Tried an Xbox 360?

[Ian]

I've just been to the pub and nipped into Blockbusters on the way back... low and behold there was an xbox 360 up and running with the new COD2.

Very tasty graphics, very smooth framerates and plays well! I didn't even realise it was out for demos already, I got quite a shock!

 

[Rush]

Aye technology eh...Well yesterday i purchased Battlefield 2 for the Xbox and me and my 12 year old had hours of fun...I will wait for the price to decrease then look at it ..My PC during this time was crunching away.. Of what you saw do you think it justifies its price Ian ??..

The Hotswap function is fantastic !! what a gaming innovation ...

 

[Ian]

It seemed pretty good to me! There was only the 1 game available, so I can't be too general unfortunately.

The controller was very similar the before and it looks good - its just that initial £250 hurdle!

 

[ChristopherP]

I can't game on consoles... i just cant. Unless it's a racing game...

I prefer K/b and Mouse for the rest!

 

[muckshifter]

XBox 360

... is that like "spin-the-bottle" where you plonk it on the ground and give it a twirl.

 

[tomsega]

I can't game on consoles... i just cant. Unless it's a racing game...

I prefer K/b and Mouse for the rest!

Or a sports sim, or a platform game, or a dance'em up, or a beat'em up....

I think the next installment of Pro Evo alone will probably necessitate an Xbox360 for me.

 

[PotGuy]

they've been churning out boring pro evos for ages now raking in the $ even though aside from minor changes and team name changes its really the same as it was in pro evo 2

 

[Chris Pickering]

Played on two separate pods(oddly one was situated in the bar where I play 5aside football!), but only tried out King Kong and Call of Duty 2 so far. CoD2 at least runs pretty much on a level with a top spec PC, though the demo pod version is apparently a fair few months old.

As for King Kong, it didnt really look THAT much better than the original Xbox version for me.

Still, I'm happy to be getting one on release day, and I'm sure in another 6 months time we'll start to see games that make better use of the 360's power.

 

[PotGuy]

I'm not getting a next gen console for at least a year, maybe even 2, as only then will the prices become reasonable.

 

[psd99]

yer i tried it a coupla a days ago in this shop

it looks great
the graphics are world class

i think it will be a big hit
cant wait for it!

 

[tomsega]

I'm not getting a next gen console for at least a year, maybe even 2, as only then will the prices become reasonable.

Reasonable prices? I'd say £250 for all the power of a top end PC is pretty good going. You could only get a 6800ultra for that - and those are old hat already.

 

[muckshifter]

For £250 I can get a complete system, err, no monitor ... bugger an xbox.

 

[PotGuy]

£250 = x1800xl

some xbox's broke after 20 mins of playing! did you read that off the news bit today? Poor sods that line up for hours and then poof - no more xbox

 

[tomsega]

£250 = x1800xl

some xbox's broke after 20 mins of playing! did you read that off the news bit today? Poor sods that line up for hours and then poof - no more xbox

It seems to pack an awful lot of processing power for a console sized computer - which is rather questionable. I've never really heard anything mentioned in relation to the XBox360's cooling system, which must be pretty spectacular if it manages to cool 3 processors and a powerfull graphics card - and do so quietly. I have a shuttle small form factor PC that is much bigger than an Xbox360, and it requires quite a lot of fan noise to keep it stable.

Has anyone HEARD an Xbox360? Considering the Dreamcast was much louder than the playsation, and the Xbox was much louder than the Dreamcast, Its probable the 360' will be loud as hell with all that power. It'll probably be more unstable than any other console purely because of the heat.

 

[Chris Pickering]

I'm 21 years old and I'm getting over excited because I now have my tracking number for my Xbox 360. I'm a sad, sad man!

If anyone's interested in an early review of the Xbox 360, there's a great review here at NTSC-UK by a staff member who imported a US machine. I would've had a similar kind of review knocked up for here already, but all press units we're already nabbed before I got a look in

 

[psd99]

release date is tommorow in uk!

i wish i was getting one now!

 

[Alf]

Really? we've had the box out here for about a week now .
i have heard of some problems with it as well like faulty disc drive that destroyed discs or it would freeze up during game play. perhaps they fixed the problems...

 

[tomsega]

I played on a 360 for the first time today, and I have to say I'm rather impressed. I really didn't WANT to have to admit that a chav-happy high street product performs better than my vastly more expensive custom built PC... but it does.

I was thinking of upgrading to a 3700+ and a GeForce 7800gtx soon after Christmas, which would have cost a good 500 quid. Thinking objectively, It has to be said that that is just not a viable (or logical) deal right now. What's the point in anyone upgrading their PC for graphical purposes over the next 6-12 months when the 360 makes such a mockery of the prices you will have to pay? And with the left over cash you could buy a massive HDTV and a sexy sound system.

Roll on GeForce 8800, basically...

 

[muckshifter]

tomsega,

Did you not know that graphics cards are overly inflated in price ... and Game designers have become lazy in programing a game.

The "original" Wolfenstein came on ONE FLOPPY disk and ran on a 1meg card, or was it 256k, no I'm sure it was 1meg ... 'cos I remember buying two chips to make mine 2meg

Game designers then wrote games for the hardware WE had ... not for what they could use.

 

[tomsega]

tomsega,

Did you not know that graphics cards are overly inflated in price ... and Game designers have become lazy in programing a game.

The "original" Wolfenstein came on ONE FLOPPY disk and ran on a 1meg card, or was it 256k, no I'm sure it was 1meg ... 'cos I remember buying two chips to make mine 2meg

Game designers then wrote games for the hardware WE had ... not for what they could use.

I can't say that I get your point... ? Right. Let me rant a bit-

Sony and Microsoft have the ability to sell the hardware at a loss, and then confidently make the money back with software sales. This, combined with the fact that they are manufaturing them in bulk and so on, is why the Xbox 360 is so comparatively cheap. Either way, ATI and Nvidia get paid. Surely the very reason that PC graphics cards are so expensive is that the manufacturer can only make money from that single one off purchase. If PC gaming becomes less popular, ATI and Nvidia won't be able to lower the prices of hardware very much - especially considering they have nothing to loose if everyone goes console, when they are provided the hardware.

Anyhoo, Im not predicting the death of PC gaming or anything - Im just saying that perhaps WHILST we are in the stage of a new console being released, PC upgrading can only really be justified through love of the format rather than sense... perhaps.

I mean, a 7800gtx is worth an entire weeks wages for alot of people - and thats just a component.