Xbox 360/Playstation 3/Revolution Thread (Part 2)

[Drake Tungsten]

The 360 is Dreamcast 2.0? May we all be so lucky...

[Asher]

Not that surprising but... http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051105-5530.html

Looks like the PS3 will hit North American shores this time next year, giving the Xbox 360 a full year head start.

[Asher]

According to EB Canada, there won't be any retail units of the Xbox 360 until 2006 -- all of this year's allotments are going to pre-orders.

[Drake Tungsten]

Is that just for Canada? Would make sense if it was, as Microsoft is probably sending most of its available 360s to important markets.

[Asher]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/664/664893p1.html

NHL 2K6 Impressions
Goaltending just got way more interesting. New videos show how.
by Charles Onyett

November 7, 2005 - Like the football, soccer, basketball, and golf games being re-released on the Xbox 360, NHL 2K6 will also be making the transition. Unlike those games NHL 2K6 will actually feature, in addition to improved graphics and animations, an all new gameplay mode: crease control. While initially we thought this mode just might be a gimmicky addition to try and differentiate the game, it turns out to be quite the opposite.

The mode takes a little bit of space to explain, but it's actually very simple and intuitive. When the opposing team crosses your blue line, you have the option of clicking down on the right joystick to bring up a V-shaped targeting area that fans outward from your goaltender. Once turned on, the V can be aimed at any part of the ice and represents where your goaltender is facing. As such, it's in your best interest to keep the V following the puck. If you've successfully contained the puck within the targeting area it will be green, which means your goalie is in position to stop a shot. When the puck slips out of the V area it turns red and means you're not in a good spot to make a save.

Once your opponent actually fires the puck at you, a special behind-the-goalie screen pops up. Your goaltender will become translucent, letting you see the action in front of you. Within the space of the net will appear a red target icon that represents where the puck will eventually break the plane of the goal line. It's your job to align a green crosshair with the red target in order to properly make the save, be it a kick save, pad stack, or fancy glove snag. If your goalie was in position before the shot, it's a lot easier to make the save.

This mode works well when two players are playing too. Instead of the behind-the-goalie view taking up the whole screen, it pops up in a picture-in-picture display. This way, both players are able to see the action on the ice while the puck is flying through the air and the defending player is able to match up the crosshair with the target to make the stop. Though it may seem like this display might interrupt the flow of the game, it actually meshes really well with the fast paced play. Though it may also seem like controlling your goalie takes away from your ability to properly control your defensive players, it actually doesn't. The V targeting reticule can be clicked on and off very rapidly, so you'll be able to engage it only when it seems your opponent is just about to take a shot.

If you think all of this sounds extraneous and might get in the way of your gameplay, you can always refrain from clicking the joystick and never have to deal with the crease control mode. What we couldn't really tell was if the crease control was a significantly more effective means of stopping pucks than just letting the computer do it. From playing the game, it does seem like the best players at NHL 2K6 for the Xbox 360 will be able to intermix effective defensive positioning with precise use of the crease control feature.

The game features all new player models, augmented details for the crowds in the stands, and refined helmet reflections. Other than that, NHL 2K6 played very much like its current generation counterpart, which is a good thing. We'll have more as it becomes available.

Videos: http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/7...08/vids_1.html

[Nostromo]

The game features (...) refined helmet reflections.

Finally!

[Imran Siddiqui]

I wonder how 'crease control' would work with more than one player. I'd imagine it'd be taken out with more than one player.

[Asher]

From the article:

This mode works well when two players are playing too. Instead of the behind-the-goalie view taking up the whole screen, it pops up in a picture-in-picture display. This way, both players are able to see the action on the ice while the puck is flying through the air and the defending player is able to match up the crosshair with the target to make the stop. Though it may seem like this display might interrupt the flow of the game, it actually meshes really well with the fast paced play. Though it may also seem like controlling your goalie takes away from your ability to properly control your defensive players, it actually doesn't. The V targeting reticule can be clicked on and off very rapidly, so you'll be able to engage it only when it seems your opponent is just about to take a shot.

This is also demonstrated in the videos.

[Asher]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/665/665729p1.html

Bungie Confirms Halo, Halo 2 on X360
They're not only compatible, but they run in 720p, too.
by David Adams

November 9, 2005 - Bungie's official site today revealed what any even half-intelligent Xbox gamer would have guessed: Halo and Halo 2 will run correctly on the Xbox 360. The better news, however, is that not only does Halo 2's Xbox Live functionality transfer intact, but both games on the X360 can render at widescreen, at 720p, with full-screen anti-aliasing.

From the official announcement:

"To clarify, the 'new' version of Halo or Halo 2 is simply the disk you have already. Pop it into your 360 and it'll load up just like before. You will have to log into Xbox Live to enable Halo 2's online functions, but both games will work immediately.

"But here's another bonus - the hardware in the 360 can do a lot of nifty stuff, and specifically in the cases of Halo and Halo 2, it can display the graphics in wide screen, at 720p, with full scene anti-aliasing. And it doesn't look kludgy, artifacty or smeary like an upscanning DVD player. The best way to describe it is that both games look like they're running on a PC at those resolutions."

Previous Microsoft sell-sheets confirmed months ago that Halo 2 was backward compatible on Xbox 360. It's also a no-brainer that Halo would be backward compatible. But at 720 with full anti-aliasing? Nice. Cheers goes out to Bungie for saying what we aleady know.

[Nostromo]

Here's the list of Xbox games playable on the Xbox 360.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm

[Nostromo]

A video of the unpacking of the 360:

http://files.filefront.com/Xbox360_L.../fileinfo.html

It comes from a French website. Here's the article, in French. Unfortunately, its seems the 360 is noisy.

http://www.gamekult.com/tout/actus/articles/A0000044782.html

[Nostromo]

Another lucky SOB got his Xbox 360 earlier. Here are his first impressions, in English this time!

http://www.halomovienews.com/xbox360.php

Now that I have had some time to play with it on my projector at 90 inches with 5.1 sound, here are some impresions.

I hate him already...

The power supply (brick) I am sure you have all seen by now. It's rated at 203 watts according to the back, so that explains its size. The Xbox 360 sucks up a lot of juice to provide all that horsepower! The cords are thick and well shielded. Nothing feels cheap. The Component and A/V cable is also of high build quality. There is a switch on the connector to select TV or HDTV. TV defaults to 480i and 4:3 fullscreen ratio and HDTV defaults to 480p.

480p?

Lastly, the console itself runs QUIET!! I can't even hear it from where I am sitting (about 10-12 feet away)

Good news!

Hooking up my Windows XP Pro computer to the 360 was a breeze. First you install Windows Media Connect 2.0 and then turn your Xbox 360 on, then start up WMC and you get this:

It automatically recognizes that the 360 was on my network. So once I allowed the 360 access, I was taken to this screen:

I shared my own custom music folders then went back downstairs to my shiny new Xbox 360 and went into the Media Blade. The cool thing is, it organizes the music for you. It looks at the ID3 tags of the MP3 files are organizes them into Artists and Albums, and Genres if the tags have it. So first thing I picked with A Perfect Circle's Emotive album.

I thought you needed Windows XP Media center to do that sort of stuff

Since I cannot yet connect to Xbox Live, the only games I could test were Halo and Halo 2 as they are the only ones that are B.C. out of the box. I have also read that this is an old B.C. build for Halo and Halo 2 and once you get on Live you can download the new one.

B.C. games work like any other. Just pop them in and they run after being proceeded by a white Xbox screen to denote that it's an original Xbox game.

Yes, the games run in 720p, and YES they look a lot better than the originals on a HDTV. This build didn't seem to have anti-aliasing enabled but I am confident the downloadable one will have it (says so in Microsoft's site anyway). The frame rate was smoother than the original Xbox for both games. Playing these games in 720p is a real treat and it improves the visual quality quite a bit. It looks nothing like the screenshots on Bungie's site... it's much, much better. I am going to revisit the Halo:CE campaign soon because of this. The controls feel identical. Only difference is that the white and black buttons get mapped to the two new shoulder buttons.

I played the first level on both Halo and Halo 2 and found no issues whatsoever.

About Kameo:

So after I went through all the "boring" stuff, I sat down and popped Kameo in. This would be the first time I would see a 360 game in action. I avoided the Kiosks as I wanted to be a Xbox 360 virgin when I got my own.

Holy. Mother. Of. God.

This is the best looking game my eyes have seen. Period. End of story. There is no way you can claim this game isn't next-gen. It is. It ran smooth as butter in 720p and there wasn't a single jaggy that I could find. Hello anti-aliasing! The textures are ultra high res, the various normal mapping, bump mapping, parallax mapping, etc. makes it all come to life. Character models are highly detailed. The environment are gorgeous, both up close and far away. It's just a delight to look at.

I am sorry I can't provide any pics. You can't freeze the game, so stuff is constantly moving and it just blurs when the shutter is open for so long.

Anyway, let me talk about the gameplay for a bit. It's heavenly. You start out with 4 warriors: Kameo, Major Ruin, Chilla and Pummel Weed. Each of them has two main abilities and several special abilities and these all can be used in combos across multiple warriors. The gameplay is simple and intuitive in its roots...you find your fingers doing all the work without even thinking, but below this lies a great deal of depth.

This is what sets Kameo apart from other "similar" games I have played. It's easy to play, FUN to play, but it takes great skill to be a true master at it.

On the first level, there are tips scattered throughout that you can walk onto and press A to read them. As you go on it teaches you more special moves and combos you can do. For example, in one area you need to use Chilla and Pummel Weed to get past a gate. Chilla throws a spear to open the gate slightly just giving enough room for Pummel Weed to slide underneath. Another example with Pummel Weed is double tapping forward on your left thumbstick followed by RT+LT at the same time gives you a powerful double punch.

I haven't spent enough time with the game though, so this will be short. I am still on the first level!!

[Asher]

480p is regular resolution, but progressive scan instead of interlaced.

[Nostromo]

I thought it defaulted to 720p in HD.

[Asher]

It defaults to 480p because that's the minimal that HDTV (or more accurately, EDTV supports).

720p and 1080i are enabled on the dashboards.