Slashdot Mirror
Prepping For The 360
An anonymous reader writes "The Xbox 360 launches on Tuesday, and ZDNet talks to some of the folks who are already prepping for it. John Dvorak also has commentary on the new console, and he seems to like it." From the Dvorak article: "Luckily Microsoft's Xbox 360 crew, and other game developers, are working on cool stuff that will cross over to PCs. When game developers retake their rightful place on top of the hill of progress, we'll all be better off. Needless to say, I am impressed by the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI. One often-overlooked element that the Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed."
Chris Anderson also got one early and is interested in the Xboox 360 from a Long Tail perspective as a media center.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
The XBox 360 is going to be launched Tuesday. New poll: When will the first 360 hacks appear? - 0-1 week. - 2-4 weeks. - 6-8 weeks. - CowboyNeal can hack my 360 all he wants.
John Dvorak also has commentary on the new console, and he seems to like it
Of course John Dvorak likes the XBox 360:
1. It's made by Microsoft
2. It's not made by Apple
Whatever happened to the Xbox 2?
Let alone 3-359...
Or is this Xbox 2?
The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI. One often-overlooked element that the Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed."
Since when has the GUI had anything whatsoever to do with how good and/or successful a console is? Does Dvorak not realize the whole purpose of a console is to play games?
Even if you're a convergence guy and believe people will be using their Xbox for movies as well as games, I still don't see how the GUI has anything to do with anything. What you want is a system where you interact with the GUI as little as possible, whatever you're doing. Most people shouldn't even know that it exists.
The fact that so many people are focusing so heavily on the Xbox 360's GUI suggests to me that it's far too prominent and intrusive.
I am going into hiding so that One may avoid the barrage of silly stories and Marketing shite .
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
No way the Xbox2 could compete with the PS3... *rolls eyes*
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
The Xbox 360 is undoubtably a monster of a machine, and one that Microsoft naturally takes much pride in. But Microsoft is going to be in the red for a while, and they will need to make the money back. Once the gaming base gets them up and out, my guess is that major innovation will start to keep buyers away from the PS3 and Gamecube (which shouldn't be too hard-the estimated cost per cell chip is stellar (theinquirer.net) and Nintendo has an undeserved reputation as merely a "kiddy" system.) If they can do that, the 360 will profit. Microsoft will pretty much be forced to innovate, and consumers should win this battle.
360 A.D. is the year they expected to be released.
Why should anyone care what Dvorak thinks? He is usually wrong in his technology predictions. He has consistantly, for the past 20 years, predicted the demise of Apple, and he hated the iPod, thinking it was a dumb idea when the first one came out. JCD is a shill for Microsoft, and not a very interesting one at that.
Reality has a liberal bias
Quote Dvorak, circa 1995: "The noisiest buzz in the industry lately has been over the emerging use of cable TV systems to provide fast network data transmissions using a device called a cable modem. But the likelihood of this technology succeeding is zilch. It's one of those interesting-sounding ideas that will attract what venture capitalists call dumb money. Unfortunately, it's a big distraction in a market that should be concentrating on ISDN and broadband. HP, U.S. Robotics, ZDS, and others have been toying with the idea for a few years, and Motorola Multimedia Group's recently announced CyberSurfer 10-Mbps cable modem has completely muddied the waters. There's also LANCity's announced $595 model. Until recently, these things cost a ridiculous $5,000. Cable modems are, of course, targeted at Net surfers. According to the press announcement, the CyberSurfer will be the fastest, receiving data at 10 Mbps and sending it at 768 Kbps. Exactly how the modem will work on the largely one-way cable systems in the U.S. is a mystery. And since there's no governing standards organization for cable modems, these devices won't be able to talk to modems made by anyone else. But hey, they sure are fast. Even so, users with access to a T1 phone connection will soon discover that the fastest provider can send data at only around 56 Kbps--slower than a single B-channel over ISDN. This isn't likely to change as providers try to serve as many users as possible, rather than pump 128 Kbps or more to a few people. So the ideal connection for Net surfing is a single B-channel on an ISDN line. So even if you had a 10-Mbps cable connection, it would be useless except for point-to-point transfer at Motorola's upstream speed of 768 Kbps. And that assumes upstream capability, which the cable companies will have available in only a few test areas. If users don't flock to this technology in those areas, the cable companies will drop the idea like a hot potato. We have to remember that, collectively, the cable TV folks are as dumb as fireplugs. There is no incentive to be otherwise. They have monopolies and do little more than string wire and milk the cash cow. Why would they want to get mixed up in something that requires real work? If you doubt this, visit your local cable company and ask "When will you have cable modem capability?" Just see what they say. My guess: "Huh? What's a modem?" Then there is the issue of security. The cable TV system is a broadcast medium, not a secure network. All transmissions over cable are highly susceptible to hacking. Much more so than anything else except cellular phones. HP is one company that harps on the security issues regarding cable modems. So why spin our wheels over a dead-end technology when ISDN is here now? Is speed really the issue? There may be another element at play. When you consider digital phone networks and the equipment that is needed to hook up ISDN, you see an interesting phenomenon. The modem companies aren't in the game. Networking companies run the show: Ascend, Cisco, and Combinet. Modem companies like Hayes--and recently Zyxel--miss the mark with ISDN. Others have ignored it completely. In a digital world, you won't need to MOdulate/ DEModulate (the root meaning of modem). Many users just can't make the transition to a future where the modem is moot. For these sentimentalists, the cable modem is the last gasp. But there are no cable modem standards whatsoever, and very little cable modem promotion within the brain-dead cable TV industry. While this fiasco unfolds, we hear cheering from people who should know better and examine the simple illogic of the whole thing. Hey, but it sure is fast." Why do we spin our wheels over a dead-end technology when ISDN is here now? Is speed really the issue?
notice how none of these comments are on innovating gameplay. GUIs, neat features for developers, etc, but what about the actual game?
half the launch titles are ports, and the other half aren't genre defining or groundbreaking. i don't see, even with the pretty graphics neat GUI (i didn't know playing games had anything to do with having a pretty GUI) any gameplay changes. how can the gameplay be any different, the controller is a perfected S controller.
there's no way that playing an xbox 360 game can be any better than the current generation. this isn't N64 -> PS2 era, the N64/PS1 had actual processing limits and storage space limits and RAM limits that actually affected gameplay. even the current gen consoles introduced innovations like online play, (good) wireless controllers, and graphics that were closer to photorealism.
but xbox 360 makes one innovation - moving closer to photorealism. that's it. there's nothing else. all the other innovations involve money-grabbing (Microsoft Points to buy pointless shit, higher console price, streaming from a media center PC...to get more people to buy media center edition pcs)
take a company like nintendo that continuously adds something to the gaming mix, like the dpad, analog stick, shoulder buttons, online play (famicom modem anyone?), revolution controller, and (good) wireless controllers, and then see real success. sony and microsoft are on their 3rd and 2nd generations, but besides nintendo, there has been no other console company able to survive longer than that in the gaming world.
microsoft (and sony) are just following along with the trends - IMO to be successful, a company has to make the trend, and make the gaming culture. that's why nintendo's still around.
<sarcasm>
Yeah. After all, we know that the feature that made the Atari 2600, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Playstation/Playstation 2 such huge market smashes were the quality of their menus...
</sarcasm>
Perhaps this will mean something for the latest generation of consoles once they take on a bigger role as a general media centre -- some day. But I have a feeling that the quality of a consoles menus is hardly going to be a buying consideration for 99.999% of next generation console purchases. In the end, it's all about the games, and from what I've seen and heard about the 360 so far, the games are generally uninspiring in terms of either gameplay or graphics.
But hey, if it has nice menus, at least those MS fanboys who run out to buy one on Tuesday will have something to show their friends to try to defend their purchuse (jab jab jab :) ).
Yaz.
I see a lot of comments like this, lately, but do you think that PS3 and the Revolution aren't going to get a lot of articles as well?
/. covers too much next-gen consoles in general, but I don't think they're being a blatant commercial for Microsoft. Nintendo and Sony are being rather hush-hush at the momeny, but I'm sure when they start talking to us we'll see plenty of posts by them as well.
I think it's a decent assumption that many folks are interested in the consoles. This only happens once evert four or so years, and for many a console is a mainstream source of entertainment.
We saw the same thing happen with Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. It's probably more of a valid argument to say that
I don't know if the 360 can read the playlist info, but that would be even better. I doubt it (Apple wouldn't tell 'em, they'd have to reverse engineer it).
But this ability is a great little feature. It takes something that was too hard to use on the XBox (because of having to rerip my CDs) and makes it easily available.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
My impression is that Slashdot editors are pushing the Xbox 360 fever to incredible hights. Every time I visit Slashdot, there is a story on the 360.
I mostly agree- though new console releases aren't that common (I don't remember this much pointless coverage of DS or PSP releases). The only effect of increased hype will be to make the system release more likely to be seen as a failure even if it does moderately well, and that perceived failure will later manifest itself as real failure. The hype dries up soon after the system comes out, and fence-sitting slashdot readers no longer see stories about the system every day or every few hours anymore, so they feel more justified in not purchasing one and that indeed it was all just hype.
There are a lot of articles about it because it is coming out in 2 days. Are there any consoles coming out this week, month, year? No? OK then!
Have we seen anything substantial from Sony or Nintendo that accurately depicts what we will be playing on their new hardware sometime next year? No? OK then!
Have we already had countless stories about the Cell, Revolution controller, etc despite a near total dearth of information since E3? Yes? OK then!
There are reasons why you are seeing so much about the 360, and you can count on Slashdot. going batshit next year when the Revolution and PS3 arrive. Hell, I've had people telling me left and right that the 360 and PS3 are completely boring and that the Revolution is 100x more interesting and cool since over a year before the Revolution was even unveiled. How is that for bias?
...posts on Slashdot for the past few years. I've stated MANY times that computers are NOT for business. The fact that they have been co-opted and philosophically monopolized by business is what keeps progress from happening. I remember way back when I made the move from Macintosh to Win31. The first thing I thought to myself was, "why isn't Microsoft paying attention to the people who really matter: the creative people like musicians and artists"? I went so far as to write them a letter saying that I understand their need to focus on the business angle, but in this day and age business is far less important than actually producing a REAL product. And the people who do that are creatives. I never got a response back. I still stuck with them until my horrendous experiences with Win95 and NT4. I was still hoping that they'd taken creative applications seriously and I found that music software designers were STILL having to create their own interfaces and APIs to tackle the job of making music on a PC. Completely counter to the way things should work. I found out that you only had access to 16 MIDI ports max in Win95 because they were still using the buggy 16-bit MIDI kludge from Win31. That, and my travails in trying to get NT4 working nicely with my pro audio gear are what made me realize that Microsoft didn't "get it".
Windows XP is a bit of on improvement but I've already moved completely to Linux and the Linux audio scene is FAR better than the Windows audio scene. So they lost me. All because they were willing to focus on boring things like spreadsheets and end-user DBs in Access. Completely idiotic. Dvorak is right. The REAL developments come from the gaming end of things because that's where I've seen most of the new and innovative features that actually MEAN something. Too bad MS. It was too little and way too late for a lot of us. Now we all use Linux. Good night.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Why would anybody want to buy an Xbox? It is no more than a closed PC where the consumer is no longer in control. We all know how unstable Microsoft GUI's are, and quite frankly, I rather like to launch a game from a simple MSDOS prompt than from a blue GUI. And why buy into new DRM technology? It just makes no sense to buy an Xbox when PC's are so cheap and offer more features and more games with more balance (CSS vs DeCSS etc.).
Maybe Microsoft figures that, given how boring life is in Palmdale, people will show up for their event. If they held it in, say, Santa Monica, nobody would come.
If you thought backwards compatibility was bad from having to download patches just to play old games and the limited selection of games actually supported, read this:
http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=72168
It sounds like 360 backwards compatibility has turned out to be nothing more than poorly implemented ports that will require future porting to be playable.
And if that wasn't bad enough news, there are huge numbers of people reporting overheating related crashes. It sounds like all those reports of 360s constantly crashing at Walmarts were true and had nothing to do with non-final hardware.
Mixed with the poor reviews for the 360 launch lineup and system itself...
Man, I would love to hear from someone who actually wasted 500+ bucks on this disaster what the hell they were thinking.
I am definitely *not* going to buy Xbox2 for my son this Christmas. It's pointless upgrading orchestrated by the genius marketing people - wah, wah, I want! coming from the children.
The marketers have learned what the "new economy" is: selling junk to kids that don't know any better.
I've seen most of the games today and they are mostly "updates" to existing ones with supposedly better graphics. Predictably, all the kids go, "cool" due to the hype.
How much do you think they're paying Zonk for this extra marketing? I'm willing to bet that at least Zonk and Taco, and maybe a few other editors, will have comped 360s arriving on their doorsteps within the next week or two.
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
am I remembering incorrectly or wasn't the 360 meant to have a simultaneous worldwide release? UK release isn't until 2nd Dec, though this is at least a shorter gap than usual.
anyway, we all know about MS's intentional low supply but here's what Amazon.co.uk has to say:
"Due to limited supply from Microsoft, we are unable to guarantee delivery of some Xbox 360 pre-orders for Christmas. Please also note that all pre-orders made on or after November 2nd, 2005 will have expected delivery dates in 2006. We are working with Microsoft to ensure the consoles are delivered as soon as they become available."
i.e. if you're in the UK and didn't pre-order ages ago, you might as well wait for PS3 or Revolution.
XP was meant to stand for Experience
it's only stupid to you because you already have the infrastrcuture with which to play said PC games.
IT's a lot different if you're coming ito it fresh....
Which would you buy your 14 yr old? $300 for a console and maybe another $100 on some games. Or $3000 on a new computer and then another $100 on some games.
There is your apples to apples.
For someone, such as yourself, who really likes computers and is already likely to have over $1000 worth of hardware in the house, then it does not make sense for you to purchase a separate unit for gaming. But for Joe Sixpack, who got his computer 3 years ago for $600 from Dell, and uses it for his email and Quicken, getting the kid a separate box for $300 makes a lot more sense than shelling out three grand for a new gaming computer.
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
I saw the King Kong demo on a 360 today at EB games. Maybe I've been playing too much Resident Evil 4 on my Gamecube lately, but I was thoroughly underwhelmed. In fact, I'm more impressed by the graphic quality they've squeezed out of the Nintendo DS!
http://www.ds-x2.com/index.php?id=4281
A game, perhaps FRP, in which one of the "spells" were "alter the other guy's GUI" ... would be amusing.
--- Attorneys Assisting Citizen-Soldiers & Families -
This whole discussion and fuss over the 360 reminds me of giddy teenage girls quizzing an 'experienced' girl about what sex is like. It's a console, not a life-changing event, get over it.
Yes, it's big. Yes, it'll hurt a little, at least in your wallet. But it's not that big a deal, it doesn't make you a woman or anything.
Trust me.
By "fence-sitting" you mean those undecided whether to buy or not, I guess? I am not a fence-sitter, I know I won't buy, and my comment was really passionless. I don't care one which way it turns out, however, I stay by my original stance that a lot of precious money and time is going to be wasted in the following months. It's a large-scale social experiment, and I have the cool-headedness to appreciate it. I hope :o)
Sigged!
So, Mr. Holier-than-thou, what do you squander your time on? Masturbating to pictures of Natalie Portman?
We saw the same thing happen with Xbox, PS2, and Gamecube. It's probably more of a valid argument to say that /. covers too much next-gen consoles in general, but I don't think they're being a blatant commercial for Microsoft.
WAIT a second there! Where and when did I say that Slashdot is "being a blatant commercial for Microsoft"? If you're going to throw mud at me, have the decency of supporting your stance.
Otherwise, I have to conclude that you have managed to missunderstand a fairly simple and short writing, and I don't know how you could do that.
Sigged!
I'm still enjoying my PS1.
"I see a lot of comments like this, lately, but do you think that PS3 and the Revolution aren't going to get a lot of articles as well?"
Probably not. But that's not because I think Slashdot's giving MS advertising fellatio, but rather because the XBOX 360 is the first one out by a long shot. It's the first 'next generation' system. So what all will it deliver so we can expect the PS3 and the Rev to do it, too? (hence why I expect some die-down on next-gen hype.)
The last two times around, Sony slurped up all the hype. "We can render Toy Story in real time!" "They won't let us ship the PS2's overseas because it's a supercomputer that can be used by terrorists!" Heh. Microsoft got there first, they win the hype trophy. I know the stories are obnoxious, but this really isn't something Microsoft has some patent on. So long as we live in a black & white world of winners and losers, there'll always be those using strange rationale to predict the future.
"Derp de derp."
I was at EB Games in the mall here in Indianapolis today. They already had the games displayed, and the systems, unless I was seeing things. There was also a public play machine running PGR. It looked pretty nice. Seems it is already "out" though...
today is spelling optional day.
www.habbo-info.co.uk
...and all I've done is enter my name: 'Thrillhouse'!
Read Pynchon.
I got my 360 yesterday courtesy of Pepsi and the everytenminutes.com promotion. The box contained: Kameo (an elves vs. Trolls game - it's definitely fun), the box, hard drive, wireless controller, headset, universal remote, a 10' ethernet cable (I think it's 10', maybe it's a tad longer), and an AV cable.
For those of you that might have some questions, here goes:
1) The menu structure is tabbed (side tabs). I don't really like it. I think it's needlessly complicated, and in a couple of cases there are tabs for settings whose differences are too subtle for me to remember which tab they belong on.
2) Halo 2 runs on it, although for some reason the digital sound doesn't include the subwoofer on the 360 for this title. I have no idea why. The subwoofer works fine for other functions on the 360, and Halo 2 is otherwise outputting digital sound. I have my woofer set to a very high threshold.
3) The chipset is clearly much faster than the original, including in the emulation mode for games such as Halo 2. In Halo 2, cutscenes thar have a delay, then dialog without an image, then layers being drawn for the first few seconds of the cutscene don't have any of that. It's all very fast, very clear, right away.
4) The AV cable was more than sufficient for me. It appears to have composite video out on RCA jacks, as well as analog sound. On the plug that connects directly into the box is a port for fiber to go to your amp for the digital sound. Nice hookup. I may find myself purchasing another one on Tuesday, though, to make my life more portable.
5) The hard drive attachment is really cool. It just snaps externally in place "on top" of the unit (when sitting like a tower). I have mine sitting like a console on top of its older sibling.
6) The wireless controls are very nice. I'm a fan of "The Duke" controls, because my hands are pretty big. The S controls, and the stupid controls for PS2 and GameCube feel too stinking small. This one, however, didn't cramp my hands, even after several hours of gameplay. I still don't like it as much as "The Duke", but otherwise it's fine.
7) The wireless control was very nicely balanced, and the force fededback wasn't so strong as to shake my fillings (like "The Duke", or barely noticable (like the others). I was very worried that the wireless controls wouldn't have enough feedback, as has been the complaint about many wireless controls. I would say that this control does not have that problem. In fact, this control is so comfortable and so nice without the cable that I would STRONGLY recommend that everyone spend the exra $10 and buy them.
8) I really like the bump buttons. They're easier than the old white and black, and they're not in the way, yet reachable and findable, unlike PS2's L1 & R1.
9) It's great that the order that the wireless controls are assigned is set based on the order in which controls sign in, not the order in which they are originally registered on the box (getting a control assigned and recognized on the box is a little weird for the first two controls, but after doing it a couple of times it was a breeze). In addition, each control and the box have a four-quadrant circular LED array. The box lights up the quadrants for the controls that are currently connected. The controller lights up the quadrant to indicate which player the controller is. The box can be turned on or off right from the wireless control. Turning off the box shuts down the controls that people activated for that session. Controls are "acivated" for a session by hitting the green "X" button in the middle of the control, so even if you have four controls registered to your box, you won't be chewing batteries for all of them unless you are using all of them.
10) The headset is much nicer than the old one. That was probably obvious to everyone who bought one as soon as they got it.
11) It's stated both on the box and in the pamphlet that comes with the wireless controls that the force feedback is adjustable to conserve battery powe
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
What's with all these XBox 360 stories lately? It seems like every fourth story is about the bloody XBox 360. Seriously, WTF?
I detest console games and would much rather play them on a PC, so I'll wait for the X-Box 360 games to be ported. How long did Halo take to go from X-Box to the PC?
Excuse the potential flame-bait, but hasn't there been an inordinate number of Dvorak articles posted in the last few months? Most of us wrote him off as a puffed up windbag years ago, why has he popped into relevance at this point?
/. crowd is giving this guy FAR too much credit and FAR too many page views. Which leads me to the inevitable question - why has this article been posted by an AC?
Dvorak has a long long history (see post circa '95 above) of writing asinine articles that are just plain wrong. And I'm not talking about 'hindsight 20/20' wrong - I mean predictions which make me wonder if he's in the same industry that we all are in.
Anyway, it seems like the
With online advertising spending at an all time high (and growing at absurd rates), maybe it's time for the editors to be a little more discriminating before rewarding mediocrity with tens of thousands of impressions.
It stands for Windows eXtra Pain for the Home and Professional user.
Remember folks, slashdot doesn't have a -1 "disagree" moderation!
dont know if youve checked cpu prices recently but if yo stay away from the bleading edge a decent pc costs nowhere near 3 grand.
that said if i had a hdtv i would probably get an xbox360 just to dump my windows gaming partition.
Posted anonymously as this is now getting off-topic...
/. specifically hyping up the Xbox360 a lot, doesn't it?
WAIT a second there! Where and when did I say that Slashdot is "being a blatant commercial for Microsoft"? If you're going to throw mud at me, have the decency of supporting your stance.
Nowhere. That statement wasn't gunning after you, specifically; it was a broader statement aimed at the (very general) subject of my post, which was established in the first six words of my post.
Although I wasn't referring to you, it seems funny now that you would come at me despite writing:
Slashdot editors are pushing the Xbox 360 fever to incredible hights. Every time I visit Slashdot, there is a story on the 360.
I'd say that seems to have that general idea of
Otherwise, I have to conclude that you have managed to missunderstand a fairly simple and short writing, and I don't know how you could do that.
Somehow, I think I'll be able to sleep at night with you having come to that conclusion, although given the tone of my original post I find it slightly ironic that it's the one you came to. Good day.
Hopefully at least someone in the xbox hacking community there is already a geek who's built a powerpc-targeted gcc, gdb, and binutils. His soldering iron is already preheated and the oscillascope, eeprom reader and logic probe are powered up. Before him lies a sea of modified hex/torque screwdrivers capable of turning any kind of proprietary screw.
/Can't wait for "Linux 360"
What can I say, Microsoft? Let the hacking games begin again!
Getting yet ANOTHER A/V switchbox so you can put it along side your ps2, xbox, gamecube, etc. Yse, when there's one more console on the scene, you don't automatically get A/V in ports added to your home entertainment center, nor an extra outlet.
:)
I've already reached capacity with mine to the point I have to route things through the VCR(2 a/v in ports) and still I have no room for my atari 2600 flashback system nor intellivison system-in-a-controller thing. SUre, I could use the a/v in ports on the tv, but I want to hear the 80s glory in sourround sonud.
It's because John Dvorak is delusional, and wants to be Bill Gates' but-buddy. John Dvorak is cleary an idiot, with no insight into IT.
Donkey boner.
So, Mr. Holier-than-thou, what do you squander your time on? Masturbating to pictures of Natalie Portman?
That is a worthwhile pastime, if and only if they are pictures of her Petrified with Hot Grits. (TM)
You do not prep for the XBox360. And this is from someone who might buy one if anything more interesting than Kameo appears. Oblivion was pushed back to when?!
Yeah, yeah... there's the story this weekend about the gamer earning six figues. Chump change and a rarity.
'comped 360s'?
Who would want a 360? Microsoft probably promised them free PS3s or Revolutions.
Have you seen the jaggy graphics? Yeech...
I think we need about 382 more articles about the new X-Box. I'm still not convinced, but apparently I should be.
Where's the revolution (in general, not the Nintendo system)? Where's the Ico and Shadow Of The Colussus types of games that come out of nowhere and change my idea of what a videogame could and should be? Why are those so rare?
C'mon... flamebait? Here?! Redundant, maybe, but flamebait? You might as well "tsk tsk" a rude gesture at a celebrity roast.
They can spin it to their favor by saying how much they are helping business and even (bring on the WTF replies) increasing competition in small, (as you put it) bleak towns as this. Expect a (tax-deductible!) contribution to their local charities from Bill Gates too.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
3K for a new computer? Get some real number- a very high end gaming PC costs 1K when I built one a few months ago. In reality, I could have gone cheaper on ram and CPU. With monitor, say 1200. Not 3K.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
I think you are underestimating Microsoft...
They most certainly could operate this generation in the red and they most certainly don't need to innovate. If Microsoft just continues to throw billions into their XBox division then eventaully Sony and Nintendo will go bankrupt. Sony's video game division supplies most of it's profits, and Nintendo is purely a video game company. It's nearly impossible to compete against a state-approved monopoly.
PKG had a good article about it too:
a rticle?AID=/20051120/NEWS01/511200361
http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
A BIG reccomdation. Hook up to Xbox Live. Even if you don't subscribe, you get some perks, most importantly updates to the emulation software allowing you to play more Xbox games (about 200 already, they're working on more) and also get an update for the emulation for Halo and Halo 2. What's included on the HDD was somewhat prematurely released, and the audio is a bit.. off. This is more than likely the reason for your audio problems in Halo 2.
They're editors for a tech news site. Of course they will, no matter their expressed attitudes toward the originating company.
Or do you think that Microsoft shouldn't give out its console to reviewers?
It's not surprising Dvorak thought that; Mr. William Gates III said exactly the same thing in "The Road Ahead," published about the same time, said pretty much the same thing. The extent of Dvorak and Bill Gates' vision consisted of, bigger, faster, stronger.
Now we see that it's more than just more. People sometimes forget that less is also important, and that the simplest answer is often the best.
Computer power gives us the ability to make computers more subtle. Consider on-line communication: back in the days of the BBS, communication took effort. You had to choose your BBS, dial up, and actively navigate the system. Better, more ubiquitious networking gives us the ability to passively navigate-- just click whatever link you see in your web browser, and there you are.
Until computers can fetch me another beer, though, they're worthless at the moment.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
"he has also predicted some unlikely things that came true, including Apple's migration to x86."
This was first mentioned when Apple switched to PPC, so I'm not sure he gets any points for this prediction.
People read him because he's entertaining, not for his knowledge or predictive powers.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
"Perhaps this will mean something for the latest generation of consoles once they take on a bigger role as a general media centre" ...and since Sony and Microsoft are involved in heavy, outlandish DRM, its unlikely any of their consoles will gain traction. Sony will sell you CD's but only if they get to corrupt your PC. And Microsoft will sell you songs that expire. Neither of these are popular features with most consumers.
So they'd better be good at games, because they're not good at anything else.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
You say that as if it is a waste of time.
Personally, think a console's interface is fairly important once you start dealing with downloadable content, navigation for media files, etc.
But, that being said, Dvorak annoys the crap out of me. That guy's a giant wind bag.
For example:
"Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed. "
I'm an interface designer, and all I see is a tabbed GUI. Why the hell would anyone even think about overlaying a desktop metaphor on a game console? That would be retarded.
The only thing more annoying then John Dvorak are people that actually pay attention to him and link to his op ed column.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Wow.
Just wow.
The magnitude of you ignorance is staggering - even for someone as dumb as an xbox fanboy.
Both Sony and Nintendo make huge amounts of money off of their respective consoles and game sales. Microsoft threatening to continue to blow billions to artificially keep alive a deadend product like the xbox for years to come means absolutely nothing to either Sony or Nintendo.
And not only that, Microsoft is in no way capable of continuing to 'throw billions' at the xbox fiasco. Please take your dimwitted ass over to some financial board for Microsoft and have someone clue you the fuck into to just how much money the xbox team has at their disposal to burn through for the 360.
Hint dummy, it's a smaller number than Sony or Nintendo this generation...
For me, it's just a cable with a headphone jack on one end and standard red&white audio connections on the other. Now if it's streaming music to custom playlists in games, oh wait, I can just turn down the music in the game and turn up my music. ...
So uh... what was my point?
Maybe you live in a "black & white world of winners and losers", but I don't. You don't have to, either. It just starts with yourself.
Photorealism is not innovation. If it is, Valve should be the one getting the credit for at least mimiccing how the human eye sees. All what MS is doing is throwing out some powerful hardware. It's still up to developers to make their games photorealistic.
I had to start prepping for the 360 almost 40 years ago. I learned about punch card machines, and which cards to put at the front of the deck to make certain that the compiler ran, or the program ran. And, of course, I prepped by sleeping a lot during the day, so I could submit jobs in the evening and get them back late at night.
So, what's new?
So, you'll be buying a Nintendo Revolution, then?
It's doomed.
I am Spartacus
Ironically true.
He has been one of the strongest and biggest name Mac proponents in the industry for the last 15 years. He also has incredible amounts of disdain for Microsoft.
I can't imagine anyone saying that with a straight face.
This question will be more interesting after Tuesday's launch and we see what the attach rate numbers look like. The original Xbox set records with its initial attach rate at launch, and by all indications the 360 launch lineup is stronger than the original Xbox's (yes, no Halo, but the other games are much better -- no Kabuki Warriors or Fuzion Frenzy!). Certainly the 360 will sell at a loss for some time, but unlike with the Xbox Microsoft now owns all of the IP within the box (the various chips and such -- yes, they were designed by IBM, ATI, etc, but they were designed especially for Microsoft and Microsoft owns the rights to have the chips fabbed wherever they like, to redesign and consolidate chips, etc). That means that engineering advancements in the years to come can (and probably will) make it possible to to develop a 360 that sells for a profit.
Until then, it's all about attaching games, and the most interesting data points will come shortly after launch, when people are more likely to pick up a console without being forced into a bundle. Then again, with Live Arcade built into the box this time around, you can have a lot of fun without buying any games at all (Geometry Wars 2, droooool ...).
Jeez,
will you please shut the fuck up.
Nope. He's got every possible game machine, a computer that is just short of cutting edge, a stereo, Walkman, TV, VCR, DVD, etc.
So the ex-wife and I got together and decided to
One often-overlooked element that the Microsoft games group brings to the party is its unique GUIs that are unlike the folder/desktop metaphor that Xerox and Apple developed.
I love how they felt the need to jab at Apple/Xerox by comparing a desktop OS with a Gaming console. Shouldn't they have at least used Windows instead? After all, it is Microsoft's Xbox and 95, 98, 2k, XP and Windows Vista are all about the folder/desktop metaphors.
What are you smoking? I built myself a PC 2 months ago [Athlon 64bit 3200+ (939), 2GB Corsair, 6800gt, new case, Antec 550W and a Dell 2005 FPW 20.1WS for 1200$]. Add a HDD and some bells and whistles for 200 more $. Where the hell did you come up with 1500$? The fact is i could have built a decent machine for 700-900$ but chose to go overboard (display cost me 392$).
What does this new console have the others didn't? Graphics ability. So that's what launch titles implement and market.
Nearly every console works like this. Look at Sony shipping Twisted Metal as a launch title with PS1 and PS2. Or heck, look at Ridge Racer which shipped as a launch title with PS1, PS2, PSP, DS and Xbox 360.
Additionally, the development cycle has been so short for 360 that you're mostly just going to get reworked older titles with new graphics. Kameo is the exception, being a game which has been in development for 3 years plus, and apparently still has major gameplay flaws!
You just can't expect much from launch titles. It's not a black mark against MS. Most consoles don't ship in the US until they've been out in Japan long enough to garner a few worthwhile titles (only exceptions are DS, PSP, Xbox and Xbox 360). I'd say in 5 months you'll see the worthwhile titles, but since April isn't a bit time of the year for gaming, I'll say 8 months.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
but does it run linux?
This man kills gaming platforms.
"Maybe you live in a "black & white world of winners and losers", but I don't. You don't have to, either. It just starts with yourself."
Either you misunderstood my post or you're Mr. Dvorak.
"Derp de derp."
Here are some links you'll find useful:
l itygameslist.htm u nch-day-titles/ a rketplace-launch-content/
Backwards compatible title list:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibi
Launch titles:
http://www.majornelson.com/2005/11/14/xbox-360-la
Arcade titles:
http://www.majornelson.com/2005/11/15/xbox-live-m
The list of backwards compatible games will grow over time, so if you're not already signed up for Xbox Live (even Silver, which is free), you should do so. Enjoy your 360!
You just come along with me and have a good time. The Galaxy's a fun place. You'll need to have this fish in your ear.
PS3 has something Xbox doesnt... Japan
Xbox 360 will be nice but without Japan's support, it will suffer the same fate as the Xbox.
The context was "general media center". As far as I know, neither Xbox nor Playstation has much presence in that market, but maybe I'm wrong?
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
I just picked up my 12lb sledge from Mal-Wart, so I'm *REALLY* prepped for the 360 launch.
I'm a fan of "The Duke" controls, because my hands are pretty big.
... uh-huh. I think the fact that you take time out of your "review" to slam other consoles for no good reason illustrates pretty clearly that you are just trolling.
and
yet reachable and findable, unlike PS2's L1 & R1.
Once again, this would have been a better article without the tacked-on, and often incorrect, opinion line. The desktop metaphor is only used in general-purpose personal computers. Does your DVD player use a desktop metaphor? Your MP3 player? Your TV? Your GPS system? Your digital camera? Any video game system ever made? Of course not, because it doesn't make sense.
I actually purchased an original Xbox and thing died after 6 days.. can never forget the green & red flashing :( and the fact I never saved my game of halo. This was two years ago to the date conicidently.
Anyway, with that in mind, and already owning a PS2 since the silver one was released on October 3rd 2003 --forget about the rootkit biz-- I am quite diappointed in all but two of Sony's products, minidisc being one and an old VCR. Sony always seem to be missing something and charge an extra 5% --give or take-- brand tax on anything that says "Sony".
I purely do not like Microsoft I admit, but the Xbox when I had it was GOOD and I loved that menu system it had. This generation of games consoles M$ will have my £££ also very likely Nintendo will too have some of my £££.
Either way, I am waiting atleast two years before buying another console.
/. is good for you.
Slashdot has been run over by Microsoft shill hordes of huns. There's no other explanation the past year or two for all the giddy Microsft postings.
Did people forget this is a monopolistic, anti-consumer, DRM, Linux is a cancer company?
Who the hell cares about the X-Box? Not me. Microsoft can go to hell, I am not buying ANYTHING they sell.
And whoever modded you a troll - well, never mind, we know who modded you that way. All the damned astroturfing Microsofties that themselves are constantly nowadays trolling Slashdot.
Over the past 3 days I have gone shopping each day with my wife. While she browses the stores I play the Xbox 360 demos (well, singular since there is only one game worth playing - Call of Duty 2). So far I think I have logged about 6 hours of solid play time. Honestly, I don't get it. Sure the menus are nice, but the graphics are nowhere near advanced enough for what I would think should be a quantum leap in technology. Essentially it looks much like the regular Xbox played on a hi-def TV. Perhaps it was the games I was trying, but they didn't seem like they were much better than a PS2. Oh well, I can save my $400 for another upgrade on the home computer instead.
What is wrong with your, people ? :-)
Give me a break. This isn't the second coming of the messiah. It is a game console, for god's sake. There is no need to get prepared - get your credit card, walk to the store, stand in line, buy it, play. For that matter, wait one more week and you don't have to stand in line. Surely, one could survive seven days without the Xbox360 ? Especially considering that there aren't many games available at this time!It is sad how well trained the consumer has become. We are so eager to take out our wallets and buy anything new, we can hardly wait a day. It doesn't matter what it is - it's new and everybody is buying it! But wait, now that you have a Xbox360 you surely need a big-screen Plasma TV ? And a new speaker system!
On the other hand, this is what keeps our economy strong, so don't listen to me too hard :-)
I think the funniest thing about preparing for the X-Box 360 is preparing for the shortage. There have been reports that Microsoft is *requiring* retailers to run out of them on the first day.
Rather than preparing for the expected number of customers, retailers are expected to intentionally have to turn people away, just so Microsoft can get good buzz.
If you hear stories of shortages, remember why!
The PS2 doesn't have the memory for what you suggest. The game just majically spawns things within a given area and then ignores them when they go out by necessity. The PS2 has very little memory, by today's computer standards, only 32MB. Well when that's all you have for dynamic storage (no harddrive remember) you really have to be stingy with what you keep track of. So the game only worrys about things in your immediate area, and mainly in your field of view.
:)
Now with the next gen consoles, perhaps the kind of things like you suggest can be implemented. The Xbox 360 has 512MB of RAM (though that's shared video and system) and the PS3 will likely have a similar number. That, combined with the faster processors, means it's a lot more feasable to deal with larger numbers of things you need to keep track of.
As for cops enforcing traffic laws, I dunno, doesn't seem consistent with the universe. I mean murdering someone is only worth having a single cop chase you for a couple minutes before getting bored and that's only IF the cops see it. If murder is that unimportant, I can guess traffic violations wouldn't really matter at all
Is it right back to where it started from? Maybe Xbox180 could have been released - a complete turn around in gaming. Or, oh never mind... I'm still getting used to the idea that the invention of the spreadsheet was a game - so where's the BFG???
The typical video game console release is to build as many units as yo can and tehn stock them in key markets, usually the US and Japan only. When you sell out, your chain is empty and everyone waits until you can refill it.
MS stated they didn't want to do that, and instead are going for a total, worldwide release and are trying to distribute some units to everywhere. It'll mean essentially instant sellout in all markets, however should mean that you can perodicly get more, and that they'll be available in some capacity all over the world.
It's a somewhat risky strategy and may blow up in their face, but lacking immediate competition means it's more likely to work. What we'll probably have is a situation of nobody having a 360 (relitively speaking) but everyone knowing someone who does. That may lead to even more hype, and more desire to own the product, espically since it will be scarce initally. Given no other competitors to go to, it may work well.
We'll see.
The magnitude of you ignorance is staggering - even for someone as dumb as an xbox fanboy.
From this statement alone, I think we can safely determine who's the moron around here.
It must suck to be a hard core gamer and be an open source zealot...or is that an impossibility? I guess one could be a hard core Tux Racer fan, but the really great games are commercial (except bzflag, I'll give you that). Does the open source zealot just do without? Work on creating an open source console? Or just steal the console and games? Would stealing be ethically better than supporting closed source products? After all, if you steal it, it's free as in beer. As for the other kind of free, well, the word is that consoles are jealous of information and now want to be free too.
I'm glad I've got nothing against closed source products. Of course, I'm broke so I guess I'm still in the same boat as the other side. Oh well...
Pointing out the flaws in other available components is not a "slam". The author is trying to put some context around his opinions of the controller, as everyone has different preferences. If you're a fan of the Duke and don't like the location of buttons on the PS2 controller, odds are you'll agree with his assessment.
If a complaint about the position of the L/R1 buttons on the PS2 controller is enough to twist your panties in a knot, you should make a habit of not reading anything other than content officially sanctioned by Sony.
On the card that was in the box, it says it will come in about two weeks. When I got mine, it told me the game I requested (Need for Speed) will ship then. I'm sure you got a card like that.
Open Source: Every now and then, you get what you don't pay for.
I am just taking the first break from the first 6 hours with my spanking new Xbox 360. Honestly, I am slightly disappointed and think I should have saved my money for the PS3. There are a couple of improvements but overall this console can hardly be called "next generation" and its certainly not worth the money. The PS3 on the other hand will be likely a whole different beast. If the quality of the games is just anywhere near that of the trailers the PS3 is well worth the wait.
The fate of not having crappy Japanese RPGs? Sign me up!
Seriously, the only games I really missed on the Xbox were R-Type Final, Silpheed, Neo Contra, Gradius V, Virtua Fighter 4, and Katamari Damacy... fortunately other people are quick to throw out 'broken' PS2s... so I got one free in time. I don't see any evidence of the Xbox suffering for lack of strong Japanese support though.
How many people have choosen to wait for Playstation 3 and Revolution releases?
\
Consoles blow, PC rulez!
Seriously, the last console I owned was...uh, I think N64. I actually owned most consoles prior to that (including the portable Turbo Graphix). My conclusion? Consoles promote shitty software. So fuck 'em.
DON't BUY ANYTHING COMING FROM THAT EVIL COMPANY, WHO'S INTERESTS ARE ONLY SELF-CENTERED...
A corporation that is focused on profit? That can not stand! I can't believe those theives at Microsoft have the audacity to act in the interest of their company! Boycott the free market!!
Uhhh, so are you talking about Microsoft or Sony here? I don't think either is very benevolent.
$100 on either platform buys you roughly 2 new games.
At least in the PC world you can pick up some old $5-10 "bargain bin" titles. The closest you come to that in the console world you have the $20 "value line" of extremely old titles and some used media-has-been-scratched-to-hell recent game that still runs you $20-30. Though Wal-Mart doesn't carry the used stuff, only value line, so the theoretical Jim-Bob "Jimmy" Consumer you speak of doesn't know they exist.
Don't get me wrong, I'm in the game industry - I have PCs, Macs, & most of the current crop of consoles. I play games on all the aforementioned platforms.
BTW - a $3000 gaming PC? That'll get you some "boutique" water-cooled neon-lit bling-bling PC. I just put together a $600 whitebox (Asus board, name-brand ECC RAM, etc. - not a unstable hunk of crap like most cheap PCs) that'll play everything that's currently on the market at decent resolutions. And in the future, the little brats would still be able to play stuff, just at lower resolutions. Me, I'll just upgrade CPU, RAM, & video card (again at very reasonable prices) to keep up in a couple years.
Except that M$ is selling the 360 console at a loss. If you really want to stick it to them you should buy a console and then not buy any games or accessories for it. That'll show them.
Are the Xbox 360 stories being duped because of normal slashdot editorial laziness or is someone being paid to shill for Microsoft?
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
Hey guys, just a quick favor. Trying to gather some random web traffic data, I would appreciate if you could click on this link. You don't even need to read it, just click and close!
http://www.sawthetableleg.com/
I'll see you guys in a month!
Hate to break it to you, but not everyone can build their own computer much less know that it's a lot cheaper.
------So says the Godfather, Amen...
To be honest, the bits of the 360 that interest me most are the Media Center type functions and the online stuff. It will ultimately be what separates it from the PS3 and Revolution.
We all know Sony has aspirations in that regard. In the presentation on the PS3 they had some story about each PS3 being a "broadcasting" center for media from homes...
Furthermore, Sony's preseidetn was up on stage with Steve Jobs introducing the new Sony HD camcorder. What other kinds of things might Apple and Sony be working on? Sure the music divisions do not see eye to eye, but movies/TV are another matter... the Microsoft video solution is nice but very, very Microsoft centric. An Apple solution in league with a few other companies might be more open.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
http://www.majornelson.com/2005/05/20/xbox-360-vs- ps3-part-1-of-4/
When I read this I was dumbfounded. Then I thought about it for a sec. The PS3 is all caught up in tech spec numbers. Whats most important part of a console ? The graphics card. Xbox360 wins. Sony may have the FP's. But who cares. IT's about how your game looks.
This is what pissed me off about what Sony is doing. They should have gone DUAL GRAPHICS CARD instead of trying some new vector chip like the PS2. The graphics card is what matters. Nothing else. The GPU(general) is not that important but for game logic.
Who is running the Sony PS3 development ?
I see disaster for them .
It's just that UK is in a different timezone that's a few days after us. :-)
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why did you even bother typing that retarded attempt.
Did you honestly think that there is anyone in the entire console world who doesn't know about Microsoft's PR FUD site you just pretended to have 'discovered'?
You and the three posts below this are forgetting yet another simple fact of user-dom;
Joe Sixpack is NOT going to build his own computer!!
So he is absolutely going to buy a preconfigured and overpriced gaming machine like a Dell XPS or a VoodooPC or an Alienware.
Because he doesn't know any better. If it costs more, it must be better, right?
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
Agreed. Microsoft proper is a long way from going red on any individual product. They can certainly afford to take huges losses (if they want to, and if the courts will let them) on a console system to destroy competitors and claim the entire market for themselves. They won't though, since doing so would clearly make them guilty of using unfair, anti-competitive, monopolistic practices designed to do, well, exactly what they want to do -- eliminate all competition and maximize their profit. I wouldn't count on MS tooperate "in the red" on the 360, but they will likely slash prices once the PS3 is launched. They'll use every trick in the book to encourage development for their system while keeping their hardware prices at least equal to the lowest in the industry. MS will learn from its mistakes in the Xbox v. PS2 war, and will use its overall strong financial standing to dominate as much as possible without operating what can be inferred to be a monopoly. They've plenty of though into this (beating the PS3 to market is key) and really do not want to lose this round.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
I love this talk of sub-$1000 "very high end gaming pcs" but could we try and bring reality into this situation for a second.
Dual nVidia 7800GTxs, the sort of cards that will give you results on par with COD2 for the 360, will cost you $1000.00. That's for the graphics cards. Nothing else.
When you throw in the $200 sound cards and striped Raptors and ultra-fast memory and the AMD fx-57 processors you are looking at around the 3k mark the original poster mentioned.
I learned my lesson years ago to skip any article with his byline because his prose is often incendiary and only loosely based on facts.
I propose a new moderation category: "TFA written by Dvorak -1"
Let's play Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. I'll be Pestilence.
I mean, come the f*** on! MS is spending all the money they can to promote their damned console, and people are asking me what I'm going to be doing that day?
Simple.
I'm waiting for the rig to be hacked (which will unarguably more difficult than the original Xbox) and drop a note plus in price before I get one.
Like my PSP. I got the damned thing not as a games player (though Lumines is addictive as hell), but as an extensible personal media player (especially now that there's the duo-to-CF adapter..)
--
"Censorship is telling a man he can't eat a stake because a baby can't." -- Mark Twain
I'll prepare for it by remembering not to buy one.
/. seems to have forgotten this.
I'm getting a PS3. It will just be better.
I don't care how evil Sony Music is, (who has very little to do with Sony Computer Entertainment BTW), Microsoft is still the greater evil.
Sadly much of
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
The difference is high end vs bleeding edge. You're talking absolute bleeding edge there- stuff that is probably already more powerful than a 360. 200 for a fucking sound card? Unless you're doing pro level audio editing, you're out of your fucking mind. Its not gaming equipment. Nobody runs that shit. High end machines are much lower, and much more reasonable.
Athlon 64 3200- 150
Mobo- 120
RAM, 1 GB Kingston- 100
250 GB WD Caviar SE hd (16 MB cache, 7200 RPM)- 150
GF 6800 512MB pci express- 320
case and dvd drives- 150
sound- onboard or a decent one for 50
There's about 1000, and will be within 10% of the performance of your bleeding edge system. That will be good for gaming for at least the next 2 years, and will be good for another 2 after that with a video card and ram upgrade (possibly without).
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
You don't get the full Media Center Extender functionality without owning Media Center for the pc. duh. It networks for regular stuff just fine...and for the other person commenting about ipod, you can just jack those in already..they are supported.
It's coming out on Tuesday...
Now move along, nothing else to see here.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Because when it comes to good mulitplay online nothing has more speed and intensity in teamplay CTF
8 399849799&q=tribes+2
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=172429989
Halo is for weenies.
I didn't know they made GUI's for consoles.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
O/c it would be different, how many games need "folders" for save files!?
Gaahhhh!
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
The games.
Wow, I should not post when knackered.
Ahh, so *you're* the reason publishers like EA continue to churn out shallow, linear, predicatable but PRETTY games year in, year out.
Who cares if the AI is weak, or the story dull, or it's lacking in multiplayer/co-op options etc, as long as a game looks nice.
Remind me again why the current PC games need a 2Gz processor?
while those with a little patience will likely be able to get Xboxes in the days or
:/
weeks following Tuesday's official launch, it's the threat of shortages that's
drawing people like Nelson to early-morning lines.
"It seems like if I don't get it on day one, I might have to wait awhile," said Nelson,
Oh no, what a tragedy that would be, having to wait another few weeks to buy a console with (at the moment) no worthwhile games.
To err is human. To forgive is not company policy.
XLink Kai have already tunneled it before it's even been launched. http://www.360insider.net/articles/11-20-2005/play -some-xbox-360-multiplayer-without-xbox-live/
Good SXGA screen = 20"
Good HDTV screen = 42"-60", or 100" with a projector
Also:
Good PC surround sound = 5 x 2" cube speakers + 8" woofer
Good home theatre sound = 5 x full-range speakers + 15" woofer
Add to that: greater ease of use, easy multiplayer with your friends (without necessarily requiring more machines) and a nice comfy couch, and you can see what a console setup can offer over a gaming PC.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
I am a student in the UK, and I had a gest lecture from one of the developers at Rare (aka MS Games Studios). Some of the stuff was very interesting, and I thought I would mention a few things:
- The 360 is a much better gaming machine that ANY PC at the moment. It has 3 cores, each running at 3.2GHz
- Apparently, the main thing holding back PCs is not main RAM, graphics RAM and funky graphics stuff, but simple the motherboard bus speeds. The 360 has fat ass buses on the motherboard, which lets the 3-core do its job.
- Avid PC gamers (like me) should not expect to see lead titles like Cameo on the PC anytime soon - at least not in their full glory. Sorry.
I had a play on Cameo after the lecture, and it was lovely, shiney and had 2M polygons on screen per frame - but it wasn't earth shaking as far as your Aunt Maurine is concerned.
Sorry if im repeating info here btw
double-clicking???? Apple????
Will it emulate my backed-up games? I can't seem to find any original Xbox discs....
In reviewing the control, I compared it to my favorite control, "The Duke". Big hands are just one reason. I also like the fact that the button array is angled, to line up perpendicular to the natural line of motion of the thumb, instead of being perpendicular to the face, which involves more thumb action to find the right button. The trigger springs are slightly stiffer, and the stroke is long, making it far easier in racing games to get the right pedal deflection.
I didn't compare it to the Intellivision controller, the old Atari controller, the Sega Genesis Controller, or any of the other old ones because controllers have evolved. "The Duke" was, and still is, IMHO, the best, most comfortable controller I've used. I have been able to play for six hours at a sitting (like I did to play Halo when the original XBox was released) without any hand discomfort, only bladder discomfort.
Perhaps I should have said "I don't own a PS/2. One of my brothers does, and we get together once per week to play console games. I can never find L1/R1 when I need them. The "bump" buttons on the 360 controls, unlike the L1/R1 buttons on the PS/2 controls, stick out just enough from the face so that I can find them easily when I need them,". There. Does that make you feel better? Did I really have to put that entire paragraph in when a single sentence did just fine? Maybe Sony will have a better control for PS/3 and I can proclaim to the world how much nicer it is. Unfortunately the PS/2 control isn't.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Now that it's got the John Duh-vorak seal of approval, I'll make sure to steer clear of it.
Actually no. I RTFMd, and still haven't a clue what the 360 has to do with Dvorak's navelgazing w.r.t to GUIs and some-such.
Or maybe I just need more coffee. I hate mondays.
Congratulations! You're an idiot. You are part of the disease that's been infecting gaming for the past 10 years or so. Your typical graphics fanboy: "Oh look at all the pretty colors and shiny sparkly things!"...what are you a caveman? I personally am more interested in the actual game aspect of games. But it seems i'm in the minority these days. Such a pity.
He has been one of the strongest and biggest name Mac proponents in the industry for the last 15 years. He also has incredible amounts of disdain for Microsoft.
Are you talking about the same John "Apple is Dying" Dvorak who has been predicting the death of Apple since the 90s at the very least? Does this or this really sound like the words of a Mac lover ? No one who is even vaguely familiar with the name Dvorak in the Mac community is of the opinion that the guy has had any affection for Apple for over a decade.
Now it is fair to say that he's fallen out of love with Microsoft since the heady romantic days of Windows 95, but a Mac proponent for the past 15 years? Pfft...
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
When the Lisa first came out (I'm old enough to remember this), the general impression was that Apple had invented this incredible new interface. Apple did NOTHING to dissuade this concept. It has taken years of reminders to make it clear the general concepts originated at Xerox, and Apple, um, 'bought' them and just tweaked them a bit.
All you have really said is that Apple has had competent marketing. Was there ever any doubt over that?
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Cue the usual litany of "Where are my mod points when I need them?"
I'm not sure what's scarier -- that TheNetAvenger was modded +4 Informative for stating that John Dvorak has been a Mac advocate for the last 15 years, or that the people who called TheNetAvenger on this have less positive moderation on their comments.
I don't think it's any secret that John Dvorak has turned on Apple, and the last decade has seen an almost unending parade of negative articles by Dvorak regarding Apple and the Mac platform. He's predicted the demise of Apple more times than I can count, and he's made some very unflattering comments about most of Apple's products that have gone on to do very well in the market. (Dvorak was, in fact, the first person I can recall comparing the iBook to a toilet seat, no doubt informing Apple's decision to make the 2001 iBook a more conventional looking laptop.)
I haven't personally seen or read anything pro-Mac or pro-Apple coming from Dvorak since my college days -- and I graduated in 1992. Almost every time a Dvorak article is linked in Slashdot, you will see a flurry of comments posted slamming Dvorak for his anti-Mac bias -- even if the article in question isn't all that biased or anti-anything. That's how much good will Dvorak has burned with the Mac community and with Apple.
I won't bother providing URLs to back up my arguments, as other commenters in this thread have already done the leg-work for me. Instead, I'm going to plead with moderators: won't you please think of the children?
You must be a special kind of retarded to be unable to "find" the shoulder buttons. Do you hold the controller with your teeth or something?
Pointing out illogical contradictions doesn't make me a Sony fanboy. If he has large hands as he claims, how can he say L1 and R1 are "unreachable" with a straight face?
I'm not the biased fanboy here. Personally, I prefer the Gamecube controller, but at least I don't make shit up about the XBox controller to make my opinion sound more valid.
Interesting (and relevant) use of Google Maps "mashups". But is it accurate, who knows?
Really? The card in my box didn't say anything about the game coming later, nor did it mention the game I (thought) I ordered. Weird. Thanks for the info.
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
Never forget: 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have John Dvorak posting here using another handle: zymano!