The Xbox 360 is being marketed as more than a game console, it's being shown as a digital media hub.
No MSN music. The PC already has it. Yes but wouldn't you like to be able to simply download songs with a subscription service you already have and use the songs ingame. Loading your MP3 player with music from the 360 would be nice considering since you can hook up your MP3 player and play songs off it already.
No HDMI support. The PC already has it. Yes and without it you won't be able to play protected HD video that you would be able to purchase from the Live Marketplace.
No web browser -- although is that really a bad thing? I need not mention the browser options on a PC here. Again a central media hub should provide a way to easily check your email, IM, and hit some websites. You can get your email and IM with the MCE Extender functionality, but having this functionality without needing a MCE would be very nice.
No WMV-HD or MPEG-4 AVI playback. PC has it. The Xbox Media Center was a major selling point for modchips on the original Xbox. By enabling the ability to play these types of files by default you'd add a nice feature that would get more people to upgrade, and give people less of a reason to mod. Also for WMV-HD. The 360 is supposed to be a huge HD content driven console, and it can't play Microsoft's HD format videos?
Even the point about no pressure-sensitive face buttons is equated on a PC though an analogue joystick. Not even close to the same thing. The original Xbox and PS2 both have pressure-senstive face buttons. Not many games made good use of them, but the ones that did really enhanced the experience.
Why does he not just use a console for gaming and a home theatre PC for everything else, both of which can be connected to the same audio system and same TV often through separate connections? Home theatre PCs are pretty nice however they are expensive and a majority of them don't fit with the rest of the AV components well. We'll have to see what Sony does with the PS3. I also won't just put off his comments as typical complaining. The 360 and PS3 are supposed to be trojan horses into your living room slowly becoming the center of your entertain experience. His article is mainly describing all of the additional changes Microsoft could have made, but feel flat doing.
The deciding factor will be online activity, which seems to be dominated by M$ right now.
How to you figure? The Xbox had the advantage in online; however, the estimate is that only 10% of Xbox owners have ever used Live. Also it's not about the performance either in seeing the PS2 vs. the Xbox. The trophey will go to the console which secures the most 3rd party developers to create exclusive games for the console, and then has more desirable 1st party games.
FFII has been released with FFI on the PSX as Final Fantasy Origins, and the GBA as Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls. The GBA has a simplied (aka Dumbed down) leveling system though.
There isn't a release date for FFXII in either the US or Japan. When it's done is pretty much the only release date atm. There also hasn't been any announcements regarding FFXIII, wait until E3 2006 in May and there may be some information. If not you'll at least get more information on both the Revolution and PS3.
As for the numbering, the only differing was with FFIV=FFII(US) and FFVI=FFIII(US). They renumbered the US games when they were released on the SNES to make US games not go.. what are we missing when there is a jump from FFI->FFIV. Releases in the US have all used the original Japanese numbering system. As for FFX-2 and FFXII, there has previously never been a sequel FF game. FFX-2 is FFX part 2. They might have gotten away with just calling it FFXI; however, that game was already out.
Yes I know and have both Origins and Dawn of Souls. I'm commenting on the original offical English NES version of FF2 that was just never released. Earth Bound for the NES was found as a translated prototype and released; however, I'm guessing FF2 & 3 (if it was completed) will never be released. The fan translations were a nice replacement but it still doesn't change the fact that we will never see them.
You might also be wondering why I didn't comment on FFV. That is because the PSX release of it in FF: Chronicles (or was in Anthology) was an almost perfect graphic-wise port from the SNES. The release of FF2, and the 3d remake of FF3 look completely different from the original games. Also in Dawn of Souls the game system was changed so that you characters never lost stats as they leveled, they only gained them.
Back before the PSX and N64 came out Squaresoft (they hadn't merged with Enix until 2005) was researching the capabilities of the consoles and creating demos on them. This "Lost Final Fantasy" was nothing more than a demo of a battle engine to show off what could be done on the system. Ultimately Squaresoft went with the PSX due to their desire to incorporate full motion video in their games, and the N64s inability to handle this due to it using cartridges.
The video is kind of neat to see what Squaresoft could have done on the N64, but it's unpolished due to it being just a demo. The only real issue is that this news is from several years ago as the job I was working at the time I remember first reading about this was from 2003 at the earliest. Oh well, the real lost Final Fantasies were the translated versions of FF2 and FF3 for the NES that were never released. FF2 from my understanding was completed; however, I'm not sure how far FF3 got. And before you say they were released FF2 and FF3 on the SNES were just renames of FF4 and FF6.
That's why you go to the late movies if you can help it. I saw it at 9:30pm adn the only children where no younger than 8 or 9. Surprisingly the theatre was only about 1/2 full for a Saturday evening show on Opening weekend though. At least it was more enjoyable than the baby trying during the 9:00pm showing of Harry Potter. Babies don't remember or really enjoy movies, leave them home and let everyone else in the audience enjoy it a little more.
The PSP patch isn't about DRM to music as it is preventing software hacks much like a modchip on a console provides. Users have found hacks in older firmware revisions that allow them to run homebrew software. Sure it's cool and the users can play old NES and SNES games and such on their PSP; however, the problem is that they can rip PSP games and play them off Memory Sticks with the same exploits.
So yes the whole music DRM thing does suck, but the PSP firmware updates are not related.
It was already said during the E3 announcement of the Revolution that the Revolution's SSB will be playable online. It would be interesting to see a DS SSB, but if they are pumping all of their resources to make the Revolution's SSB even better than the Gamecube's I'm all for not getting a DS one.
It sounds like A Tale in the Desert might be right up your alley. http://www.atitd.com/
It's a game that based solely around crafting where you strive to create civilation. There is no combat but that doesn't mean you can't resources and trading to limit other players and gain more power in the world.
A lot of the price of anime comes from the agreements with the companies in Japan. The DVDs run about $45-$50 there and normally contain 2 episodes each. So your talking about $585-$650 for a full series. Yes they normally come out in the US about a year later but wouldn't you think even more Japanese fans would import their favorites series back it they were even cheaper?
Also before you been complaining yes Best Buy and Media Play's price suck. But for your example you can get the new Ghost in the Shell series for $15/each at http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com. Volume 1, Volume 2
so don't buy at the over priced stores, order online if you want deals. So no things aren't bad, they are actually fine.
Cry me a river. The original Guyver anime was $30 for one single episode per tape. Thankfully I wasn't insane, but someone I knew was.
If you look at anime prices as a whole they have come down. It used to be $25 dubbed or $30 subbed for two episodes. Yes Evangalion cost me over $300. Thankfully Suncoast Replay program was sweet back then and you got 5% back in store credit, and they even had the 10% off day and weekends. One of my friends pissed off a clerk by by the $150 Lodoss boxset with credit on a 10% off weekend. Ahh... why do we only have Mediaplays crappy prices and 2.5% back anymore.
Guess I'll need to go diving into the Xbox scene again. Of course having an modchip and only watching anime with an occasional Media Center update will do that to you.;-)
Mediaportal does look interesting, is that the program that was spawned from the Xbox Media Center? I haven't looked at the one in a while but Mediaportal does look pretty mature.
Having my Xbox's primary use (~98%) being watching fansubs I'd also have to agree. You could easily purchase 4 Xboxs and use a softmod to flash the TSOP so you wouldn't even need to spent extra on modchips. Then install the Xbox Media Center along with an Xbox port of MAME and maybe a few console emulators. You have a device which can playback almost any video or audio format and will play the Arcade games that were desired.
You could then build a MythTV server with multiple tuners to handle the Recording and to store the actual video, the games would need to be located on the Xbox's hard drive due to emulators not having the ability to stream ROMs off a network. You could also develop an interface to program the recording of shows on the server; however, I don't believe you will be able to trigger live tv pausing and such.
This is also highly cost effecient as you can get a used Xbox for $100-$130x4 = $400-$520 for the output boxes where the parts for the PC would likely run that for just 1 or 2. Then you can just dump however much you want into the cost of the server and if an Xbox dies you only have to mod a new one and copy Media Center back over along with any of the games so no worrying about several gigs of video being copied due to a dead drive on an output box.
Read the comments to the article in your link. While I hope every classic game will be free I highly doubt it will be so. If Nintendo does have a few games available for free at system launch it would be a huge feature for the Revolution. Let's just keep our fingers crossed.
If they are going one about the whole "Remote Controller" concept, it will be a gimmick. Widely used in Nintendo's popular titles like Mario Party or Metroid, many third party developers will come out with a few novel games, but as long as other game consoles and the PC market use "traditional" gamepads, it will not be revolutionary.
The controller is the major concern with the Revolution; however, it looks like it might be the best controller for FPS on a console yet. We'll just have to wait for it to come out to try. There will also be the shells that turn the controller into retro contollers, maybe Nintendo will also settle on a standard shell for game that wouldn't map to the remote style gameplay for use with multiplatform games.
Asside from that, there is nothing truely revolutionary about the Revolution. Sure, Nintendo will make their back library available for play on the new system, again a gimmick that will drive sales in the first year or so, but I bet Nintendo will opt for a subscription based service that people will grow tired of paying some $X amount of money a month to play games they already owned. Also, this concept isn't even NEW. PS2 could play its entire back library, and the new Xbox360 offers an arcade marketplace for downloading and playing old game favourites from arcades and PC shareware.
The Revolution is also supposed to directly play Gamecube disks so it has a 1up on the 360s hokey backwards compatiblity. The back library being available could be a major asset if they priced it right. I'd be willing to spend $5/month to access Nintendo's old NES and SNES game legally, I doubt it will be this cheap but we'll have to see. It would also be nice if 3rd parties get into the mix such as Capcom and Konami releasing their old games as well with the standard service.
For size, I bet the Revolution will be the smallest again, but traditionally Nintendo isn't big on "slick" designs, and usually the end result looks more like a Fisher Price product. I expect that we won't see the slim silver/white wedge that their PR department has been coming out with. It will probably be made out of cheap plastic with handles and other superfluous design elements that aim more for the young gamer market.
I don't know. I don't really buy my consoles for looks, more for the games on them. Then again I did purchase a black Gamecube rather than an indigo.
From that point forward, your really talking about a game console with the same specs as each of the new game systems, albiet a little anemic compared to the PS3 or Xbox360, as was the Gamecube in its generation. I do agree that Nintendo's focus on "Games First" is beneficial, I really don't care about DVD/music playback on my game console, and those features have NEVER been used on my PS2. Focusing on games rather then state of the art DVD formats should be the focus of any game hardware, and I will welcome Nintendo's much cheaper price compared to the all-in-wonders Xbox360 and PS3. How many games out there in all honesty require 20 to 50 GB of data storage. NOT ONE, PERIOD.
No games currently require 20 to 50GB, but the Xbox 360 will run into limitation if a game tries to make large use of HD video for cutscenes. This will quickly fill the disk. Nintendo staying away from HD is interesting. I do have to agree the majority of people don't currently own HDTVs but 2006 may be the year they start selling big if the price is right. Of course current information says that the Revolution devkits support 720p so who knows what's going on.
So, will Nintendo evolve the game industry? Considering they have played catchup for the last 10 years, I doubt it. Nintendo may be able to create a breakout success with the Revolution after the lackluster "success" of the Gamecube, but one thing Nintendo NEEDS TO PAY ATTENTION TO, the gamer market is now longer composed of people 15 and under. Nintendo really needs
Re:What did you expect? This is a Microsoft Produc
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Xbox 360 Very Unstable
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You also have to remember that people just put down $300-$400 on just the price of the console. They waiting in lines, pre-ordered etc, and they are told they won't be able to get a replacement for 4-6 weeks?
Ya, I'd be pissed to. Yes it would be understandable for a small number of these to be defective. You also have to wonder how many units haven't even been tested yet because they are going to be gifts or are being sold unopened on eBay.
Nah, that's just the reason every Xbox 360 includes the free Silver Live Subscription. People will be able to download patches, and buy things from the Marketplace, but not play multiplayer games.
My understanding of how the executable headers are laided out, you can specify what type of disk the executable can boot from. This is likely how Microsoft will release the downloadable Xbox 360 compatibility updates that you burn to a CD from your PC. With Microsoft's private key you could sign any executable to boot from all media. I'm not sure what the key your talking about that is required for unmodded boxes though as I never tried using they hacks as a modchip is more convient with less risk of a brick.
There are the font hacks, or the savegame buffer overflow hacks that will allow you to run homebrew, but a company will not release a commercial product that relies on hacks like these. The only 100% sure way to run software on an unmodded Xbox with just inserting a disk is to have it signed with Microsoft's private key. And good luck getting it.
Or Rare being owned by Microsoft they decided to take a gamble and stamp disks so they could make the launch window. It would be nice is each developer had their own private keys, but I highly doubt it.
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The Xbox 360 is being marketed as more than a game console, it's being shown as a digital media hub. No MSN music. The PC already has it. Yes but wouldn't you like to be able to simply download songs with a subscription service you already have and use the songs ingame. Loading your MP3 player with music from the 360 would be nice considering since you can hook up your MP3 player and play songs off it already. No HDMI support. The PC already has it. Yes and without it you won't be able to play protected HD video that you would be able to purchase from the Live Marketplace. No web browser -- although is that really a bad thing? I need not mention the browser options on a PC here. Again a central media hub should provide a way to easily check your email, IM, and hit some websites. You can get your email and IM with the MCE Extender functionality, but having this functionality without needing a MCE would be very nice. No WMV-HD or MPEG-4 AVI playback. PC has it. The Xbox Media Center was a major selling point for modchips on the original Xbox. By enabling the ability to play these types of files by default you'd add a nice feature that would get more people to upgrade, and give people less of a reason to mod. Also for WMV-HD. The 360 is supposed to be a huge HD content driven console, and it can't play Microsoft's HD format videos? Even the point about no pressure-sensitive face buttons is equated on a PC though an analogue joystick. Not even close to the same thing. The original Xbox and PS2 both have pressure-senstive face buttons. Not many games made good use of them, but the ones that did really enhanced the experience. Why does he not just use a console for gaming and a home theatre PC for everything else, both of which can be connected to the same audio system and same TV often through separate connections? Home theatre PCs are pretty nice however they are expensive and a majority of them don't fit with the rest of the AV components well. We'll have to see what Sony does with the PS3. I also won't just put off his comments as typical complaining. The 360 and PS3 are supposed to be trojan horses into your living room slowly becoming the center of your entertain experience. His article is mainly describing all of the additional changes Microsoft could have made, but feel flat doing.
FFII has been released with FFI on the PSX as Final Fantasy Origins, and the GBA as Final Fantasy Dawn of Souls. The GBA has a simplied (aka Dumbed down) leveling system though.
As for the numbering, the only differing was with FFIV=FFII(US) and FFVI=FFIII(US). They renumbered the US games when they were released on the SNES to make US games not go.. what are we missing when there is a jump from FFI->FFIV. Releases in the US have all used the original Japanese numbering system. As for FFX-2 and FFXII, there has previously never been a sequel FF game. FFX-2 is FFX part 2. They might have gotten away with just calling it FFXI; however, that game was already out.
In all fairness Microsoft did offer two free Microsoft published games to people who purchased the system at the higher price.
You might also be wondering why I didn't comment on FFV. That is because the PSX release of it in FF: Chronicles (or was in Anthology) was an almost perfect graphic-wise port from the SNES. The release of FF2, and the 3d remake of FF3 look completely different from the original games. Also in Dawn of Souls the game system was changed so that you characters never lost stats as they leveled, they only gained them.
The video is kind of neat to see what Squaresoft could have done on the N64, but it's unpolished due to it being just a demo. The only real issue is that this news is from several years ago as the job I was working at the time I remember first reading about this was from 2003 at the earliest. Oh well, the real lost Final Fantasies were the translated versions of FF2 and FF3 for the NES that were never released. FF2 from my understanding was completed; however, I'm not sure how far FF3 got. And before you say they were released FF2 and FF3 on the SNES were just renames of FF4 and FF6.
Since when was this a Sony production? The logo I remember at the theatres was Disney. Of course people seem to boycot them to.
That's why you go to the late movies if you can help it. I saw it at 9:30pm adn the only children where no younger than 8 or 9. Surprisingly the theatre was only about 1/2 full for a Saturday evening show on Opening weekend though. At least it was more enjoyable than the baby trying during the 9:00pm showing of Harry Potter. Babies don't remember or really enjoy movies, leave them home and let everyone else in the audience enjoy it a little more.
So yes the whole music DRM thing does suck, but the PSP firmware updates are not related.
It was already said during the E3 announcement of the Revolution that the Revolution's SSB will be playable online. It would be interesting to see a DS SSB, but if they are pumping all of their resources to make the Revolution's SSB even better than the Gamecube's I'm all for not getting a DS one.
It's a game that based solely around crafting where you strive to create civilation. There is no combat but that doesn't mean you can't resources and trading to limit other players and gain more power in the world.
Also before you been complaining yes Best Buy and Media Play's price suck. But for your example you can get the new Ghost in the Shell series for $15/each at http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com. Volume 1, Volume 2 so don't buy at the over priced stores, order online if you want deals. So no things aren't bad, they are actually fine.
If you look at anime prices as a whole they have come down. It used to be $25 dubbed or $30 subbed for two episodes. Yes Evangalion cost me over $300. Thankfully Suncoast Replay program was sweet back then and you got 5% back in store credit, and they even had the 10% off day and weekends. One of my friends pissed off a clerk by by the $150 Lodoss boxset with credit on a 10% off weekend. Ahh... why do we only have Mediaplays crappy prices and 2.5% back anymore.
Mediaportal does look interesting, is that the program that was spawned from the Xbox Media Center? I haven't looked at the one in a while but Mediaportal does look pretty mature.
You could then build a MythTV server with multiple tuners to handle the Recording and to store the actual video, the games would need to be located on the Xbox's hard drive due to emulators not having the ability to stream ROMs off a network. You could also develop an interface to program the recording of shows on the server; however, I don't believe you will be able to trigger live tv pausing and such.
This is also highly cost effecient as you can get a used Xbox for $100-$130x4 = $400-$520 for the output boxes where the parts for the PC would likely run that for just 1 or 2. Then you can just dump however much you want into the cost of the server and if an Xbox dies you only have to mod a new one and copy Media Center back over along with any of the games so no worrying about several gigs of video being copied due to a dead drive on an output box.
As Miyamoto himself said: "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever".
Read the comments to the article in your link. While I hope every classic game will be free I highly doubt it will be so. If Nintendo does have a few games available for free at system launch it would be a huge feature for the Revolution. Let's just keep our fingers crossed.
The controller is the major concern with the Revolution; however, it looks like it might be the best controller for FPS on a console yet. We'll just have to wait for it to come out to try. There will also be the shells that turn the controller into retro contollers, maybe Nintendo will also settle on a standard shell for game that wouldn't map to the remote style gameplay for use with multiplatform games.
The Revolution is also supposed to directly play Gamecube disks so it has a 1up on the 360s hokey backwards compatiblity. The back library being available could be a major asset if they priced it right. I'd be willing to spend $5/month to access Nintendo's old NES and SNES game legally, I doubt it will be this cheap but we'll have to see. It would also be nice if 3rd parties get into the mix such as Capcom and Konami releasing their old games as well with the standard service.
Ya, I'd be pissed to. Yes it would be understandable for a small number of these to be defective. You also have to wonder how many units haven't even been tested yet because they are going to be gifts or are being sold unopened on eBay.
Nah, that's just the reason every Xbox 360 includes the free Silver Live Subscription. People will be able to download patches, and buy things from the Marketplace, but not play multiplayer games.
Sadly, yes they do.
My understanding of how the executable headers are laided out, you can specify what type of disk the executable can boot from. This is likely how Microsoft will release the downloadable Xbox 360 compatibility updates that you burn to a CD from your PC. With Microsoft's private key you could sign any executable to boot from all media. I'm not sure what the key your talking about that is required for unmodded boxes though as I never tried using they hacks as a modchip is more convient with less risk of a brick.
There are the font hacks, or the savegame buffer overflow hacks that will allow you to run homebrew, but a company will not release a commercial product that relies on hacks like these. The only 100% sure way to run software on an unmodded Xbox with just inserting a disk is to have it signed with Microsoft's private key. And good luck getting it.
Or Rare being owned by Microsoft they decided to take a gamble and stamp disks so they could make the launch window. It would be nice is each developer had their own private keys, but I highly doubt it.