Slashdot Mirror
Halo in September, New Xbox in 2012?
EGM sat down for a long talk with Microsoft's Shane Kim, Corporate Vice President. Among other things they discuss the unbuyability of the Bioware company (they asked and were rebuffed), plans for the next next-gen game console (already in the works, possibly coming in 2012), and the timing for the release of Halo 3. "We returned to discussing Microsoft's first party portfolio for 2007. With Grand Theft Auto IV due in mid-October, Microsoft has to figure out when Halo 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 fit into the release calendar. Kim confirmed that PGR4 was due this fall, though did not specify a date. Why not? Well, because Microsoft won't ship a game in October to compete with GTA IV, and with Lost Odyssey coming in December, that means Halo 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4 have to fight over September and November. With the success Halo 2 enjoyed at retail, would Microsoft even entertain shipping the game outside of the oft-expected November timeframe?"
I've never been a huge Microsoft fan, but the Xbox 360 is a home-run. Great online integration, great controllers, connect360 on the mac and I get my iTunes library streaming through! Plus direct iPod support, I can just plug it in to the USB port and play my MP3s. Good stuff. I wish everything MS made was as good as the Xbox!
While, at over a year old, my AMD FX based PC doesn't quite have the raw CPU power to match a 360 it's got far more RAM, all the games can use the HD for caching (not something 360 games to, because it was an option at launch and so they can't depend on it being there) and two graphics cards each with as much memory as the 360 has in total (as a result the quality it can render graphics at is far improved - every title runs with FSAA and AF at 1920x1200).
The X-Box has an advantage in that developers are able to build specifically for the hardware, and the games only have to look good at the comparatively modest resolution of 720p (much less than I make my PC do), but current gaming PC systems outshine the 360 already. Case in point: the current AMD FX CPU's are already quad core and the motherboards are dual CPU. I guess you've not been keeping up!
The 360 is great value for money, but it's not more powerful than a new decent PC by a long shot (ditto for the PS3).
I find the lack of FSAA in many 360 titles is already all too noticeable on a large display (as is the upscaling on a few titles) - same deal on the PS3. Games (like GRAW2) are getting better at hiding this (doing at least some FSAA) but not up to the 8x and 16x quality you see on an Nvidia 7XXX/8XXX SLI system .