XBOX 360

I fucking HATE Halo 2. I was in Gamecrazy the other day and I mentioned how much Halo 2 sucked balls, and some guy was like "WHAT! Your crazy!", Like Im some shit eating fucktard. I told him that Halflife 2 was better and he didn't say anything. :twisted:
 
TorontRayne said:
I fucking HATE Halo 2. I was in Gamecrazy the other day and I mentioned how much Halo 2 sucked balls, and some guy was like "WHAT! Your crazy!", Like Im some shit eating fucktard. I told him that Halflife 2 was better and he didn't say anything. :twisted:
Click to expand...

Or they REALLY hate it when you point out a game where you can get hundreds of new maps for free, hundreds of mods for free, and the game isn't a buggy piece of shit - Unreal Tournament 2004.

"Oh, Halo, that's that quaint guns akimbo shooter with shiny graphics but otherwise less gameplay and real innovation than games that came out years before, like Blood?"

Really, Halo/Halo 2's maps are so overrated, as they tend to be rather formulaic and without much diversity, that the gameplay and general combat strategy is the same no matter where you go, and the crappy design includes the rather uninspired boss at the end of Halo 2. Hell, MDK actually offered level design and a bit of difficulty with the bosses.

Irony is when you can get most console kiddies to shut up about their overhyped Microsoft iMac by pointing out real games to them. Console trash, especially the Medal of Honor/Call to Duty and associated cloned garbage EA has mercilessly shit onto the market, is just that - trash.
 
Graz'zt said:
I thought stability and absence of bugs out of the box was supposed to be the biggest edge consoles had over PC?
Click to expand...
It's made by microsoft, duh. Those are expected by those of us who know, but x-box people don't understand when their windows based console crashes like a pc. It happens. It's built in by microsoft.
 
Actually, the X-Box instability is caused by overheating power supplies, which is not really one of Microsoft's faults, since they probably used an external supplier for the power supply.
 
Dove said:
It's made by microsoft, duh. Those are expected by those of us who know, but x-box people don't understand when their windows based console crashes like a pc. It happens. It's built in by microsoft.
Click to expand...
It's a hardware-related issue (see Sander's link), and XBox 360 isn't the only console to suffer from such issues (remember faulty PS2's?). Conclusion - console hardware blows.
 
I have to call bullshit on heating, after seeing one of these overpriced space heaters in action and crash right on the boot-up screen. It's not just a hardware issue, as heat has nothing to do with that kind of error, and there are other problems with the console people have seen and I have seen that make it clear that a number of code flaws are also inherent into the beast.

Then Microsoft has the balls to say it's an isolated issue that will not affect many. But "overloaded support channels" and "massive forum bitch sessions including hundreds of people" says "Microsoft is lying, again".
 
Roshambo said:
I have to call bullshit on heating, after seeing one of these overpriced space heaters in action and crash right on the boot-up screen. It's not just a hardware issue, as heat has nothing to do with that kind of error, and there are other problems with the console people have seen and I have seen that make it clear that a number of code flaws are also inherent into the beast.

Then Microsoft has the balls to say it's an isolated issue that will not affect many. But "overloaded support channels" and "massive forum bitch sessions including hundreds of people" says "Microsoft is lying, again".
Click to expand...
I actually doubt that, Rosh. An overheating power-supply can massively destabilize any piece of hardware due to instability in the power supplied. This can cause really random and unpredictable results, as I've experienced with several PCs before. Often the fix is to replace the power supply with a more powerful one, or to, indeed, cool it better.
Plus, obviously, problems are fixed when the power supply is lifted off the ground, letting more heat out, making it even more likely that it really is almost solely the power supply.
 
I had power problems with my graphics card when I bought it, I had forgotten to connect something. The results were indeed very weird. I think most, but not all, of the xbox 360 problems are due to power overheating. It might get fixed later, whatever it is though, so I'm waiting before I buy one.
 
But these kinda 'overheating' problems should have been called out and fixed BEFORE it was released... now they've got a bunch of pissed off xbox fans
 
Y'know...

Microsoft has a tradition of sending out people to stand in line in front of stores. They did it for their software releases to.

It gets the craze started

Prolly did the same here
 
Sander said:
I actually doubt that, Rosh. An overheating power-supply can massively destabilize any piece of hardware due to instability in the power supplied. This can cause really random and unpredictable results, as I've experienced with several PCs before. Often the fix is to replace the power supply with a more powerful one, or to, indeed, cool it better.
Plus, obviously, problems are fixed when the power supply is lifted off the ground, letting more heat out, making it even more likely that it really is almost solely the power supply.
Click to expand...

About 25 years of electronics troubleshooting says that it's pretty hard to believe that a cold, unused power supply can have thermal runaway leading to your DC voltage supply sending AC spikes down the line, when it hasn't really been used before. Yes, some people actually shelled out nearly half a grand for a game system, games, and extras, only to not get past the boot screen. The system has an aneurysm as it goes through the bootstrap and fades to dark.

Ouch.
 
Damn, even the Economist is writing on this-

The Xbox factor

Nov 22nd 2005
From The Economist Global Agenda

Microsoft’s release of its Xbox 360 video-games console begins a new phase in the battle to remove Sony’s PlayStation from the top spot. If it succeeds, the software giant may be tempted to make more incursions into the competitive market for home-entertainment hardware. Rivals beware

Reuters/AP

VIDEO gamers who are keen on action games set in wartime will be familiar with the tactic of launching an offensive at dead of night. The technique was not lost on Microsoft this week, as it opened the latest front in the war of the video consoles. At a minute past midnight on Tuesday November 22nd, the technology giant unleashed the Xbox 360, the latest version of its console, in shops around North America, where battle-hardened gamers had queued for hours for a place on the frontline. The new Xbox will go on sale in Europe and Japan in coming weeks.
Click to expand...

Does anyone have this thing? Is it any good?
I don't own, or plan to own, a console. That said, is it worth the hype?

Despite Microsoft’s impregnable strength as a producer of software, its foray into hardware brings it up against two other considerable powers, both from Japan: Sony and Nintendo.
Click to expand...

Further evidence that Japan is sinking further into cultural decay.

The last round of engagements in the consoles war produced a clear winner in Sony, which has sold 96m PlayStation 2 boxes around the world since its launch in 2000. By contrast, Microsoft’s Xbox, launched in 2001, has sold 22m units, while Nintendo’s GameCube trails with sales of 19m.
Click to expand...

Which explains why there are so few good PC games.

Microsoft is hoping that by stealing a march on its competitors, it can make up ground on Sony and leave Nintendo floundering in its wake. In the Xbox 360’s first three months on the market, the American firm wants to sell up to 3m units worldwide. But Sony and Nintendo are marshalling their forces for a counterattack: the PlayStation 3 is set for launch in the spring of 2006 and Nintendo’s new Revolution console will follow sometime later in the year. Microsoft will be hoping that its early move proves decisive. After all, speedy launches have shifted the balance of power in this business before: Nintendo once ruled supreme, but Sony usurped it by getting the PlayStation 2 on to the shelves before its rivals’ competing new offerings.
Click to expand...

Isn't this going to kill the console business- new generations of console systems, games that can't run on each other's systems- the more sophisticated the software the more difficult to replicate across systems?

Again, I know diddly about consoles, so could someone explain this?

But if competing consoles did fuck the industry, could that mean a revival for PC games?

The dominance of PlayStation 2 was not just the result of its early arrival on the market. The console also supported games made for the original PlayStation, it could be used as a DVD player, and Sony’s good relationship with publishers ensured a steady supply of top-selling games. Furthermore, Sony aimed its product not only at the teenagers that were Nintendo’s core market but, by producing more sophisticated (and, indeed, more violent) games, at older and wealthier players too.

The last Xbox was a powerful piece of kit that appealed mainly to hard-core gamers, but it has lost Microsoft a considerable sum of money. This time, the firm is trying to tap a broader market through clever marketing, such as the unveiling of the Xbox 360 on MTV, and a deliberate push to capture market share in Japan. The Xbox has made almost no impression in its two rivals’ home country—its share of the consoles market there is less than 1%. Microsoft hopes to rectify this by producing a wider range of Japanese titles.
Click to expand...

Anticipate a wave of Japanese protections for it's companies as they seek to dump their product on the US. Thus Sony killed Zenith.

The Xbox 360 has been launched with what is generally regarded as an impressive selection of new games. Keeping up this momentum is vital to its success. Microsoft hopes the new console, which retails at around $300 for the most basic version, will at least break even. That would not be as bad as it sounds. Video-games consoles are traditionally sold at a loss. Profits tend to come from the sales of games and peripherals, and these are potentially vast. In America in 2004, revenue from game sales amounted to some $20 billion, exceeding cinema box-office receipts.
Click to expand...

Damn... that's a lot of fucking money.

Microsoft’s main aim is to get close to or even overhaul Sony. The Japanese firm is pinning its hopes on the processing power and storage capacity of its new console, which will include a revolutionary processing unit based on the new Cell chip, developed with IBM and Toshiba. But this approach is such a radical change from the operation of the old console that games developers will be forced to start from scratch, using a new style of computer programming to produce games for the PlayStation 3. Any resulting hitches with the new technology or the supply of games could place Sony at a disadvantage. Furthermore, when it comes to online gaming, the PlayStation is deemed to be some way behind the Xbox. That shortcoming matters, because playing games over the internet is becoming more popular as broadband access spreads.

However, Sony has bigger plans for the console and the Cell chip. By including a Blu-ray optical drive in the PlayStation 3, it hopes to promote its own standard for the next generation of DVDs, and the console as a device for playing them. Sony is currently locked in a battle with Toshiba, which, despite helping to develop the Cell chip, is pushing an alternative DVD standard. Sony also hopes to use the Cell chip in high-definition televisions, music players and a range of household electronics. The PlayStation 3 will be the first device equipped with the new chip, and its performance will thus be closely watched. So for Sony, maintaining a lead in video gaming is key to the group’s overall health.
Click to expand...

Sounds like Sumo wrestling to me.

Microsoft’s push into video gaming is small beer compared with its dominance of the global software industry. But the company is still hungry for success, and many think it could grab enough market share to draw level with Sony, if not overtake it. And the Xbox is merely Microsoft’s first stab at manufacturing hardware that runs its own software and online services. A happy outcome would convince the software giant that it should invest more of its billions in the increasingly alluring market for electronic home-entertainment devices (an iPod-bashing music player may come next). Expect battles on a number of fronts in the years ahead.
Click to expand...

And so the fate of the world lies at stack-
Nintendoworld, Planet Microsoft or Playstation Earth?
 
welsh said:
Isn't this going to kill the console business- new generations of console systems, games that can't run on each other's systems- the more sophisticated the software the more difficult to replicate across systems?

Again, I know diddly about consoles, so could someone explain this?

But if competing consoles did fuck the industry, could that mean a revival for PC games?
Click to expand...
Nope, it isn't. It's happened before, with the introduction of the PS2/X-Box/Gamecube, it ins't going to revive the PC, nor is it going to kill console games.
Basically, every few years a new 'round' of console gaming starts: one competitor publishes a new console, and the others have to quickly follow or they will be seen as slow movers. Plus, many players will soon choose for the first published system because:
1) It's new, and hence cool.
2) It has more new games than the consoles published later.
3) It's better than what they had, and the only thing available.

That's a lot of market share.
Besides that, because of the few competitors, the competition is very clear. In PCs this is not so. The evolotion has a lot more stages, videocards, CPUs, soundcards and other components are published with several groups in mind: the budget gamer, the tweaker, the high-end gamer and on and on.
This effectively means that it's a lot cheaper and easier to upgrade a PC than to upgrade a console (purchase a new component vs. purchase a new system).

Basically, the old system won't change, but for the fact that consoles have taken a new step hardware-wise.
 
Come on.

TMNT on the NES was pretty cool.

"Go into the sewers to proceed. You can do it"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top