XBOX360 Launch Count Down!

Please no trolling! If you arent excited or hate XBOX360, please don't post anything!

Only 12 more days!

Who has one preordered? Also what games are you planning on getting?

EDIT: 7 Days! Who wants to play Pefect Dark Zero online next week?

EDIT: 6 Days! Ugh... time to eat.

EDIT: 5 Days!

Im having a hard time picking between PS3 and Xbox 360. I would choose the Xbox but most of my favourite games are on PS. Why cant they combine?! :(

Here in the UK a lot of shops are laughing at me when I go to pre-order the 'full' version of the XBOX 360. Apparently the high end hard drive version will be in super short supply. Although from quizzing them they have no real data to base this assumption on.

Not one single shop has accurate information to work on regarding stock levels. Alot have stopped at 30 pre-orders per store without any facts at hand.

Out of all the latest consoles I feel the Nintendo Revolution is gonna be well cool due its unique control pad method. For a change its not all about how things look on screen.

Allthough if the Xbox 360 & PS3's graphics are really a huge step from the previous incarnations of the consoles and much better than the Revolutions then it'll be interesting to see who wins.

I'm looking forward to all three of the next gen consoles. I can't wait to see what the xbox 360 & ps3 can do graphically and I'm really looking forward to some good gameplay innovation on the Revolution. If they make a Star Wars light sabre game on the Revolution, I'm in the shops immediately.

I dont understand, when will it be available in Australia ?

I think the nintendo system will end up being everyones favourite second system (as far as hardcore gamers go). With the controler I expect there will be a deluge of gimmicky games, and a few good first and third party games.

As far as Xbox and PS3 go, PS3 is a long way off with no concrete demo's that actualy show what it does. Sony already said this week that they aren't pushing too hard on the online, leaving networked games up to developers rather than building a integrated networked platform like xbox live.

Xbox 360 certainly has a nice lineup if the games suit your tastes. Unfortunately Oblivion won't be avaliable at launch. But with about 20 games, half of which I'd consider purchasing if I had the money. I think its pretty damned cool.

4 indie games will be avaliable at launch not including the free one that will come with the "full".

I'm starting to get turned off of Sony, as they seem to be full of wind and piling on the hype without actualy showing anything. Plus, even though the system launches in Japan in March, everyone else has to wait till the end of the year. So a full year to go.

Also talk of dropping some of the features from the PS3 to cut costs, one being the router (not a big deal).

The thing I like least of all though is Sony's DRM ambitions. Particularly with all the recent media coverage and rumours that with blueray disks, titles can be locked to a specific drive making it possible to prevent people using the disk in other systems. (will be interesting to see how that develops).

So it looks like Xbox will most likely be best for me, particularly when I typicaly don't like the top Japanese games franchises. Whether I get one or not depends on how long I can hold onto my money.

At the moment I'm considering a used light weight stainless steel racing exhaust and cold air intake with cool box. Or a 24" widescreen LCD monitor, or the Xbox360 full version with 2 games.

Decisions decisions :(

has any one found any info on Backwards compatibility
on the xbox 360 , i cant seem to find any official statement that says it will play old games

it will play some old games. Don't think there is an official list though. Last I heard, the plan was to start with more popular games and add more later via xbox live and cover disks.

I know Halo 2 works, shame I don't care for the halo games.

I believe the most recent "plan" on backwards compatibility was that old xbox games would be re-compiled for xbox360 - i.e. you couldn't just buy an xbox game (or pull one from your library), you have to buy a "remastered" version. Which would be total pants.

But the last I heard was that they'd even given up on that and admitted that backwards compatibility wouldn't be there.

My suspicion is that your old xbox games will NOT work straight on xbox360, BUT that you can buy / collect remastered versions online and download them directly.

Which would be handy, given the rumours of a complete dearth of true launch software. M$ references to 10s of titles being available in the "launch window" is thought to refer to the first 6 MONTHS after launch, not the first day of sale, or even weeks before xmas. I will not be surprised in the least if the number of games available pre-Christmas is in the single figures. Which isn't necessarily bad - it's all that most other console lauches have ever had...

But in all, I don't care much for xbox360 or PS3. Revolution excites me the most, assuming the controller works (a big assumption methinks).

mark: I don't know where you got your info, but it is just plain wrong.

Backwards compatability on 360 has always been that you can 'just put the disc in and play'.

Not all games will work. M$ have always maintained that the top titles will work on day of release (Halo 2 for instance) and that other games will be made to work by small patches downloadable free on Xbox Live.

> Here in the UK a lot of shops are laughing at me when
> I go to pre-order the 'full' version of the XBOX 360.

I'm laughing at you too.

Preordered my XBox 360 long ago ... will go and get it on December 2nd when its out in Europe :-)

Free magazines have confirmed that next to no game runs at the moment. Halo 2 and a few others, that's it for the moment.
But I don't mind much about it. It will take me some time to finish D&A 4, Kameo, PD:Z and NFS:MW ;-)

From the previous console war, who do you think won. Who do you think came on top out of the PS2, GameCube and the X-Box?

The previous was won by Sony.
But that was before they only created crap and lost more and more money as they actually do. And the PS3 with a production price around 700$ thanks to blue ray won't make the situation better.
So the chance that the next war win between MS and Sony will go to MS is quite high. (not talking of the year or even 0,5 to 1,5 years they launch before Sony in US/Europe)

Nintendo does not mind anyway. They don't target the same market ... they try to catch the non- and casual gamers ie a usergroup that is worlds larger than the potential usergroup for MS and Sony together ....

It's a waste of time pre-ordering. What happens when something new comes out? Yes, its full of faults/bugs.

The best thing to do is wait 6 months so that they have time to sort out all the problems. The price may have dropped too!

Yes and no.
It depends on what you buy and what the offer is ... like the limited stuff you get with XBox 360 preorder (like remote control).

and I don't think it will drop in price because PS3 will be even more expensive ... the only reason to drop it would be a revolution thats world cheaper and selling like hell.
And at least the later isn't most likely going to happen.

> The price may have dropped too!

Of course.

> But that was before they only created crap and lost
> more and more money as they actually do.

I don't know why you're even speculating, Sony will continue to dominate.
If it's been confirmed that virtually no games run at the moment on XBox 360, then I can't see why it's even been released. Then again this is Microsoft we're talking about.

It's only original xbox games which are not running.
Although, it looks like their approach for backwards compatability is working, the bungie site has just put up screenshots of a standard copy of halo and halo2 running on the 360 (standard as in standard xbox disk, not a remastered/tweaked version), showing the gfx improvements that the 360 automagically does (only a bit of AA, and alternate screen sizing).

I have to admit to having a 360 on order, first console I've even considered since the wonders of dreamcast :D

The revolution still looks very nice though, particularly interested in the 'hints' that indi development may be possible with it...

Cant wait for the xbox360

Played CoD2, Kameo on it and it RULES.

So many games I want to play and try are coming out on launch day. Ive been saving for a long time so I can go and get the Full Xbox360 (core unit isnt a good deal by any means, but im glad that 1/10 will only be the core unit) and 8 games, maybe 2-3 more xbox 1 games.

its been confirmed for a couple of months that allmost all games can be made to run on xbox 360. Initialy there will be a limited number of top selling games as it's not a priority. However they will be adding patches over time so that all games that are in demand will run.

Thats been all over the news for quite some time, best place to follow the news is gametab.com which keeps track of 25 of your favourite gaming sites with headlines for each one.

Don't you guys wanting to play ordinary XBox games already have an XBox anyway?

The only way I could see backwards compatibility being a problem is if some awesome game comes out for XBox after the launch of XBox 360 and there's no equivalent version - in which case it'll probably ship with XBox 360 backwards compatibility support.

Or do you just throw your old console away?

I guess if we're buying a next-gen system it'll probably be the Nintendo one. The missus is always eyeing up those bongo drums for the Gamecube so if we're getting a new console I'm guessing it'll be the one with interesting and fun control methods. Since we only have one TV it's just the quick fun games that get played.

The XBox we have now does perfectly well at what I bought it for - being a media player, and I'm not buying a new one just so I can use MS's crapped down version of XBox Media Center. I spose if there's some good games though...

You'll be able to download emulation software for any Xbox game in demand for your 360.

I don't like the clutter of multiple consoles, so I'd prefer to chuck the ones I'm not using in the shed. Only think is that Xbox is better than 360 for multimedia (if its modded or softmodded).

I doubt that 360 will play quicktime, ogg, divx, Xvid etc like my old xbox does

Yeah well anyone sane just uses a dvd player.

no, everyone sane use the methods that are easier for them.
I have the PC hooked up to my projector for easy viewing. I would never have to burn stuff to DVD's before watching it.

I'm quite sane, I don't need to burn DVD's either, I just stream my favourite TV shows off of my PC over the network. I quit cable in 2001 and havent watched TV at all since. But I do download the odd show I like from the UK that aren't avaliable here. Like fifth gear etc.

US TV used to suck and have adverts every 7 minutes, the stuff you download is often better quality minus the adverts. The xbox makes for a real nice player and automaticly adjusts for widescreen, PAL and NTSC.

I do have a DVD player but I havent used it in years, too cheap to buy another component and optical SPdif cable to switch between them and Xbox has a lot more playback features than DVD players do if you use XBMC. not to mention streaming radio and video off of the internet, music and digital photo browsing. If xbox360 is anywhere near as flexible I'll be really surprised.

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/



check out the features and see if your DVD player can do this:

http://www.xboxmediacenter.com/info_project.htm

11 days!

What games does everyone have pre-ordered?

I pre-ordered Kameo, Pefect Dark Zero, and Amped 3.

I havent pre ordered, but will get one before christmas if I can. Oblivion, Gotham 3 and Amped 3 are the games I want most. Prefer to get games that I kind of know when I'm spending a lot of money. I'll rent the rest and see what takes my fancy. I'm pretty interested in the rare ones, just not sure.

Ok, sorry to bring a negative into this, but I've been checking out the demo 360 systems on display.

Is anyone else dissapointed in what they are seeing? I have not yet seen anything that makes me want to buy the system, and what really bugs me is the demos have horrible framerates. It's great to have all these shader effects and high def, but if it's only playing at 20fps, it just doesn't seem enough of a leap.

is it just me? I'm planning on waiting for what PS3 has to offer before making up my mind, and I hope this framerate thing is not a sign of things to come.

I haven't, and wont be, pre-ordering. Not that I wouldn't like to, but I'm saving up some cash so I can buy a house. That's all my spare money accounted for for the next 6 months.

Honestly, the only game I'm interested in is PGR3. PGR2 and Forza were (in the end) the only games I actually played on my Xbox.

By the time I can afford a 360, the price will have come down, bugs will have been ironed out and mod-chips will be available and affordable. It is also my intention to purchase with it a projector capable of 1080p output. Not so much so that I can play 360 games in hi-def, I've actually got quite a number of films at that resolution already.

**EDIT** I will be treating myself to a 360 controller for my PC, when they're available in the UK.

I think that this is the problem that both 360 and ps3 will face. What exactly is the killer reason for upgrading, other than for upgrades sake? 360 have a reasonable answer with their media centre, and online offerings. Although I still struggle to see the mainstream appeal of this : if you have a PC, you can do many of the same things already.

I don't doubt that Sony will win out (or at worst have a close tie) in this generation, purely from a brand thing, but there isn't really a unique selling point for ps3, other than the software. And that's what always wins me over - I wait until I see the games for a year, then pick the platform with the most games that I want.

Which is why I recently upgraded my PC.

That's what I thought too. Seemed to be a case of, "throw tons of eye candy at the screen and don't worry if the game stalls or slows down."

I hope Nintendo have success with their Revolution though. The unique controller offers tons more excitement and fun.

I was dumb enough to buy a XBox just after release, about two weeks later the price dropped to less than half. Microsoft was 'kind' enough to send an extra controller and two games, as a patch on the wound, so the loss was only about a 1/4 of what I payed. Still I sure felt like an idiot.

Of course it doesn't help all the games I've got for it are rather poor, and the DVD drive is dodgy (like they always are in the first batch of consoles). So I'm not getting a 360, if I can avoid it, it's hardly a Revolution :)

I have to admit I was pretty dissapointed with the graphics as well. I was initially from the screen shots ... then seeing their support for indie developers at IGC boosted me up on the system and it does have a comfortable controller but then after playing some of the bigger games on the system it's not very impressive. It impressed me a lot more to play GTA: Liberty City Stories on my PSP ... having a whole city in the palm of your hand ... now that's a great feat. Nothing on Xbox 360 really makes me say WOW... I mean it's nicely integrated etc... but it really doesn't seem necessary.

> but there isn't really a unique selling point for ps3

Yeah, but PS3 is probably years away from release, X-box360 is next week.

I'm not surprised that most of the games look kind of like fancy PC games in many cases. Many are sungle threaded PC games and don't push the hardware as much as they should.

They havent really had the time to make proper use of the hardware in most cases. And a lot of the EA titles are pretty rushed enhanced versions of other consoles.

PS3 isn't going to be out here till this time next year. But will be released in Japan in 4-6 months from now. I noticed many of the kiosks arent set up properly in stores either and are displaying regular NTSC resolutions which sucks a bit. Project gotham looks awesome in HDTV resolution. Shame hardly anyone has HDTV yet.

Getting a 24" LCD monitor early next year which supports HDTV, may get one then. Most of the games I want are coming out in the spring anyway, and do make better use of the hardware.

I can not wait for the 360, I have saved and saved for along time so I can get it and a bunch of launch games. Nov 22 can not come quick enough.

So far the PS3 hasnt wowed me at all, and as a die hard PS1/2 fan im dissapointed in Sonys lack of vision and support. No online system like Xbox Live? get into the new century
No playable games yet? Very scary
high cost of development? MS gave TV Games Xbox360 dev kits

sony is just acting goofy.

My last hope for a good console from japan is Revolution and they will be changing the controller rumor has it. THANK GOD

I've recently had some time to play around on the demo xbox360 kiosks and both Call of Duty 2 and King Kong looked terrible, yet Kameo looked and played really well.

yeah kingkong looks like a PS2 game, but thats not surprising since that was the platform primarily developed for. Havent played COD but thats another cross platform game for PC and Xbox. Havent played that yet.

I'm interested in Kameo and the other rare games, just to see what MS spent all that money on. You could buy one hell of a lot of games and or developers for 300+ million dollars.

Hmmm, I guess that makes sense about Kong, since that was one of the games I saw. What doesn't make sense though is why the framerate was so poor,... especially if it was designed for a lesser system.

You've got to take a step back and realise that developers are working with just-past-beta development hardware and SDK's. They are also not anywhere near comfortable writing multithreaded applications.

For a developer to make full use of the 360's hardwware will mean a paradigm shift in the way they write code.

The pressure has been immense on these guys to get games ready for launch day, both from M$ and from their publishers. "Hey guys, we need to have a launch-day release so that we can make megabucks" (because they will!).

Things (framerates) will improve. There will be one or two games available on release day that will showcase the 360 and will make you want one. There will be a majority of games that look like arse, such is the inevitability of life.

Could you chuck em in MY shed? ;) Since I never owned an Xbox.

the games in the kiosks for the demos are older code, they are not the 4XAA etc enabled like the rest. This is old news.

The games on the kiosks look bad, like first gen, but at new systems like the NY Xbox360 even which was running up2date CoD2 1000X difference

the games in the kiosks for the demos are older code, they are not the 4XAA etc enabled like the rest. This is old news.

The games on the kiosks look bad, like first gen, but at new systems like the NY Xbox360 even which was running up2date CoD2 1000X difference

I'm surprised that that mediacenter still says "My Programs", "My Music", "My Pictures", "My Videos", "My Files", etc...

A couple of months ago Microsoft announced that in Windows Vista those items would all be renamed to just 'computer', 'music', 'pictures', etc.

The one thing that excites me about 360 is the XboxLive.
The player-matching feature means that if you are one of
those jerks who constantly leaves team-based multiplayer
games, you will eventually only be able to play with other
people who do the same. Nice move. Fancy graphics are
nice, but improvements in the game-experience are better.

On that note, the Nintendo's gonna grab itself a sizable
market this generation, no? Cheap price, Graphics almost
just as fancy as the competitors(because most games will
have lower screen resolutions), an incredibly original
and daring control device, and backwards compatability
with all of the major nintendo games ever made.
I'm excited.

....about the XBox also.

8 Days

7 Days

hehe, exciting stuff. I'm going to wait a few weeks before I get one since the game I want most of all got but back. Gotham 3 and Oblivion are the 2 I'm going to buy to start with.

I'm really really excited to play co-op perfect dark zero.

6 Days!