Microsoft Xbox 360 @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Microsoft Xbox 360 : The Xbox 360 is here and it has your living room squarely in its sights. This time around Microsoft’s next generation console promises to have something for everyone, but what does it have in store for you?

The free Xbox Live Silver for all Xbox owners is a stroke of genius as it places all Xbox owners into the community. And the community is what I believe will be the key to the Xbox 360's success.
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So, when do we see one ripped apart and watercooled like the original XBox? :D

Great article, but I think I'll hold off on buying one. When there are more than just 2-3 games that I want, I'll pick one up. COD2 and PGR3 are about it for me. I really like the idea of free Live! silver, too. That should entice a lot to buy the Gold package.

I just don't want to get sucked into my Gamecube purchase dilema again. Bought it for the Star Wars games, then right after I buy... XBox comes out with better ones. Oh well... The kids love the cube!
 
I don't like that 360 is white, what is this a hospital for them
and xbox design for 1st and 2nd is damn ugly
 
ve39 said:
I don't like that 360 is white, what is this a hospital for them
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yea i'm not down with teh white ipod feel. but whatever.. you need to see past the cover.. and love it's internals...

and make love to it's internals.... oh wait.. ... uumm no.. just love it's internals..
 
They have a whole host of covers for the front that will give it another look. That will only be for the front bezel though, but some colored contact paper should get you where you want to be without killing the warranty.
 
The white color is most definitely a sign that Microsoft is targeting a much broader audience this time around. As much as I love my original Xbox (all of them) it sure stood out like a sore thumb in the living room. :D
 
What type of wireless adapter is required to hook into your home network? Is it propriatary?
 
I wonder if I'm one of the only people who dosn't think that the XB360 is everything it's cracked up to be. Because I work at a Gamestop, I was able to give one a decent shot the other day.

1.) The kiosk is running on a rather nice, HD flat pannel. I'd have to say, most people (even these days) do not own a HDTV as of yet. So they really will not get the experience they are being presented.

2.) Anti-Aliasing was not turned on for any of the games I tried (5 in total: 3 on the demo disk, 2 full versions). And this is after they said "The age of the jaggies is over." at E3.

3.) Microsoft talking up the 360's graphics (hype). The graphics are better, but can we really say they are beyond what we've seen already? Maybe I'm just jaded by my computer, playing on "HD" graphics for years now. But when I saw these games running, I just wasn't impressed with the jump from the last generation. Currently we have games that only look slightly better overall, most of it coming from the HD resolutions.

4.) The games were rushed. In PGR3 I saw texture pop-ups (if that makes sense). I started the race and the whole side of a building was grey. Then after a few seconds, it filled in the grey with a texture. NFS:MW seemed a little slow on the frame rates (for an XB360 as portrayed by Microsoft).

5.) All the major titles were pushed way back. Ghost Recon for example. And the fact there is no Halo (the game that made Xbox as successful as it is) seems very strange to me.

Again, maybe I'm jaded, maybe I'm being too critical. But after hearing the E3 video every day for like 2 months straight, I was really expecting a hell of alot more in visual advancements.
 
Defconn1 said:
I wonder if I'm one of the only people who dosn't think that the XB360 is everything it's cracked up to be. Because I work at a Gamestop, I was able to give one a decent shot the other day.

1.) The kiosk is running on a rather nice, HD flat pannel. I'd have to say, most people (even these days) do not own a HDTV as of yet. So they really will not get the experience they are being presented.

2.) Anti-Aliasing was not turned on for any of the games I tried (5 in total: 3 on the demo disk, 2 full versions). And this is after they said "The age of the jaggies is over." at E3.

3.) Microsoft talking up the 360's graphics (hype). The graphics are better, but can we really say they are beyond what we've seen already? Maybe I'm just jaded by my computer, playing on "HD" graphics for years now. But when I saw these games running, I just wasn't impressed with the jump from the last generation. Currently we have games that only look slightly better overall, most of it coming from the HD resolutions.

4.) The games were rushed. In PGR3 I saw texture pop-ups (if that makes sense). I started the race and the whole side of a building was grey. Then after a few seconds, it filled in the grey with a texture. NFS:MW seemed a little slow on the frame rates (for an XB360 as portrayed by Microsoft).

5.) All the major titles were pushed way back. Ghost Recon for example. And the fact there is no Halo (the game that made Xbox as successful as it is) seems very strange to me.

Again, maybe I'm jaded, maybe I'm being too critical. But after hearing the E3 video every day for like 2 months straight, I was really expecting a hell of alot more in visual advancements.
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no, you make a good point.. i personally have not played the X360.. so i cannot make any judgement
 
The white color does make it stand out, but it goes well with my white PSP, and you have to admit (even if grudgingly) that the 360 would look much better in the living room than an original Xbox or GameCube, the newer thin PS2 look good because they are so small...you can hide them anywhere.


http://www.****************************/forums/workstation2.jpg
 
Wow... I was thinking of getting a new computer, but now I'm on the fence between a computer or the 360.

hmmmm....



Great review!
 
oh poo ..now I wouldn't mind getting one of these bad boys... :mad:




[H]
 
Nice review :)

I remember seeing the watercooled X-Box project a few years back, and I thought you guys were insane at the time :p

*Any chance of a watercooled 360? :D
 
Defconn1 said:
I wonder if I'm one of the only people who dosn't think that the XB360 is everything it's cracked up to be. Because I work at a Gamestop, I was able to give one a decent shot the other day. etc. etc.
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Honestly, I have heard this for over two weeks and had to bite my tongue. I have not seen any of the things you are talking about the games look great. I even bought my games from GameStop, they looked fine in the store and out of the store.

Maybe it is like you said, because you are a PC gamer these titles don't look "great", but comparing even a game like Kameo...what games look better on the Xbox or PS2?
 
saturnine2 said:
Nice review :)

I remember seeing the watercooled X-Box project a few years back, and I thought you guys were insane at the time :p

*Any chance of a watercooled 360? :D
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Being worked on as we speak. :D
 
Steve:

Plasmas DONT burn in!!! If they do you're abusing the set!

So say the AVS Forums (and I tend to believe what they say): http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=444258

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF PLASMA OWNERS EXPERIENCE "BURN-IN"

Although there is no, as yet, survey of all plasma owners, many owners of such devices have not experienced it. Rough guess, less than 1%. The few that have would, IMHO, be guilty of "abusing" the display.
 
Steve said:
Being worked on as we speak. :D
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Steve, you do such awesome work with your reviews. It was non-biased and interesting. Good job.

/fellow N. Texan (Colleyville)
 
<--- Notice time stamp My son is waiting in line outside of a Federal Way WA Bestbuy with a friend, they are going to have 32 systems and he is 19th in line number twenty came up a minute after my son took his place... Lawn chairs, coats blankets on a night that should dip into freezing. he's there until the doors open at 9:00am tomorrow morning.

He had reserved his system at Gamestop, but they called and said "sorry"
 
doormat said:
Steve:

Plasmas DONT burn in!!! If they do you're abusing the set!

So say the AVS Forums (and I tend to believe what they say): http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=444258

WHAT PERCENTAGE OF PLASMA OWNERS EXPERIENCE "BURN-IN"

Although there is no, as yet, survey of all plasma owners, many owners of such devices have not experienced it. Rough guess, less than 1%. The few that have would, IMHO, be guilty of "abusing" the display.
Click to expand...

The fact is that a lot of the NEWER plasmas are not prone to burn-in the way they used to be. Many of the older plasmas out there are and video games can be tough on them with the static images. Ignoring the issue would be foolish for any plasma owner and is something they need to be aware of.

This page is worth a look to see what Pioneer has to say about it. Again, don't be scared of using your plasma for games, just know that you dont want to leave it running for 18 hours on the same screen.
 
Does the Xbox360 have a web browser? I seem to miss that at every site. And I wouldnt mind browsing [H] at 61".
 
ve39 said:
I don't like that 360 is white, what is this a hospital for them
and xbox design for 1st and 2nd is damn ugly
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Agreed. I'll be doing a remodel of some sort first chance I get. Something with black. Apart from that, great (p?)review. Extremely objective, and an excellent run-down on what it's capable of for those of us that find Google too hard :p. It's too bad launch games are pretty sparse. I'm only getting it for PD0 *sigh*.
 
doormat said:
Does the Xbox360 have a web browser? I seem to miss that at every site. And I wouldnt mind browsing [H] at 61".
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Unfortunately, not at this time

It could easily be done, and you never know...but not at this time.


fuelvolts said:
Steve, you do such awesome work with your reviews. It was non-biased and interesting. Good job.

/fellow N. Texan (Colleyville)
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Why thank you sir, we certainly try our best. :)
 
fuelvolts said:
Steve, you do such awesome work with your reviews. It was non-biased and interesting. Good job.

/fellow N. Texan (Colleyville)
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actually, to be a fellow neighbor of Steve you would have to call yourself a fellow Alaskan (if there's even a such word :p ) because thats where Steve's from.

you know. way up home, where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antalope play. where seldom is heard, not a discouraging word and blah, blah, blah................. :D
 
oh, and by the way, just exactly what is the MSRP on the premium kit anyways? I'm just wondering how much of a profit some of these ebayers are making on their Xbox 360 Premium packages that are easily tipping the scales between $1000 and $1100! :eek:

first it was the $700 7800 GTX video cards and now its the $1000 video gaming consoles. sheez......
 
Steve said:
Unfortunately, not at this time

It could easily be done, and you never know...but not at this time.
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I guess they dont want to distract you from spending your points.... :rolleyes: its still better than PS3 will probably be (and I say that not owning an xbox and owning a PS2). I dont think the PS3 will have such good interopability and online presence (Sony is sooo into closed systems and such, and I surely wont install any software on my computer anymore).

And FWIW, Ars is reporting that there are over 2600 Xbox360 systems being sold on e-bay right now. I wonder if there will be a glut of systems on ebay...
 
ozziegn said:
oh, and by the way, just exactly what is the MSRP on the premium kit anyways? I'm just wondering how much of a profit some of these ebayers are making on their Xbox 360 Premium packages that are easily tipping the scales between $1000 and $1100! :eek:

first it was the $700 7800 GTX video cards and now its the $1000 video gaming consoles. sheez......
Click to expand...

$299 Core System (no HDD, wired controller)
$399 Standard System (20GB HDD, wireless controller)
 
doormat said:
I dont think the PS3 will have such good interopability and online presence (Sony is sooo into closed systems and such, and I surely wont install any software on my computer anymore).

And FWIW, Ars is reporting that there are over 2600 Xbox360 systems being sold on e-bay right now. I wonder if there will be a glut of systems on ebay...
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what Sony will have yet (neither are they) but I am certainly optimistic about the PS3.

I saw that Ars report, they linked an article saying that 3000 360's were up for pre-sale.

The good news is, the only people who pre-sold too many consoles was GameStop. I have not heard of a single other retailer who has had that problem.
 
It looks like alot of fun to be had with some buddies.

Only thing I don't understand is white. Think about it a Microsoft product...white. It will match an Ipod and an Imac G5. I don't have a single item in my entertainment center that will coordinate with this, if anything this will stand out as an aesthetically pleasing white sore thumb in my center. /end metrosexual> However, I'd be all over this in a shiny black casing.

Have fun with your X-mac 360 :D
 
The funny thing is, all the Apple stuff I own now is black and the PSP and 360 are now white. My black PSP = tons o' fingerprints. The white PSP is nice.


http://www.****************************/forums/black_nano.jpg
 
I say we need to still wait and see. Dont suppose you could mention what brand / model / size your screen there is Steve, its pretty :) ? Is there any way to hook up an xbox 360 to a crt monitor and utilize resolutions like 1280x768 or is it strictly a digital HDTV thing?
 
The 360 is a good looking machine.... sure it doesn't exactally fit in with anything, but it's got a much cleaner look than any previous console before it...
 
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