Casual Play on 360 Live Arcade 48
twoallbeefpatties writes "Columnist Chris Suellentrop writes an article for Slate describing how his desire for casual gaming is fulfilled more by the 360 than the Wii due to the presence of simpler games available over Live Arcade. The availability of oldschool Nintendo games on the Wii network fulfills his nostalgic hardcore gaming side, but when he really wants to just relax, he'd rather be trying to top his Live high score on Root Beer Tapper. Says Suellentrop: 'The Nintendo Wii will transform the way we play games at home. But the Xbox 360, through its Xbox Live service, is building something equally compelling: a celestial arcade, where casual and hard-core gamers alike can connect over the Internet and find like-minded souls. For an old-timer like me, the celestial arcade also lets me feel like I still have some of my old gaming mojo.'"
Re:Playing Catch Up (Score:3, Interesting)
There was a time when there were a lot of premium games on the Zone where you had to buy the PC game and the zone would be the matchmaking area. Age of Empires, Birth of the Federation, and other PC games like that. I even remember some of MS's subscription titles like Allegiance and Asheron's Call launched through the zone.
I just checked the site out, and it's entirely these casual games. When did this change happen? I missed the old zone from a nostalgic point of view. Just looking for someone to play Birth of the Federation with.... I suppose games these days come with their own networking software/matchmaking or use gamespy.
Maybe Windows Gaming Live is an attempt to bring this all back.