Lumines Live Tomorrow

[bigsteveouk]

Hi guys this is my first post!

Just wanted to let you all know I just read on majornelson's website that Lumines Live will be out tomorrow when xbox live is back online.

www.majornelson.com

 

[xmu]

1UP has put up more info at http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3154478. Sounds all good to me, but I have to bring up the very good point they make in the last paragraph:

...good luck asking Microsoft to only charge you for $22.49 in points

That's one of the reasons I personally would much rather pay with real currency than points.

 

[Qroach]

do you really think it's MS that is setting those prices and not the publisher?

 

[TrungGap]

do you really think it's MS that is setting those prices and not the publisher?

I think his point is that you can't purchase $22.49 worth in point to buy the game.

 

[Qroach]

I think his point is that you can't purchase $22.49 worth in point to buy the game.

I don't see what difference that makes, it would still be 1800 points...

 

[kyleb]

The difference is, if you could just buy 1800 points then buying the content wouldn't require giving MS a few extra bucks to earn interest on.

 

[rabidrabbit]

What's odd is that you actually get less game with the "main" game than you get with the add-on pack.
The main game has 12 skins, the addon pack has 22. Are we now paying for a demo of sorts?

I hope this will not be the trend with those "episodic" games too (GTA4 main game to come with one "island" worth of gaming, the downloadable "episodic content" adds two or more of these "islands")

 

[xmu]

The difference is, if you could just buy 1800 points then buying the content wouldn't require giving MS a few extra bucks to earn interest on.

That's exactly my point. I know this was discussed to great lengths in another thread but I thought this was a relevant place to bring it up as well. I don't like to have my money stashed away somewhere where I'll be able to use it only when new content suited for me comes up. I know we're not talking about significant sums here, but it's all about the principle - it's my money and I should be able to use it exactly and just as much as I want to.

 

[xmu]

What's odd is that you actually get less game with the "main" game than you get with the add-on pack.
The main game has 12 skins, the addon pack has 22. Are we now paying for a demo of sorts?

Ok that is odd, didn't notice that. Seems like a bit of a ripoff, although I'd assume the license costs for the extra music don't come too cheap?

I hope this will not be the trend with those "episodic" games too (GTA4 main game to come with one "island" worth of gaming, the downloadable "episodic content" adds two or more of these "islands")

I think not. I can't come up with another game besides Lumines to actually offer more content in an expansion pack, but I haven't really paid any attention to PC games in the past 5 or so years so I'm most likely wrong

 

[Qroach]

The difference is, if you could just buy 1800 points then buying the content wouldn't require giving MS a few extra bucks to earn interest on.

Again what? what does it matter to you how much MS would make off the two purchases when it clearly doesn't matter to the publisher? It's what I said before. MS isn't the one that decides the final price of this software and/OR how the software is broken up into purchase-able pieces. Thats up to the publisher.

 

[Qroach]

What's odd is that you actually get less game with the "main" game than you get with the add-on pack.
The main game has 12 skins, the addon pack has 22. Are we now paying for a demo of sorts?

I hope this will not be the trend with those "episodic" games too (GTA4 main game to come with one "island" worth of gaming, the downloadable "episodic content" adds two or more of these "islands")

Huh? whats with you guys? Please explain to me how an additional 22 skins is getting less "game" then purchasing the actual game with 12 skins?? This doesn't seem like common sense to me. ON one hand you are getting the "game for" for half the price of the addon (an addon that's not needed or required.). skins don't make up the game...

 

[xmu]

Again what? what does it matter to you how much MS would make off the two purchases when it clearly doesn't matter to the publisher? It's what I said before. MS isn't the one that decides the final price of this software and/OR how the software is broken up into purchase-able pieces. Thats up to the publisher.

Sigh, you're missing the point. While I for one have no objection about the price itself, what I do dislike is the fact that I can't pay the exact sum. Instead I have to give them more of my money than I want to and hope there will be something worth using the points for in the future - ok surely there will, but still.

 

[xmu]

Huh? whats with you guys? Please explain to me how an additional 22 skins is getting less "game" then purchasing the actual game with 12 skins?? This doesn't seem like common sense to me. ON one hand you are getting the "game for" for half the price of the addon (an addon that's not needed or required.). skins don't make up the game...

Actually in this case the skins do make up the game as each skin has a different track & rhythm, meaning they're levels. And I think you misread rabidrabbit's post, what he said was:

What's odd is that you actually get less game with the "main" game than you get with the add-on pack.

And by that I for one understand he meant that the actual game has less content than the add-on pack - which is true.

 

[xmu]

Ok it's been out for a while now, here are some first impressions after a quick run in the challenge mode.

1) At least 2 songs from the PSP version, that's a bit of a drag even though they're slightly remixed

2) The leaderboards are buggy - this might have something to do with the Live maintenance thingy that was just finished. but the scrolling just stops every now and then, I also see duplicate scores etc. Oh and "Friends" was spelled "Freinds" on one of the boards - must've been a rush to get the game out

3) Controlling the game's a bit hard in my opinion - the X360 controller's d-pad is just rubbish and the analog moves a bit too fast for my taste, but I'm sure I'll get used to it

EDIT: 4) The online play is laggy beyond belief! I've played a couple of matches and your own controls lag like HELL, it's really unplayable.

But overall it's still a very nice game, works just great on a larger screen (versus the PSP) and especially the music really kicks ass compared to headphones/PSP speakers.

 

[Qroach]

Sigh, you're missing the point. While I for one have no objection about the price itself, what I do dislike is the fact that I can't pay the exact sum. Instead I have to give them more of my money than I want to and hope there will be something worth using the points for in the future - ok surely there will, but still.

oh i see your point since you have to buy a certain amount of points. you're right they shouldn't force you to buy some points you don't want to use.

 

[Arwin]

But overall it's still a very nice game, works just great on a larger screen (versus the PSP) and especially the music really kicks ass compared to headphones/PSP speakers.

Yeah, I love it on PSP. Actually found myself playing it again, after I managed to get my girl hooked on it. She's learning quick, but I made some progress myself. Which brings me to my question:

Are there leaderboards for the timed modes? (I assume that the 1/3/5 and 10 minute modes are still in the game) I've just for the first time passed the 60 blocks per minute mark (61 blocks in the one minute mode, nearing it in other modes with 175 in 3 minute mode), which incidentally unlocked me another skin.

Was wondering how other people are doing

 

[rabidrabbit]

Has it got the two player attack mode over Live?

 

[xmu]

Are there leaderboards for the timed modes? (I assume that the 1/3/5 and 10 minute modes are still in the game) I've just for the first time passed the 60 blocks per minute mark (61 blocks in the one minute mode, nearing it in other modes with 175 in 3 minute mode), which incidentally unlocked me another skin.

Indeed there are, and it reaaaaaally brings me down to see how much I suck at the game Current top scores are:

Challenge mode: 1676756
Skin Edit Mode Single Lap: 295966
Time Attack 60sec: 85
Time Attack 180sec: 211
Time Attack 300sec: 380
Time Attack 600sec: 761

So you've got some work ahead of you, but I'm a lot further off.. need a lot more practice Btw managed to get my X360 stuck a while ago by starting up Lumines and pressing the Guide button while the intro was shown.. reaaally weird.

 

[xmu]

Has it got the two player attack mode over Live?

Yeah, and it's extremely laggy. I'm hoping this is all due to the supposedly huge number of players playing Lumines at the moment, but if not it has to be the suckiest online mode ever. And there really seems to be something wrong with the leaderboards - when I load up one, it takes ages to display (ok prolly due to server load) and as soon as I press down arrow once (the list doesn't even scroll) it hangs for ages again.

 

[Acert93]

I hope this will not be the trend with those "episodic" games too (GTA4 main game to come with one "island" worth of gaming, the downloadable "episodic content" adds two or more of these "islands")

My understanding was that the extra content was only a couple extra hours of gameplay. You are kind of suggesting that the main game in GTA4 will have less gameplay than the small expansions which doesn't seem right.