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Xbox 360 Blue-Ray Support, Achievement Addiction
Fibonasty_Sequence wrote to mention a piece on Gamespy looking into the Achievement addiction that the 360 can provoke in gamers. Playing games with specific goals in mind can be lots of fun. In related news, these heady post-launch days have seen a lot of rumors that need to be sorted out. One that keeps turning up is the possible support of the Blue-Ray standard by the 360. From that article: "Microsoft clearly - and very understandably - doesn't want to risk lumbering Xbox 360 with an internal drive format consumers don't want, and while it's favouring HD DVD by announcing an external drive that can read that disc format, it wants to ensure it's free to support the BD if it has to."
for the 360 if it is not to be relegated to the junk pile within 18 mos. I spoke with 2 major US dvd manufacturers in southern california yesterday who have both phased out the pre-press operations for the hd-dvd format and are concentrating almost solely on Blu-ray. However MS wants to support Blu-ray - they need to do it...soon, too.
I actually rented King Kong through GameFly just to play through it one evening and get the 1000 gamerscore. I'm actually going to pick up NBA 2k6 for the same reason - all 1000 points are easily achievable in only a game or two.
And I don't mind padding my gamerscore where available, because I still have plenty of noteworthy achievements to show that I do have my gaming prowess. My Grand Pearh Pooh-Bah achievement last night in Hexic is significant, and the Survive 1,000,000 in Geo Wars is a VERY HARD one to get - and I have it.
Whoever came up with the idea for achievements and gamerscore really needs to get a raise. This is huge - and not just for the increased competitiveness to gaming I'm sure it's going to bring, but I suspect it increases attach rate and helps out with game rentals, too. It's also wonderful being able to actually see which people run off at the mouth about their gaming skills and can't back it up, and those which can. You say you're good at DOA4? Let's see the grade achievements to prove it.
(Currently at 3185 and growing. Should hit 3200 tonite with another chapter of Condemned.)
"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Microsoft has long past 'competitor' status to Sony and Nintendo. They no longer relevant to the battle between them and have become some sort of bizzaro sideshow to the main event.
Next up for the 360?
Firings for key 360 execs.
Cancelation.
This is slightly off topic, but it's something I've had on my mind.
Is anyone really THAT excited over high definition DVD? I mean... my progressive scan DVD player going into my DLP HDTV looks impressive as it is. I'd go as far as saying that anamorphic DVDs look just as good as watching a tv show in high definition.
Standard definition to High def for tv broadcasts is a huge jump... I couldn't go back. But, I really don't see how there can be as big a jump from DVD to HD DVD/Blue Ray when in my eyes, anamorphic DVDs look fairly high def already.
Therefore... When I do eventually buy a next gen system (Well, I'll be buying Revolution, but I may purchase PS3 or Xbox360 eventually once they drop in price) it won't be for its ability to play HD DVDs... that's just an added perk that I may or may not use. I don't really see these systems defining which will be the "winner" in the high def DVD debate.
We'll see, I guess.
As long as they aren't all set too easy (EA Sports games, King Kong) or too hard (Bejeweled 2, NHL 2K6), achievements are a great addition to my personal gaming experience, and will keep me playing games I might not have stuck with for as long.
from the still-waiting-on-the-great-games dept.
You got that right, Zonk. The current tripe available for the Xbox 360 is a bad sign for the future. Face it, Xbox 360 owners, you've been had. Your system is a non-contender. It'll go down in history with the Sega 32X and Atari Jaguar as one of the biggest flops ever in video game history. You might as well toss it in the fucking trash.
If the 360 starts supporting Blu-Ray, they'll be eliminating thier fans most touted feature: Blu-Ray/PS3 trash talk.
</joke>
Seriously though, cue all the 360 fanboys who are going to have to switch from HD-DVD is way better than Blu-Ray so the PS3 sucks to "Built in HD players are overrated, I'd rather the machine was cheaper".
in 3... 2... 1...
My script don't crash! She crashes, you crashed her!
"Seriously though, cue all the 360 fanboys who are going to have to switch from HD-DVD is way better than Blu-Ray so the PS3 sucks to "Built in HD players are overrated, I'd rather the machine was cheaper"."
You do know that the 360 will use HD-DVD's only for movies, not games, right? Sony is including Blu-Ray as a punishment to the wallets of gamers just to push the format.
It's likely that Microsoft realized that since 1) 360 does not come with an HD-DVD drive and 2) Nobody else has released any HD-DVD players either that they realized they were fighting a losing battle, and, as always, Microsoft is quick to switch sides when there's profit involved.
Achievements and scores on the 360 are the real "next-gen" feature of the XBox 360.
Forget the graphics (although they're great) and forget the other much-touted features of the 360 - achievements and high scores take that old-school high score competitiveness from yesterday's old-school arcades and make them relevant once again!
This is great for someone like me - a guy in his early 30's who doesn't have many gamer friends anymore and certainly none on XBL - because it brings back that arcade competitiveness right to my living room: enhancing replayability, upping the tension factor, and generally just making the games more fun. Whoever decided to make integrated Live and Achievements mandatory for all XBox 360 games was a genius.
It's Blu-Ray. The letter "e" was intentionally left out of the name to allow trademarking, as the term "blue ray" is a commonly used phrase and can't be registered as a trademark. Thanks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc.
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Very true. "11 Games Played - 485 of 3000 Gamerscore" makes me look even worse than I really am. ;^)
I suspect that the Gamerscore thing is one of the few elements that Microsoft has come up with that will be ripped off by Nintendo and Sony. It is such a simple idea, so easy to implement, but its implications are huge.
While its obvious that many gamers will simply not care one way or the other about their gamerscore, many of the hard core gamers will. This will have several consequences. some of which are already being noticed, and are mentioned in that article.
- Gamers will play games they otherwise might not just to pump their score.
- Games will probably incur a longer shelf life as gamers try to wring the last few points out of a game
- Gamers in X-Box live will have an idea of what games are being played by their friends.
There are several things I can see happening with these gamers scores that may take a while to become apparant.
- Games could have unlockable content based on gamer scores acheived in other games. Think of this as an extension of the Pokemon 2 cartrige strategy; in order to play 100% of a game, you are forced to play other games.
- It is probable that contests will be held where the gamerscore is a key component, such as 'first person to get all 1000 points in this game gets a free trip to E3'. Or 'first person to get 100 000 gamerpoints will get $100 000.
- It is probable that some games may get an additional shelf life simply by awarding gamer points if the game is played after a certain date, using the time / date features of the console.
- Matchmaking services will likley utilize the gamerscore to avoid Newbie Stomping.
- The data from gamerscores might be used to target in game advertising. If a player is known to like first person shooters, he may be seeing more ads for action movies.
The one thing I see as being absolutely necessary to happen is for Microsoft to become more involved in deciding how many points and how fast they should be given out. If it becomes too easy to get points from playing 'crapware' titles like "Barbies pony adventure", the hardcore audience will probably start to complain quite loudly about it.
END COMMUNICATION
Atari 2600 games from Activision, featuring classics such as River Raid or SeaQuest, did include the aspect of game achievement and even reward.
If you would succeed in the task described in the manual, as for example getting a score of 10,000, you were invited to take a photo of your TV screen and mail it to Activision.
They would send you back a badge (IIRC) acknowledging your achievement in that particular game.