For the longest time, the Xbox console series has been noted for quality shooters and sports titles, but no real “must-have” RPGs. The Xbox360 seems poised to change that, with the release of a few A-list titles over the next few months. As we reported earlier, one of the most anticipated of these, “Eternal Sonata” hit Xbox Live as a demo earlier today. With all this hype, is it worth the space on your hard drive? Let’s find out.

Story: With a storyline as abstract as Eternal Sonata’s is, (You are in a dream world created by real-world famous composer Frederic Chopin hours before his death) it is really hard to get a sense for the true nature of the plot. With the “dream world” aspect of the story, it seems that Eternal Sonata has a much softer edge to it than your traditional Final Fantasy title.

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Is it just me? Does anyone else notice that they have a pile of $60 games on the shelf, and yet they are playing the demo version of “Joust”?

I’ll admit it. My name is David, and I’m a demo junkie. From Viva Pinata to Ace Combat, I play them all. I download titles that I have zero interest in ever buying, and then I play that demo for hours.

I have come to the conclusion that I must take my addiction and turn it into something useful. I have scoured the depths of the Xbox Marketplace to give you the Top 5 best demos on Xbox Live.

Shadowrun
What you get: 1 multiplayer map, Party Support
Size: 1.1GB
Genre: FPS with RPG elements
Notes: Any online title you can get for free is always a bonus. While Shadowrun was praised for polish and innovation, it was summarily criticized for lack of content worth its $60 price tag. Hardly an issue with a free demo, as this single available Shadowrun map is listed as one of the favorites of players in the full version.

See the rest of the list after the jump:
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Going to New York on vacation is an exciting proposition. The sights and bustle of the city feel almost alien in nature to your normal life. Where buildings touch the sky, and trees are scarce, I happened upon something incredible. Nestled in a corner of Rockefeller Center, you will find the Nintendo World store.

You may not notice it at first glance. With the madness that comes with a day in New York, an unassuming glass building hardly peaks interest. The building is practically an aquarium, but as with most aquariums, it’s the inside that counts. If you listen closely, the sounds of excited children echo through the spinning doors, hinting as something unseen that somehow provides unrelenting joy. My mind raced as I recognized the magnitude of what I had discovered. Will I finally find it? Will my quest for a Nintendo Wii finally be complete? Surely here, at the center of New York, in one of the largest Nintendo stores in the world, they will have a Wii for sale. What that in mind, I eagerly jogged across incoming traffic, ignoring the angry honks of speeding cab drivers.

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There is a “war” going on. One that media experts and gamer fanatics fight every day. The hyperbole of statistics, the glancing blows of public insults – the battlefield is littered by the bodies of lesser developers and the lines are drawn as the big three game console makers continue to encourage their fanatical followers to sling insults and typical Internet-level “intelligence” into the fray. The saddest fact though is that if we declare a “winner” or “losers” in the war will anyone really care? Does this made up conflict even mean anything?

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People of the world, you are now safe. After a year long investigation dubbed “Operation Tangled Web”, (dun dun dun!!) the department of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (or ICE) has cleaned up this messy world.

What was their target? Was it terrorists? Corrupt CEOs? No, they were after something far more sinister. They were after the plague on mankind known as mod chip distributors. Sure to go down in history as one of the lamest operations ever, Operation Tangled Web was the largest enforcement operation of its kind targeting these felonious dealers.

ICE has just stepped up the operations in a big way, issuing 32 federal search warrants over 16 states over the last 24 hours. That’s a lot of numbers listed in a statistical fashion, so it’s hard not to be impressed.

ESA chief Michael Gallagher was quick to slap ICE on the back for helping him keep his job. Here’s what he had to say:

“Plain and simple, selling and distributing products to illegally bypass game consoles’ piracy protections is a crime with real-life consequences. This is not a game; we’re talking jail time. Enforcement initiatives of this scope send a clear message to both the public and pirate community that this illegal activity will not be tolerated,” said Michael D. Gallagher, president of ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. “We commend Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Justice, and the participating U.S. Attorneys’ offices for targeting individuals and groups selling ‘mod-chips’ and pirated game software.”

They arrested people who play video games and he goes, “This is not a game”. Zing! Way to show those jerks who is boss.

Look, laws need to be enforced. I understand that. My only concern here is that so much manpower is wasted on something so trivial. Is an Xbox that plays burned DVDs a threat to national security? I doubt it.

Oh! Next let’s go after those guys who sell fake designer purses, those guys have it coming. Grab your shotguns boys… It looks like this operation… is in the bag. Zing!

I think I’ve finally figured out what it is about most Massively Multiplayer Online games that irks me so. The lack of evolution – true player impact and evolution. What brings this topic up you ask? Well reader let me show you.

Not to single it out but last year Star Wars Galaxies brought the Civil War back to the game in a big way – with a massive Rebellion vs. Empire fight to the death on a small rather insignificant planet whose architecture is reminiscent on the Naboo capital of Theed. The concept is simple – the Empire and the Rebellion engage in far far away’s version of urban warfighting. Rebel terrorists face off against the fine forces of the Galactic military and the civilians and residents of the galactic burg will be the losers.

One of the questions I asked when I discussed this event a year ago with the lead producer on the title at E3 after my eyes lit up with possibility was – Is the outcome predetermined? The answer – yes. The Rebellion will lose no matter what and the city will be destroyed. Well my next statement wasn’t nearly as nice but I won’t repeat it here. Now I’m someone who has a great idea of the amount of work needed to maintain these static game worlds, and sure the concept of diverging servers – some where the Rebellion wins, some where the Empire wins would create a rift in the game and present a huge technical and manpower issue for SOE to maintain but damn it why even bother to have events like this is there is no chance of altering the outcome? Rebel players – face it you will throw your lives into the pyre of galactic civil war for no net gain. Your death will have no impact on the world and while the event may offer unique armor or skills for participants I just find it frustrating.

Not to pick on Star Wars alone, the most popular MMO game in the world right now – World of Warcraft suffers from the same issue – the Opening of the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and the most recent Scourge Invasion smack of the same logic. No matter when each server opened the gates or how many people acted to stop the invasion there is no long term difference. This is a world event that already has a predetermined outcome. Players are insignificant. I know, as a player who returned to the game after the gates opened, it had absolutely no impact on my play. I couldn’t participate in the actual battle (just as my mid level character really couldn’t play in the Scourge Invasion endgame raid) and how the battle on my server went made no difference on anything because the status quo still exists just like it did before the events began.

Following on with the results of the Star Wars battle – the city was abandoned, and players will not be rebuilding it. GMs and plots will maybe eventually lead to its resurrection. The rallying cry of “Remember those who fought at Restuss!” will be there to motivate but has no bite. The people of the world will have no rallying post-9/11 effort to rebuild their lost homes. They will simply move on. Now I don’t know what SOE had in store for the post Restuss event – this was meant to reintroduce the Galactic Civil War into a game that had become mostly about commerce and the standard MMO level grind – it’s just too bad the tiger has no teeth. It’s too bad no one will mourn the loss even a year after the destruction of Restuss.

This my friends is the problem with MMORPGs. The shared world, the illusionary freedom of choice. You will never matter… you will never be the hero of the Scourge invasion or whatever event transpires in your game of choice. No statues to your sacrifice will ever be erected and no value associated with the hard fought battles or great loss. You will never ‘own’ the results of the acts. You just get some trinkets and maybe a personal memory of being part of the battle if you’re lucky. Unless you consider what Guild Wars is promising with GW2 and the Hall of Monuments.

I’ve been a bit of a Nintendo Wii critic in the past and am still not a true believer. Give me my PS3, 360 and a 50” HDTV, surround sound system and I’m one happy camper. That’s not to say that there isn’t a place for the Nintendo Wii. Lately, I have been trying to figure out exactly where Wii’s place will be in history and it’s still a little hard to predict. As far as the “next generation” battle goes, I am convinced that the Microsoft Xbox 360 or Sony PS3 will end up as the champion.

Don’t think I am trying to take away from the Wii’s place in history. The Wii is really the first system in history that got non-gamers out of their closets and into video games. Yesterday, for the first time in American history, a video game competition was televised on CBS as a sports event. The Nintendo Wii certainly had something to do with this event happening in the first place. No Wii games were played in the event, but I believe that video games have become mainstream in a big way because of the system.
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At first, the reactions were grim. The public didn’t quite seem ready. And even after the thought set in, it’s still not going well.

But why are people freaking out? Why do people believe this to be the end of television, or even the lowest common denominator. That author of the latter editorial I linked to wrote, “I watch both golf and poker on TV with great fervor. But video games? As sport?”

Yes, and as a matter of fact, this is exactly my point: People watch Poker on television. People have even watched it enough in the past few years so that when you’re flipping through the channels on a random Saturday afternoon, you’ll come across a poker match being televised at 5:00 on a random Sunday.

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Sex sells, we all know that.

Since the greed generation of the 80’s its been the simplest way to get attention. Just produce a product with scantily clad men or women on it or in it and people will flock to your corner right? Well in a market where every character is sexy or cool the sex obsessed fanboys in the game development biz figured out a simple method to take objectification to the next level using a discipline of emergent mathematics called Breast Physics. Unlike the legitimate field of biomechanics as described in this article we are mostly limiting the discussion to the video game implementations.

Now Breast Physics (unlike say fluid dynamics or quantum mechanics) is not a recognized field of scientific research. Evolving with the video game genre from its earliest days in Custer’s Revenge for the 2600 up through Leisure Suit Larry and the Dead or Alive titles (especially DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball ), this field of study “floated” to the top of the video game simulation industry (thanks to the huge number of game designers who simply never got out of the office enough to interact with real women).

There are quite a few examples today of games built and sold completely around this unique simulation field and the latest game to show off advances in breast physics simulation - Dead or Alive 4 bounced onto the Xbox 360 in full color-high definition glory, or the numerous scantily clad elves running around in games like World of Warcraft – which is what brought this subject to mind.

There are many questions about this field of study but simply put the unified theory of breast physics states that if you have a female video game character with large.. shall we say assets.. they will have the most expressively modeled motion prediction and reaction of all the parts of the human form – including hair or facial features. Breast physics infiltrates every known genre of games – sports games, fighting games, RPGs, and even simulations . The biggest concern though as someone who enjoys eye candy as much as the next man is: Does this unrealistic portrayal of human anatomy set unrealistic expectations for young male gamers when they actually encounter the real thing? Honestly think of all the boys out there who’ve learned through their video games that women’s anatomy comes with independent suspension! Real women don’t strut around in skimpy clothes while their chests jiggle like strapped on Jell-O for everyone to observe. More importantly how can any real female ever hope to live up to the fantastic behavior of these modeled mammaries?

Gaming is still a fairly young hobby, one that faces assault from all sides in the media circus. While I personally find the continuously exaggerated proportions of modern video game vixens laughable it seems that consumers as a whole continue to encourage such behavior. Eidos’s Queen of the Tomb, Lara Croft recently underwent a sizable breast reduction for her newest game but it seems Lara is an exception. The girls of DOA continue to wiggle and jiggle in outfits no real woman could hope to swaddle their bosom in while throwing a roundhouse.

In order for games to move out from under the scrutiny of gaming for its two biggest attractions – Violence and Sexuality (both key aspects to adolescent wish fulfillment I might add) gamers need to stand up and demand more real portrayals of women in gaming!!

The growing ranks of GRRL gamers out there (well most of them anyway) want interesting stories, social dynamics and good action and so should the guys – its too bad game developers keep delivering breast physics as an answer. Maybe after addressing this we can approach the unrealistic body image that Master Chief presents to young boys and how it is driving them into fits of depression.

Societies ills must be handled!

We must demand less buoyant representations!