Official Xbox 360? Thread...

[jlmadyson]

Just got my March OXM. There is a preview of Oblivion in it and all I can say is it reinforces my every expectation. Come on March 20th.

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
Rumor Mill

We will start off this week with some juicy new 360 rumors freshly squeezed from the ever-reliable source of semi-reliable information ?The Internet?. The game industry has always been full of rumors and speculations, and in contrasts to the movie and music industry where rumors usually are of a more destructive nature, the people working in the game industry have little to fear as the rumors almost always are harmless fantasies made up by overly enthuastic fans. But every now and then rumors are not rumors at all but true reports from people with inside information. If these latest rumors we are reporting today have any truth in them we?ll have to leave up to each one of you to decide for yourselves. Long story short: Guy from Microsoft meets old friend at wedding has a few drinks - MS guy tells old friend some company secrets - old friend promises not to tell ? old friend is active member in internet gaming forums ? secret info is no longer so secret. Rumor 1: Sometime around November 2006, MS is launching a complete media service on the marketplace. This will range from 99 cent songs, to 3.99 streaming movies. Rumor 2: At next E3, MS will announce a parternship with Blizzard that will bring World of Warcraft exclusively to 360. The deal is done, and Blizzard is working on porting the game and a console control scheme. This game will also include a unannounced expansion that the PC gamers will have to wait about a month to get after we get this game. Only 360 gamers will be on specific 360 servers, the game will include voice chat, and it wouldn't work with PC gamers. Rumor 3: Halo 3 will be out Quarter 4 of 2006. Rumor 4: There will be over 50 Sega Dreamcast games on the Xbox Live Arcade within 2 years, launched a handfull at a time. Every Dreamcast game released on 360 will be priced at around 10 dollars. Rumor 5: Bonk's Adventure is coming to Xbox Live Arcade September 2006. Facts or just wishful thinking?...some if not all of it certainly sounds plausible.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these come to pass. Although I believe the WoW rumor has been shot down time and time again. But, who knows I believe virtually anything is possible with the 360 at this point.

Dreamcast games? That's weird. If they're ported in HD that will rule. I'd love to play power stone in widescreen.

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: remagavon
Dreamcast games? That's weird. If they're ported in HD that will rule. I'd love to play power stone in widescreen.

Dreamcast games would be awesome. I bet it would help sales in Japan, as well.

 

[UpgradeFailure]

Originally posted by: remagavon

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
Rumor Mill

We will start off this week with some juicy new 360 rumors freshly squeezed from the ever-reliable source of semi-reliable information ?The Internet?. The game industry has always been full of rumors and speculations, and in contrasts to the movie and music industry where rumors usually are of a more destructive nature, the people working in the game industry have little to fear as the rumors almost always are harmless fantasies made up by overly enthuastic fans. But every now and then rumors are not rumors at all but true reports from people with inside information. If these latest rumors we are reporting today have any truth in them we?ll have to leave up to each one of you to decide for yourselves. Long story short: Guy from Microsoft meets old friend at wedding has a few drinks - MS guy tells old friend some company secrets - old friend promises not to tell ? old friend is active member in internet gaming forums ? secret info is no longer so secret. Rumor 1: Sometime around November 2006, MS is launching a complete media service on the marketplace. This will range from 99 cent songs, to 3.99 streaming movies. Rumor 2: At next E3, MS will announce a parternship with Blizzard that will bring World of Warcraft exclusively to 360. The deal is done, and Blizzard is working on porting the game and a console control scheme. This game will also include a unannounced expansion that the PC gamers will have to wait about a month to get after we get this game. Only 360 gamers will be on specific 360 servers, the game will include voice chat, and it wouldn't work with PC gamers. Rumor 3: Halo 3 will be out Quarter 4 of 2006. Rumor 4: There will be over 50 Sega Dreamcast games on the Xbox Live Arcade within 2 years, launched a handfull at a time. Every Dreamcast game released on 360 will be priced at around 10 dollars. Rumor 5: Bonk's Adventure is coming to Xbox Live Arcade September 2006. Facts or just wishful thinking?...some if not all of it certainly sounds plausible.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these come to pass. Although I believe the WoW rumor has been shot down time and time again. But, who knows I believe virtually anything is possible with the 360 at this point.

Dreamcast games? That's weird. If they're ported in HD that will rule. I'd love to play power stone in widescreen.

Even if it's not wide-screen, it should be pretty cool.

I hooked up my dreamcast to my plasma via the VGA box and powerstone looked freakin' awesome

 

[erwos]

All the rumors seem reasonable, although the Dreamcast stuff seems slightly implausible, given the relatively small size of the hard drive compared to the actual size of some Dreamcast games (GD-ROM was 1gb - some of the best games hit ~850mb) - you're going to get, what, five games on there?. I also have niggling doubts about WoW - again, the hard drive space issue. Bonk's Adventure and Halo 3 seem more than reasonable, though. If Microsoft provided a trivial way to upgrade the hard drive, that'd be very handy.

Selling music (and movies) makes a lot of sense, especially if given an option to push it back to an MCE or XP box instead of the console. They've got to work on cutting Sony off at the knees before the PS3 comes out with those features.

On a slightly related note, what's the fastest way to convert my music from flac to wma, and ripped dvds from vob to wmv? Seems like my lossless collection is not quite to Microsoft's liking...

-Erwos

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: jlmadyson
Rumor Mill

We will start off this week with some juicy new 360 rumors freshly squeezed from the ever-reliable source of semi-reliable information ?The Internet?. The game industry has always been full of rumors and speculations, and in contrasts to the movie and music industry where rumors usually are of a more destructive nature, the people working in the game industry have little to fear as the rumors almost always are harmless fantasies made up by overly enthuastic fans. But every now and then rumors are not rumors at all but true reports from people with inside information. If these latest rumors we are reporting today have any truth in them we?ll have to leave up to each one of you to decide for yourselves. Long story short: Guy from Microsoft meets old friend at wedding has a few drinks - MS guy tells old friend some company secrets - old friend promises not to tell ? old friend is active member in internet gaming forums ? secret info is no longer so secret. Rumor 1: Sometime around November 2006, MS is launching a complete media service on the marketplace. This will range from 99 cent songs, to 3.99 streaming movies. Rumor 2: At next E3, MS will announce a parternship with Blizzard that will bring World of Warcraft exclusively to 360. The deal is done, and Blizzard is working on porting the game and a console control scheme. This game will also include a unannounced expansion that the PC gamers will have to wait about a month to get after we get this game. Only 360 gamers will be on specific 360 servers, the game will include voice chat, and it wouldn't work with PC gamers. Rumor 3: Halo 3 will be out Quarter 4 of 2006. Rumor 4: There will be over 50 Sega Dreamcast games on the Xbox Live Arcade within 2 years, launched a handfull at a time. Every Dreamcast game released on 360 will be priced at around 10 dollars. Rumor 5: Bonk's Adventure is coming to Xbox Live Arcade September 2006. Facts or just wishful thinking?...some if not all of it certainly sounds plausible.

Wouldn't be surprised to see a few of these come to pass. Although I believe the WoW rumor has been shot down time and time again. But, who knows I believe virtually anything is possible with the 360 at this point.

I wonder if that rumor started with this rumor..

 

[Ramma2]

Finished up A ranking on Forgotten Forest last night, what a workout! I have Thorn's Castle, Snow Temple and Forgotten Forest complete now, 3 more to go. I think I'm actually enjoying doing the score attack slightly more than the actual single player campaign. Getting scores into the hundreds of millions is very challenging, and yet very rewarding.

 

[Queasy]

Anyone tried streaming HD to their 360 from HTPC wirelessly? I've got an ethernet cable running from my upstairs loft office down to my 360 right below in the living room right now. When we move into our new house, the big screen TV and the 360 will likely end up in the basement while my office will be two floors above. :/

I'm either going to have to go wireless, figure out how to run ethernet cables through the house, or try one of those home networking over power line solutions...

HDBeat has done some of this already with just barely enough performance for HiDef video. Two month update from HDBeat.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Wingznut
How did Jade Empire run on the 360? Many (most?) backwards compatible games seems to have some sort of problem or another.

Almost perfectly so far. Minor slowdowns in a couple places (but never combat), and I got a "can't read disc - might be dirty or damaged" error once that I can't seem to repeat. Mind you, I never played it on the original XBOX, so I have no clue if I'm missing anything. I would say the most disconcerting thing is how it references the original XBOX's controls - "press the black button to chi attack". That's life, I suppose.

I have the demo of PGR 3 on my hard drive, but haven't gotten around to playing it yet. And, as I mentioned before, gave Kameo a try, but didn't like it. Any more suggestions?

-Erwos

EDIT: gamertag is "erwos", but I'm not sure if/when I'm going down the "gold" route

why would you not get live? this is one of the ONLY reasons to get a 360..
live is as part of the gaming experience as bread is to a sandwitch,, without it its not even worth doing...

nearly all the games without live 1/2-3/4 of content cannot be accessed or used..
why pay for 1/3 a game?

dude.. 50 bucks a YEAR.. thats less than the price of 1 game especially now with the 60$ game beign standard.

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Muadib
Yeah, but there are thousands who pre ordered who still have yet to get theirs, who will now be fvcked. That's just wrong.

This is a direct result of retailers oversubscribing pre-orders. Blame them, not Microsoft. I'm trying to remember if it was GameStop or EB that had allowed pre-orders for something like 3x the number of consoles they were going to get in the December-March timeframe. The simple solution is to threaten your retailer with legal action if they don't make up for it in some way (eg, giving you some other remote). Of course, the remote isn't really all that amazing, but if you're going to use the MCE integration stuff on your TV, it's certainly cheaper than blowing another $30 on the official remote.

After playing the 360 for a while, I've got my wish list:
1. The accessory that's _really_ missing at the moment is a cheap, straight-into-the-wall charger/dock for the wireless controllers. I want to leave the controllers in a dock on an end table when I'm done playing, walk away, and come back to fully charged controllers. I don't want to have to shlep them over to some 360 to USB connect them - isn't the whole point of wireless that I _don't_ have to constantly traipse over there?
2. There are some games not backwards-compat that really ought to be - Morrowind and DOA Ultimate are the obvious ones.
3. If someone ported some console emulators to 360 and sold them on Arcade Live, I'd buy them in a New York minute. Not sure what Microsoft's policy is on this, though.

Since I finished Jade Empire last night, what should my next pick be? Halo, Halo 2, or DOA 3?

-Erwos

none of the above?
those are old ass games...
get PGR3.. NFSMW... DOA4... CoD2... Kameo... anything thats really a 360 game.. there are some great games outt here...
and get on live and truely expirience what the 360 and the internet can do.. makes the games so much better...

 

[erwos]

Why should I buy expensive, good 360 games that I've never played when there are cheap, phenomenal Xbox games that I've never played? I'll get to the 360 games eventually, but why should I pay the early adopter premium on them if I don't care about getting them this instant? The price of the console is irrelevant. It's bought no matter what, so it's a sunk cost. I need to make decisions rationally, and that means getting maximum value from the games. In my eyes, Jade Empire LE for $17 is a better value than NFSMW or CoD 2 for $60 (not to mention I've already played CoD 2 _and_ NFSMW on PC). Halo for $10 is a better deal than PGR 3 for $60. (I hate Kameo.)

Same thing for Live. I've got the silver account. I can do everything but matchmaking with that - and seeing as I've got nothing that requires matchmaking, why spend the money? If I ever find I need it, I'll spend the cash. I could just as well ask why everyone doesn't just run out to buy MCE 2005, considering there's such a huge portion of the value of the console tied to into the MCE Extender functionality.

I don't think my decisions have been at all unreasonable - they just aren't the same as yours. It's amazing how people whine that it's all about the gameplay, and then skewer everyone who actually works on that premise.

-Erwos

 

[CVSiN]

Originally posted by: erwos
Why should I buy expensive, good 360 games that I've never played when there are cheap, phenomenal Xbox games that I've never played? I'll get to the 360 games eventually, but why should I pay the early adopter premium on them if I don't care about getting them this instant? The price of the console is irrelevant. It's bought no matter what, so it's a sunk cost. I need to make decisions rationally, and that means getting maximum value from the games. In my eyes, Jade Empire LE for $17 is a better value than NFSMW or CoD 2 for $60 (not to mention I've already played CoD 2 _and_ NFSMW on PC). Halo for $10 is a better deal than PGR 3 for $60. (I hate Kameo.)

Same thing for Live. I've got the silver account. I can do everything but matchmaking with that - and seeing as I've got nothing that requires matchmaking, why spend the money? If I ever find I need it, I'll spend the cash. I could just as well ask why everyone doesn't just run out to buy MCE 2005, considering there's such a huge portion of the value of the console tied to into the MCE Extender functionality.

I don't think my decisions have been at all unreasonable - they just aren't the same as yours. It's amazing how people whine that it's all about the gameplay, and then skewer everyone who actually works on that premise.

-Erwos

then with that attitude why even bother pick up the 360 at all.. its expensive and your not using the technology so why not stick with your trusty old xbox...

to even bother going though the hoopla to have a 360 this early in its life and not use its capabilities just seems like a collossal waste of time and money...

btw MCE does rock.. but not that big a deal with the 360... i had it before i had my 360.. its not as big a deal as not having live.. which the only point of having is the matchmaking capabilties as 3/4 of the 360 game content is all live multiplayer..

btw you know you dont have to buy anything..
use gamefly beat and return all the current 360 games..
and keep the ones you like...

 

[Kremlar]

New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

 

[Udel]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

Xbox Live does allow this, but it depends on the game. It is all up to the developers to work this into their game. Neither game you mention has the capacity for 2 or more players over live. Halo 2, however, does. Hopefully games will come out with more polish and include this feature.

 

[ivol07]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

There are no 360 games that do two or more online at once right now. But it is capable of doing it. If you pick up Halo 2 you'll see how well this works.

 

[Muadib]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: erwos

Originally posted by: Queasy
Graphics are pretty and gameplay is still Madden but it is missing features because EA didn't have time to put them in by release since they were rebuilding from scratch.

So, as a casual football fan, am I really going to notice anything? I think the extent of it is going to be a little career mode, and playing against my wife (who's also a casual fan).

-Erwos

I'd say that if you can get it for less than the $60 retail price, it is a good game.

I'd say it's a good game if you never played 2006 on the PS2. If you never played Madden, you should love it. I hate playing on live though, because there are so few people playing on beginner level.

 

[Kremlar]

Thanks for the reply, guys.

One more question - any idea how often NBA Live! does roster updates? I've been waiting for my roster to reflect the 2 week or so old Celtics/Timberwolves trade, but it still has the original lineup in there.

Occasionally when I go in, it says there is a roster update available, but that trade apparently isn't in the update.

I'm assuming that with XBox Live they update the rosters frequently. Any idea how often?

 

[BornStar]

Originally posted by: ivol07

Originally posted by: Kremlar
New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

There are no 360 games that do two or more online at once right now. But it is capable of doing it. If you pick up Halo 2 you'll see how well this works.

I've had 2 people playing PDZ at the same time on Live from my 360.

 

[Ramma2]

Originally posted by: Kremlar
Thanks for the reply, guys.

One more question - any idea how often NBA Live! does roster updates? I've been waiting for my roster to reflect the 2 week or so old Celtics/Timberwolves trade, but it still has the original lineup in there.

Occasionally when I go in, it says there is a roster update available, but that trade apparently isn't in the update.

I'm assuming that with XBox Live they update the rosters frequently. Any idea how often?

Whats your GamerTag?


Heard some info that Crystal Quest is comming to the Live Arcade very soon. Yay!

 

[Ramma2]

Ok, by soon I meant earlier today.

Yay!

 

[erwos]

Originally posted by: CVSiN
then with that attitude why even bother pick up the 360 at all.. its expensive and your not using the technology so why not stick with your trusty old xbox...

to even bother going though the hoopla to have a 360 this early in its life and not use its capabilities just seems like a collossal waste of time and money...

First, I don't HAVE a "trusty old Xbox"! Is it really sensible for me to spend $120 on an Xbox now, and then, six months to a year down the line, spend $300 on a 360, or just buy the 360 and be done with it? Seems to me that $400 is _less_ than $420.

Also, I'm thinking rationally, not emotionally. You are thinking emotionally. Observe my choices:
1. Buying expensive games that I don't want / care to play right this moment because they're new and shiny.
2. Buying cheap games that I actually want / care to play that are old and not shiny.

Eventually, the equation will change. That's not relevant to me right now. I already own the damn thing. Research the concept of "sunk cost". I paid my money for the 360, it's gone. Why the hell should I toss more away?

And don't give me crap about how I'm "not using my Xbox 360 to its fullest potential". No one's using it to its full potential right now, because no first gen games ever do.

I'm thinking like an economist. It's not a bad way to live. It's sure as hell cheaper and more rational than what you seem to be proposing.

-Erwos

 

[Kremlar]

Whats your GamerTag?

MikesterRX7

Just starting out, though.

 

[erwos]

Crystal Quest is out, and quite awesome, although it's somewhat dissimilar to the original (I played the original on a Mac IIcx for a long, long time - perhaps my memory has gone bad). Rate of fire is much faster, controls are perversely easier (possibly due to fewer mines, and better crystal placement).

-Erwos

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: BornStar18

Originally posted by: ivol07

Originally posted by: Kremlar
New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

There are no 360 games that do two or more online at once right now. But it is capable of doing it. If you pick up Halo 2 you'll see how well this works.

I've had 2 people playing PDZ at the same time on Live from my 360.

This 100% does work? In all game modes? I was going to pick up CoD2 but I need a game to play online with my girlfriend and PDZ might have to fit the bill for now because of that.

 

[BornStar]

Originally posted by: remagavon

Originally posted by: BornStar18

Originally posted by: ivol07

Originally posted by: Kremlar
New XBox 360 owner, new XBox Live player.

Unless I'm missing something, it doesn't look like you can player multiple local players over X-Box Live.

Am I right???

Been playing NBA Live! 2006 for a while, and tried to play with a buddy sitting next to me over Live! (figured we'd play same team against an opponent), and it doesn't seem to have that ability.

Also just played Call of Duty 2 for the first time today, and again it doesn't seem to allow 2 local players over XBox Live.

Am I wrong???

There are no 360 games that do two or more online at once right now. But it is capable of doing it. If you pick up Halo 2 you'll see how well this works.

I've had 2 people playing PDZ at the same time on Live from my 360.

This 100% does work? In all game modes? I was going to pick up CoD2 but I need a game to play online with my girlfriend and PDZ might have to fit the bill for now because of that.

I only played in one specific scenario but I don't see why it wouldn't work in all game modes. It probably won't work in ranked games though (I don't see how it could and they didn't allow it in Halo 2).