My X-Box 360 Impressions

[Ldsfunaz]

New consloes come around every 5 years, so this is really big for me,  I really enjoy following the future consoles and rummaging through all of the rumors and figuring out all of the secrets.  And then it builds up to the first time I play it at a store kiosk.  This moment came yesterday at my local (well, semi-local) walmart.  The setup has 3 playable games, Kameo, Call of Duty, and King Kong. 

Kameo is great, You can tell its just a fun and intuitive adventure game.  Graphics don't really knock you backwards at first, but when you pay attention to everything that is going on, you get blown away.  There are tons of particle effects, with a brilliant looking sky, heatblurring, hundreds of dragons flying in the distance. great high quality textures, its just plain good.


the second game i played was Call of Duty, This is not my type of game but all i can say is wow, It is more impressive than kameo was.  The AI is great, the smoke effects are the best effect I have ever seen in any game ever.  Is just plain crazy.  You really feel that you are in the middle of a war.  lots of fun.


I didn't really play king kong, i was getting a stiff neck from staring up at the screen for an hour but it IT looked very nice as well.  its a battle of king kong vs. a T-rex.  very good looking and captured a very cinematic feel to it.

well this all got me very excited about Nov, 22. I just can't wait.

-LDS-

[SNAAKE]

Nice review,BILL 

[G@M3FR3@K]

Looks like over the past week or so they've started to put 360 kiosks in at some retailers, more specifically Walmart. Reports have been mixed on what people think about the 360 based on these kiosks. From what I've been reading it's more likely that those who have been less than impressed have seen the 360 being displayed on screens that aren't properly setup (color and contrast not setup correctly, images look washed out or colors are too saturated, screen mode being 480i instead of 720p, etc). But, there are an equal number of people (if not more) who say the exact opposite and think the 360 is great. Either way, I'm still getting one! 

[G@M3FR3@K]

Nice review,BILL 

Agreed!

After visiting my local Wal-Mart here's my take on the X-Box 360:

Now before I comment on the individual games, let me first say that those reports where people were complaining about how bad the graphics looked at the kiosks...well they were right. To me it looked like contrast was turned up, but brightness was turned up even further and thus the games all looked washed out. Not to mention the 360 was set to 480i so it was at it's lowest setting. Try as I might I couldn't find the menu in the dashboard to access the HD settings to bump it up to 720p. Also, people have said they didn't see AA and AF turned on in the games, this was also the case with the games at this kiosk. I'm guessing these are earlier builds of the games which were not running optimally (not running on 2-3 cores) which is why that feature wasn't enabled so they could keep the frame rate up.

As for the size of the 360 itself, I was surprised that it turned out to be bigger than I thought it would be. It's still smaller than the original Xbox though, but it's a decent size console none the less. The controller on the other hand was what I had expected. It was smaller than the S controller, but not so much so that I didn't enjoy using it with my big hands, so no worries there. Buttons were easily accessed and had a good feel to them. A good controller, but my favorite (comfort wise) is still the Gamecube's.

Kameo
Easily my fave of the games you could play and had the best graphics by far. This game has a LOT of stuff going on around you in the game world as you're playing and anyone that walked by and saw it had to pick up their jaws from the floor as a result. Game play was simple enough and played much like you would expect any 3D Nintendo game to. I tried out Pummelweed, Chila, Major Ruin, and Kameo herself. While playing Chila I could toss the trolls up onto my back on the spikes and leave them there as I walked about, then I could pluck them off my back and use them as clubs or toss them at the other trolls. When you do this you're in a sort of over the shoulder mode. Without any trolls to use he defaults to his ice spikes which he can hurl at enemies. I proceeded to take out 3 dragons which were flying over head by doing so. I only managed to get part of the way into the castle after that using Major Ruin ala Sonic play style and then moved on to the other 2 games.

King Kong
Second only to Kameo in graphics, this one (like Kameo) looked like it would shine if it were being displayed on a properly configured monitor. I was right about the game play being just right for the console vs. the PC though. So anyone looking to pick up this game should grab the 360 version.

Call of Duty
Didn't play this one, but watched someone else play it. Hate to say it, but the Call of Duty demo on my PC looks infinitely better and to be honest I was not in the least bit impressed. Textures were no better than those on the PC, but the frame rate was locked at 60 unlike the PC version. Then again, I play it at 1600x1200 with everything turned on and probably get between 30-50 and in some cases up to 60. While this one didn't impress me, again, it's probably not the game's fault.

In the end I came away less impressed overall than I expected I would be. But I think it's due largely in part to the poor monitor setup, the 360 not using the higher display setting, and these being early builds. So at this time I'm not going to hold any of the above negatives against the 360 or it's games until I get them home and play them on TVs where everything is setup right. With that being said, I still look forward to getting my 360 and games come launch day, I just wish that MS had the foresight to properly setup and advertise their equipment so as not to deter potential buyers before they even get to see it running like it should.

[G@M3FR3@K]

Well it looks like I was right about the kiosks. Major Nelson (one of the guys who works on the XBox Live team) posted podcast #149 on his site with an update on that very situation.

He addresses the problem of the less than stellar performance of 360 kiosks that are now currently showing up in Walmarts. He goes on to say that the kiosks are not done yet, will be optimized and final demo software installed in the weeks to come.

So, I pretty much hit the nail on the head. We're looking at early builds alright. What on earth was MS thinking?

That's great news though and I for one can't wait to see how good the games really look when everything is up and running correctly.

[darthbane2k]

I had the chance to play X Box 360 hands on during a press presentation in London a few weeks ago.

As a long time gamer I am less than impressed.
Other than the graphics, what has changed? The games and game mechanics are the same - the joypad is pretty much the same. A new generation of consoles used to fill me with exscitiment, but this is just dull. One cant help but feel that MS delibrately rushed us into this next generation just because they screwed up the first xbox (in terms of profit margin and market penetration).
Theres a REAL reason why Sony and Nintendo have delayed and are taking their time with releasing their consoles - because I believe the true next gen experience and innovation will be found with those.
So while in the short term the 360 looks tasty, I guarantee you in 12 months time it wont look so rosy at all.

[Minwah]

As a long time game I am less than impresssion.

 

Other than the graphics, what has changed? The games and game mechanics are the same - the joypad is pretty much the same.

That's today's gaming for ya.  Don't think you can criticise it for that, 95% of 'new' games are nothing new, it's the way the gaming world has gone.

[darthbane2k]

As a long time game I am less than impresssion.

 

Yikes! I think Robotron has gone to my brain!!

Other than the graphics, what has changed? The games and game mechanics are the same - the joypad is pretty much the same.

That's today's gaming for ya.  Don't think you can criticise it for that, 95% of 'new' games are nothing new, it's the way the gaming world has gone.

Well I dont know - Im kind of pissed that MS delibrately killed the xbox 1 just to rush out 360. There is NO NEED for a next gen console so early. Has it even been 5 years yet? (in terms of the xbox)

[versapak]

The Xbox had a shorter than normal life for a console, because MS was late to the game this generation.

Unless they are looking to be late to every future generation, then at some point one of their consoles has to have its life cut prematurely.


There is constantly new stuff being added to gaming. The complexity of games has certainly grown over the years. What you can do in games has gotten more advanced, the physics in them has grown immensly, 5.1 surround has added greatly to the gaming experience not in just quality of sound, but in actual gameplay enhancement.

People that complain that there is nothing new in gaming must just not be playing games anymore. Of course you have formula based games that make up a majority, but that is NOTHING different than it has always been. We remember the greats from the past, and we think fondly of them, but we fail to remember the hundreds of crap games. We think it is different today, because all the generic whatever games are still fresh in our minds, but there are still plenty of great games, with great new ideas, breaking new ground.

[GGKoul]

You got to remember, and XBox/360 is basically a high end PC with special drivers, O/S and BIOS.  Hence the reason why they have a shorter console time frame.  PS3 & Nintendo require more hardware development because they completely redesign & improve the guts of their systems.

[shmokes]

I don't know that's why it has a shorter timeframe.  I mean, the Xbox is more capable than either the PS2 or Gamecube in pretty much every way (aside from controller design).  I think that they are just conceding this generation Sony.  This generation has already accomplished all they had hoped it would.  It successfully entered them into the market.  It has never, and will never generate a profit for them.  They want out of this generation as soon as possible and are also hoping that the head start will give them an advantage over Sony.

I don't think it'll work.  I think that the next gen will play out very similar to this one, with Sony in the lead and MS following in the States and Sony in the lead with Nintendo following in Japan. 

Nintendo's revolutionary controller is, of course, the wildcard.  It's tough to guess how that's going to come off.

[darthbane2k]

[quote author=shmokes link=topic=44866.msg424371#msg424371 
Nintendo's revolutionary controller is, of course, the wildcard.

[Ldsfunaz]

The TV i played on was setup pretty good i guess.  I cant vouch for 720, but theres no way it was interlaced.  You do feel at first that it is just an improvement from last generation, because it basically is.  But that's what i was expecting from this generation I guess.  I know that 360 is probably just a stop-gap til I get a PS3.  I am not confident PS3 will be sub-$500, and come out in 2006, so that worries me.  I have been following revolution the most out of the 3 and think Nintendo will still be in its usual most profitable but 3rd place niche market cycle.  Unless it sells for $150,  then they might be on to something. 

I just wish they had Perfect Dark 0 set up, That's this gens "halo", not meaning its going to be a great game, but that its their Big Gun for launch.

-Bill Gates-

[G@M3FR3@K]

It looks like Wal-Mart is shutting them all down now.  The X-Box 360 kiosks are messing with the handheld stock scanners at the store. Looks like someone really dropped the ball. 

Xbox 360s unplugged because of wireless interference

[shmokes]

I'll bet you a hundred dollars and give you 10 to 1 odds that PS3 will be sub $500.  $100 to me if I win, $1000 to you if you win.

[GGKoul]

I'm temped to get a Xbox360... but I will way to see how quickly its gets modded before purchasing.  If there is a mod released rather quickly, this may give MS/XBox360 the lead they require beat PS3.

[shmokes]

At this point there's no reason to think that the Xbox 360 will be any more or less mod-friendly than the PS3. 

I think the only reason the current Xbox mod-scene is so much more mature than the PS2 mod scene is that the Xbox has a built-in hard drive interface.  This time around both have hard disks available from day-one.  I suppose the modification process is also a bit easier on Xbox compared with PS2 as well -- less soldering, etc..  But once again, there's no reason to think this will be the case in the next gen.

[pointdablame]

a Solderless PS2 modchip was just released recently.. although I'm not sure if that will really spark the PS2 scene into something more than it already is.

[JoyMonkey]

The 360 motherboards still look a lot simpler to mod than anything Sony has ever put out. I'd imagine someone will have it modded pretty quickly- if the 360 can boot a standard XBox game, there's bound to be some way of getting it to boot an xbe from a flash memory device- kind of like the PS2 Independence Exploit.

[shmokes]

I'm pretty excited about it for sure.  I only got into the mod scene for the first time with the Xbox.  I tried to mod my Playstation but it never powered on again.     That's why when I told my wife I wanted an Xbox for christmas I didn't tell her what I planned to do with it until after I had it.  Se was kinda pissed and threatened me that I better not kill it.

Now she uses it at least as much as me, and I think she actually loves me more since I modded it.   

[rchadd]

I think you will need a High Definition TV to really appreciate XBOX 360

I am wondering how long we will see regular XBOX around and new games released for it...

especially as 360 is supposed to be backwards compatible

if XBOX games played on a 360 does it have benefit from better graphics?

got my XBOX modded so will be keeping that until a modchip comes out for 360
 

[JoyMonkey]

if XBOX games played on a 360 does it have benefit from better graphics?

I'm interested to see how original XBox games play on the 360. Because the 360 uses an ATI graphics chipset, in most cases it has to emulate the original NVidia chipset; this is one of the reasons why a hard drive is necessary to play your old XBox games, the hard-drive will hold emulation 'patches' (kind of like Mames CPU drivers) written specifically for each original XBox game. I'd imagine it's a huge resource hog and could even cut back on the original games performance.

To solve this, Microsoft has implemented the use of emulator programs that will let the Xbox 360 play Xbox games. According to Huddy, "emulating the CPU isn't really a difficult task. ...the real bottlenecks in the emulation are GPU calls--calls made specifically by games to the Nvidia hardware in a certain way. General GPU instructions are easy to convert: an instruction to draw a triangle in a certain way will be pretty generic. However, it's the odd cases--the proprietary routines--that will cause hassle." Once complete, the Xbox emulators could come preloaded on the unit's hard drive or be downloadable via Xbox Live.

[geomartin]

I remember reading an interview with one of the 360 developers that went into some detail about modding the 360.  He stated that MS has come to accept that the system will be modded and have actually built it with the idea of making some mods easier in an attempt to encourage them.  Can't remember where I found the article.  Maybe Retro-blast site?

Geo

[versapak]

I remember reading an interview with one of the 360 developers that went into some detail about modding the 360. He stated that MS has come to accept that the system will be modded and have actually built it with the idea of making some mods easier in an attempt to encourage them. Can't remember where I found the article. Maybe Retro-blast site?

Geo

Sounds like the opposite of what I have read.

Most of what I have read has stated that they have put security in several places on a hardware level, and that a hack on one 360 may not work on another.

[JONTHEBOMB]

I just got to try a 360 at Bestbuy.  I'm looking forward to spending many hours with it.  My favorite demo was Call of Duty 2.  The 360 was playing on a nice Samsung LCD widescreen TV.  The size of the TV was either 21inches or 19inches.  The controller felt pretty solid.  I wonder how well the wireless one will respond in games?  I was a little disappointed in the graphics, but gameplay is a bigger deal to me.  Now I can't wait until November 22.  I have had a taste and I want MORE.  Hopefully Gears of War will be the game that makes me go ooowww at the graphics.

I think you will need a High Definition TV to really appreciate XBOX 360

I hope not.  Even though I want to get an HDTV sometime in the future.

[SOAPboy]

I remember reading an interview with one of the 360 developers that went into some detail about modding the 360. He stated that MS has come to accept that the system will be modded and have actually built it with the idea of making some mods easier in an attempt to encourage them. Can't remember where I found the article. Maybe Retro-blast site?

Geo

Sounds like the opposite of what I have read.

Most of what I have read has stated that they have put security in several places on a hardware level, and that a hack on one 360 may not work on another.

Our Colony did a thing about that, and it was in the first video i beleive..

Microsoft realizes that modders chucked out alot of money to boxes they wouldnt have sold in the first place.. they NEED the mod communitys backing

[versapak]

Our Colony did a thing about that, and it was in the first video i beleive..

Microsoft realizes that modders chucked out alot of money to boxes they wouldnt have sold in the first place.. they NEED the mod communitys backing

LOL

Right...

That is JUST what MS needs. They need to sell a lot more hardware, that they loose a hundred dollars on, to a lot of people LEAST likely to actually buy the games that they MAKE money on.


 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4218670.stm

With the 360, Microsoft is aiming to make it as hard as possible to hack.

"We've taken security to the hardware level and built it in from the ground up," said Chris Satchell from the Xbox Advanced Technology Group.

"One of the reasons we went with custom hardware design for all our silicon is that it allows us to build security at the silicon level," he told the BBC News website.

"There are going to be levels of security in this box that the hacker community has never seen before."

Part of the motivation behind this is to prevent people from using the 360 to watch pirated films or TV shows.

But Mr Satchell admitted no system was fool-proof and that, with enough time and dedication, the security on the Xbox 360 would be broken.

"There're some really bright people in the world with some really expensive hardware," he said.

"I'm sure sooner or later someone will work out how to circumvent security. But the way we have done the design doesn't mean that it will work on somebody else's machine."

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200510/N05.1005.1820.37210.htm

GI: I was wondering if you had any office pools going around yet for how many hours it

[SOAPboy]

Our Colony did a thing about that, and it was in the first video i beleive..

Microsoft realizes that modders chucked out alot of money to boxes they wouldnt have sold in the first place.. they NEED the mod communitys backing

LOL

Right...

That is JUST what MS needs. They need to sell a lot more hardware, that they loose a hundred dollars on, to a lot of people LEAST likely to actually buy the games that they MAKE money on.


 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4218670.stm

With the 360, Microsoft is aiming to make it as hard as possible to hack.

"We've taken security to the hardware level and built it in from the ground up," said Chris Satchell from the Xbox Advanced Technology Group.

"One of the reasons we went with custom hardware design for all our silicon is that it allows us to build security at the silicon level," he told the BBC News website.

"There are going to be levels of security in this box that the hacker community has never seen before."

Part of the motivation behind this is to prevent people from using the 360 to watch pirated films or TV shows.

But Mr Satchell admitted no system was fool-proof and that, with enough time and dedication, the security on the Xbox 360 would be broken.

"There're some really bright people in the world with some really expensive hardware," he said.

"I'm sure sooner or later someone will work out how to circumvent security. But the way we have done the design doesn't mean that it will work on somebody else's machine."

http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200510/N05.1005.1820.37210.htm

GI: I was wondering if you had any office pools going around yet for how many hours it

[versapak]

Better yet...

Why don't you dig up the Our Colony stuff.





The quotes I posted are interviews with MS themselves. One being with J. Allard, and the other with Chris Satchell.


You know... People actually deeply involved with 360, and not some 2nd party viral campaign promo.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/10/03/bach/index.php

Chief Microsoft gamer Bach talks Xbox 360

IDGNS: You

[SOAPboy]

Better yet...

Why don't you dig up the Our Colony stuff.





The quotes I posted are interviews with MS themselves. One being with J. Allard, and the other with Chris Satchell.


You know... People actually deeply involved with 360, and not some 2nd party viral campaign promo.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/10/03/bach/index.php

Chief Microsoft gamer Bach talks Xbox 360

IDGNS: You

[pointdablame]

So the tone of their words has changed..

We shall see tho, i really honestly see microsoft being SMART on this one and not trying to lock modders out.. they do, they lose buisness, they dont want that..

making it easy for modders would mean microsoft was being STUPID.

They make their money on games, games, and games.  They lose money on consoles.  This was just mentioned a few posts up, but you seem to have missed it.... why would they make it so they can sell more systems if all it will lead to is people modding it and copying games.

You can sugar-coat the mod scene as much as you want, but MOST people use modded systems to steal games so they don't have to pay for them.  How exactly woud Microsoft be doing something "smart" by doing that?

They're not.

And as for Our Colony... its an MS Public Relations machine... haven't you ever heard that its not good to listen to only first party information. 

[shmokes]

Anyway, how has their tone changed.  The guy specifically says that modders hurt MS, and he said that one thing they've done to try to discourage people from modding is by building in the benign functionalities that people mod for, such as media center stuff.  This is to discourage, not validate modding.

[Grasshopper]

I don't know. Microsoft are pretty crafty and tend to play a long game.

You'll certainly never get Microsoft to admit they want people to mod the 360. I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't want modding to become so easy that it became mainstream, but I suspect they would regard a limited modding scene as a good thing.

What Microsoft has learnt from their Windows history is the overwhelming importance of gaining market share even if it means making losses in the short term.

Of course Microsoft bleats on about piracy (as do all software houses) but let's face it until XP came along Microsoft made no serious attempt to stop Windows being copied. Copying Windows used to be simply a case of writing down the activation code and burning a new copy of the install CD. I suspect this was deliberate because they knew that piracy would help them build up market share and shut out the competition. Of course now that Windows has overwhelming market share it's a different matter.

If it's a choice between selling a machine that will be modded, not selling a machine, or worse having someone buy a competitor's machine instead of theirs then I'm sure Microsoft would choose the modded machine any time.

[SOAPboy]

Anyway, how has their tone changed.

[pointdablame]

Considering they got the into first, the interviews first, ect.. figured it would be a good source..

they got it first because Microsoft RUNS IT....

[SOAPboy]

Considering they got the into first, the interviews first, ect.. figured it would be a good source..

they got it first because Microsoft RUNS IT....

'

Another reason why it was a GOOD SOURCE

 

[pointdablame]

Considering they got the into first, the interviews first, ect.. figured it would be a good source..

they got it first because Microsoft RUNS IT....

'

Another reason why it was a GOOD SOURCE

 

oh but there would be no bias there right?

Open your eyes a bit.

[Otraotaku]

Looks like me and many other Elder scroll fans will not be buying a Xbox 360 this year....

Oblivion is Delayed... good / bad thing...

[JoyMonkey]

Looks like me and many other Elder scroll fans will not be buying a Xbox 360 this year....

Oblivion is Delayed... good / bad thing...

Good thing. From what I can tell, the really good 360 games won't start coming out until sometime next summer. By that time there'll probably be a 360 price drop as the PS3 prepares to land. I'm not an Elder Scroll fan, but I think I'll be holding on to my cash for now.