Psychonauts xbox originals, worth it?

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Ruahrc

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I want to play Psychonauts as I have heard it's a good game. I have it queued up in Goozex but for the xbox version of a pretty uncommon game (I don't have a PS2) it will take a really long time to get.

I did just get an xbox 360, however. I was fooling around on the xbox live marketplace and saw that they had Psychonauts up for download as an xbox originals game. Is it worth it to get it direct from MS online? I don't care that I won't have a physical disc.

The price as I recall was pretty reasonable, something I would pay for. As it is a pretty uncommon game for xbox and was considered good, it carries a decent point value (300pts as of posting, or $15 equivalent) on Goozex anyways. I think it's 1200 points on XBL?

I did hear that some xbox originals games had problems with like frame rate or other glitches/bugs that made getting the original game and playing it on the old xbox the better choice. Just wondering if anyone knew of any specific problems/issues with the xbox originals version of Psychonauts?

Thanks

Ruahrc
 
According to the Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility list (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm), there are no issues for Psychonauts (since even the actual discs rely on emulation, I'm pretty sure the problems would be the same as with the download).

The downside of downloading it though is of course the entire argument against digital distribution and the "value" therein. There's no resale, no aspect of collecting, etc. But hey, if you can't find the game anywhere (I'd check Gamestop, half.com, Secondspin.com, eBay, Amazon Marketplace, etc. before resorting to a download though), it's better than nothing.
 
I'm with n8. Try your darndest to find a physical copy first and if all else fails just go for the digital copy. It may take you a little time to hunt down a copy at a reasonable price, but I'm in the camp that believes "owning" a copy is your best bet.
 
It is overrated. I'd give it a B-/C+ at best. I'd try and find an actual copy so you can sell it when you are finished.
 
[quote name='javeryh']It is overrated. I'd give it a B-/C+ at best. I'd try and find an actual copy so you can sell it when you are finished.[/QUOTE]

Gameplay-wise, its definitely over-rated but I thought the story was great (great characters and a good sense of humor).....which is every Schafer game
 
[quote name='fart_bubble']Gameplay-wise, its definitely over-rated but I thought the story was great (great characters and a good sense of humor).....which is every Schafer game[/QUOTE]

yeah, I just realized that my post sounded way negative. It is definitely worth playing and the story and characters are pretty good and there are definitely some funny moments. I played it after the hype so I was let down a bit. The gameplay is what I found to be boring and it's also not the prettiest game in the world. It's above average though.
 
I played it after the hype train rolled into town a few years ago. I thought it was a good game and I had a fun time playing it, but it is certainly not the masterpiece people make it out to be.
 
Psychonauts is an underappreciated platform game, that's certainly worth checking out. As the Xbox Originals use the same emulation as the disk copies it is in your best interest to just find the disk version as it's usually much cheaper. The game itself is great, there are a lot of creative levels for a platform game that really bring the game to life. Having a Godzilla stage, a cube stage, one that's animated like a velvet painting, etc, really made it an interesting platform game despite the fact that it is also a fairly easy game.

The end level however is a pain in the ass and slightly broken.
 
Until the last level i really loved the game. I thought the gameplay was really fun in some of the stages too. It's definitely a competent platformer.

Especially the goggalor level, god, so good.
 
Psychonauts is a great game with some flaws (the aforementioned generic gameplay and difficulty curve). I play it about once a year. The only issues I've ever seen with it on 360 are a couple of graphical glitches, but nothing game-breaking.
 
I excitedly downloaded it the first day it was released on xbox originals. I had heard nothing but good things about it, and the last Schaffer game I played was Grim Fandango (amazing game).

What I experienced was an average platformer that relied too much on collecting random items to drive the gameplay. The areas were interesting and the character dialog was great, but as a whole the game barely held my attention long enough for me to beat it.
 
[quote name='mercilessming']Be Careful, I haven't played it but based on the promise and IMO the failure of Brutal Legend, Psychonauts can't be to great.[/QUOTE]

What kind of sense does this make? First of all, I can't really comprehend how the enjoyability of one game has anything to do with the enjoyability of a completely different game that was released years later (even if they were created by the same person). But even using your logic, it seems flawed.

Since Psychonauts came out BEFORE Brutal Legend, wouldn't your argument indicate that Psychonauts is good? I mean, think about it. Psychonauts would need to be decent for Brutal Legend to even have any hype to NOT live up to. If it was crappy, people would have just thought "Oh, here comes ANOTHER crappy Tim Schafer game." There really wouldn't be any expectations if he had never done anything worthwhile.
 
[quote name='mercilessming']Be Careful, I haven't played it but based on the promise and IMO the failure of Brutal Legend, Psychonauts can't be to great.[/QUOTE]

Psychonauts is way better than Brutal Legend. Psychonauts was great up until the Meat Circus near the end of the game, then it all goes downhill.
 
You're right with the downloadable version always going to be there I may as well have a look elsewhere to find a physical copy. If the search is too tough/drawn out then I can always just get the DL copy.

For these "impulse buy" type games I have usually just went the goozex route because I have a small stash of points there good enough for a few older games but sometimes the waiting makes goozex not the best choice.

Ruahrc
 
[quote name='Ruahrc']For these "impulse buy" type games I have usually just went the goozex route because I have a small stash of points there good enough for a few older games but sometimes the waiting makes goozex not the best choice.[/QUOTE]

Goozex is great for certain things, but it can be hard to rely on that site for obscure things. I too want Psychonauts, but I'll probably just buy a copy at a GameStop B2G1 sale. The wait through Goozex would just be too long.
 
Sorry to be a twat and drag a dead thread out of its grave, but here I go.

Firstly, yes, the 360 version is perfectly smooth, or at least it was for me... except for one truly bizarre and equally infuriating mystery glitch which led to the game showing one psi card missing but telling me I had everything in every area. In other words, I ended up one card short of rank 101. Annoying. But yeah the game is absolutely bloody fantastic, and remains an extremely high-ranking favourite of mine.

Secondly, I've since gotten rid of my Xbox 360 and got this game on PC. However, I cannot remember the Xbox 360 control mappings. Can anyone help me out here? I can't find a full map anywhere, at least not for the 360 (i.e. not original Xbox) pad.

Thanks in advance...
 
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If you can't find a physical copy, then it's definitely worth the $15 via download. It's not a game for everyone, but if it turns out to be your kind of game, then it could possibly be one of your favorite games of last gen (it's one of mine).

Edit: just noticed the post above me
 
Is this it?
http://news.filefront.com/manuals-controller-layouts-and-free-dlc-for-xbox-originals/

BTW I did end up getting the game from Goozex, and the wait time was minimal (i.e. zero, because I think the game was available immediately when I requested it). But since that Steam sale was so good, I ended up buying it there for $2 also. I will play through on the xbox and my big HDTV, but will keep the Steam version just in case I ever want to revisit it.

I played a couple levels of the game so far but put it away because I wanted to finish up a lot of the other games I had in progress at the time. I have since finished all those and so I think I will complete this game next.

Ruahrc
 
Much appreciated, Ruahrc. Closest I could find was the manual that linked from the Xbox Originals release, which only shows you the original Xbox control pad layout.
 
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