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."

Comments

GUI??

[badasscat]

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.

Re:GUI??

[Ark42]

Have you ever played Metroid Prime 2? A horrible GUI / menu system can really make a game pretty annoying to play.

Re:GUI??

[vperez]

Game GUI != System GUI. The system's GUI will have little effect on the games you play on it.

For me console GUI will mean nothing as I don't really do anything with my consoles besides play games. Then again I won't be getting an XBox 360 anytime soon due to the lack of any games worth buying a system for. :)

Re:GUI??

[Jace of Fuse!]

The Metroid Prime 2 GUI/Menu is a poor example, since ideally you would use it as little as possible. No, it wasn't great, but you could pretty much enjoy the game with very little interaction with it. If you were using the GUI too much, you obviously didn't play Metroid Prime 2 very much yourself.

It's also a poor example of ruining the experience of a game because it's not standard across all Gamecube titles.

On both sides of the other hand, the 360's interface seems to chime in the same no matter what game you are playing. So in that respect it's a good thing that the GUI is as good as it is, because if it weren't people would get frustrated quickly. On top of that, this is only the GUI for the system and system related functions. Each game within itself will obviously have it's own GUI seperate from that of the system.

I think the original GP was pointing out that a game console should not have a standard GUI as such, because it's one step closer to an operating system based game consoles, and that's precisely the one direction most of us really want game consoles going.

I've played with the 360 quite a bit and though I don't really like any of the first generation games (Not one of them are on my purchase list! Not a single one!) the console itself does seem quite nice. I'm a little disturbed by the jagged edges visible in some of the games even on high-definition, but that's more a case of poor quality in the software rather than the console itself because other games look absolutely beautiful.

I'll build a better opinion of the 360 as better titles start to trickle in. For now I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who isn't simply going to use it to play older games, or in the unlikely event that you actually feel you MUST have one of the launch titles.

Dvorak is impressed by the GUI and hyped about the system. The rest of the industry admits it's nice but have focused on the unexciting launch titles and are largely lukewarm to the system right now. :/ Why am I not surprised?

(As an aside, I am not a Sony or Nintendo fanboy. I own all consoles, normally before release dates.)

I am also prepping for it

[FidelCatsro]

I am going into hiding so that One may avoid the barrage of silly stories and Marketing shite .

notice

[akhomerun]

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.

GUI???

[Yaztromo]

The Xbox 360 explores new menu structures with a unique and pleasant GUI.

<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.

Re:Xbox360 and Slashdot

[Rew190]

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?

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 /. 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.

Re:Long Tail media center

[interiot]

Well, considering 1) you don't get the full XBox 360 networked functionality unless you pay for the PC-based Media Center, 2) in terms of number of formats supported, the open source Xbox1 media center has more functionality (except for HD), 3) not many media companies are selling content over the 'net yet, and 4) the Apple with its iPod Video is going further in convincing content creators than anyone else is. Sure, the XBox 360 is useful for the Long Tail, but only once it's been hacked, which means that it's the usual story: the Long Tail is here, but it's not the companies bringing it to you, it's the hackers.

Perhaps reading available information and studying a bit of statistics before you post will help you to understand a bit more than you currently appear to.

I would say the other guy is spot-on. The Long Tail is an great concept, but when you overuse it in places where it doesn't belong, you devalue the term in general.

What a load of bull

[cecom]

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 :-)