Is It Just Me? (xbox 360)

[treid]

Is it just me, or are xbox 360's not all there cracked up to be? I mean, the specs are a big improvement over the xbox original, but nothing seems to be using, nor needing these upgrades. Generally the graphics are around the same, with newer series games actually made slightly worse for the xbox 1, to promote xbox 360, giving you the idea the graphics on the 360 are better, but if you search some actually well made games for xbox 1, they not only beat, but crush the graphics of the 360. For instance, look at this http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/...om_clk=gsimage , these are screenshots for dead or alive 2 or dead or alive ultimate (same game, second in the series) for original xbox, then look at these for dead or alive 4 for xbox 360 http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/acti...rt&om_clk=tabs
Theres not much difference, and this is a high quality game. (note we are comparing a sequal, to a sequals sequals sequal) Ive played both games side by side today, and the xbox 1's doa ultimate, did look much better, edges more rounded, and the hair is actually fine, as it is thick and terrible looking on the 360's doa 4. I will try and bring my camera to my buds next time im there to get some photos or them side by side. The screenshots really dont do its justice, but give you a good idea on how the graphics havent really improved at all. I think that the xbox original could have been stretched furthar than it was. The 360's were just plain to rushed. The first gens over heated, and when u had them on there side and tipped it over it would destroy your disk. The xbox originals also kill the 360's in modification.there bodys are square, and big, giving lots of room for exernal stuff ie: paintjob, lcd, logo mods...etc. The internals are better for modding to, as it takes a normal ata hard drive, giving you many possibilitys for upgrading your space. btw you can even swap the ide cable for an e-ide cable for better performance. Once modded, an xbox original gets even better. Dvd playback without remote kit, emulators, game storage, picture storage, video storage, themes, connection to pc for filesharing, linux... and more. I dunno, i'm not a gamer at all, but from my point of view, the 360 was a stinker release.

[Netcruzer]

Wow.. saying the 360 sucks because a 3rd party crap 360 game didn't blow you away with 'next gen' visuals? Also bashing a console because you can't mod it (besides DVD firmware to play backups). Cripes. Oh could I EVER go on a rant about your post, but I'll try to hold back.

How about you play Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, GRAW and PGR3 in HD and tell me if they are better than original xbox graphics.
Does your buddy who has the 360 play it on an HDTV? I certainly hope so.

I have owned a 360 launch console since 2005 and it has never overheated. I keep it off the ground of course, it's all about proper airflow. Setting a console on the carpet is not a good idea, I wouldn't even do that with my Wii.

As for saying the 360 was rushed I just want to point out that the PS3 didn't start manufacturing until a month or 2 before this xmas, now that is cutting it close. It has a multitude of issues (some like no background downloading that the 360 fans cried and cried about until it was fixed and the PS3 comes out with the same flaw) , no video scaler, bad backwards compatibility (finally fixed today with firmware 1.5... 5 firmware patches in 2 months.. yikes) wireless controllers that you must plug into a cable to sync.. and on and on.

I know you say you are not a gamer, but you can't harp on the 360 for making a system that is harder to hack. If you like that stuff stick with your old xbox and non-HD gaming. However, if you want to play Online, and in HD on a 'older' HDTV then 360 is the best thing that exists.

[treid]

no it wasn't hd, because we didnt have 2 hd setups side by side, they were both running composite. Im not ripping it just because its harder to modify, although that is one reason, im riping it because I don't think the changes were dramatic enough. Its a better system, obviously, but just how much better? It's just my opinion.

[Netcruzer]

How much better? Well.. considering that no further original xbox games are being developed the xbox platform, it is pretty much dead now except for it's amazing modding potential. It really shines as a media center now.

Of course the xbox tech has had significant upgrades. Intel PIII 733Mhz compared to a triple core 3.2Ghz PowerPC, Direct8 nVidia graphics compared to ATI DirectX9 with unified shaders and all kinds of fancy memory improvements. Speaking of memory, 64 Mb compared to 512 Mb. Thats a big jump in all areas.

The 360 has a crapload of potential for beautiful games, and most analysts now think that since the 360 is a year ahead in terms of game development, and since it has a stronger graphics chipset and more ram that it will always be just 1 step ahead of it's biggest competition (the PS3) although if Sony doesn't lower the price and start actually selling them off the store shelves maybe it will be the Wii that poses the biggest threat to Microsoft.

I am very happy with my 360 and I don't consider it underpowered at all. It plays games so great all the time that I have really stopped caring about PC gaming, I'm totally into the consoles now.

[Netcruzer]

Also keep in mind that as the complexity of the new consoles increase, so does the R&D time in learning how to tap the full potential out of a system. You may be too young to remember the original NES, but think about Super Mario Bros vs Super Mario Bros 3. Same system.. but they learn how to code for it better. Same thing happens for all consoles.

The PS3 and the 360 are very complex, Multi-threaded cpus (to an insane level with the crazy cell cpu) and developers have not figured out how to take full advantage of this yet. But they will, and you will be impressed. Gears of War shows what the increased memory can do for the textures and graphics, now they just need to tap into the full potential of the CPUs.

[treid]

I get what your saying, i guess ill just wait until they tap into what the 360 can fully do before i continue hating it, thanks for your posts.

ps: i thought triple core was impossible, like, it had to be doubles ie: single core, dual core, quad core, and the in development octi core processors

[Netcruzer]

I don't think you'll ever see a triple core CPU in a PC. It likely will jump from 2-4-8-16 etc. As the die sizes shrink they can just keep doubling up on how many cores can fit on one processor. Currently intel can only fit 4 cores made at 65nm into a single processor. I don't think we'll be seeing 8 cores on 1 processor until they do another die shrink to 45nm. The 360 CPU is totally unique, as for why they went with 3 instead of 2 or 4, I have no idea. Also, the 360 is on a 90nm process, it will switch to 65nm at the end of 2007, and other rumors are an integrated HDMI port, bigger HDD, and maybe even become an IPTV box provided by your phone company (as a set top box DVR).. exciting stuff indeed.

[Dogg_P]

Heh, this is a great thread.
Way to harp on the PS3 when first of all it wasn't even brought up, and secondly it sounds like you don't own one.
I don't own a Ford, should I knock its features?
I have played PS3 for a couple weeks now, and its pretty damned nice.
On top of which, the Blueray drive is a HUGE advantage over the 360 DVD drive.
Blow me away with your massive new hardware...amazing...a regular DVD ROM...wow.
Sure, you can shell out for the HD-DVD attachment.
But don't tell me that the 360 is amazing compared to the PS3, especially if you haven't used both.
360 is definitely better than the original xbox, and a very VERY nice unit, but it pales in comparison to the PS3.
Much like the original xbox paled in comparison to the PS2.
Huge fan of ATI though, so I'm all torn up.
The hardware, it makes me sad in the pants...

[Netcruzer]

Hey Dogg, you are correct sir I do not own a PS3. However I certainly did do my research on it and played it. You can absolutely knock a product on things they did wrong or features it doesn't have if you don't own one, why would I have to buy one to talk about it.

Yes I brought up the PS3 but that's because it is the closest competition to a 360.

BluRay is not a HUGE advantage over DVD. DVD drives load data faster than BluRay, and storage size does not equal better games. BluRay has a cavernous capacity of 50Gb, but developers have already stated that they cannot afford to make games affordably that will use that much data. The budget just becomes unmanageable trying to create content to fill the disk. Extra data storage does not equal better games. Period.
Sure the BluRay is nice if you want to watch 1080p movies, but it is not an advantage for games, PS3 is the BluRay trogan horse for Sony, and if it works as planned they will do ok, but they are giving you a line of bull about the potential of bluray and gaming.

My prediction of the future is that the PS3 and the 360 will for the most part release the same games on both systems (except for a few exclusives.. you know Halo3 360 and MGS4 for PS3 etc) and both systems will have very similar graphics. The PS3 has a more Powerful CPU, but the 360 has a more powerful graphics chip and double the ram. In the end, the storage media the disks are on will not matter.

[Dogg_P]

The original point of this post was the lack of impressive improvement in discernable graphics between the xbox and the xbox360. I would like to toss in that there is a sizeable improvement.
But that aside, if you're gonna attack the PS3 be prepared to lose.

5 firmware patches in 2 months

is a load of crap.
"Sony has released a new firmware version for its Playstation 3, which updates the console core software from version 1.32 to version 1.50"
So it started at a core of 1.32 and has been upgraded to 1.50.
How is that 5 firmware patches?
Although I guess its hard to hold that against you because you don't own one and wouldn't know.

wireless controllers that you must plug into a cable to sync

I have no idea what that means.
I've never EVER had to do anything but plug them in to charge...they have batteries, they need to charge.
Their not giant ugly hard to use monstrosities like that of the xbox or the xbox360...that I know for sure.
Comfortable and light. 2 downsides in your opinion?
And I don't have a lot of time but (hey, did you notice earlier I said "...but plug..."? awesome) whats up with the "it has more memory?"
The 360 was due to be released with 256M RAM.
The reason for the upgrade was to pull the choppyness out of Gears Of War.
The developers rigged a unit with 256M RAM and another with 512M, and showed MS what the additional RAM did.
On top of that the PS3 has 256M system RAM, and 256M video RAM.
The 360 has 512M TOTAL RAM.
So...again, show me how the xbox 360 blows the ps3 out of the water.
Or even rocks the boat...

[acheyne]

My Sega Genesis has a big penis.

[Dogg_P]

My Sega Genesis has a big penis.

This says to me one of two things are likely to have happened then:
1 - you at one point owned a penis (possibly fake, possibly real...) and some glue.
b - somebody sold you a sega genesis with a penis attached to it. And knowing that the penis was not a "stock" appendage for the sega genesis, you still felt compelled to purchase it.

Either way, a whole lot has been said in very few words.

[Netcruzer]

Originally Posted by Dogg_P

The original point of this post was the lack of impressive improvement in discernable graphics between the xbox and the xbox360. I would like to toss in that there is a sizeable improvement.
But that aside, if you're gonna attack the PS3 be prepared to lose.
is a load of crap.
"Sony has released a new firmware version for its Playstation 3, which updates the console core software from version 1.32 to version 1.50"
So it started at a core of 1.32 and has been upgraded to 1.50.
How is that 5 firmware patches?
Although I guess its hard to hold that against you because you don't own one and wouldn't know.

I have no idea what that means.
I've never EVER had to do anything but plug them in to charge...they have batteries, they need to charge.
Their not giant ugly hard to use monstrosities like that of the xbox or the xbox360...that I know for sure.
Comfortable and light. 2 downsides in your opinion?
And I don't have a lot of time but (hey, did you notice earlier I said "...but plug..."? awesome) whats up with the "it has more memory?"
The 360 was due to be released with 256M RAM.
The reason for the upgrade was to pull the choppyness out of Gears Of War.
The developers rigged a unit with 256M RAM and another with 512M, and showed MS what the additional RAM did.
On top of that the PS3 has 256M system RAM, and 256M video RAM.
The 360 has 512M TOTAL RAM.
So...again, show me how the xbox 360 blows the ps3 out of the water.
Or even rocks the boat...

Controllers - as per Joystiq
Synchronization problems: In our weekend playing the PlayStation 3, the controller had to be plugged in to the console multiple times in order to be synched. We've never had to plug in an Xbox 360 controller to accomplish any operation on the Xbox 360.
I have also seen many blogs reporting on this same problem, and random bluetooth loss of connections.

Firmwares - I can't find an official list of firmware releases since sony sucks at communcating to customers. But from what I've read of the past few months.. PS3 came with 1.0 out of the box, immediate firmware update when you plug it in to 1.1.. then around beginning of december there was a 1.30, and then a 1.32, and now yesterday a 1.5.. so that is at least 4, and with the number jumps.. I would have figured there was some others. Hey I'm all for fixes.. but that is a lot. Although my Wii has also had 3 or 4 system updates since launch but at least they add additional features like the weather, Opera and just today news channel.

360 vs PS3 RAM- You got me on that one. I thought the PS3 only had 256Mb Ram total.. I now see that the PS3 has 256Mb system and 256Mb Video memory. The 360 has 512Mb unified Video/System.

Lastly, I never claimed that the 360 blows the PS3 out of the water. My original point was that the 360 blows the original Xbox out of the water. I actually think that the PS3 and 360 will be on par for graphics in the future as I already stated in an earlier post.

[Dr. Phil]

Acheyne's Sega Genesis has a big penis.

[MintyFresh]

Considering that Gears of War is the best looking game ever made, on any platform, I'd say that the 360 has stomped the old XBOX in the graphics department.

PS3 vs 360? You have to be stupid to pay $700 for a system that doesn't have any software. That PS3 launch selection was the worst in console history. I mean, did people really just pay $700+ to play Resistance Fall of Man? Only fanboys are buying the PS3.

That fat fuck Gabe Newell said it best:

"The PS3 is a total disaster on so many levels, I think It’s really clear that Sony lost track of what customers and what developers wanted," Newell told Game Informer magazine. "I’d say, even at this late date, they should just cancel it and do a ‘do over’. Just say, ‘This was a horrible disaster and we’re sorry and we’re going to stop selling this and stop trying to convince people to develop for it.’"