Essential 360 Games?

[furnace]

Hey,

I'm off to the shop in the morning to get a couple of 360 games. I have a hard drive in the post now too, lol, so I'm on my merry way to having a proper 360 setup.

Currently I have:

Call of Duty 3
Need for Speed: Carbon

Gears of War (in the post)

I'm looking at getting these as they're 2 for £40 pre-owned - depending on which are in stock:

Saints Row
- or-
Crackdown
- and -
Flatout Ultimate Carnage
- or -
Dirt

... are there any 'essential' games should I be keeping my eyes out for?

 

[furnace]

I bought DiRT, but my tv doesn't do 60hz!!

So I had to take that back.

I got Saints Row too - it seems good so far, but no point playing much until the hard drive arrives 'cos I can't save until then...

I've got Burnout (takedown and revenge) on the original xbox which I'll be able to play on the 360 when I get the hard drive (I think?). I did have revenge on the 360 too but swapped it for NFS:C - I didn't think £20 just for better graphics was worth it

Nobody seems to rate FlatOut Ultimate Carnage? The videos of it look pretty good - very burnout style but looks prettier? That was the game I was thinking of getting in place of dirt?

 

[furnace]

Lots of games are 60hz.

I recommend playing on a PC monitor, you get HD graphics that way. Too much is lost on a SD TV.

It's actually a HD TV... but for some reason, when it's at 60hz, it picks it up as NTSC rather than PAL, so gives it horizontal lines (as it has to vertically stretch the resolution) and very dull colours. Unless it's something wrong with my console rather than the TV?

 

[furnace]

Uhm, I'll go and check - it's a cheap make.

*runs downstairs*

*arrives back*

It's a Lexsor 27" - can't find a model number, but it does actually say 50hz/60hz on the back.

When you start it (the console) in 50hz, the TV says "Scart 1: PAL", but if you swap it over to 60hz, it says "Scart 1: NTSC443"... It's perfect in 50hz mode, but in 60hz mode its all off-colour.

Edit: here http://www.lexsor.com/products/lx073.htm

 

[furnace]

Argh, for god sake.

So the TV is sold as a HDTV that support 50hz and 60hz input, which are:

50hz: PAL (625 lines per image)
60hz: PAL60 (525 lines per image)

But at 60hz, it picks it up as NTSC 4.43, which is:

"what can be considered an opposite of PAL-60". It gives 525 lines, but its colour is read at a different frequency to PAL-60.

...so I tried manually setting the colour, and PAL60 isn't even an option on this TV! It's PAL, NTSC or NTSC443..!

This TV was bought months and months ago. I wonder if it's worth trying to take it back to (insert name of blatantly obvious high-street store here), as it's advertised as accepting 60hz but actually doesn't support PAL60, this countries standard for 60hz...

 

[furnace]

Ah right, yeah I just got back from doing the usual taxi service but on the drive I thought "I bet a HD cable would work at 60hz"...

TBH I don't know what's what... I knew scart wasn't HD, but it's all I got with the console. What I can find are:

Brand New VGA HD AV Cable for XBOX X BOX 360
- This thing looks like it has a white and a red cable going into a montor (d-sub, I think its called) connector

XBOX 360 COMPONENT HD TV LCD AV CABLE LEAD WIRE PHONO
- This thing has what seems to be a million cables Red and white on one section, Green Blue Red Yellow on another, and the box-bit which I gather plugs into the 360. No monitor/d-sub connector on this one.


...so, I need one of these I guess? Which one's best (the TV has both connections - monitor and 'component')? Also, does it really make much difference if it's official?