Who's planning on getting an Xbox 360?

[Jon P. Inghram]

Or he's realistic and can see that all consoles suck, just in varying degrees.

[schmosef]

I don't understand Gurm's logic.

The 360 isn't powerful enough blah blah so... he's getting a Revolution, which will be decidedly less powerful.

M$ is making their Live service a central part of their offering. They've already got downloadable game demos, movie trailers, etc.

It won't be long before full movies will be downloadable.

M$ is hoping to be well positioned to take advantage of the expected developments in home entertainment content distribution.

Their strategy is different that Nintendo's.

Rather than act like a fanboy, I'm simply going to sit back and watch them fight it out, then buy the console who's got the games I want to play and features/services I want to use.

[Fat Tone]

Maybe the lack of sleep is starting to take its toll on the normally swet nature of Mr G?

[Gurm]

Ok, let's cover a few things:

1. I don't like the XBox. I don't like the XBox 360. There are several reasons for this, but most of them boil down to the fact that both are overpriced for what they offer, and neither have any games I want to play. (Exceptions: Halo and KOTOR, both of which are on the PC... and BETTER on the PC!)

2. The system is overpriced. Remember what we were discussing a couple months back? $300 is the magical price point. MS offers a "core system" for $300, and that system is utterly useless. The XBox 360 costs $400, plus your average controller and gizmo package, plus a couple games. You aren't getting into an XBox 360 for under $600. That's ri-f***ing-diculous. And yet they've managed to create a "shortage". Excuses be damned, it's an INTENTIONAL shortage, with the sole purpose of creating artificial demand for a system that otherwise wouldn't sell as well. Why do you think they released it so early? There are few games, and apparently it hasn't been tested very well. They released it early so it wouldn't have ANY competition from Sony or Nintendo.

3. Did I mention that it overheats? Yeah. KUDOS, Microsoft! Nice to rush an unsafe product to market! Oh yes, and the backwards compatibility? Ha!

4. The graphics are sub-par. Really mediocre for the price. They're equivalent to a decent gaming PC. "But that's great!" you say. And it is... today. Six months from now, the 360 will look silly compared to the GeFart 9000 or the Radeon Giga600 or whatever is out. In 2 years? Forget it. This system was supposed to be a quantum leap forward in graphics quality, but it turns out that turning on AF and FSAA is too costly in processing power - to the point that not a single game available now does it. And yes, I have links for the screenshots to show the horrifying jaggies and bad filtering on the 360, but as y'all have pointed out I'm a bit tired and disorganized. But seriously, the BIG selling argument everyone uses is "I can play it on my HDTV!". Guess what - if you can see the jaggies and the bad filtering on a REGULAR TV... it'll look SCARY on an HDTV. Oops!

5. Any system's success really boils down to not how well it performs as a media center (media centers have, much to Bill Gates' continual dismay, crashed and burned with the general public) but rather to how good the games are. MS failed to diversify with the XBox - it didn't do very well outside of the US, barely made a dent in Japan where Nintendo rules due to... wait for it... playability and great games. Have they learned their lesson with the 360? Nope. What's available for the system? Let's see... a racing game, a fighting game, and one of those survival horror games. Just like last time. Ouch! RPG's? No. Platformers? What's a platformer? MS doesn't do Platformers, unless Rare releases Conker360, which is unlikely given the amount of time it took to do the last Conker game.


So there you have it - I have several really valid reasons for disliking the XBox 360.

Am I a Nintendo fanboy? Sort of - I've owned every Nintendo system. But then again I've owned every Sega system, and every Sony system (save the PSP which I can't yet afford) as well.

Nintendo and Sega understood something that Microsoft has yet to grasp - playability makes a good game. There is NO game for the XBox or the 360 that has half the fluidity and organic gamefeel of any of the Mario games. Mario for the SNES is a universe ahead of ANY XBOX GAME in playability. Mario Sunshine is still the golden standard for playability which nobody has beaten. But Sony is learning - the newest Sony platformers are getting darn close. Jak3 was fluid and responsive, as was the latest Ratchet offering.

But take RPG's, or adventure titles. FF: Crystal Chronicles was a silly silly game, but DAMN it was fluid, smooth, responsive, and well crafted. That's the NORM for Gamecube titles. If a title is available for multiple systems, I will ALWAYS go for the Gamecube version. They're just put together better.

The PS3 will decimate the XBox 360. Not just because it'll debut at $300, but because it'll just have more and better titles... not to mention working backwards compatibility. As for the revolution - Nintendo is really gambling on this whole "new controller" concept. It'll either pay off in spades, or kick their ass. Time will tell. I have MINE on preorder though.

[Gurm]

I don't understand Gurm's logic.

I think I explained it, but I'll address some of your points as well.

The 360 isn't powerful enough blah blah so... he's getting a Revolution, which will be decidedly less powerful.

The 360 isn't powerful enough... to cost $400++++, it isn't powerful enough to replace my gaming PC. MS claimed it was - heck they STILL claim it IS, even when current screenshots and unbiased reviews say otherwise.

M$ is making their Live service a central part of their offering. They've already got downloadable game demos, movie trailers, etc.

Yeah, Live. Ha. Haha. Hahaha! Have you ever played a game over XBox Live? If you have, I rest my case. If you haven't... go on, try it. Then I'll rest my case. *spit*

It won't be long before full movies will be downloadable.

No, that won't happen.

M$ is hoping to be well positioned to take advantage of the expected developments in home entertainment content distribution.

Nobody is buying this. Consumers aren't buying it, the entertainment industry isn't buying it. MS has been trying to position itself for the "next generation of home entertainment" for half a decade now. It hasn't worked yet. Media Center PC's? Tanked. XBox Media Center? Tanked. The only real application of WMV-HD and WMV-DRM? Porn. Yeah, good job MS.

Their strategy is different that Nintendo's.

Yes. Nintendo's strategy is to make great games based largely on proven platforms, but also on some new ones. MS's strategy is to try to convince the consumer to buy something that nobody wants, that nobody wants to deliver, and that won't work very well.

Rather than act like a fanboy, I'm simply going to sit back and watch them fight it out, then buy the console who's got the games I want to play and features/services I want to use.

Well there you go. I already covered that in my last post - XBox360 won't have any of the games I want to play any more than the XBox did. But if you like an endless parade of generic fighting games, generic racing games, and generic sports titles... hey, to each their own!

[KeiFront]

Ok, let's cover a few things:
2. The system is overpriced. Remember what we were discussing a couple months back? $300 is the magical price point. MS offers a "core system" for $300, and that system is utterly useless. The XBox 360 costs $400, plus your average controller and gizmo package, plus a couple games.

It's certainly overpriced even Japan pays less ($331) for an xbox360 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4517362.stm

[Mehen]

M$ loses money on the console even despite that price, the profit is supposed to come entirely from the games. If they charged enough to make profit off the console you could easily add another couple hundred onto it.

I noticed the jaggies too!! Thought it was just me being too critical, but they were definitely there!

[Marshmallowman]

And nintendo's revolution will offer online gaming, and it wil be totally free. It might be hard finding people to play with , but that will improve of they make some good games suitable of online gaming, they certainly make some good muliplayer games.

Paying for the privledge to playing halo online?, do you have a PC, do you have a copy of halo? ...hello

yeah I am nintendo fanboy

[Gurm]

On a related note, I just saw a piece of spam advertising that said "get a free XBox 360" (I presume you have to punch a monkey, or shoot GW Bush with a painball, or win some retarded trivia contest). It's one thing to falsely offer to give someone something you CAN give them... another thing entirely to offer something that is impossible to obtain.

[Gurm]

Which reminds me of a friend of mine, who when something is extremely rare refers to it as being made of "pure unobtainium".

[Elie]

Gurm... you on a roll here aren't ya?

I think what's upseting you the most is the price which without a doubt will drop eventually, I am considering buying both consoles the 360 and PS3 but you will never see me stay in line for days to get one, Only when the price is right.

Also I really think the 360 and PS3 are powerfull consoles, the 360 was just released, give em a few months heck I give them a year to come out with awesome games taking advantage of the CPUs and graphics chip (which is really the X1800 XL)

As for the Nintendo box, I don't like any of it's games so I won't be buying one!

Regards,
Elie

[schmosef]

And nintendo's revolution will offer online gaming, and it wil be totally free. It might be hard finding people to play with , but that will improve of they make some good games suitable of online gaming, they certainly make some good muliplayer games.

Paying for the privledge to playing halo online?, do you have a PC, do you have a copy of halo? ...hello

yeah I am nintendo fanboy

Nintendo has said that the Revolution will be able to play old games but I don't recall them elaborating too much on their online plans or cost structure. Totally free? Really? Where did you hear that?

[Mehen]

Also I really think the 360 and PS3 are powerfull consoles, the 360 was just released, give em a few months heck I give them a year to come out with awesome games taking advantage of the CPUs and graphics chip (which is really the X1800 XL)

Next flagship ATI core will be out next month. I think the point is that the consoles will already surpassed in gpu power, and we all know that the cell processors can't come close to the power of a AMD or Intel.

(May be called the X1900, name not finalized though.)

[Marshmallowman]

from

http://www.cube.jolt.co.uk/index.php?articleid=3934

What’s going to separate the Revolution from the other two consoles doesn’t lie in its technical specifications, nor how many polygons it can push. It lies, in our humble opinion, in two things. Firstly, Nintendo have set up a deal with Broadcom to provide wi-fi functionality straight out of the box. By itself, this is nothing remarkable (in fact, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 will be equipped with wireless capabilities), but Nintendo have announced plans to set up an online gaming service that will surpass Xbox Live and – the best bit – will be absolutely free. Here’s the real head-turner though – Nintendo will be offering their entire back catalogue of NES, SNES, N64 and even GameCube games for download (for a fee) into the machine’s storage memory.

I actually read in an official Nintendo statement, but thats all I could find googleing around.
The fact I can put my gamecube disks in, and that I can get N64 mario karts as well as a few other "classics" is just icing on the cake.

and thats why I am a nintendo fanboy

[schmosef]

Totally free then? Not. The back catalog isn't free. And you don't have to pay to play Halo online. Live Silver is free. Live Gold costs money. For most people Silver will be fine.