find the idea attractive.  I obviously gravitate towards the RPG genre, so it was great to see a Tales game in the mix as well.  I don’t know much about the other titles just yet, but I’m planning to take a look at some reviews and see what’s out there.  If anyone has reviewed these games, feel free to link me in the comments.  I’m really out of touch with this entire generation of games!

There were some signed games in the pile.  It would seem that Joe ran into some folks that worked on the game Too Human and got some signatures, but I don’t have any context for them.  I’ve got to pry some information out of him about how these signatures came to be and who they belong to.

It was also really interesting  to find some collector’s editions in the mix.  Firstly, there was a collector’s edition for Grand Theft Auto IV that came along with a bunch of great stuff.  Included was a map of Liberty City, an art book, a keychain, and probably the most fun of all, a lock box with keys!  That thing is pretty heavy duty, and the box’s weight made sense when I pulled that out.  The collector’s edition is a great little bit of fan service!  I think it was supposed to also come with a t-shirt or something, but that’s long gone.

Another limited edition game that we got here was Bioshock.  The game came boxed with a figure that looks pretty cool.  I haven’t played Bioshock, but my boyfriend played some Bioshock Infinite and really enjoyed it.  I don’t know if the games are the same story or concept, but I’d be willing to give this a go sometime.

Last but not least, we got an add-on for the Xbox 360: an HD-DVD player!  As silly as it might sound, I never actually understood that there was a different kind of DVD out there other than the regular kind.  I thought it was just DVD vs. blu-ray back in the day, but apparently not!  Either way, since King Kong was nowhere to be found, we managed to find an HD-DVD movie at the thrift store to try out with the player (my boyfriend chose 300.)  After taking a little look-see at the footage, to my mind, there is virtually no difference between this and a blu-ray, so I don’t know what all the brouhaha was about.  I still watch things on VHS with no qualms, so perhaps I’m not the person to be making these kinds of statements.

The items here along with the PS3 games I spoke of way back at one of the first entries in this series are the newest games and accessories on my list of things to tell you all about.  Despite trying to keep rotating between releases from different corporations, it seems that Nintendo is piling up along with a bit of Sony.  Stay tuned for more of that as well!

I hope you’re all ramping up for an eventful weekend.  I can’t believe that June has almost left us behind.

Thanks for reading.

-GG