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State of the 360
IGN is reporting on The State of the Xbox 360, detailing information on the next-gen console since this past E3. From the article: "Coming into the home stretch here, it's clear Microsoft has had its fair share of problems. The MTV event, though brilliantly conceived, was a hype-without-substance infomercial that impressed nobody, especially the most important people -- gamers. At the actual MTV event, I did an informal poll which revealed that three-fourths of the people attending were there only to see the Killers. E3 was underwhelming to put it mildly, and the summer months proved to be vacant of everything but rumors, leaks, and more rumors and leaks. The Tokyo Game show helped Microsoft's cause a little, and Microsoft finally revealed its Japanese pricing and the worldwide release dates, leaving one major news announcement left open - the day-and-date launch games. Apparently, Microsoft and friends are still working on these last details."
Its not surprising that all of this has happened, maybe the people were right. Maybe microsoft did rush the xbox360 out the doors to try to get a head up on the ps3 and maybe there going to pay for it. Alot of the things microsoft has done to hype up the 360 have failed miserably. The only thing i normally hear people talking about is either live or gears of war. Being somewhat of a sony fanboy i can only hope that they will botch up the 360 release, giving sony an extra edge on there release. They should of given there system more time, and released it a few months before the ps3 release instead of a complete year ahead.
I feel MS is going to rush the product to market and may have a poor launch because the quality of the first titles won't be much better than the games we have now on the latest generation of consoles. The one thing MS does have going for it is the upcoming holiday season, they will be the only new console in town and may get a lot of sales just from that. You would think MS would be doing a lot more to make people want to get the 360, but so far it's all been 'talk' and no actual content to look forward to.
...seeing how the MTV audience usually devours everything that is spoon-fed to them.
People are falling less and less for the hype, and that's a good thing - besides asthetical differences, there's nothing really different with the current-gen console systems and the one that's soon to be unveiled to us. IMHO, Nintendo is the only one coming with something remotely interesting.
Dreamcast 2
Seriously, I give Nitnendo credit for showing something interesting because othewise it's all tech-demos until the product takes advantage of the hardware. And graphics aren't the only thing. I recall Next-Generation overlooking Grand Theft Auto and giving it a mediocre review when of course it brought sandbox-gameplay to the table. The graphics weren't drool-worthy, but the gameplay resulted in the first - and most amusing crowd responsees I'd seen when it appeared at the local Gamestop.
I'm hopeful that the tech-specs of Sony's product will provide the muscle needed to blow my brain cells at some point, but I suspect they won't be blown until a year after the product is on the shelves. Of course, having some major horsepower behind GTA will be nice in of itself.
I thought microsoft might have put itself behind Nintendo once they kept themselves to their off-the-shelf model. I can't see the point in having a next-next-generation system that's only marginally better than my home computer - but then that's just me.
But a race for 3rd place isn't nearly as interesting as what Sony's doing anyway (HDTV centric - next gen HDTV movie playback sooner than the rest - GTA first release - deep developer pile - count me in).
Even the Dreamcast 360 label seems a little silly now. The Dreamcast was another dead before it hit the shelves console, but I don't think Sega could have had more disasters with their Dreamcast pre-launch if they had tried.
I don't think we will ever see a console launch disaster of this magnitude ever again.
Going all the way back to the 2600, I can't think of any console that even is in the same league as the 360's year long release and launch fiasco. Jaguar, CDi, Dreamcast...none of them are close to MS's 360 disaster.
While strolling through the EA Tiburon campus, I overheard a few things about the XBox 360 development units. It seems out of the 10 (or so) Dev Kits that Tiburon recieved, 7 of them had something serious wrong with them. Now granted these are beta kits, and not expected to function perfectly, but 7 out of 10 that could not so much as operate at all is a bad sign for even betas.
I also overheard this quote, "If the release version is even twice as good as these beta dev kits, you will never see me throwing down for one."
I am praying that there was just a bad string of chips, or the parcel was run over by a forklift before being delivered, but if they are correct, then I forsee a very rocky release.
Colonel Cranium this is Rectal Reconnaissance, we are on a collision course sir, Abort Abort!
First, I said, "Let there be PS2," and there was PS2, and PS2 was good.
I hadn't owned a console system since my old NES, and I was blown away by the graphics, sound, and playability of the latest generation of games. I bought Tekken. I bought Madden. I bought Ridge Racer. I bought SSX.
Then, I said, "Let there be Xbox," and there was Xbox, and Xbox was good.
Several of my friends passed up the PS2 in favor of the Xbox, and I ended up buying on purely out of peer pressure. I hosted a few cookouts where they brought their Xboxes, hooked them up to my spare tv's, and we kicked each other's asses on Halo. I bought DOA Volleyball, and said, "Wow, a really unique and original game. (Oh, and by the way, Hitomi is a goddess...)"
Then, I said, "Let there be Gamecube," and my wallet reached up and punched me in the eye, so I had to pass up that system. :-(
I bought a few more games for each of the systems I had, and slowly came to the realization that the impossible had happened—I was bored with them. I bought Generic Fighting Game #362, Generic First Person Shooter #178#, Generic Role Playing Game #204, Generic Racing Game #140, and a bunch of others. (I've got to admit, Generic Stealth Mission Game #78 was not half bad...)
At this point, I am thinking that I will forego the Xbox 360 and the PS3 in favor of the Revolution. Why? Because what I need now aren't better graphics and sound. I've been there and done that, and it's no longer enough. What I need are new and original games, games that leave me saying, "Wow, that's pretty cool, the first of a new generation of Generic Games that will inevitably follow on the other systems. But until now, I haven't been there, and I haven't done that!" All indications I've seen so far from Microsoft and Sony point to just a bunch more Generic Games.
I may be mistaken, but Nintendo seems to be the only company right now thinking outside of the proverbial box. When I first saw the controller, I thought, "Are you kidding me? How can you play a decent game with a remote control?" The more I think about it, though, the more I think that it's probably not a bad idea after all. And more importantly, I respect Nintendo's willingness to say, "We know you haven't seen anything like this before, and that's what we're going to sell you: something different, and really, it won't suck!"
Next time I buy, that's exactly what I'm going to look for. If you're looking for prettier pictures, buy your Xbox 360 or PS3 and have fun. As for me, I'm going to wait until something more interesting comes along before I plop out hundreds of dollars.
I have read a lot about the 360. I was there with the IBM jokes, I even watched the MTV show pretty much in its entirety (exception: I don't really care for the killers). After all is said and done, I'm probably not getting one.
Why? Microsoft hasn't triggered my herd instinct. There's no buzz or *reason* to want to line up at 12 am or whatever to be one of the first to buy the thing. Project Gotham Racing 3? Yawn...I haven't finished PGR2. I didn't like Perfect Dark on the N64, why should I like it on the 360 (full disclosure: I'm one of the few people, I guess, who didn't like Halo *at* *all* and have decided that for the rest of my life, I will play FPS on a mouse/keyboard rig, not a gamepad).
In short, I'm not going to spend that kind of money for "more of the same".
But wait, there's more!
Here I may be crossing into treasonous territory, but I feel pretty much the same about the PS3 as well. Lots of cool pics, awesome specs, but no game that I really care about has me marking Xs on my calendar till launch date.
The only *interesting* console was the, you guessed it, the Revolution, and the only thing that has piqued my interest is, like everyone else, the controller. Other than that, I think my feelings about the games run about the same...there'll be a Mario game (though hopefully a decent one...the GameCube seemed to have missed that). There'll be a Zelda game probably, and throw in a MarioKart and you have yourself a Nintendo console.
Come to think of it, *none* of the systems have inspired me to want to get the latest-n-greatest. I don't have a HD tv, I don't play sports games. So this puts me in an interesting situation...I can sit back and wait for the inevitible price drops. I can wait to see if certain vaporware ever materializes. I can kick back with my I Love Katamari and Zelda Twilight Princess and PGR2 (yes, have all three consoles) and determine my next move entirely on the *games* available.
Looks like I won't have to think about it for quite awhile.
i guess i'm in the minority here. i'm looking forward to the 360 and planned on buying one at launch (fortunately i won one through the mountain dew contest). games like call of duty 2 are going to look sweet on the wide screen HD. plus the fact that it's a media extender just makes the microsoft whore inside me all giddy.
"first they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win"
Are you going to spend your first hour of a game sitting there with a manual practicing the multitude of movements required?
Don't worry, sir. You can start now.
Pick up your tv remote. Got it in hand? Now smash it into your face as hard as you can. You just did a dash attack! Do it again! Oh my god, Gannon is injured! Again! Again! Keep smashing, you've nearly won!
Now, press the enter key a few times, just so you know it's working. (hint: it's not working.)
Why has their market penetration grown beyond just the stupid people who will buy whatever's marketed to them?
This is more a failing of the Microsoft PR department than anything else. MS was releasing hyped up and glorious screenshots of what they thought the 360's real graphics might well have been, but now that we're only a couple months from release, we're starting to see real screenshots, instead of "made on computer hardware that has sort of the same specs as the console" screenshots.
Sony, on the other hand, is just starting to enter the "we think they're gonna look like this" stage, and it's only Microsoft's own fault that their real shots end up compared to Sony's assumed shots. Every console, and most games, really (think Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness one... two.... three years prior to release), go through that stage. Most people understand it's just hype, but being Microsoft's stuck with being the proof that it's hype.
The consumer looks at Sony's mock-ups and Microsoft's real shots, and says "Hey, you (MS) promised me those graphics, with this system! I'll wait and see if Sony pulls it off better, before I spend my money on either."
I'm not sure I'd even classify the hype machine as any one company lying anymore. If it's anyone's fault it's the game media for publishing these pictures and gushing about how great it looks, only to bitch about the real game in their reviews that come out a week after the game releases on their own preview reccomendations. I've seen games that EVERYONE knows are going to be crap (Tomb Raider, again) hyped to high heaven by outlets like EGM, PSM and the likes, and then give 50% reviews.
"When you connect that Xbox 360 to your HD TV and Dolby 5.1-enabled stereo, you're going to find out just how sophisticated, deep, and fun the box itself is."
Of course if you preorder and buy the Core System SKU, you won't find out how sophisticated, deep, and fun the box is, because you didn't spend the extra hundred dollar Marketing Tax. Thanks IGN, you're so helpful.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
There really will only be one major factor in xbox's demise. The Blu-Ray. If MS had waited to get HD-DVD into thier box they might have had a fighting chance, without it they are going to go spiraling down hill. There are two major aspects to this speed, streaming is very slow on current-gen DVD's, streaming on te Blu-Ray is 4x-5x faster. For games like GTA that steam with is invaluable. The second is size. With current get dual layer you only get 7 gigs (2 gigs for MS use only). 7 gigs is not much for a "next-gen" game. At the studio I work at this is a huge concern, since we are streaming the world we only have available to us 4.5 gigs since swaping isn't possible, because it is too slow. Sharders are not the next-gen thing, with mulitple passes being taken for everything, with huge textures. The first couple of years will not make much of a diffrence. But when the majority of developers get used to using the new power, the xbox will lag behind and be lost. The whole "we will go HD later" is a joke as well. No publisher in thier right mind will rls on HD when they know the majority of xbox users have current gen DVD's. Thank fully Sony will not have this problem. Now if Sony would only decide to charge more and make a harddrive mandatory, ms would really be crying. And ofcource there will be a revolution sitting next to eveyones ps3.