360

[16bitter]

Underwhelming. Played it at a kiosk last night. Looked hardly better than the current gen stuff. Sadsadsad.

Kameo was the only playable demo. Another treasure hunt borefest from Rare, that rips off Sonic and Metroid Prime's ball mode for good measure. Graphically it did nothing for me.

It looks good, yes, but by THIS GEN'S standards.

And NBA2K6 looked and moved pathetically.

$400 for this? Bring on the Revolution.

[Dartagnan1083]

Good launch lineups went out of style the moment some idiot first uttered the words "Dreamcast? nah. . .I'll just wait for PS2"

I'm sure the 360 will have a somewhat likable library after about 10 months.

[16bitter]

I wonder, does this have enough hype to really sell-through like the PS2?

It's on its own, but it needs to impress somewhat in that capacity. Software could suck as far as gameplay, but it LOOKS so uninspiring.

[David J.]

Good launch lineups went out of style the moment some idiot first uttered the words "Dreamcast? nah. . .I'll just wait for PS2"

I'm sure the 360 will have a somewhat likable library after about 10 months.

The PS2 launch was the worse ever, IMO. It was just filled with leftover 3rd party crap.

As for the 360, I'm not impressed nor excited.

[Drixxel]

Microsoft successfully captured the graphic-whore market with the Xbox, so it baffles me why they wouldn't make every hardware effort with 360 to keep the Xbox name at the top of the visual heap. Then of course there's the lack of a Halo title at launch, and the making of a luxury option out of the harddrive. Fools! They're undoing everything they've done right!

[Genesis Knight]

I played the 360 as well, and was disappointed to see that Call of Duty 2 looked just like a current gen game, like you said, 16bitter.

I'm surprised to hear anyone say they're wanting the Revolution, as it seems like bashing Nintendo consoles is vogue.

So, if no one wants the 360, which gets you going more? PS3 or Revolution?

[Dartagnan1083]

I'm not closed off to a 360. . .
There should be some great stuff eventually.

The PS3 will cost $500, which is in nobody's price range.
But it's potential is undeniable

The Rev is the only one that seems to promise a whole new experience. Although it remains to be seen if nintendo will pull any bullheaded stunts that kills support after the first 20 months.


I'll stick back and play catch-up with current gen releases while still building my Classic Library.

[Drixxel]

Undoubtedly the 360 will have its share of greats, but expectations are high for the experience that the next gen is supposedly going to deliver (sooper graphics!). Whether the games are as pretty as hoped for or not, the 360 launch line-up is stupidly weak.. here're the launch titles according to http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000970062134/:


From Take-Two Interactive:
NBA 2K6, NHL 2K6, Top Spin 2, Amped 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

From Activision:
Call of Duty 2, Quake 4, Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, GUN.

From Electronic Arts
Need for Speed Most Wanted, FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06, Madden NFL 06.

From Rare/Microsoft
Kameo: Elements of Power, Perfect Dark Zero

From Bizarre Creations
Project Gotham Racing 3

It shocks me how many of these are ports, and how almost half of the launch titles are sports games. That's one solid foundation on which to build a formidable game library...

[16bitter]

Saw an ad. People jumping rope, at the end we get the 360 logo. That's it. No gameplay.

Uh...awful. Like everything else to do with this system at the moment.

[StRiDA CoL]

Well Quake 4 isnt that bad, but it probably wont have the same effect Halo did on the original Xbox

[Drixxel]

And of course there's the tragic fact that Quake 4 isn't a 360 exclusive. Perfect Dark Zero might set the 360 afire, but I'm curious how much loyalty that name carries these days. Early reports I've heard about Perfect Dark Zero weren't ones of amazement, but we shall see.

But seriously, the 360 opening line-up more resembles a late-gen January dump than a hot launch buffet.

[Chris Marsh]

The overrated system just came out today. I have seen how the games play. They only play as good as regular X-Box (Another overrated system) games and have only slightly better graphics and sound. Let's see what the PS3 or Revolution have up their sleeves. I hope this is even more of a flop than the Sega Genesis add-ons (even though the 32X and Sega CD are underrated systems).

[Melf]

You think that the launch games for either of those systems are going to be any different?

[Chris Marsh]

There's only one way to find out.

[Drixxel]

I have high hopes for the Revolution launch. I look forward to any crazy ideas explored by the Rev launch titles, even if the line-up doesn't set the world ablaze from a graphical standpoint. Still, I don't think the Revolution is going to be judged as harshly from that angle as the 360 and PS3, as Nintendo have clearly made the console's selling feature not one of fancy, next-gen graphics (that it should have no problem with anyway).

I guess we'll find out at some point next year.

[j_factor]

I really, really don't like the 360.

The two different systems thing is atrocious. Get a premium and you have to pay $400 for a system and you're paying for extra crap. Get a core and if you actually want to save your games, a $40 memory card and you're only spending $60 less to get a lot less stuff. The part that really bothers me is the lack of a hard drive with the core system. I think Microsoft got it right the first time on that point. Now the hard drive is pretty much wasted in terms of games using it, but I bet a lot of the Xbox Live stuff requires it.

Speaking of Xbox Live, what's with the Live pack with headset costing like $70? That's ridiculous.

Back to the hard drive. Ugh. The single thing that pisses me off most. If you want one, you're pretty much forced to get one of Microsoft's overblown "premium" systems, because if you buy it separately it costs just as much for the core system and hard drive alone.

And wtf, $60 games? These ain't cartridges. Why is everything so goddamned expensive?

I cringe whenever I think of their "backwards-compatibility". Requires the premium system, works with less than 30% of games. They said it would be back-compatible with all of the "most popular" Xbox games but apparently million sellers such as DOA3, Project Gotham Racing, and Morrowind aren't considered "most popular" when compared to blockbusters like Cabela's Deer Hunt 2005 and Shamu's Deep Sea Adventures.

Just about everything regarding this system makes me think "what the fuck?".

[Drixxel]

Microsoft certainly made quite a few unique choices with the 360..

The fubar'd backwards compatibility and optional hard drive... oh well, the easiest way to voice disapproval is simply not to buy Microsoft's latest money-gobblin' disc cruncher, but there will undoubtedly be some stellar games down the road that will overshadow any technological shortcomings the 360 suffers from. Many of the launch titles are getting solid to excellent reviews.

[Melf]

I'm waiting until after Xmas to get one. By then, the shortages should be over and the whole BC thing should be be solved. Between Half Life 2 and Dragon Quest 8, I have more than enough to keep me busy this holiday season.

I'm not surprised that the Live kit costs that much. If I recall correctly, the original one cost the same and included the headset and MotoGP demo.

The HDD scenario irks me the most. I want a premium system, but splitting the units means less people with an HDD and less reason for developers to use it. The original Xbox came with one installed and no one used it except for custom soundtracks.

[David J.]

Yeah, I'm not planning on buying one.

Fuck, I want to sell my current Xbox... The only time it is used is when my cousins come over, maybe I'll tell them I want to sell it, and I'll sell them some of my games, around christmas time when they have money.

[16bitter]

This thing is selling on nothing but hype. Say there aren't enough? People go nuts. It would be languishing on store shelves if not for the market manipulation tactics being employed. Lamest launch since the PS2.

The Eric Cartman Theory for a sound business model.

On the same note, I give odds someone could pick one of these things up easy for the Japanese launch -- far cheaper than buying on eBay. I don't know how few they'd have to send to sell out, and even then nobody would give a shit over there.

Of course, these are the same people that play dating simulators...but still.

[Vorty]

I'm getting one because I don't want to invest in consoles that look like George Foreman grills or "REVOLUTIONARY" ones that use stupid gimmicks to boost sales and force to me to pay for twenty year old games that I can get for free (again).

[16bitter]

So I guess getting a machine that -- so far, mind you -- performs like Xbox 1.25 graphically is preferable? If the PS3 is a monster graphically, who can care about its shell looking like a kitchen appliance? Well, obviously, you can -- but rhetorically the point stands.

As far as the Revolution, that insult is just as lame as the one aimed at the PS3. Nobody's making you buy those old games, and that's not the machine's main feature in any case. Of course, I fail to see how an entirely new input standard is just a "stupid gimmick" relative to what the video game industry is as a whole -- granted, it's new (which is the point), but on the surface I don't see how the Rev is any more of a gimmick machine than whatever console past or present you care to name.

I'd seriously like to know what the 360's strengths are as opposed to the weaknesses of two systems that are at best concepts for all of us at the moment. I'm just not seeing what the 360 has going for it other than "OMFG" newness.

[StRiDA CoL]

I lie about EVERYTHING I say about the 360 to my friends. It's not very original and probably the only reason y people bought it it becuz of Halo 3, probably the only good game on the 360 is Call of duty 2, but im a sucker for killing Nazis in video games.

Overall I wont buy one, seeing that I ll probably put my family in debt.

[Knuckle Duster]

I'll get a 360 eventually, XBL Arcade seems like it should take off really well. As long as it's not like the original xbox live experience (aka-me slaughtering 13 year olds with too much money only to have them spew random racist comments over the headset and leaving)

It'd kick major ass if sega and other developers put new IPs up on it, and a new oldschool 16bit rpg series to download for 10 bucks a shot would kick major ass (and probably destroy the concept on what defines the word "arcade")

But as of now the price is too high.

As for revolution...well the way i see nintendo is the same way i see sega...a bitter old married couple, never one without the other....but sega just had a stroke and now is in a coma on life support....where as nintendo is living by itself now, talking strangely, peeking out its window at the world going by, slowly going demented with age. :D
I'm too lazy to be swinging my remote control around in the air to get the thing to work right now...im obviously too lazy to replace the weak batterys, why would i want to swing one around while playing a game?

I say it'd be best for them, if they were absorbed by MS, either that, or they buy sega and push for a new system together....both are never gonna happen.

[David J.]

I put my xbox in storage, plus I'm looking at getting a $22k (around that) car in a few years, so you think I'm going to waste a grand on a 360?

Don't think so... I have too many fun and cheap classics to play. :)

[Obviously]

Eh, new generations in video gaming just mean that the previous generation games pile up in bargain bins and that's really all I'm looking foreward to right now.

[Melf]

Same here. I was at Wal-Mart today, and 360 games are retailing for $70. Screw that.

[David J.]

Here they are $60, not $70.

[StRiDA CoL]

Man, what's the big deal aboot this thing anyway!

Pretty much all of the games are incredibly mediocre (i dont care Perfect Dark is crushing boredom!),the design looks exactly the same as it did before, and extra crap to buy..i don't think so!

i can't stand these overrated next-gen consles (cough PSP cough), I mean another console is gonna come around and bowl over the competition and then everyone will move on to that console!

[Melf]

We have to pay a 5% duty fee on electronic purchases here in PR, hence the price hike.

As it is, I doubt I'll be buying many new 360 games when I have the system.

[winona]

+Live Arcade (freeking rocks)
+Live (the other part)
+Controller S II. Best ever, all categories.
+Japanese 3:rd party support seems to be about double to tripple that of the original X-box.

-Loud DVD player.
-Disc chewing monster.
-Some heat problems.
-Pricey games (but then again, anyone that buys fullpriced games is crazy).

+/- Games. Decent line up, but nothing realy amazing. Except maybe Condemned whih is brilliant. Many interesting titles in the making, will come later. But then again, they keep saying the same thing about games for the PSP and they are clearly lying :)

+/- HD-DVD addon. Well, I know they couldnt have put it in the machine at launch simply due to the fact that it wasent ready for mass production and I know that I dont have to buy the addon if I dont want to. Its just that it feels like a rushed solution. I dont like addons.

All in all, Im sure its a capable machine eventhough it suffers from quite a few flaws from beeing launched so early. Ill probably get one once the new versions comes out. Something like 1.3 or 1.4. Hopefully they have fixed most of the main problems by then and there are more games available.

Im pretty sure X360 will stand up well to the PS3 graphic wise. But when it comes to physics and maybe AI the PS3 will have an edge.

Good comparision podcast, worth listening to:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/679/679134p1.html


But in the end. Im sure ill love the Revolution the most.

[Obviously]

-Disc chewing monster.

Has anyone seen a video of this? It made me cringe and grind my teeth together at the sound of a Quake 4 disc being unjustly murdered.

[winona]

Yes, however this is nothing unique to the 360. The first revisions of PS2 did the same thing as have a multitude of normal DVD players.

It could have been made to be better, but lets not act surprised. Its nothing new under the sun.

Like I said, hopefully they will fix this for later revisions.

[Kikoskia]

If I ever want a game, it usually comes out on the PC. Not many games that I like these days aren't on the PC or the megadrive or, at the very, very worst, the playstation one or Game Boy Advance.

Yes, I never got really sucked into the mega generation consoles. I never saw the appeal of the Gamecube, PS2, Xbox or ANY of the newer consoles out there. For some reason, none of them grabbed my interest and paying hudnreds of pounds for something that I would never really enjoy when I could play older games on my PC or Megadrive that I like better.

Call me old fashioned, but a game with all flash and no bang never appealed to me. You can't blind me with dazzling graphics, give me gameplay. And these days, I mostly tend to only see more gameplay the further back I look back in gaming time.

It's a sad day indeed when I have to boot up my gameboy to get a quality game going compared to what is already out there... although I love my gameboy. :)

[Retroman]

i got mine on launch day, and love it....u have to play it in HD to fully understand....and i dont mean at a stupid store....

[Melf]

I'll probably pick mine up after Valentine's Day. Not in a rush, since there's so much current goodness to enjoy.

[ary incorparated]

360,im not impressed by the thing,most games look just lifted from the xbox,like PGR3 and Doa alive 4,the internet is very good,xbox live,just infite some people to play perfect dark(which is way over hypt)or just use xbox live to talk to eachother kind of fine option,I dont like the games,Dont like the show behind it.I think ps3 is going to be better ro maybe REvolution becomes better. :D

[Obviously]

If I ever want a game, it usually comes out on the PC.

That's true for me too, and kind of funny because my friend calls the 360 a "...broken PC that can only play games and can't be upgraded."

Really the so called "Next Generation" graphics that we're seeing on the 360 have already been done by PC's a good while before the 360. If you look at side by side comparisons between the 360 and the PC, the PC is usually the same (if it's a good enough PC). If you look at side by sides between current generation console games and the 360 you'll be hard pressed to find a major difference other than a few extra graphical effects and a tightened screw here and there.

I think it might just be too early for the new generation of consoles. The graphical leaps and bounds that we've seen in the past just didn't happen this time. I don't think I can justify buying a system that expensive because it has better shading and more realisistic looking effects like fire and water when the games are fundamentally the same.

I'm sure Halo fans will flock to the system once the next game is released, and I'm just as bad because I'll probably get the Revolution souly for the final game in the Metroid Prime series.