X360s in Irish shops now

steviec

I was in gamestop today and discovered an Xbox 360 booth just sitting there, running a bunch of demos. Which came as a bit of a surprise, I know its out next month but there seems to be little or no hype, in this country anyway.

But yea, gave it a bit of a go. Well mostly watched other people play but I got an impression anyway. I love the joypad. It's swaying me towards getting one already, the joypad is the number one reason I never bought an Xbox(my hands got sore when playing too long) but this one feels really comfortable, maybe even better than the Playstation.

As for the games, I saw Kameo, which looked like a copy of Metroid Prime but I never got to play it and see what its like, and then Call of Duty 2, which is basically exactly what you'd expect. Graphics were excellent, but didn't exactly scream 'next gen' at me. They looked like very very good looking Xbox games. Call of Duty was very very busy though, I was impressed at the amount going on at once with little or no slowdown. However the most impressive thing technically was the absolutely gorgeous Hi-Def screen it was running on. The booth made me want to rush out and buy a Samsung TV more than it made me wanna buy an X360.

Overall though my impressions are positive. The games that I saw aren't ones that I'd buy the console based on, I need to see some more games and see reviews. But the machine itself really looks the part, the joypads are comfortable(in my opinion the most important difference between actual systems is probably the joypads and load times, I can live with a few less polygons or whatever) and the games looked the part, I can't help wondering how it'd look on a normal Irish household tv though. And while it looked good, it never made my jaw drop and go 'wow'

So yea, I figure this is worthy of a thread for people who've tried them out to give first impressions.

honru

Like to check it out.

While Perfect Dark Zero looks nice, I definetly won't be getting a 360 at launch or for the near future (at least when I fully check out what Sony and Nintendo have to offer).

Deadwing

Yeah i saw Cod2 running on an x360 in smyths too. Looked lovely, but i cant help but wonder how much it will suffer looks wise if you dont have one of those feckin gorgeous TV's to run it on. Really didnt look too different from the PC version

flogen

I'll have to check out some shops here.
I'm slowly starting to realise that I won't be able to get my 360 any time soon, will probably have to wait until my birthday in March. money is tight enough as it is and I don't see any coming in.
I guess it's a good thing though, by march the line up should be much stronger, bugs should be ironed out and who knows, the price might be a bit lower!

Tusky

I want a HD tv more than I want any next gen console !

Big Nelly

Anyone see the program on BBC2 I think last Friday night about the x360...the main distribution centre in Europe is in Dublin so they will all have to come here first....wonder will someone rob a lorry load of them...haha

Was stupid the way they kept going on they wouldnt have enought x360's for the market and they wouldnt be able to restock shops after initial sales...this is all publicity to try and get everyone into the shops to buy ASAP so they get there figures up....teh launch in holland looked good thou!! wasnt impressed with the screen shots of the games they had...didnt look anything great....the best bit was Sony guy...didnt give a s**t what Microsoft where doing...was just sitting ther going....well we will be top of market anyway!!

skywalker

Tusky wrote:

I want a HD tv more than I want any next gen console !

Ditto.

Doodee

im sorted on the tv front

BLITZ_Molloy

HDTV's aren't worth getting yet. They make normal TV look like ****. No point in buying a train when the broadcasters haven't installed the rails.

Is there a Neon demo on there? I'm looking forward to seeing that in action after reading so much of Jeff Minter's blog. The new Geometry Wars and Mutant Storm look cool as well. I hope interesting indie developers get more of a shot at the next gen consoles. Blockbusters bore the **** out of me at this point. I want quirky arcade games.

WarZoneBrother

ne1 know where these consoles are like what countys

Big Nelly

WarZoneBrother wrote:

ne1 know where these consoles are like what countys

Seriously go back to school!! if anyone can make this out they deserve a medal!!

Lambsbread

WarZoneBrother wrote:

ne1 know where these consoles are like what countys

In what counties is it available in?


I was thinking of buying the Xbox for some of the games on it that i've missed out on, like Far Cry, Half-Life 2 etc. considering its relatively cheap now. But is the X360 backwards compatible like the PS2?

Boco

Lambsbread wrote:

In what counties is it available in?


I was thinking of buying the Xbox for some of the games on it that i've missed out on, like Far Cry, Half-Life 2 etc. considering its relatively cheap now. But is the X360 backwards compatible like the PS2?

It is backwards compatible, but not like the ps2

The backwards compatibility is emulated in software, and on a case by case basis for each game (although I'm sure there are cases that if you get a game like Halo 2 or Forza working, alot of other games will also work without much more work). Not all games will be backwards compatible out of the box. MS may decide to release "patches" to make these games work in the future. Because its done in software, and not in hardware as it is in the PS2, it means you will need the hard drive for it to work.

For games like Half-Life 2 and Far Cry, I would expect them to work on the xbox 360 on day 1.

monument

steviec wrote:

I was in gamestop today and discovered an Xbox 360 booth just sitting there, running a bunch of demos. Which came as a bit of a surprise, I know its out next month but there seems to be little or no hype, in this country anyway.

Here's some some, hype, or news, or whatever from Ireland. Mind you, I guess it's still in the 'little or no' (or unknown) slot.

steviec wrote:

Graphics were excellent, but didn't exactly scream 'next gen' at me.

That's something a lot of games journos were saying at/after E3. And why the perceived majority were cautiously more impressed by the PS3 (even if it was a few videos pre-rendered on apparently PS3 like hardware). But to be fair to the 360, the normal story is as a console gets older developers (and their tools) adapt and graphics improve, if this will be the case is another thing.

WarZoneBrother

Big Nelly wrote:

Seriously go back to school!! if anyone can make this out they deserve a medal!!

I know lol i did not know what i was saying myself

WarZoneBrother

Lambsbread wrote:

In what counties is it available in?

thanks

jesus_thats_gre

Had a wee look today.. I wasn't in anyway impressed with the games on display and ended up making excuses for the damned thing..

COD2 was pretty impressive from a distance but up close, the lack of Anti Aliasing was very apparent.. I really hope they fix this for the final release - I imagine they will..

Kameo looked pretty impressive and have some lovely graphical touches - Not my type of game though

- Only a video of PGR3 - Shambolic. This is the one game I really wanted to see and they didn't even have real time in game demo on show..

FranchisePlayer

Isn't it ridicioulus that to get the best out of the xbox you have to get a hdtv

Ciaran500

FranchisePlayer wrote:

Isn't it ridicioulus that to get the best out of the xbox you have to get a hdtv

No


Would you prefer they didn't embrace any new technology? You don't need a HDTV.

Hugh Hefner

Boco wrote:

It is backwards compatible, but not like the ps2

And from what I'm hearing now, the PS3 won't be completely backwards compatible. Sony started saying, "The PS3 shall be backwards compatible!" and now it's, "Yeah, not so much. Some games might, like, freeze up, or, eh, crash, or whatever."

dloob

Hugh Hefner wrote:

And from what I'm hearing now, the PS3 won't be completely backwards compatible. Sony started saying, "The PS3 shall be backwards compatible!" and now it's, "Yeah, not so much. Some games might, like, freeze up, or, eh, crash, or whatever."

Well they couldn't make the silver slimline PS2 fully compatible with the ahem PS2 so I wouldn't hold out much hope for the PS3 :v:

evad_lhorg

i had a proper go of it today. my views:

I thought the shoulder buttons and triggers would be accessedusing the middle and index fingers but its only index which would mean having to release a trigger. nice pad though.

Screen on the pod is best thing tbh.

Played Kameo and Call of duty.

didnt like either at all and there was nothing there that my poor pc couldnt run and I dont have a good pc.

really disappointed with what they have on show to be honest. they should have had more playable demos like pgr3 and pd0 instead of just videos or in the case of perfect dark... nothing.

franman

Had a go of this last night. First of all was really impressed with the controller. felt very comfy and worked really well with CoD2. aiming was alot easier than i was expecting going on past experiences with FPS on consoles.

as for the games wasnt blown away. i agree with most of whats been said already. didnt like Kameo at all!! CoD2 was exactly what i expected. good gameplay with decent graphics and alot of action running very smoothly. PGR3 only had a video but the in-game graphics looked amazing

quarryman

Damn, Kameo was looking like my favourite from the list.

Ain't so great no?

Also, anyone know any demo pods in Limerick?

FranchisePlayer

Ciaran500 wrote:

No


Would you prefer they didn't embrace any new technology? You don't need a HDTV.

No I am not saying that they should not embrace new technology.But microsoft
do expect us to get a HDTV just to play video games we are not made of money.

murfie

So in your opinions is the X360 worth getting cause im thinking about it for the christmas. From what i have read so far its getting better ratings than the ps3 but im not sure.

Retr0gamer

evad_lhorg wrote:

they should have had more playable demos like pgr3 and pd0 instead of just videos or in the case of perfect dark... nothing.

I'm not expecting PD0 to be great. The team that made goldeneye and the good parts of PD have moved to Free Radical and Retro Studies. Rare aren't the team they used to be. Was hoping to be surprised by Kameo but it just feels like a bad clone of Nintendos better games like what Rare seemed to pump out at the end of the N64 era when the talent had moved on. (Conkers is ****e. Fact.)

jesus_thats_gre

FranchisePlayer wrote:

No I am not saying that they should not embrace new technology.But microsoft
do expect us to get a HDTV just to play video games we are not made of money.

Well MS don't expect you to.. They just know that more and more consumers are buying HDTV's and are taking advantage of this.. You can twist it whatever way you like to be honest.

jesus_thats_gre

murfie wrote:

So in your opinions is the X360 worth getting cause im thinking about it for the christmas. From what i have read so far its getting better ratings than the ps3 but im not sure.

Well ignore the comparisons with the PS3.. Very very very very few people have actually playing anything on the PS3. It probably wont be out here for another year sure..

As for the Xbox 360. I will defo be getting mine at launch. Am second on the list in Game in Dundrum so I should be safe enough. PGR3 alone is enough for me to justity buying it at the moment. But I am silly

honru

Had a go of it today.

From recollection it's been quite some time that I've test-driven a new console to walk away feeling underwhelmed.

Had a go of Kameo first, seems like typical Rare-fare. The graphics are definetly very nice (backgrounds especially) and I oogled at them for a bit. However, after they got old, it didn't do much else to impress me.

Call of Duty 2 was worse. I've played loads of war games before and this just looked like one on a souped-up PC. Wasn't much here.

Controller is an adjusted improvement over the Xbox version, but it didn't make me go nuts or anything.

Overall, I'll have to see what other games are on offer, however I'm going to have to take Nintendo's and Sony's entries into account so that won't be for awhile. Just can't help but feel disappointed by this transition to "next generation", doesn't really feel like it at all.

BloodBath

No I am not saying that they should not embrace new technology.But microsoft
do expect us to get a HDTV just to play video games we are not made of money.

Jesus stop crying. It's not a requirement. If it has hdtv only you would have a valid arguement.

iregk

MS are not expecting anyone to go and buy a hdtv just for the xbox, its just a common fact that HDTV is taking over. Sony, Philips and Thompson (i believe the 3 largest tv makers) have actually stopped making crt tvs. They are only making Plasma and HD's and even the plasma is dying out!!!

So its not to force to get one, its a fact that if you want this thing to have a shelf life your going to have to make it HD or see it die in a year!

Cake Fiend

FranchisePlayer wrote:

Isn't it ridicioulus that to get the best out of the xbox you have to get a hdtv

Yeah, they should restrict its resolution, and ship it with those RF video connectors we used with the NES and Master System.







:rolleyes:

DonkeyStyle \o/

tbh I'm surprised more console gamers don't die of shock when they see games like HL2 running at massive high resolutions on decent PC's.
All I can say is - it's about forking time.
I find console racing games really annoying because of the low res, you can't see into the distance properly... it's like driving with myopia.
Burnout2 for example... fantastically frustrating. :eek:
Have they released any high-def demo footage at all? I'd like to download a clip in its native hi-res for a look-see.

Laguna

Can you not see the actual *point* FranchisePlayer was trying to make, Microsoft said verbatimly that one is playing their games with an impedement if they don't own a HDTV, they claim you'll miss out on all the extra graphical flair that has been put into the games by the developers, they also stated that all the 360's games were geared specifically for users with HDTV's and that old CRT tv support is simply there to not eliminate the majority of the market. Yes, I think we all realise that a HDTV is not a requirement but, no, I don;t think we all realise that the games won't appear and astound in the way the developers intended on our 15" Philips portable T.V.'s. :v:

BloodBath

Can you not see the actual *point* FranchisePlayer was trying to make, Microsoft said verbatimly that one is playing their games with an impedement if they don't own a HDTV, they claim you'll miss out on all the extra graphical flair that has been put into the games by the developers, they also stated that all the 360's games were geared specifically for users with HDTV's and that old CRT tv support is simply there to not eliminate the majority of the market.

I still don't see the point? I think any idiot would reliase it's going to look much better on a nice hdtv than a 15" crt. If you have ever played a high res pc game you would know.

Draupnir

Laguna wrote:

Can you not see the actual *point* FranchisePlayer was trying to make, Microsoft said verbatimly that one is playing their games with an impedement if they don't own a HDTV, they claim you'll miss out on all the extra graphical flair that has been put into the games by the developers, they also stated that all the 360's games were geared specifically for users with HDTV's and that old CRT tv support is simply there to not eliminate the majority of the market. Yes, I think we all realise that a HDTV is not a requirement but, no, I don;t think we all realise that the games won't appear and astound in the way the developers intended on our 15" Philips portable T.V.'s. :v:

its retarded to not realise that a game looks better on a HDTV than on a 15" portable. i've a 28" CRT from Phillips and games look better on it than on a 15".

bottom line is, its not MS's fault you have a crap telly. stfu whining and buy a decent one.

Draupnir

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

tbh I'm surprised more console gamers don't die of shock when they see games like HL2 running at massive high resolutions on decent PC's.
All I can say is - it's about forking time.
I find console racing games really annoying because of the low res, you can't see into the distance properly... it's like driving with myopia.
Burnout2 for example... fantastically frustrating. :eek:
Have they released any high-def demo footage at all? I'd like to download a clip in its native hi-res for a look-see.

when i read this all i heard in my head was:

blah blah blah PC fanboy blah blah L33T haxorz, I am teh win

Whats all that about?

Laguna

Draupnir wrote:

its retarded to not realise that a game looks better on a HDTV than on a 15" portable. i've a 28" CRT from Phillips and games look better on it than on a 15".

bottom line is, its not MS's fault you have a crap telly. stfu whining and buy a decent one.

It's not my fault you can't conduct a civil conversation with resorting to 'STFU' like a piece of common trash (n.b you might want to look up whining in the dictionary; read my post again, I stated facts, not personal opinion). Not all of us can afford a HDTV, most us have other pressing 'real world' financial commitments, I'm guessing you're minted financially so you snap your fingers and HDTV's appear.

sharpjaws

went there few days ago. am not very impressed with any of the demos, cuz those are the graphics i see every day at home. nothing exiting ,spoted few bugs in kingkong.. idd like to see more demos and game plays,

KdjaCL

Consoles are meant for kids to play games in their bedrooms on 15" portables not in the living room with 32" HDtv lCd screens.

Stupid move by microsoft a console is still a toy.


kdjac

Laguna

KdjaC wrote:

Consoles are meant for kids to play games in their bedrooms on 15" portables not in the living room with 32" HDtv lCd screens.

Stupid move my microsoft a console is still a toy.


kdjac

Thank you Kdjac, that is what I was trying to say.

kaisersose77

and sony and nintendo wont do the same??

None of them give a **** about europe, lots of ppl in the US probably have HDTVs by now so thats all that matters to them.

steviec

So what would it be better for Microsoft to do? Completely gimp their machine's power and design it to only run low res games? Sure while we're at it, lets complain that Half Life 2 won't run to its full potential on a nice affordable Celeron with Intel Extreme graphics.

Most people in Europe certainly don't have HDTVs now, but thats because there's no incentive to get one. With the next gen consoles and broadcasters coming on board over the next couple of years, I'd expect a lot more people to have them towards the end of this cycle, so it makes perfect sense to support hi def.

KdjaCL

steviec wrote:

So what would it be better for Microsoft to do? Completely gimp their machine's power and design it to only run low res games? Sure while we're at it, lets complain that Half Life 2 won't run to its full potential on a nice affordable Celeron with Intel Extreme graphics.

Most people in Europe certainly don't have HDTVs now, but thats because there's no incentive to get one. With the next gen consoles and broadcasters coming on board over the next couple of years, I'd expect a lot more people to have them towards the end of this cycle, so it makes perfect sense to support hi def.

So your gonna get one in your bedroom ?

You do realise true HDTV is a 48" set.


kdjac

projectmayhem

HD is only being pushed now in europe. look at the sony bravia ads on now. come christmas sales time i'd say all the 360 owners with extra cash'll splash out on a fancy new hd tv

steviec

KdjaC wrote:

So your gonna get one in your bedroom ?

You do realise true HDTV is a 48" set.


kdjac

Bigger screens aren't necessarily better, especially if your sitting close. I would assume you'd be losing a lot of the detail of more pixels by spreading them over a huge area if you go with a massive screen like that. My 17" PC monitor looks gorgeous in high res, I wouldn't want it any bigger.

Having said that neither my PS2 or Gamecube are in my bedroom, they've sat happily under a 28" TV for their entire lives. I moved my PS2 upstairs for a short while cos the TV in my bedroom supported 60Hz for running Suikoden 3, it was horrible trying to play burnout on that little TV though so it soon moved back down.

You said 'consoles are toys', I think Microsoft have made it pretty clear that they're aiming at the home entertainment market. I heard in an interview recently J Allard saying they don't see the PS3 as their competition, their aiming to compete with Desperate Housewives. They're not going to but I definitely don't think consoles are relegated to kids bedrooms anymore, I can think of lots of people I know where this isn't the case.

LookingFor

Hugh Hefner wrote:

And from what I'm hearing now, the PS3 won't be completely backwards compatible. Sony started saying, "The PS3 shall be backwards compatible!" and now it's, "Yeah, not so much. Some games might, like, freeze up, or, eh, crash, or whatever."

PS2 wasn't entirely backwards compatible with PSone either. There was a list of like, 20 games it didn't work with. I imagine PS3 will be very backwards compatible with PS2 and PSone, much more so than X360 will be with Xbox.

I'll have to have a look the X360 demo pod if I get a chance. But I've already decided I'm not buying one this year at least. I even have the money, but I just can't justify it. Not a great lineup sofar IMO - even graphically it doesn't seem like the leap you'd expect - and so many broken promises on MS's end since E3, too many. Heck, the latest is that some of the games aren't even rendering at high definition, but rather lower resolutions upscaled to high definition! (PGR3, for example, is rendering at 1024x600, apparently, only 66% of the resolution of 720p, and then they scale that up to 720p. Shambolic and another lie).

steviec wrote:

You said 'consoles are toys', I think Microsoft have made it pretty clear that they're aiming at the home entertainment market. I heard in an interview recently J Allard saying they don't see the PS3 as their competition, their aiming to compete with Desperate Housewives. They're not going to but I definitely don't think consoles are relegated to kids bedrooms anymore, I can think of lots of people I know where this isn't the case.

Hehe, pretty funny given the MS guy's comment, because Playstation made this the case. Reminds me of a comment from a Sega exec yonks ago talking about Dreamcast, and how he saw his competition as mobile phones and girlfriends. MS is absolutely trying for the same market as Playstation, and that may be where they have difficulty.

edit - I happily have a HD projector, so I'm set to go for HD games (whenever they truly come!). But just thought I'd point out that Nintendo has firmly said that Revolution will not support HD, because the market is so small for now. It also lets them get away with a less powerful system, and most won't notice (technically they only need a system a third as powerful to have as much power per pixel as the competition, since they're only targetting a third of the resolution).

jesus_thats_gre

KdjaC wrote:

Consoles are meant for kids to play games in their bedrooms on 15" portables not in the living room with 32" HDtv lCd screens.

Stupid move by microsoft a console is still a toy.


kdjac

Toys for big boys.. The reason the Sony Playstation was so successful is because they aimed it at all age groups. There main target age group was males in their mid 20's, i.e. the people with the spare cash to buy a new game every week every week if they so liked. An average kid has to get their parents to buy them.

I personally prefer PCs but I like the toyish nature of consoles and they certainly have a place.. I sometimes like to play a game in a confy armchair on a large screen..

Mario Kart, Street Fighter and Gran Turismo are just some titles that spring to mind that have nothing comparable on the PC.. There are many titles on the PC that just don't suit consoles either..

jesus_thats_gre

LookingFor wrote:

Nintendo has firmly said that Revolution will not support HD, because the market is so small for now. It also lets them get away with a less powerful system, and most won't notice (technically they only need a system a third as powerful to have as much power per pixel as the competition, since they're only targetting a third of the resolution).

Ironically, it is rumoured that Nintendo will be basing their console on the a very similar graphical chipset to that of the Xbox 360 and will also run with a multi core PowerPC processor.. The reason why the console is gonna come out at least a year after is so that the cost of these components will be cosniderably less than if they were to release it this Christmas...

It is also rumoured that by the time the PS3 is released, the Xbox 360 will be retailing at half the price of the PS3.

LookingFor

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

Ironically, it is rumoured that Nintendo will be basing their console on the a very similar graphical chipset to that of the Xbox 360 and will also run with a multi core PowerPC processor..

It's a completely custom part made by a completely different team. ATi started working on it some time before X360's chip, in fact. Similarities would be coincidental.

I wouldn't be surprised to see the CPU being similar to X360's however, but perhaps fewer cores (2) and clocked lower.

If they wait till later in 06 to launch they could certainly reap the benefit of more advanced manufacturing processes, but I'm not sure how long they'll wait. Mid 06 seems to be the timeframe they're targetting, apparently.

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

It is also rumoured that by the time the PS3 is released, the Xbox 360 will be retailing at half the price of the PS3.

It'll certainly be cheaper. X360 is arguably over-priced relative to what you got for your buck at the PS2 or Xbox launches, and MS is a lot more concious of cost this time around, so they're definitely giving themselves headroom for price cuts.

PS3's pricing will be interesting to watch. To be honest, I think they're playing the "high end" card only to turn around and launch it at a relatively reasonable price, to ratchet up the value perception a lot. They've done it before with nearly every system - who remembers pre-launch reports of a $700 PS2 or a $500 PSP..? It has also been reported in a Japanese newspaper that Sony has told their partners it will launch for no more than 40,000 yen - basically the same price the PS2 launched at there (no confirmation from Sony, but it was an apparently reliable business paper). The dollar equivalent is $399, but PS2 launched at $299 in america..I think $399/€399 would be more likely for PS3 though, and very good value at that. If that were the case, I could certainly see a €199 X360 core pack late next year...don't think the premium pack would be that though.

I think MS needs to be careful with pricing though, and how the system is perceived. In terms of hardware features it IS already going to be inferior, and pricing it cheaper may have a negative impact in terms of consumer psychology, reinforcing a perception of inferiority. The Cheap/Value route didn't work for Playstation competitors before, and the last thing they want is to be perceived as the cheap "second choice" as others have before.