DH Review: Chromehounds (Xbox 360)

Zardon

Read the review here
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FromSoftware is by far one of the most esteemed developers in the mech gaming industry. In the past, they’ve had a great deal of success with the Armored Core series on PlayStation, PS2, and there’s even been a PSP release as well. Now, they’re moving into the next generation of gaming by delivering the first mech warrior type game on the Xbox 360 with the creation of Chromehounds. Featuring a persistent online campaign as well as deep vehicle customization, Chromehounds will definitely help 360 owners get their mech fix.

Lelisevis

Firstly a negative ( my apologies) but that review was difficult to read as it was twice the width of my laptop screen and I had to scroll around. Not sure if thats a problem at my end. Otherwise great.

Anyway on to chromehounds...I took a look at this game at the weekend and it seemed pretty good fun but before I splashed my cash I took a look on the internet. It appears this game has one or two major issues that have resulted in all sorts of problems the more serious ones being frozen consoles and also a few broken consoles (more than likely coincedence as I can think of games that would put a greater stress on the xbox). Anyway for once this isn't all just net rumour and Sega have acknowleged a problem.

For the time being or at least until a patch is issued I'd exercise caution or failing that get a really dumb friend to buy it and play on his.

Edit: just realised how terrible that last sentence looked. I wasnt inferring anyone who's bought it was intellectually challenged. Goodgrief talk about digging a hole.

Zardon

I beat the game on my console and I didnt have a single problem with it, I think the issue is more with the xbox 360 console and cooling problems as I detailed on the front page last week, rather than a specific problem with this game. I hardly think it would be possible for a manufacturer to make a game that would kill components, after all they are making the game to fit within parameters of the consoles capabilities. If consoles are failing when at the limits of those parameters then the issue is with the individual console.

As for the review, yes im aware it will require minor scrolling for those on lower resolution screens (1024) - however sometimes I get tired of strictly adhering to certain limitations for everyone and I like to push the mould a little in regards to reviews by incorporating flash and other aspects to make them more interesting and involving to read. I don't always do this, however the flip side of the coin is that I have in the past received emails from people complimenting the use of higher bandwidth content for a more interactive experience.

Lelisevis

Sorry don't mean to thread hijack what is a very good review so feel free to edit or delete this.

Yes I agree with you completely that it's probably hardware and tried to make that point in the brackets to limited success however in this case the problem has been acknowledged by Sega and is important enough to warrant a sticky thread on the support forum here: http://boards.sega.com/chromehounds/viewforum.php?f=20
Don't get me wrong I still enjoyed my short try on this game and do plan on buying it I'd just like the current problem to be resolved. I had very similar problems to those posted with oblivion freezing which totally disappeared after the first patch.


Secondly I do like to see you push the boundries a little with screen formatting but Im having to scroll a little on my 32" Samsung TV at 1360x768 this wasnt meant to be criticism just a little constructive feedback. How about a seperate poll on most common screensize?

Keep up the goodwork as always Lel

Zardon

Hey mate you are a good guy on the forums, I hope you didnt think I was being harsh. Your input is very valid. If you feel the review is hard to read I respect that, however I did test it on my laptop at 1280x800 and the full width of the review fitted on it without any sideways scrolling as thats the size the review width is (if you dont believe me, right click on one of the review pages and save as, then open in photoshop, you can see the width). not sure why you have to scroll on your larger resolution, perhaps you have side panels on your browser?

Anyway im fascinated by your comments on the game freezing consoles. I am lucky enough to have two xbox 360s in the house and both have already been RMA'd to live support so im not sure if they have perhaps undergone a new revision, but both consoles play this game perfectly fine and I beat it on one without a crash, hardlock or screen corruption.

I will state however before they both ended up being RMA'd that I had issues with one console freezing occasionally when playing NBA2k6 and one would give graphical corruption when playing Top Spin 2 (only at wimbledon court for some reason), as if the GFX was overheating.

I honestly don't think any company could possibly be pushing a console beyond its limits, after all they are all given the 360 specifications when they are coding a game so they have to adhere to technical guidelines when coding. however I DO honestly feel there are build issues with the 360 and some of them might be more prone to these issues than others. 360 cooling is already borderline so it wouldnt take much for it to fail IMO if even a minor issue occured.

if you read my post front page a few days ago you will see however that at least they have a good RMA system in place ! There's life jim but not as we know it.....

Dyre Straits

My son's been playing this on his XBOX 360 for some time now. He's even been creating his own designs and levels with it.

I've watched him for a few minutes at a time to know very little about it.

But, his system seems to handle it just fine. I know he enjoys it, too.

Shaga

Interesting review. Not much to say about plans to play it as I haven't even tried xbox360 but good for them to get some mecha action.

Anyway, just tested this review with 1280x800 and it requires side scrolling because of the page layout. I tried in Firefox & Opera(most recent versions). The picture itself fits for screen in picture viewer or if I open it alone in web browser in fullscreenmode, but there are sidebars on the page in normal mode.

Here's screenshot of the page in firefox on fullscreen mode.

Zardon

Yes but if you center the review iniitally it doesnt require scrolling back and forward. seriously how lazy are you guys?

Can we get talking more about the game and review please rather than the fact its wider than a normal DH review, I explained why and yes it wont be a common practise. I think in future ill just plonk a load of black text on a white background about 300 pixels square

WhO_KnOwS

Another quality review by Andy!
Wish the PC saw a mech game... I miss the Mechwarrior days.