Slashdot Mirror
Yet More 360 Details
NubKnacker writes "With the launch of the new Xbox 360 not far away, Chris Satchell, boss of the Microsoft developer group spoke to Eurogamer.net and GamesIndustry.biz. There, he reveal a lot of information about the hardware, the operating system and the new Xbox Live functions. From the article: 'Microsoft also plans to have kiosks available - presumably in game stores and other public locations - where you can download content. Whether this will be to the detachable hard disk itself or a memory card is a detail that wasn't clarified.'"
What I dont understand is why isnt Nintendo releasing any of their revolution tech specs as leaked. The obvious advantage is ofcourse that people will go 'hmm Revolution looks cooler than xbox369 do I want to use this pretty cool console or should I wait till couple of years and get a really kickass console'
Calm down people, its a religion not an operating system.
You can specify, for example, that you prefer to invert the right analogue stick camera control and this will then be picked up on in any game you play.
Well that's certainly a plus. I always worry when a new game comes out wheter or not I'll be able to use the controls that I'm used to. It seems like a silly thing to worry about, but my worst fears came true when they took jumpy out of Halo 2. What were they thinking? These settings should encourage more of an industry (or at least, console) standard, I think.
On another note, with the XBox 360 so much like a PC and cross platform gaming planned, how long is it before there's a serious problem regarding the use of mouse versus a controller? Even if the cross platform games don't bring up too much of a problem (perhaps they're MMORPGs), but what are the chances somebody gets a mouse working on their console? That would give them quite an advantage in something like an FPS.
Help a student gain some exp. http://www.halovariants.com/touchup/index.php
"The "ring of light" around the power button highlights which wireless controller is being used, highlighting player one's activity in the top-left quadrant. When the console is laid on its side, it senses this and starts using the top-left quadrant as you see it with the console laid flat. What's more, the ring of light motif is spread throughout the Xbox 360 interface, so you can see which player pulled up the "Guide" page as you're watching a film or playing a game and, in the words of Satchell, "slap him"." That last little part cracked me up. Find out whodunit and administer the whopping. My current Xbox is modded and no Xbox Live for me, but I did have it prior to getting the chip. I might hold off and just use the regular old box for a while. The new Live features look pretty impressive.
Zonk works for Nintendo. By the time the Xbox launches, everyone on /. will be so tired of it, they wouldn't dream of buying an Xbox but wait for the Revolution instead. It's all part of the Grand Plan.
Ow!
Just got stabbed by the blades!
I think real blades would hurt less!
Yah, that's the best I can do.
Pretty Pictures!
Wont the Kiosks be great once someone figures how to load viruses onto them from whatever media is used to transfer content from kiosk to xbox. XBox Kiosk virus with a Xbox 360 virus payload.
Nintendo is playing it smart. They haven't released much info because they are waiting for MS and Sony to give out all their information about their systems. Right before MS releases its 360 I'm sure Nintendo will pull a couple rabbits out of it's hat and try to make people think, "Wow, that Nintendo is pretty cool... Maybe I should wait...?"
If MS has already showed everything it has to offer they can't counter with anything new to make gamers want to buy the system now rather than wait to check out what Nintendo has to offer.
I'm not 100% sure, but I thought that the Xbox 360 used water cooling. Given that they're using some varient of a PowerPC chip, of which the latest versions run to hot to make it into a laptop, and have the clock speed cranked up as well, I wouldn't be surprised if they were using a water cooling system. Can anyone verify this?
DVDs can be played even if you don't have the remote control, unlike Xbox 1.
I'm guessing that this is the reason for the increased price in the controllers. According to the price lists on the major sites, wireless controllers were $50, and wired were $40. I'm guessing that price hike is mostly due to royalty fees necessary to include DVD functionality since MS doesn't hold the patent. That's why the Xbox couldn't play DVDs out of the box. It looks like they've given the controllers the necessary functionality to play DVDs as well, driving up the cost slightly. I'm wondering if it wouldn't have just been better to build the technology into the console though? Maybe I'm off the mark on this one and MS is just raising prices to make more money.
iPods are detected by default, as are PSPs, and by our watch it took about 2 or 3 seconds for the Xbox 360 to notice they were there. With an iPod plugged in you can play music direct through the Dashboard software, with visualisations, or you can play a slideshow of photographs.
That's a pretty nice feature, although you can just plug an iPod directly into a TV for a slideshow. I don't know if running through the Xbox 360 to a HD TV will result in better visuals or not though. I'm also interested in what interaction the Xbox 360 will be able to have with the PSP beyond what is listed.
Xbox Live will allow you to play in various Zones - there will be causal, pro, family, and underground (where "anything goes") and perhaps more - and these will allow you to go for whatever kind of experience you like.
I'm pretty big on this feature. I just got Xbox Live a short while ago so I could play with my friends online. I've noticed there are a lot of assholes on Live and would like to avoid them if possible. The current Halo 2 scene on there is generally not something for young children. It is funny to hear someone yell, "I'm going to skull rape your mother!" to someone and blast them with a shotgun, but it's probably not something I'd want any of my children to hear or repeat.
The wireless networking adapter plugs into the USB 2.0 port on the back of the console and is "like a small pack of cigarettes" in terms of size.
I'd like to know if third party wireless network adapters will be able to work. Right now I've got my Xbox on the wireless network in my apartment. I could probably just use the current setup and run a cord from ethernet jack to the wireless adapter, but it can get a little laggy at times, especially with the poor internet service. But at $99, the adapter from MS seems a little expensive.
You can plug in a keyboard but this is for text input only - including in massively-multiplayer games. You can't use it to play games and that was a design choice.
Probably a good choice. If you could get a mouse and keyboard to play an FPS, you'd probably have an edge over gamers using controllers. Point and click sniping is a lot easier than manipulating analog sticks in my opinion. It might be nice to give people the option of playing with a keyboard and mouse though. This would open up the console to more traditional PC games like RTS and other FPS games. Just don't allow keyboard//mouse users to play against controller users.
Likewise, the System blade allows greater control over family settings. Micros
This is not a confirmed story by the maker of the chips. Once it is confirmed by a reputable source, then I would criticize /. for not reporting it.
You can ignore it. I'm tired of hearing Linux diatrib. I ignore that.
Wow, you're DEFINITELY reading the wrong site.
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
This is the [i]games[/i] channel. There's not a whole lot of videogame news right now. The next big upcoming gaming event is the launch of the Xbox 360 (unless you're more excited about the Game Boy Micro, I guess).
Expect to see plenty of news about the 360, at least until it launches, when the attention may be turned to the PS3 or Revolution.
... that's games... darn HTML.
While ordinarily I'm not one to question a moderation, I'm finding it difficult to see how my post is redundant when I was one of the first respondants here, and no one had mentioned the "blades" thingy before me to my memory....
It's no big deal really, just odd.
Further, I think it's possible to filter out Xbox stories. Since I plan to buy the console, I do appreciate the news here.