The seeds of gaming for the next four years have been planted. The XBOX 360 is to be the most powerful gaming machine ever released. The future offers a palette so broad and powerful, that the limits of what designers dream and what can be done has begun to blur. This new and expansive palette comes at a much increased price, with game prices rising on average of ten to fifteen (US) dollars. Peripherals are the same, with controllers and memory cards costing more than at any time memorable in video gaming. The first shot in the new console war has been fired. Not since the days of super nintendo and sega genesis has there been a rivalry so strong as the one between xbox 360 and playstation 3. However, playstation 3 is some six months to a year away. The fates can be either cruel or generous to microsoft for this early entry to the market. Marketshare must be won by microsoft. The entire future for 360 is based on that gamble. Surely the 360 has a huge advantage in the united states. However, where dominance really matters, the Japanese cooly regard the 360 from a distance. Japan is Sony's fortress, Xbox can survive in Japan only if they sell so many units in the united states that Japanese developers cannot ignore the installed base of eager buyers. Oddly, all seems quiet on the Sony front. No playstation 2 price cuts or critical releases to counter microsoft's thunder. The Sony reaction is puzzling. Has the weakness in the consumer products division affected the playstation division? This uncontested console release seems to reflect poorly on sony. However, the day is yet over and suprises may lurk. A new age of gaming has begun, where the lines of cinema and gaming blur. Let the games begin.
I wonder how much longer Microsoft is going to continue selling original Xboxes before the pull the plug? When they do that will definitely be the time to stock up on games as they'll all be relegated to the clearance bin for sure.
The local best buy had only 20 of the full bundle, and some 100 of the base unit. No games I could see except the EA ones, it's a search to find either condemned or ridge racer 6, so I didn't bother buying a 360 if there were no games to be had.
My friend just said a funny thing. Commenting about the lack of excitement for the new console launch, "There is no heart in new games" anyone agree?
I know what you mean... I think this stems from the fact that some new games, or games that are still under development look so damn good, I mean realllyyy nice, some even play superbly as well! ...The trouble with this is that we take things for granted, we now expect too much from a game, in real terms. For instance, pick a 'modern' car game, you can do damn near anything and everthing with a car nowadays and the effects can be amazing, so I'd argue that some new games can have a heart if you look deep enough and your that way inclined i.e a car racing enthusiast for instance. ...In days gone by the games usually looked crap but the game play either saved it or sunk it and crucially we were all younger thus we tended to be biased to looking back and saying "that was nicer" when in fact 'yes' it was nice 20 years ago but it had little or no competion. ...I know for sure that if I try to get my son to play games like Asteriod's or such like, he soon gets bored, and hankers for the likes of the latest games because they are what he's grown up with, thus he won't accept anything less than 'perfect'.
I think it's about the dread of hollywood titles, crap games. After all, 360 can get close to cinematic , so why not rambo 360, poltegeist 360, titanic 360, etc. However, I am hopeful for super realistic mech games, I pray they grace us with a steel battalion 3
Of course when most devs move from Xbox to Xbox 360 and let the Xbox dev license lapse, MS *does* require that the original Xbox hardware be returned. Sure, some will make it into the wild, but there won't be this huge flow of dev hardware. -hl718
microsoft seemed pretty picky over the hardware, but I am pretty sure that xbox dev has at least one more gen of games in it.
come late winter early spring, we'll see xbox prices slashd to about 120 cdn, ive already seen games such as shenmue 2 for 12 dollars...... and to be honest, i havent been this much UNinterested in a console launch ever.......games themselves look only slighter better than the latest pc offering,...only reason to buy one now is for bragging rights and bragging rights alone........
Where I checked EA games were stocked up but I didn't see any copies of Quake 4, King Kong, Call to Duty 2 where I went. Buying the hard drive separately was impossible as far as I saw.
i was at a target today and tried out the xbox 360 at a display. i cant say i thought it was anything special. i played king kong and call of duty for a bit...the graphics are an improvement, but in both cases the gameplay just sucked. the blade? interface chugged. the game froze once. and i find the controller is too small for my hands. bla. i would have bought one allready if i knew the xbox 360 was going to support more of my old games, im kind of pissed off at microsoft about that. though, ill probably buy one when a burnout title gets its release. i have been meaning to spend some time with steel battalion, but it looks like i might be too late...i heard microsoft was discontinuing its online support. i hope thats not true.
Where's the innovation? 8-bit- 2-d sidescrollers 16-bit - arcade ports, faster processing 32/64-bit- 3-d environments 128-bit -dual analog, cinematic games next gen- AI? apparently not a great leap forward for the 360. controls? nope, same as last. internet? a little nicer, but nothing a PC hasnn't been doing for years processing power? maybe, but pushing those kinds of graphics will undoubtedly create bottlenecking as well as bore me to death with load times or glitzy graphics while I waste away waiting for the games with good gameplay. Those seem to come toward the end of a generation aka God of War, Ninja Gaiden, oh wait except for Nintendo, I never seem to have gameplay issues with them, just patiently waiting Zelda games.
