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Name one painting, song, sculpture, poem, or play that has the intellectual depth of a sophisticated and intellectual video game.

Painting: There isn't a game on this planet that's broken my brain as much as Relativity.

Sculpture:After seeing some of Joe Fafard's work this weekend, I'm still waiting for some of his sculptures to follow me home and stare at me.

Photo: You didn't request the name of a photo, but I'll still provide one, because Man vs. Tank sure says a hell of a lot

Poem: Following the theme, I dare you to try to look at a poppy in the same way after reading In Flanders Field

Play: Oh, dear frog, where to even begin with this one. Hell, I'll just plug one of my sister's plays for this one, Bigger Than Jesus, if for no reasons other than even as someone who isn't religious, I found it enlightening-- and because the end of the airplane scene still haunts me.

Song:Rather than point out yet another example, I'll simple refer to the massive cross-pollination of video games and music. Chopin's Prelude in D Flat Major, aka Raindrops, used in conjunction with a certain video game trailer

But there was NOT a recall -- you can't send your box in and get a new one unless it actually breaks:

http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/support/systemsetup/xbox360/resources/warrantyupdate.htm

Check out the listing of 360 RPG games.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/catalog.aspx?st=&g=111000000&r=0&sd=0&p=1&c=10

There's a definite lack of viable games in that genre especially considering the quality of gameplay. The only one on the list that's a native 360 game which is worth anything is Oblivion. The cheese grater I scraped over my balls while playing Lost Odyssey and Two Worlds actually significantly improved my gaming experience.

Also the definition of an RPG is fairly concise to anyone who bothers to look. A sports game isn't an RPG, nor arcade or board games...

Its a little known fact you can use Xbox 360 controllers with windows. Even the wireless ones with one of these : http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360wirelessgamingreceiver/ Makes it feel much more consoly. Now you just need to pick a game, which is easier said than done.

320 hits for movies: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/marketplace/catalog.aspx?mt=1&g=-1&r=-1&sb=1 352 different TV shows: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/marketplace/catalog.aspx?mt=2&g=-1&r=-1&sb=1 I'd say that's a pretty decent selection especially if you were to count the total number of TV show episodes which is probably easy close to 5000.

320 hits for movies: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/marketplace/catalog.aspx?mt=1&g=-1&r=-1&sb=1 352 different TV shows: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/marketplace/catalog.aspx?mt=2&g=-1&r=-1&sb=1 I'd say that's a pretty decent selection especially if you were to count the total number of TV show episodes which is probably easy close to 5000.

I bought the XBOX add on drive for £90 in January, while it's down to about £35 I got 5 Free HD DVD's thrown in - http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hd-dvd/default.htm

Since Toshiba pulled the plug I have bought another 7 HD DVD titles at an average price of about £6 each, plus I am a customer of http://www.lovefilm.com/ so I can still rent HD DVD's from them. In the UK, the firesale seems not to have started yet, so I'm currently buying most of my stuff from Australia

I also own one of these - http://www.palsite.com/9300ovi.html so I have a history of backing failed technology ;)

Jonathan

I hate to be one of those 'just google it!' people, but, unfortunately, this is the first thing that comes up for 'xbox 360 hard drive transfer' on a Google search. Emphasis mine to illustrate that this isn't Elite-specific.

This kit lets you transfer content from your Xbox 360® 20GB hard drive to another Xbox 360 20GB or Xbox 360 120GB hard drive.

Curiously, they do not consider it a "standalone gaming machine" that only connects to their servers.
This page:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/alldownloads.htm
(microsoft's own) allows for connectivity to a special media center PC. What kind of hurdles did those idiots design to keep their fanboys from enjoying their software?

And it's not so much that if I "want a PC, (I should) buy a PC", it's more of a, if I have an XBOX and PC on the same network, I would expect that they may talk to each other considered they were made by the same bunch of monkeys.

Don't forget about Blue Dragon.

Honestly, the author took this posting over at the official xbox site, and then snipped together almost every single sentence with 'Whitten said'. Although, to be fair, I think about 15% of the middle of the article has some original thought. (The part where they explain what xbox live is). Of course, they could've just linked to the pages describing membership, instead.

The author then failed to cite the original article. What a piece of journalistic crap. PCWorld, MacWorld and Peter Cohen should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for writing and publishing this drivel.

Honestly, the author took this posting over at the official xbox site, and then snipped together almost every single sentence with 'Whitten said'. Although, to be fair, I think about 15% of the middle of the article has some original thought. (The part where they explain what xbox live is). Of course, they could've just linked to the pages describing membership, instead.

The author then failed to cite the original article. What a piece of journalistic crap. PCWorld, MacWorld and Peter Cohen should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for writing and publishing this drivel.

Finally back up
Here is a forum post outlining the problem and their, frankly stupid rules.

http://forums.xbox.com/17297131/ShowPost.aspx

Xbox LIVE Service Status: Status: Up and running.

Oh, but it does. Tell me, where the hell have you been for the past year?

Your business accounting appear to be a little rusty. I think it's analogy time!

You are a dairy farmer. You have five cows. One of those cows has been eating more and more grass lately, but isn't producing much milk. What's more, the last milk it produced was extremely sour and didn't even pay for its grass. Do you keep this cow? No, because it will continue to eat grass that would be better given to other cows. You cut your losses, slaughter it, and make use of its meat to get some benefit out of the lame cow.

Now let's look at Bioware from a dairy perspective. You're still a farmer. You hear that someone might be willing to sell you a cow that has been history of producing excellent milk. What's more, cow experts are proclaiming that this cow's next batch of milk will achieve record sales, and there are many hints that the cow has a long and productive life ahead of it. How much is a cow like this worth? Is it worth the expected profits of its milk for one year? Two years? Five years?

In the end, a cash cow like Bioware is worth almost anything the current owner asks. Assuming that the cow doesn't get sick and die prematurely, it will eventually pay for itself -- and more. If you believe that the cow will be healthy for longer than five years, you should gladly fork over the equivalent of five years of that cow's projected milk revenue, because in the long run it will be profitable.

Hmm. Now I'm thirsty.

Xbox 360 has supported h.264 4.1 High Profile playback from disc since May:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm
http://www.redkawa.com/blog/post.php?t=892

Unbelievable - "better position to compete"? Are they so incredibly afraid of Sony, then, despite their enormous lead? Or are things not quite as rosy for the XBox as various sources would have us believe?

I don't think that they're trying to improve their position simply because they're afraid of Sony, but I'd suggest, as others no doubt will, that it's a process of continual improvement or innovation. Whether Microsoft are including features offered in other consoles/HTPCs, improvement, or adding new features, innovating, is irrelevant since it's always about gaining or retaining the market-leader position. The ideal situation would be that of both Sony and Microsoft, and to a lesser-extent Nintendo competing and adding features constantly in order to win over more consumers.

Further, if a new product replaces an older product, while continuing, in Microsoft's case, to honour the extended warranties then either the consumer or Microsoft, and potentially both, can still win, this in one instance the consumer's old-model X-Box can be replaced by a more up-to-date model.

and my PS3 has a $500 Blu-ray player, $249 media server, $109 wireless adaptor, $67 Upscaling DVD player, a $65 60GB 2.5" harddrive, a $30 bluetooth adapter, a $23 multi flash card reader, a $5 web browser, and a game console for free. It's amazing everyone doesn't have one. That's well over $1000 in value for only $600... no, $400!

Question, if I sit on it, can I claim an another $25 value as a butt warmer?

Why don't you just twist a red glow-stick into a ring and glue it to the front of a cereal box? It'll work as well as most 360s do...

True enough, but will my glow-stick and cereal box be repaired under an extended warranty when it inevitably falls apart, or I add milk to the contents?

I don't think Mr. Kelloggs will be forthcoming...

There's not actually 'one' design flaw in the 360, as Microsoft states on their warranty faq page (towards the bottom), but one indicator for a multitude of possible problems. - Not sure if that should make you feel better.

I'm personally waiting for my 4th 360 from Microsoft, my first one was purchased on launch day. As of today, I have not paid one cent for the repairs or shipping, the only cost to me has been time without a 360, which you can also experience in larger measure by not buying one until "it's fixed".

My experience (3 broken consoles) isn't typical of people I know who have one, but I don't regret getting one. Plus I figure I get to play games for several uninterrupted months at a time while I wait for them to "fix it", and, eventually, I'll have one of the "fixed" ones.

Like this one?

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360halo3console/default.htm

So the Xbox web site is misleading the public when their Gears of War page says that it renders in 1080?

The back of Bioshock's box states 1080p in the features section (I can't find a pic of the back of the box online).

I don't know what's worse, misleading the consumer into thinking that the game they are buying renders at a higher resolution than it actually produces or claiming that a game console is part of the high-definition generation, when it is truly lacks the hardware to render games in 1920x1080 and is actually of the intermediate "enhanced definition" variety.

What does the back of the Halo 3 box say, 1080p?

* Open NAT means that either the port-assignment policy is minimal or the device has a fully compliant version of UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled by default.
        * Moderate NAT means that the port-assignment policy is minimal, but the device is filtering addresses or ports.
        * Strict NAT means the port-assignment policy is aggressive.

Okay, I'll feed the troll. Yeah, Gutmann is full of crap in much of what he wrote and Ed is actually right on much of what he says. Yeah he devoted a page to large monitors but that was simply to point out that Gutmann did JACK for research and has zero experience with the OS he's bashing.

Is there a DRM subsystem in Vista? Yeah, and Microsoft said so from the word Go. They had to put it in there in order to satisfy the "content providers". CableCard wasn't allowed on XP because such a subsystem wasn't there "too insecure". HD content from BluRay and HD-DVD wanted it too and the restrcitions levied on MS are the SAME as on the hardware players. Microsoft could've said no but in case no one has noticed they are going after the living room market and saying no to some of the leading media technologies would've been suicidal in that endeavor. So, they caved.

Signing drivers, I am surprised that no one here has mentioned it and that Ed didn't say anything but... I've seen unsigned drivers loaded (video in this case) on 64bit Vista. It warns with a red box and then allows the loading - no reg hacking was done. Yeah MS made a huge deal out of this but it appears to allow them anyway. Getting a cert is also not a big deal - as he pointed out. Why are folks so against signed drivers? Is it so much to ask for the provider of the drivers that will run at such a low level on a system to at least have *some* attribution? You'd think people would see this as a good thing so long as Microsoft cannot use it to choke competitors and as it stands that doesn't seem to be the case. Why is this security feature such a boogie man?

HDMI on the 360 - many folks want that interface, yes to even play games! Guess what, they ARE providing a cable to allow HDMI on older boxes - right from Microsoft. So far as I can tell it's straight hardware too. http://www.xbox.com/en-ushardware/x/xbox360hdmiavcable/default.htm There are 3rd parties gearing up to release hardware like this as well. Wow, MS sure is sticking it to us for HDMI huh? Not sure what this has to do with Vista though. The HD-DVD drive works in Vista when removed from it's case and properly hooked up, Microsoft never intended that but wow it works. Works well too as many on the Doom9 forums can attest. What's the beef?

Polling. The first time I read Gutmann go on and on about 30 polls a second killing performance I nearly fell out of my chair with laughter. I never bothered to do the math but it was pointedly obvious to me that any machine capable of HD playback was going to laugh at the overhead he was moaning about. To read Gutmann's paper you'd think no one would ever be able to get HD working on Vista because of this. And yet it seems very few people are having the issues he screamed about. I guess if Gutmann had bothered to actually USE the software he was bitching about he'd know he was off in the weeds. Want a laugh? Gutmann mentions a specific error message that he claims hoards of people are getting when using Vista with HD media, something about not having a proper path I think it was - he was pretty specific but I cannot find hi "suicide" paper on his site to quote it. I Googled it after reading his paper the first time and the ONLY links to that error message I found were excerpts from his silly "paper"! Nothing on the AVS forums, Doom9, nowhere did I find people screaming about this error that he claimed was so prevalent. How is it that so many people are reading Gutmann's FUD and swallowing it so readily when something as simple as a Google search like I did can debunk some of his claims? Bottom line for me when it comes to this DRM crap - if I put in an HD DVD or some sort, load the proper software, and push play do I get video\audio? If the answer is yes then the silly system could be dancing on it's head for all I care, the mission is accomplished. To read that stupid FUD filled whitepaper you'd think such an operation is impossible with Vista and yet it's not and

I wanted one of the 30" monsters as a new primary desktop monitor but none has component/s-video/composite inputs so I settled for the next best thing that had them and made it my secondary computer monitor. In terms of Power-on-Hours, I use it as a secondary display about 70% of the time, with most of the remainder going to my PS2 and Gran Turismo 4 in 1080i. Movies and TV combined currently account for less than 10%. Next year, the PS3's share will increase to 20-40% thanks to Gran Turismo 5.

Did you consider an Xbox 360 with Forza 2 and the VGA cable? Gran Turismo is a decent Pokemon simulator, but for racing on a console you really can't beat Forza's physics system. Sure, GT5 will be a bit prettier than Forza 2, but it's also not going to be out for another year yet, it still won't have damage modelling, and most likely it'll still have the same crap physics simulation that Polyphony has used since GT1.

Just for the record, I'm not too much of a Forza fanboy. I bought my original PS1 for GT2 and I bought my PS2 for GT3 and 4. I'll very likely buy a PS3 in order to play GT5, but probably not until the price drops significantly (most likely just in time for GT6). Even so, I enjoyed Forza 1 much more than GT4 (GT4 got about two months of play time, then Forza shipped and I played that for 2 years), and Forza 2 is just plain awesome.

Maybe you should look at "some dumb lawyer's" gamertag. He has every achievement in Oblivion.

It's published by Tecmo according to Microsoft

Actually you can register a Gamertag and an Xbox Live Silver for free without even owning an Xbox. Just click the link above.

Agreed. Besides, considering the below is the motto that I made earlier when this "story" first broke, it's basically a lot of bull caca. I was even able to update it just now Sheesh! http://live.xbox.com/member/Tertius%20Regent

Well, I would have thought this would be some incentive but I'm not sure.

"Independent research of gamers and players shows HDTV owners prefer HD DVD two to one over Blu-ray."

Very nice game indeed, but I am not going to get the full game...

I also got to play it tonight (I actually had free time and not in crunch mode?) for about 40 minutes (yes, it is short). The previews, screen shots, video clips, and trailers didn't excite me for this game. I kept hearing and reading very high scores from Xbox 360 port (demo and the full game that was sold earlier). Everyone was raving how scary, addicting, and pretty the game was. Now, I know why. The audio, graphic, special effects, etc. were very nice.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS: This 3D surrealistic first perspective shooter (FPS) game and story theme was an issue for me since it didn't hit me to excite me. It takes place in 1960 in an underwater city (it reminds me of Atlantis, Titanic, Blade Runner movie, etc.). The demo started out with an introduction that reminded me of Lost's Oceanic Flight 815 jetliner crash in the sea/ocean, but at night time. Wow, looking at the water was LOVELY and seeing the water splashes and droplets on my screen! While swimming to the lighthouse near by, I heard the flames, explosions, me coughing out water and breathing, etc.

The fun start begins in the lighthouse when I travel down to the underwater city named Rupture. At the same time, I met a guy helping me over the radio. You can hack robots to be on your side and protect you, security cameras, sentry guns, etc. There are various life spawn spots if you die. If you played System Shock 2, then you would recognize that this is the same people who worked on this game. The whole game system is based on it, but on a different game engine. The game still had scary parts, beautiful graphics and effects, objectives/missions, etc. It also reminded me of American McGee's Alice 3D FPS game for the surrealism and weirdness.

Check out the game if you have a decent gaming system or a Xbox 360 (heard it was good on the console as well and there's a free demo). Enjoy the graphics, special effects (check out those neat water falls, leaks, etc.), cutscenes, sounds, music, and horror. I was surprised it ran well on my not super fast system even without the beta NVIDIA driver that is supposed to be supported for this game.

Circuit City weekly ad/advertisement shows it for $39.99 for this week. So one extra copy for you to buy since I am not buying it due to above reasons and lack of free time (got other games to play and finish). If it was a sequel to System Shock 2 game, then I would be all over it just for SHODAN (I miss her harassing me like saying "Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?")!

According to this thread over at the xbox live forums, xboxes manufactured in July (or later) have the 65nm chip and the new improved heatsink. (For xbox elite the first lot number with 65nm is reported to be 0728)

Whether or not this is accurate however... No idea.

http://www.xbox.com/en-ca/community/news/2007/0806 -consoleprice.htm

Xbox 360 will enhance the value of its entire family of consoles beginning on Aug. 8. At a new price of $399.99 (CDN), Xbox 360 offers an unsurpassed experience right out of the box with a 20 GB hard drive, wireless controller, Xbox 360 headset, and more.

For those looking for the ultimate value and the freedom to customize their console as they see fit, Xbox 360 Core System now has an estimated retail price (ERP) of $299.99 (CDN). Xbox 360 Core System provides everything gamers need to hit the ground running while giving consumers the ability to add new features and accessories they want.

Dressed in black and equipped with a 120GB hard drive, Xbox 360 Elite will be priced at an ERP of $499.99 (CDN) for those who want the premium games and entertainment experience.

In anticipation of this year's largest blockbuster game launch, the Xbox 360 Halo® 3 Special Edition Console will hit store shelves in September with an ERP of $449.99 (CDN). Featuring an authentic Spartan green-and-gold finish, this console will include a matching Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 20GB hard drive, Xbox 360 Headset an Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit and more.

when the console was announced they said it did *not* include the game. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360halo3c onsole/default.htm

The price drop has been confirmed in Canada, it's CDN$100 for the Premium, CDN$100 for the core, and CDN$50 for the Elite. So, it's now CDN$399 for Premium, CDN$299 for Core, and CDN$499 for Elite. Pretty comparable to the US pricing, but as mentioned, we're always a bit higher (not "WAY" higher in most cases). http://www.xbox.com/en-ca/community/news/2007/0806 -consoleprice.htm

done. announcement here http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/promotions/red vsblue/default.htm, and the actual video http://www.gamestop.com/gs/halo3/halo3.asp?

Xbox 360 Platinum Hits

Anytime you find yourself writing a letter to explain how a screw-up of yours is going to cost your employer a billion dollars (with a "B"), it's probably a good time to dust off the old resume...

A list of all Xbox games playable on the 360 can be found here.

Microsoft does exchange scratched discs for games published by Microsoft. Some other companies has similar schemes.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox36 0/gameplay/discreplacement-program.htm

Ok, it looks like they added a few to the list, but they are still missing Psychonauts, Prince of Persia 2/3, Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy, Gauntlet Dark legacy, and Jaws Unleached and non US games.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibil itygameslist.htm Note:

1This list of titles that have passed hand certification for compatibility with Xbox 360 is provided for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. To ensure the highest quality gaming experience, in the event that an unforeseen technical issue is discovered after hand certification is completed, Microsoft® reserves the right to remove any game name from this list. Please check back often to see the most current list of games.

2Currently the North American versions of these games are the only ones supported as backward compatible titles on Xbox 360.

3The December 2005 update includes the Monk Zeng content from the limited edition of Jade Empire.

4Offline version only; versions included with Xbox LIVE® Starter Kits or as a bundled game with other Xbox Live titles do not yet play on Xbox 360.

5Currently the Japanese version of this game is not supported as a backwards compatible title on the Xbox 360.

And you know that $299 is the price of the 360 core. But you wandered off like PS3 fanboys always do. What you (and Sony) forget is that some people buy a game console just to play games.

And you did what MS fanboys always do. You assumed someone can play games on the $299 Core. The Core system doesn't have a hard drive or memory card, which is necessary for online play or to play original Xbox games. So you have to pay extra for either of these if you want to play online games. A hard drive is required to play Xbox games.

So yes, you can play games on the Xbox 360 Core system for $299, assuming you don't want to play online and don't want to play original Xbox games.

Xbox 360 upscales DVDs and video files/streams to 1080i just great.

Only if you use the VGA cable. There's no upscaling on the standard component connection. Not sure about the Elite's HDMI connection.

Upscaling on the VGA cables do work great. Never understood why they didn't upscale VIA component, but The Elite does scale DVD over HDMI (Which is included) and does it to 1080p, not 1080i (As of the Fall 2006 update).

I'll bite:

* Microsoft has no solution to the hardware failures - system bought this month are still failing

Their solution is the warranty program and hardware changes (maybe heatsinks, maybe something else) will undoubtedly show up soon. The financial onus is now squarely on Microsoft to reduce hardware problems.

* Microsoft has no solution to the disc scratching problem - you aren't covered under this billion dollar's worth of repairs for anything other than the specific RRoD problems

But you would be covered under the 1-year console warranty. I've known someone who this specific issue applied to and got it fixed.

* The system is the loudest ever due to the crappy 12x speed DVD drive and fans

No argument there.

* Forced to pay 50 dollars a year for online play that adds 250 dollars to the price of the console over five years

And it adds 500 over ten years and 5000 over one-hundred years. Look, multiplayer isn't free, but you aren't forced to pay for it, and you aren't forced to pay up front. All other online services are free to other players.

* No dedicated servers - laggy games that aren't even hosted by Microsoft

The entire system is managed by Microsoft and has an impressive track record. Games might be peer-to-peer, but I've never seen lag and voice chat works in every 360 game I've played. What kind of connection do you have?

* Low player count games - Gears of War only could handle 8 players, Halo 3 can only handle 16 - that is pathetic in 2007

How is that an indictment of Microsoft or their console? Neither developer has said that Xbox Live was a restriction for multiplayer match size.

* Halfassed backwards compatibility - Microsoft tried to get away with skipping it and they were forced to put in an amateur effort where even the games that 'work' don't really work or have major issues

I found their advertising fairly clear on this. While I wish all games would work, 90% of my old Xbox games work fine. Go read the compatibility list, it isn't small. This becomes less of an issue as the system gets older.

* Absurd peripheral prices

Whose aren't? That hardly sways me from one console to another.

* No ability to upgrade the harddrive - you are forced to only upgrade to one size drive and you have to pay twice as much money as it's worth

That might be the only accurate thing you said, but again, you aren't forced to upgrade. You aren't even forced to use the HDD at all.

* No HD movie playback - Microsoft decided to throw a tantrum over BluRay's Java layer and gamers lost out

The 360 has the best downloadable HD movie option available at the moment. It also has an HD-DVD drive option, which isn't standard, but the 360 costs $200 less than a PS3 anyway. I don't feel limited by the lack of it.

* Pathetic storage medium - the 360 is the first console to ever have LESS storage than a previous generation - 7 gigs for the 360 versus 8 gigs for the Xbox. And open world games have to use only a single layer due to the 100 ms layer switch penalty thus limiting games like GTA to only 3.5 gigs

I've never heard of this. Oblivion seemed pretty expansive to me, I'm so sad for GTA's worries.

* Botched graphics system - can't handle 1080p in real next gen games like Lair on the PS3 due to the retarded 10 megs of EDRAM that were designed for 480p

You are starting to show your true fanboy. The 360 can output in 1080p and was designed for 720p, which it looks great at. Check out the 360 to PS3 graphics compariso

I listent to the MSFT conference call regarding this. They indidcated that for the first year or so, the defect rate wasn't that high, but really increased in recent months as units that were over a year old began failing. This increased the need for fixes, but more importantly, gave them a larger data set with which to work with to try to find reasons for the problem. They say they've identified numerous causes for the problem and have made fixes to address those, so that units manufactured from now on should be much more reliable.

Peter Moore's Open Letter says the same thing (but with less detail).

I'll wait until Sept. If it looks like newer units are more reliable, then I'll make the jump, because the game library is too good to be ignored. :)

I am waiting on my second three red light return - in 6 months. MS has completely dropped the ball on these things.

http://www.petitiononline.com/360recal/petition.ht ml - Sign it folks! Let's get em recalled!

Check out my posts on MS's site!
http://forums.xbox.com/13392600/ShowPost.aspx