Xbox 360 Launch ...

It's almost here and I'm 90% sure I'm going to pick one up. However, looking at the reviews it's not a real sure thing. Project Gotham and Perfect Dark look like the two best games and Gotham already got a good review ... but it's just a really good looking racing game and I always thought the orginal was just ok and not really much worse looking. At the time I guess it was pretty darn nice to look at.

Some of the things I noticed in the video which really added to the presentation was the reflection of lights off your windshield and also the sun and shadows affecting the overall lighting. That looked great and seemed like it could add a lot of realism to a racer because when you're really driving and you hit a bright spot it can throw you off a bit and in the game it looked just the same.

Perfect Dark ... I wish they'd review it because I don't know what the think. Some parts look amazing and others don't look much better than a Nintendo 64 game ... it's pretty sad. The parts that look good look really good and the parts that look bad are horrendous.

It seems like my sole reason for checking out the system is too support some of my friends who actually have games on Xbox Live Arcade and to get a game onto Live Arcade myself. I'm more excited to play some of the Arcade games than anything else. It's quite possible that I will buy a 360 with no boxed games and just go home and download 6 games at $10 a piece instead of buying one $60 'big' game.

I think it could be fun to play some of the 'big' games on Xbox Live but most of the time I don't want to just sit in front of my TV to play a game online ... or off. I really dig my PSP and now Nintendo DS (Mario Kart is a hoot) for online play since I can roam anywhere in my house and still play online.

My overall impression of the 360 is still pretty bleh. I've played a number of the games and the only ones I really liked were both arcade games. Marble Blast Ultra (the multiplayer specifically) and Geometry Wars. In the store I played Call of Duty 2, King Kong, and Kameo. They were all ok but I'm really a bit upset that they didn't set up demos for Project Gotham and Perfect Dark. Those seem to be the two biggest titles and I have a feeling they just aren't that great.

The most impressive thing I've seen for gaming in a while is Grand Theft Auto on PSP. Holding a whole city in the palm of your hand is great ... everything about the big games has made it into the portable and it amazes me to have that kind of fidelity in a tiny system. Hate to say it but traditional consoles are wearing thin in my eyes. I don't see much benefit to my gaming experience coming from the 360 that couldn't be done better on another platform or even on the original Xbox. The controller is amazing though ... most comfortable ever. Guess I'll see how I feel after I have one hooked up with some good playtime under my belt.

Yeah I kinda feel the same. I want to pick one up, but mainly for the Live Arcade aspect - being able to play Gauntlet, Geometry Wars and Outpost Kaloki appeals more than playing Kameo, PGR3 and PD0.

I don't have time for 'big' games anymore anyway (it's taken me several months to get half-way through RE4), so the small Live Arcade games will suit me fine.

gotham racing series is actualy my favourite overall. I played them both more than Forza and GT series. And with the original Xbox launch I played Gotham for 18 hours in the first 3 days, and only 7 of halo.

I'm not really interested in Xbox live Arcade to be honest. I just don't see myself playing any of the games, but then casual games and retro games were never my thing. Had enough of them the first time round.

Kameo is supposed to be a surprisingly good game. But too old school traditional console game for me I think.

Man, I can't stand the GTA series lol. I liked the original that was 2D top down. But all the rest were nausiatingly boring. I'm all for open ended gameplay, but only if its not repetitive little errands that all end up being pretty much the same thing.

I think I'm reallu a PC gamer looking for a console to play PC games on the TV with. Hope HDTV means some real good RTS titles come out. Other than that, I want to plug my camera and mp3 player into the 360 and hope it gets hacked enough to allow you to play and stream more formats off of your PC.

I've kind of gone off of console games, but mostly because I have a new video card, and can enjoy the latest games the way they were meant to be played. Gamepads suck for almost anything but racing games really.

I liked GTA when it was 2D also but it got way better for me when it went 3D. I'm surprised you don't like it. The vehicle physics are superb and the inclusion of motocylcles in the portable Liberty City are great. There are so many jumps and stuff that weren't in Vice City ... and I never played San Andreas. No game has better realistic collisions than this ... tires can go flat now, doors dent and flap in the wind, hoods break off. What's not too love? Some of the missions can be simple and boring but a lot of them are hilarious.

I guess it depends on the person playing to make it fun for themselves. For example in one mission I had to hijack a limo carrying this union lady boss. You're supposed to take her on a wild ride crashing into things etc... (without killing her) until she folds. I didn't mess around on the streets in typical fasion ... I just drove around to my favorite hill and drove the limo off at full speed. The lady went from calm to completely begging for mercy in one fowl swoop ... it was great.

There are so many types of missions too ... some involve sniping, straight gun fights, races, demolition, delivery. The game pretty much does it all ... like who needs any other game. Oh ... and on the PSP version they added some more cool side quests. One is a car salesmen ... you have to take people for a ride in the car of their choice and drive it to suit their needs which is fun.

One other really big thing is the inclusion of multiplayer. I haven't gotten to try it out yet because it's only for local play and I don't know any other PSP owners but there are a ton of multiplayer modes. I can't wait to try them out because that's something I've always wanted in GTA.

Overall the PSP GTA is the best one for me. You can still go crazy blowing things up if you want, or you can spend time finding all the crazy stunt bonuses and hidden packages, and of course you can follow the storyline which in this version is a great mix of Vice City and GTA III. There's more character in it than both of those I think and the voice acting is also excellent.

Basically, just saying that having a game this big on a portable is much more impressive to me technically than any of the Xbox 360 launch titles. Even if you don't like the game that much it's amazing to hold such detailed bustling city in the palm of your hands.

yeah, I wouldn't play portable games much, which is why I don't own one and never really played one since the atari lynx california games.

With GTA I just don't like it on so many levels. But then I'm one of the people that agrees with age regulations on video games. And don't much care for the content in the 3D gta games, It's just not my thing since I don't like being made to do things I find distastefull in real life. Basicly what the game is about.

I think its a shame that Rockstar havent put their creativity into something more uplifting.

I can see how it would make for a better handheld game though, since the gameplay is more of your pick up and play variety than deeply involving. So you can play it 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there without really losing your involvement with the story.

I don't understand why the hell Microsoft doesn't manufacture enough to meet demand? I would purchase one if I didn't need to be on a calling list and could just walk in to the store, pay cash, and walk away with a console.

People need to learn lesson #1 of selling things: If you want people to buy your product, make it easy to buy! In the time it takes for the Xbox 360 to make it easily available in stores, another product could grab my attention instead.

Microsoft is doing what Sony did with the PS2. They give a short supply and announce to the press that it's sold out everywhere because it's the hottest thing on the market, thus creating more buzz in the general public. It is pretty retarded.

I can not wait to play geometry wars. Looks like the killer app to me.

yeah, they also told retailers that you can only purchase bundles with 2-3 games included. So you can't just buy a console with 1 or no games.

I don't think this kind of thing should even be allowed. Apparently some people started queuing up for Xbox360's outside some stores an hour ago, 26 hours before the midnight launch tomorrow night.

There is a good reason for this:

In a major game console launch like the XBox 360, they will sell millions of units the first week, and the numbers sold will quickly drop to a high-but-significantly-less number.

So to have a unit ready on launch day for everyone, they would either:

1) Microsoft can start producing them in greater numbers by creating more factories/production lines.
Of course that will be much more expensive to set up, train all people involved, etc.. After cranking out the initial launch number, demand will drop to a much lower level again when looked at units sold per week... So most of these new lines would be sitting empty, gathering dust and wasting money since you don't need all of them to supply your regular demand.
Motherboard/CPU/chip assembly lines are insanely expensive, these factories cost hundreds of millions of dollars to open.

or:

2) You can start making them months earlier to end up with a larger number in stock on opening day. That means that for those months
- You are literally sitting on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of inventory you don't want to sell yet
- Technology always marches on. By artificially delaying your launchdate by months, the new consoles will be 'less' advanced compared to normal PC's than if they were released six months earlier.
- Delaying your launch date for months will leave enable your competitors (Sony, Nintendo) to release -their- units first, stealing your thunder and part of your potential customer base

So in general, they spend a number of months creating hype and making units to have a 'significant' number of units available on launch date, but to make enough to supply them to everyone on day one does not make business sense, in more than one way.

yeah, it doesn't help that the launch is worldwide within a few weeks of one another. And if some serious flaw should turn up, better to fix it before you have too many manufactured.

Sony are launching PS3 in the spring, but in the US and Europe a good 9 months later.

Nintendo are considering launching in Europe first with the revolution. Which will be a first for them lol

Sony are releasing in the spring? of which year?

2006, allegedly.

March, April 06 in Japan, Oct/Nov 2006 in the EU and US.

This is so great! I'm at a job site sitting in my work truck while it's raining and my 1 employee finishes his part of the job ... posting this connected to some random wi fi!

Now about the 360. I'll be in line tonight but if I don't get one I won't be too sad.

Wow that took like forever to type on PSP!

I was pretty excited about the 360 for a while. But the short
supply and the way the games are running so choppy right
now makes me think I should wait a bit. (Have you guys
seen the commercial for Godzilla? Even the footage in the
commercials are choppy as hell. You'd think they'd hide that)

[edit] and then there are those 360 commercials that
show people jump-roping, having a huge waterballon fight
and having fun in general.
It's a horrible way to advertise a gaming console because
it makes me think "Man, the real world looks alot more fun
than any game console. I want to do that instead!"

Anyone agree?

I am probably giving it a miss too. Having far to much fun with PC games again now that I have a PS3 video card, plus without a HDTV in the house, I don't think the visuals are going to look that much better anyway.

Next gen seems overpriced unless you look at them as multimedia stations, and they don't support enough media formats to be all that useful yet.

If I get the TV job I'm interviewing for next Monday, I'll probably get one.

Havent seen the Xbox 360 ads in the US. The original Xbox ones were terrible. I don't have any TV service here at home, just use the telly for playing games and watching videos.