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XBox (Games)

Prepping For The 360 409

Posted by Zonk from the tepid-reviews-almost-here dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Xbox 360 launches on Tuesday, and ZDNet talks to some of the folks who are already prepping for it. John Dvorak also has commentary on the new console, and he seems to like it." From the Dvorak article: "Luckily Microsoft's Xbox 360 crew, and other game developers, are working on cool stuff that will cross over to PCs. When game developers retake their rightful place on top of the hill of progress, we'll all be better off. Needless to say, I am impressed by the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI. One often-overlooked element that the Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed."
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Prepping For The 360 More

Prepping For The 360

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  • Long Tail media center (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) * on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:36PM (#14077828) Homepage Journal
    Chris Anderson [thelongtail.com] also got one early and is interested [thelongtail.com] in the Xboox 360 from a Long Tail perspective as a media center.

    • Chris Anderson also got one early and is interested in the Xboox 360 from a Long Tail perspective as a media center.

      So he's interest in it as a media extender....what in the world does that have to do with the "long tail" (sorry - Long Tail)? I realize that it's one of the overused and oversold catch phrases of the day, but really it just makes it sound dumb.

      Now I'm going to eat the Long Tail of dinners - pizza. Maybe I'll have a Long Tail drink - a glass of water. Then I'll watch some Long Tail television,

  • OK (Score:3, Funny)

    by 42Penguins ( 861511 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:37PM (#14077834)
    The XBox 360 is going to be launched Tuesday. New poll: When will the first 360 hacks appear? - 0-1 week. - 2-4 weeks. - 6-8 weeks. - CowboyNeal can hack my 360 all he wants.

    • Re:OK (Score:3, Informative)

      by MmmmJoel ( 26625 )
      There already is.

      Play Xbox 360 online without Xbox Live [360insider.net].

      • Re:OK (Score:2, Informative)

        by AlphaDecay ( 150156 )
        Beyond the fact that this really isn't an Xbox hack but packet tunneling, your comment is misleading... It should say "play a system link/lan game over the internet." With the tunnel software it isn't exactly like playing with Live features without a Live subscription (no matchmaking, downloads, scoreboards, etc.)

        --AlphaDecay

  • Just a minute... (Score:4, Funny)

    by 42Penguins ( 861511 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:39PM (#14077850)
    Whatever happened to the Xbox 2?
    Let alone 3-359...

    Or is this Xbox 2?

  • GUI?? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by badasscat ( 563442 ) <basscadet75@@@yahoo...com> on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:40PM (#14077857)
    The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI. One often-overlooked element that the Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed."

    Since when has the GUI had anything whatsoever to do with how good and/or successful a console is? Does Dvorak not realize the whole purpose of a console is to play games?

    Even if you're a convergence guy and believe people will be using their Xbox for movies as well as games, I still don't see how the GUI has anything to do with anything. What you want is a system where you interact with the GUI as little as possible, whatever you're doing. Most people shouldn't even know that it exists.

    The fact that so many people are focusing so heavily on the Xbox 360's GUI suggests to me that it's far too prominent and intrusive.

    • Re:GUI?? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Ark42 ( 522144 ) <slashdot AT morpheussoftware DOT net> on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:45PM (#14077890) Homepage

      Have you ever played Metroid Prime 2? A horrible GUI / menu system can really make a game pretty annoying to play.

      • Re:GUI?? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by vperez ( 162398 )
        Game GUI != System GUI. The system's GUI will have little effect on the games you play on it.

        For me console GUI will mean nothing as I don't really do anything with my consoles besides play games. Then again I won't be getting an XBox 360 anytime soon due to the lack of any games worth buying a system for. :)

      • Re:GUI?? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:16PM (#14078060) Homepage
        The Metroid Prime 2 GUI/Menu is a poor example, since ideally you would use it as little as possible. No, it wasn't great, but you could pretty much enjoy the game with very little interaction with it. If you were using the GUI too much, you obviously didn't play Metroid Prime 2 very much yourself.

        It's also a poor example of ruining the experience of a game because it's not standard across all Gamecube titles.

        On both sides of the other hand, the 360's interface seems to chime in the same no matter what game you are playing. So in that respect it's a good thing that the GUI is as good as it is, because if it weren't people would get frustrated quickly. On top of that, this is only the GUI for the system and system related functions. Each game within itself will obviously have it's own GUI seperate from that of the system.

        I think the original GP was pointing out that a game console should not have a standard GUI as such, because it's one step closer to an operating system based game consoles, and that's precisely the one direction most of us really want game consoles going.

        I've played with the 360 quite a bit and though I don't really like any of the first generation games (Not one of them are on my purchase list! Not a single one!) the console itself does seem quite nice. I'm a little disturbed by the jagged edges visible in some of the games even on high-definition, but that's more a case of poor quality in the software rather than the console itself because other games look absolutely beautiful.

        I'll build a better opinion of the 360 as better titles start to trickle in. For now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't simply going to use it to play older games, or in the unlikely event that you actually feel you MUST have one of the launch titles.

        Dvorak is impressed by the GUI and hyped about the system. The rest of the industry admits it's nice but have focused on the unexciting launch titles and are largely lukewarm to the system right now. :/ Why am I not surprised?

        (As an aside, I am not a Sony or Nintendo fanboy. I own all consoles, normally before release dates.)

    • Re:GUI?? (Score:2, Informative)

      by two_stripe ( 584918 )
      This is absolutely true. I don't care for a pretty GUI, i just want a simplistic GUI, that responds fast and allows me to play the game or watch a dvd without hassle.

      The best example I can give is the original Amped on the XBOX. I really liked this game, but the menu was horribly frustrating, if I wanted to restart a run, i should have been able to do it with a button clicks in less than a second. Instead i had to wait for the menu to do its pretty animation, costing me a few seconds every time, bloody a
      • They could learn something from the Tony Hawk franchise. When I was playing that game a lot, I could restart a run without even seeing the menu. It became almost instinctive. It's nice to be able to do common funcitons without having to wait 3 minutes for the menu to come up.

    • Re:GUI?? (Score:5, Informative)

      by badboy_tw2002 ( 524611 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:23PM (#14078107)
      The thing is, its really not. What he's refering to is the new Dashboard, the thing that comes up when you don't put a game in and start the machine. This is the "control panel" of the machine, and if you're just playing games you'd never see it. If you need to create a new xbox live account, or download a new game, or tweak your gamer profile this is place to do it.

      The main point of the article was actually about its WMC integration, and how you can stream your songs and pictures from your PC to your 360. Its a pretty neat thing, and allows those of us with large digital music collections an easy way to get from PC->Stereo without any special hardware. Just run a (free, as in beer) program on your PC, and go into the dashboard and click "Find PC". Now all the songs you're sharing can be played in game, through your stereo.

      The other half of the UI is the Xbox Guide, which is the "in game" menu and takes the place of a _lot_ of stuff that was done custom and differently for every game on the Xbox 1. Your friends, messaging, voice chat, music tracks, even if you prefer inverted up/down for FPS games are all in a standardized UI accessable anytime from any game.

      I find on a whole that these standardizations will _help_ UI become non-intrusive merely because game teams don't have to focus on writing it. I can't tell you how many bugs I've had on "remove the controller, stop the game" in previous titles, and any time spent reducing the overhead of writing system glue code and more time spent writing game features is a true boon to the industry as a whole.

      • Re:GUI?? (Score:3, Funny)

        by BushCheney08 ( 917605 )
        ...and allows those of us with large digital music collections an easy way to get from PC->Stereo without any special hardware.

        Funny, I'd consider needing an Xbox 360 and a Windows Media Center equipped PC "special hardware."

        • Re:GUI?? (Score:3, Informative)

          by Meddel ( 152734 )
          You actually don't need a Media Center PC. There is software freely available from Microsoft called Windows Media Connect, which will allow you to stream media from a PC to an Xbox 360.
    • ...and all I've done is enter my name: 'Thrillhouse'!
      • I believe his actual name ends up being Thrillhou. Maybe there's not "u", I can't remember, but I do remember that he can't enter the entire name. As is the case with most video games.

    • Re:GUI?? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gad_zuki! ( 70830 )
      The GUI matters because lets face it, these are fluff articles about a game system which isn't anything but first to the market.

      So you see articles about GUIs, and pricing, supply chain management, and schedules. Its like working at Microsoft and sitting through a boring meeting on xbox360. I can't wait for it to come out so I can stop hearing the rumors.

      Not to mention all the live demos I've seen have been attached to nice HDTV's. Those killer game graphics the reviewers rave about isnt going to look nea

    • Re:GUI?? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 )
      The new version of a GUI menu has as much to do with excellent gameplay as a talking paperclip has to do with document writing.

      Congratulations, Microsoft, on creating another wonderful and capable platform, then putting a tire boot on it to interfere with its use.

  • I am also prepping for it (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FidelCatsro ( 861135 ) * <fidelcatsro@gmaiTWAINl.com minus author> on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:41PM (#14077865) Journal
    I am going into hiding so that One may avoid the barrage of silly stories and Marketing shite .
    • "I am going into hiding so that One may avoid the barrage of silly stories and Marketing shite ."

      I'm just glad it's anybody but Sony this time around. I'm tired of having 'supercomputer' redefined for me.

  • 360 is impressive, has potential, but needs time (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Coopjust ( 872796 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:43PM (#14077883)
    The Xbox 360 is undoubtably a monster of a machine, and one that Microsoft naturally takes much pride in. But Microsoft is going to be in the red for a while, and they will need to make the money back. Once the gaming base gets them up and out, my guess is that major innovation will start to keep buyers away from the PS3 and Gamecube (which shouldn't be too hard-the estimated cost per cell chip is stellar (theinquirer.net) and Nintendo has an undeserved reputation as merely a "kiddy" system.) If they can do that, the 360 will profit. Microsoft will pretty much be forced to innovate, and consumers should win this battle.

  • Who cares what Dvorak thinks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CokeBear ( 16811 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:46PM (#14077896) Journal
    Why should anyone care what Dvorak thinks? He is usually wrong in his technology predictions. He has consistantly, for the past 20 years, predicted the demise of Apple, and he hated the iPod, thinking it was a dumb idea when the first one came out. JCD is a shill for Microsoft, and not a very interesting one at that.

    • Dvorak also said cable modems were stupid (Score:5, Funny)

      by Coopjust ( 872796 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:49PM (#14077913)
      Quote Dvorak, circa 1995: "The noisiest buzz in the industry lately has been over the emerging use of cable TV systems to provide fast network data transmissions using a device called a cable modem. But the likelihood of this technology succeeding is zilch. It's one of those interesting-sounding ideas that will attract what venture capitalists call dumb money. Unfortunately, it's a big distraction in a market that should be concentrating on ISDN and broadband. HP, U.S. Robotics, ZDS, and others have been toying with the idea for a few years, and Motorola Multimedia Group's recently announced CyberSurfer 10-Mbps cable modem has completely muddied the waters. There's also LANCity's announced $595 model. Until recently, these things cost a ridiculous $5,000. Cable modems are, of course, targeted at Net surfers. According to the press announcement, the CyberSurfer will be the fastest, receiving data at 10 Mbps and sending it at 768 Kbps. Exactly how the modem will work on the largely one-way cable systems in the U.S. is a mystery. And since there's no governing standards organization for cable modems, these devices won't be able to talk to modems made by anyone else. But hey, they sure are fast. Even so, users with access to a T1 phone connection will soon discover that the fastest provider can send data at only around 56 Kbps--slower than a single B-channel over ISDN. This isn't likely to change as providers try to serve as many users as possible, rather than pump 128 Kbps or more to a few people. So the ideal connection for Net surfing is a single B-channel on an ISDN line. So even if you had a 10-Mbps cable connection, it would be useless except for point-to-point transfer at Motorola's upstream speed of 768 Kbps. And that assumes upstream capability, which the cable companies will have available in only a few test areas. If users don't flock to this technology in those areas, the cable companies will drop the idea like a hot potato. We have to remember that, collectively, the cable TV folks are as dumb as fireplugs. There is no incentive to be otherwise. They have monopolies and do little more than string wire and milk the cash cow. Why would they want to get mixed up in something that requires real work? If you doubt this, visit your local cable company and ask "When will you have cable modem capability?" Just see what they say. My guess: "Huh? What's a modem?" Then there is the issue of security. The cable TV system is a broadcast medium, not a secure network. All transmissions over cable are highly susceptible to hacking. Much more so than anything else except cellular phones. HP is one company that harps on the security issues regarding cable modems. So why spin our wheels over a dead-end technology when ISDN is here now? Is speed really the issue? There may be another element at play. When you consider digital phone networks and the equipment that is needed to hook up ISDN, you see an interesting phenomenon. The modem companies aren't in the game. Networking companies run the show: Ascend, Cisco, and Combinet. Modem companies like Hayes--and recently Zyxel--miss the mark with ISDN. Others have ignored it completely. In a digital world, you won't need to MOdulate/ DEModulate (the root meaning of modem). Many users just can't make the transition to a future where the modem is moot. For these sentimentalists, the cable modem is the last gasp. But there are no cable modem standards whatsoever, and very little cable modem promotion within the brain-dead cable TV industry. While this fiasco unfolds, we hear cheering from people who should know better and examine the simple illogic of the whole thing. Hey, but it sure is fast." Why do we spin our wheels over a dead-end technology when ISDN is here now? Is speed really the issue?

    • Re:Who cares what Dvorak thinks (Score:5, Funny)

      by NickFortune ( 613926 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:51PM (#14078253) Homepage Journal
      Why should anyone care what Dvorak thinks?

      Actually, I think he's on the verge on becomming a valuable resource. You just have to invert his value judgements.

      For instance: if Dvorak likes the 360 then it must be awful.

      It's all very spatilomantic, I suppose, but it works for me...

  • notice (Score:5, Insightful)

    by akhomerun ( 893103 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:50PM (#14077920)
    notice how none of these comments are on innovating gameplay. GUIs, neat features for developers, etc, but what about the actual game?

    half the launch titles are ports, and the other half aren't genre defining or groundbreaking. i don't see, even with the pretty graphics neat GUI (i didn't know playing games had anything to do with having a pretty GUI) any gameplay changes. how can the gameplay be any different, the controller is a perfected S controller.

    there's no way that playing an xbox 360 game can be any better than the current generation. this isn't N64 -> PS2 era, the N64/PS1 had actual processing limits and storage space limits and RAM limits that actually affected gameplay. even the current gen consoles introduced innovations like online play, (good) wireless controllers, and graphics that were closer to photorealism.

    but xbox 360 makes one innovation - moving closer to photorealism. that's it. there's nothing else. all the other innovations involve money-grabbing (Microsoft Points to buy pointless shit, higher console price, streaming from a media center PC...to get more people to buy media center edition pcs)

    take a company like nintendo that continuously adds something to the gaming mix, like the dpad, analog stick, shoulder buttons, online play (famicom modem anyone?), revolution controller, and (good) wireless controllers, and then see real success. sony and microsoft are on their 3rd and 2nd generations, but besides nintendo, there has been no other console company able to survive longer than that in the gaming world.

    microsoft (and sony) are just following along with the trends - IMO to be successful, a company has to make the trend, and make the gaming culture. that's why nintendo's still around.

    • Re:notice (Score:3, Interesting)

      by jcnnghm ( 538570 )
      More processing power (especially multi-core processing) and RAM is a big improvement. Unfortunately people buy systems for apparent gain, most evident in better graphics.

      Personally I would like to see a GTA style game that is actually like a city, with a few hundred NPC's and cars on the streets (gridlock). Keep the engine from the xbox generation, and just add characters. Make use of those fancy multi-threaded processors. Graphics are not everything, and these multi core systems should finally have th

      • Re:notice (Score:3, Interesting)

        by tomstdenis ( 446163 )
        For once, someone who thinks like me. Yes!!!!

        When I saw GTA:SA for the PS2 I was amazed at the size of the city but yes there are problems with NPCs [specially to do with how they spawn].

        Things I would like to see in a GTA series

        1. Limited fuel in the vehicles
        2. More intelligent NPCs e.g. not just duck or run away but fight back or fetch police
        3. Less obvious police. That is have them actually COME FROM SOMEWHERE and not just spawn "behind you"
        4. Have cops enforce traffic laws. E.g. get caught speedi

        • Problem is (Score:3, Informative)

          by Sycraft-fu ( 314770 )
          The PS2 doesn't have the memory for what you suggest. The game just majically spawns things within a given area and then ignores them when they go out by necessity. The PS2 has very little memory, by today's computer standards, only 32MB. Well when that's all you have for dynamic storage (no harddrive remember) you really have to be stingy with what you keep track of. So the game only worrys about things in your immediate area, and mainly in your field of view.

          Now with the next gen consoles, perhaps the kin

        • Re:notice (Score:3, Insightful)

          by MonkeyBoy ( 4760 )
          Don't ask me to link to it, since I don't know if it's available online, but back when the original GT3 was released a magazine had an interview with some of the people who developed it.

          In that article, one of the interviewees mentioned that they toyed with having cops pull you over for traffic violations. They nixed it because it became far too hard to accomplish missions, much less just tool around town, and they just couldn't put a genuinely fun game together with that in the mix.

          In other words, they tri
    • Nintendo is also the only console manufacturer to consistently turn a profit. In this generation they've made more profit than Sony and Microsoft combined. Sony has been flipping back and forth between making money and losing money on the PS2. Microsoft has consistently lost money, a LOT of money. I think they've had one quarter in the entire existence of the company where they actually lost any money, and that was due to investments and the yen/dollar exchange rate changing enough to mess up some overs

      • Re:notice (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ilyaaohell ( 866922 )
        Unfortunately, this kind of logic about Nintendo making money is somewhat poor. Nintendo generally spends less, and makes less -- but the revenue is higher than expenditures.

        Microsoft and Sony spend a LOT more, and make a LOT more -- but their revenue is lower than expenditures.

        Yes, Nintendo is running a far more profitable business. However, this is because their target is significantly lower than their competitor's. It's the same reason that Jet Blue, a tiny little airline, is consistently profitable (or

    • Re:notice (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Aphrika ( 756248 )
      I see your point, but I also don't think you can lay the blame for gameplay solely at Microsoft's - or any console designer's - feet. They have supplied a platform to create content for. How developers choose to use that is up to them.

      But you're right in a couple of ways. I haven't seen anything groundbreaking about even the PS2. Sure it had lots of extra polygons to throw around, but the 'Emotion Engine' hype failed to live up to expectations. Did the PS2 ever do anything any other console couldn't? Nope.

  • GUI??? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Yaztromo ( 655250 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:51PM (#14077930) Homepage Journal
    The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI.

    <sarcasm>
    Yeah. After all, we know that the feature that made the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Playstation/Playstation 2 such huge market smashes were the quality of their menus...
    </sarcasm>

    Perhaps this will mean something for the latest generation of consoles once they take on a bigger role as a general media centre -- some day. But I have a feeling that the quality of a consoles menus is hardly going to be a buying consideration for 99.999% of next generation console purchases. In the end, it's all about the games, and from what I've seen and heard about the 360 so far, the games are generally uninspiring in terms of either gameplay or graphics.

    But hey, if it has nice menus, at least those MS fanboys who run out to buy one on Tuesday will have something to show their friends to try to defend their purchuse (jab jab jab :) ).

    Yaz.

  • One Thing I Like (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Sunday November 20, 2005 @05:58PM (#14077960) Homepage
    I'm not planning on buying one yet (too expensive, no killer app for me yet), but i must say that I like the way they implemented custom soundtracks. On the XBox you could listen to your music in games (PGR2, for example) but you had to rip your CDs to the XBox hard drive. I've already done that to my computer's hard drive. I wasn't going to go rip my entire collection again onto my XBox. But with the 360 it can stream it off your computer from what I understand, or better yet you can hook up your iPod by USB and listen to the (non copy-protected) songs off that. When I played PGR 2 I turned off the music and put my iPod earphones in my ears and listened to my music while playing the games. Now I can do that without the earphones. I think that is great.

    I don't know if the 360 can read the playlist info, but that would be even better. I doubt it (Apple wouldn't tell 'em, they'd have to reverse engineer it).

    But this ability is a great little feature. It takes something that was too hard to use on the XBox (because of having to rerip my CDs) and makes it easily available.

  • Microsoft is launching in Palmdale? Palmdale? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:09PM (#14078018) Homepage
    Why Palmdale? It was always bleak, and when the aerospace industry tanked, it got much bleaker. At one point, a third of the houses were vacant, many of them abandoned.

    Maybe Microsoft figures that, given how boring life is in Palmdale, people will show up for their event. If they held it in, say, Santa Monica, nobody would come.

    • They can spin it to their favor by saying how much they are helping business and even (bring on the WTF replies) increasing competition in small, (as you put it) bleak towns as this. Expect a (tax-deductible!) contribution to their local charities from Bill Gates too.

  • Xbox 360 release (Score:4, Informative)

    by Yahweh Doesn't Exist ( 906833 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:17PM (#14078076)
    am I remembering incorrectly or wasn't the 360 meant to have a simultaneous worldwide release? UK release isn't until 2nd Dec, though this is at least a shorter gap than usual.

    anyway, we all know about MS's intentional low supply but here's what Amazon.co.uk has to say:

    "Due to limited supply from Microsoft, we are unable to guarantee delivery of some Xbox 360 pre-orders for Christmas. Please also note that all pre-orders made on or after November 2nd, 2005 will have expected delivery dates in 2006. We are working with Microsoft to ensure the consoles are delivered as soon as they become available."

    i.e. if you're in the UK and didn't pre-order ages ago, you might as well wait for PS3 or Revolution.

  • GUI Wars! (Score:5, Funny)

    by rewinn ( 647614 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:26PM (#14078124) Homepage
    A game, perhaps FRP, in which one of the "spells" were "alter the other guy's GUI" ... would be amusing.

  • Jesus, get a grip (Score:5, Funny)

    by identity0 ( 77976 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:28PM (#14078133) Journal
    This whole discussion and fuss over the 360 reminds me of giddy teenage girls quizzing an 'experienced' girl about what sex is like. It's a console, not a life-changing event, get over it.

    Yes, it's big. Yes, it'll hurt a little, at least in your wallet. But it's not that big a deal, it doesn't make you a woman or anything.

    Trust me.
    • Amen to that. It seems /. has been sold to MSFT for their advertising campaign.

      It isn't news. The fucking thing will come out in [purposefully] limited supply in two days.

      OH WOW WEE.

      That said I sure do want one... I wonder why...

      Tom
    • The XBox 360 isn't giving you anything that they couldn't have given you on the XBox, except better graphics. More crap on XBox live could have been done with the old system. Custom soundtracks could have been done the new way, streaming, on the old system. Maybe with a little software upgrade. They aren't giving anything new excepty shiny graphics. Myself, I'm waiting for the revolution. At least Nintendo is trying to be innovative. All the other guys are just piling on more processing power and mem
  • I was at EB Games in the mall here in Indianapolis today. They already had the games displayed, and the systems, unless I was seeing things. There was also a public play machine running PGR. It looked pretty nice. Seems it is already "out" though...

  • I Already Got Mine: Impressions (Score:4, Informative)

    by MikeyTheK ( 873329 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:51PM (#14078250)
    I got my 360 yesterday courtesy of Pepsi and the everytenminutes.com promotion. The box contained: Kameo (an elves vs. Trolls game - it's definitely fun), the box, hard drive, wireless controller, headset, universal remote, a 10' ethernet cable (I think it's 10', maybe it's a tad longer), and an AV cable.
    For those of you that might have some questions, here goes:
    1) The menu structure is tabbed (side tabs). I don't really like it. I think it's needlessly complicated, and in a couple of cases there are tabs for settings whose differences are too subtle for me to remember which tab they belong on.
    2) Halo 2 runs on it, although for some reason the digital sound doesn't include the subwoofer on the 360 for this title. I have no idea why. The subwoofer works fine for other functions on the 360, and Halo 2 is otherwise outputting digital sound. I have my woofer set to a very high threshold.
    3) The chipset is clearly much faster than the original, including in the emulation mode for games such as Halo 2. In Halo 2, cutscenes thar have a delay, then dialog without an image, then layers being drawn for the first few seconds of the cutscene don't have any of that. It's all very fast, very clear, right away.
    4) The AV cable was more than sufficient for me. It appears to have composite video out on RCA jacks, as well as analog sound. On the plug that connects directly into the box is a port for fiber to go to your amp for the digital sound. Nice hookup. I may find myself purchasing another one on Tuesday, though, to make my life more portable.
    5) The hard drive attachment is really cool. It just snaps externally in place "on top" of the unit (when sitting like a tower). I have mine sitting like a console on top of its older sibling.
    6) The wireless controls are very nice. I'm a fan of "The Duke" controls, because my hands are pretty big. The S controls, and the stupid controls for PS2 and GameCube feel too stinking small. This one, however, didn't cramp my hands, even after several hours of gameplay. I still don't like it as much as "The Duke", but otherwise it's fine.
    7) The wireless control was very nicely balanced, and the force fededback wasn't so strong as to shake my fillings (like "The Duke", or barely noticable (like the others). I was very worried that the wireless controls wouldn't have enough feedback, as has been the complaint about many wireless controls. I would say that this control does not have that problem. In fact, this control is so comfortable and so nice without the cable that I would STRONGLY recommend that everyone spend the exra $10 and buy them.
    8) I really like the bump buttons. They're easier than the old white and black, and they're not in the way, yet reachable and findable, unlike PS2's L1 & R1.
    9) It's great that the order that the wireless controls are assigned is set based on the order in which controls sign in, not the order in which they are originally registered on the box (getting a control assigned and recognized on the box is a little weird for the first two controls, but after doing it a couple of times it was a breeze). In addition, each control and the box have a four-quadrant circular LED array. The box lights up the quadrants for the controls that are currently connected. The controller lights up the quadrant to indicate which player the controller is. The box can be turned on or off right from the wireless control. Turning off the box shuts down the controls that people activated for that session. Controls are "acivated" for a session by hitting the green "X" button in the middle of the control, so even if you have four controls registered to your box, you won't be chewing batteries for all of them unless you are using all of them.
    10) The headset is much nicer than the old one. That was probably obvious to everyone who bought one as soon as they got it.
    11) It's stated both on the box and in the pamphlet that comes with the wireless controls that the force feedback is adjustable to conserve battery powe

  • Page View Pumping (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GeekTek ( 124147 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:55PM (#14078270)
    Excuse the potential flame-bait, but hasn't there been an inordinate number of Dvorak articles posted in the last few months? Most of us wrote him off as a puffed up windbag years ago, why has he popped into relevance at this point?

    Dvorak has a long long history (see post circa '95 above) of writing asinine articles that are just plain wrong. And I'm not talking about 'hindsight 20/20' wrong - I mean predictions which make me wonder if he's in the same industry that we all are in.

    Anyway, it seems like the /. crowd is giving this guy FAR too much credit and FAR too many page views. Which leads me to the inevitable question - why has this article been posted by an AC?

    With online advertising spending at an all time high (and growing at absurd rates), maybe it's time for the editors to be a little more discriminating before rewarding mediocrity with tens of thousands of impressions.

  • GCC Prepping, all right (Score:5, Funny)

    by stevenm86 ( 780116 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @06:59PM (#14078291)
    Hopefully at least someone in the xbox hacking community there is already a geek who's built a powerpc-targeted gcc, gdb, and binutils. His soldering iron is already preheated and the oscillascope, eeprom reader and logic probe are powered up. Before him lies a sea of modified hex/torque screwdrivers capable of turning any kind of proprietary screw.

    What can I say, Microsoft? Let the hacking games begin again!

    /Can't wait for "Linux 360"
  • Getting yet ANOTHER A/V switchbox so you can put it along side your ps2, xbox, gamecube, etc. Yse, when there's one more console on the scene, you don't automatically get A/V in ports added to your home entertainment center, nor an extra outlet.

    I've already reached capacity with mine to the point I have to route things through the VCR(2 a/v in ports) and still I have no room for my atari 2600 flashback system nor intellivison system-in-a-controller thing. SUre, I could use the a/v in ports on the tv, but I

  • I'm sorry, but... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @07:12PM (#14078347)
    ...you prep for the Olympics. You prep for the bar exam. You prep for your oral dissertation. You prep that proposal for the 20 billion dollar jet plane contract. You prep your test results about the universe's expansion actually accelerating for publication.

    You do not prep for the XBox360. And this is from someone who might buy one if anything more interesting than Kameo appears. Oblivion was pushed back to when?!

    Yeah, yeah... there's the story this weekend about the gamer earning six figues. Chump change and a rarity.

  • Most embedded GUIs are not desktop-based (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @09:19PM (#14078847)
    Once again, this would have been a better article without the tacked-on, and often incorrect, opinion line. The desktop metaphor is only used in general-purpose personal computers. Does your DVD player use a desktop metaphor? Your MP3 player? Your TV? Your GPS system? Your digital camera? Any video game system ever made? Of course not, because it doesn't make sense.

  • What a load of bull (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cecom ( 698048 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @09:34PM (#14078904) Journal

    What is wrong with your, people ? :-)

    Give me a break. This isn't the second coming of the messiah. It is a game console, for god's sake. There is no need to get prepared - get your credit card, walk to the store, stand in line, buy it, play. For that matter, wait one more week and you don't have to stand in line. Surely, one could survive seven days without the Xbox360 ? Especially considering that there aren't many games available at this time!

    It is sad how well trained the consumer has become. We are so eager to take out our wallets and buy anything new, we can hardly wait a day. It doesn't matter what it is - it's new and everybody is buying it! But wait, now that you have a Xbox360 you surely need a big-screen Plasma TV ? And a new speaker system!

    On the other hand, this is what keeps our economy strong, so don't listen to me too hard :-)

  • Prepare for a shortage (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Merk ( 25521 ) on Sunday November 20, 2005 @09:46PM (#14078947) Homepage

    I think the funniest thing about preparing for the X-Box 360 is preparing for the shortage. There have been reports that Microsoft is *requiring* retailers to run out of them on the first day.

    Rather than preparing for the expected number of customers, retailers are expected to intentionally have to turn people away, just so Microsoft can get good buzz.

    If you hear stories of shortages, remember why!

  • Read this review of Xbox 360 versus PS3 . Shocking (Score:3, Insightful)

    by zymano ( 581466 ) on Monday November 21, 2005 @01:16AM (#14079672)
    http://www.majornelson.com/2005/05/20/xbox-360-vs- ps3-part-1-of-4/ [majornelson.com]

    When I read this I was dumbfounded. Then I thought about it for a sec. The PS3 is all caught up in tech spec numbers. Whats most important part of a console ? The graphics card. Xbox360 wins. Sony may have the FP's. But who cares. IT's about how your game looks.

    This is what pissed me off about what Sony is doing. They should have gone DUAL GRAPHICS CARD instead of trying some new vector chip like the PS2. The graphics card is what matters. Nothing else. The GPU(general) is not that important but for game logic.

    Who is running the Sony PS3 development ?

    I see disaster for them .

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