Topic: Xbox 360 impressions so far. Now with Dead Rising rant.

[Cobra951]

Thanks!  It gets better.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  I got an Acer 22" LCD monitor and Logitech 2.1 speakers tonight.  (I also found the right adapters for connection of the VGA-cable's RCA audio plugs to the speakers.)  For some reason, I can't get the display to center at anything above 848x480.  (Image is off to the left.)  I wonder what the hell is up with that.  I can't imagine the monitor is unable to go up beyond this with a real computer video card attached to it.  Is there something I'm missing here?  Are there some extra settings somewhere on the Xbox?  DVDs look great at this res, though.  The player software handles it perfectly too, giving you full screen on 16:9 content, and black bars on the left and right on 4:3 content, even when mixed on the same disc.  Of the games, I've only tried Kameo so far.  It looks OK, but somewhat artifacted.  I imagine if it has an HDTV mode, it's not being used at this res.

It took me a long time to set it all up, so I haven't put much time at all into using the system.  I'll have more to say about it tomorrow.

Edit:  Woohoo!  Never mind.  I set the Xbox to 1280x720, then futzed around with the "clock" setting on the monitor controls, which stretched the image to the right.  When I exited, the monitor didn't like what I did, so it went into auto-adjust.  A few flashes later, the screen was perfectly centered at this res, which I think is equivalent to 720P.  Yay!  The dashboard looks awesome.  The DVD I was playing still looks awesome.  Now for some HD games, I hope . . .

Edit 2:  Yes!  Kameo looks pristine now.  Phew.  3:15 AM.  I'm calling it a night.

Thought I should start a new thread for this (and stop hijacking the PS3 vs 360 thread).  It's been a great experience for the last two days.  I got Kameo on the strength of a kiosk demo I played some months ago.  It's turned out even better than I expected.

I'm super impressed with the performance.  The frame rate is rock steady, even through massive battles with what seems like hundreds of green trolls battling against blue defenders.  Everything looks so good that I've been taking it really slow through the game (and getting the shitty score grades to prove it).  I like just watching everyone run around in the lush environment.  I got so used to the unflinching fluidity that a single momentary glitch tonight shocked me.  Wow.  The system cranks.  It's noisy, though.  The fans kick into high gear as soon as the game starts, and don't wind down until you exit back to the dashboard.

Some of the extras are unexpected.  The system will read not only CDs and DVDs, but USB storage devices too.  I was able to see photos from a digital camera and play MP3s from an SD card (in a USB card reader).  Apparently, you can even use a 3rd-party external hard drive, as long as it's formatted in FAT32.  This gives you complete control over your media, unlike the 360's own HD.

The Acer monitor has worked out very well too.  It looks amazingly good at 1280x720.  Bright and crisp.  It's unreal how much LCD prices have dropped in just a year.

[iPPi]

Glad you like your 360.

It is an impressive system.  I really like it as well right now.  I'm just contemplating what games to get as of now.

[Quemaqua]

Like most current systems, the main issue is there just isn't enough out for it.  I own five games and I consider them to be pretty much the only ones worth owning (though there are a few other high-scoring titles that some might dig).  But there's a lot on the horizon to look forward to, it seems.

[Cobra951]

I guess that's another reason to keep taking it slow through the games.  What else do you own, besides Dead Rising and Gears of War?  Did you ever spring for (the 360's) Oblivion?  I'm tempted, but I've played that to death on the PC (but with substandard graphics & performance) and I imagine the hard drive is almost mandatory.  I'm thinking Gotham Racing 3, which is $30 now, will be my next purchase.  Any other recommendations?  Can you tell me a bit about the "Live" online stuff?  (Should I ever bother to run a network cable to this thing?)

I can't get over the presence of this system.  They seem to have nailed everything that matters.  I've been reading a lot more than before about the hardware, and how it compares to the competition.  There's some big brainpower behind both systems, but the PS3 has a huge learning curve for developers that simply isn't there with the 360.  (I'm thinking very sophisticated compilers are the key to competitive development costs on the PS3.  Separating different kinds of processes out by hand has got to be a nightmare.)  PC games should port to the 360 with little effort.  The key to performance is using the 3 cores effectively.  A single-threaded game is going to chug compared to PC execution, if it's CPU-bound.  But otherwise, assuming compatible control options, it's damn near a cakewalk.  And if GPU-bound, the CPU architecture isn't even an issue.

Oh, and take a look at this Anandtech article on the 360's HD-DVD unit.  Cool stuff.

[Pugnate]

There just haven't been enough games all round this year.

[angrykeebler]

damn it. I kinda want to buy a 360 as well..... must...hold...out

[TheOtherBelmont]

Cobra if you are thinking about getting a racing game for your next purchase get Burnout Revenge(its around $30 now too), it's pretty fun doing all the crazy crashes and stuff, unless you are wanting a more realistic racing game.  Call of Duty 3 is fun, I played through a few levels at work on a lunch break on a demo unit we had set up, you might want to wait for that to go down in price though, since it is just another WWII FPS game that is fairly short, its worth a rental though.

[Pugnate]

You must resist Keebler!!! MUST RESIST!

[poomcgoo]

I was also really surprised once I actually dove into the 360.  I haven't been a console guy since Dreamcast.  I got a PS2 the first Christmas they came out and haven't played it since then.  The only reason I even got a 360 was because it was cheaper than upgrading my PC, as I'd have to upgrade pretty much everything since my current PC has no PCI Express slot.  This thing is really damn impressive though.  I ordered a bunch of used games on Amazon and timed it so that they'd arrive right when I started my winter break.  I got four games (Kameo, GRAW, Perfect Dark 0, and Ninja Gaiden) for the price of one new game, shipped.  I really recommend this to everybody with a 360, because not only did I get these games cheap, they ended up shipping me brand new copies of both GRAW and PD0 (the collector's edition at that) and didn't charge me any extra.

Can you tell me a bit about the "Live" online stuff?  (Should I ever bother to run a network cable to this thing?)

You absolutely need to.  I'd been playing Gears of War offline for a few weeks, because I decided to hold off on signing up for Xbox Live until after my semester/finals were over.  I got home a few days ago and signed up for the free month of Live (which you can actually do 4 times for 4 free months, which they don't tell you), and immediately the console got 100x better.  I was impressed when I first opened it and booted up Gears offline, but it bears no comparison to how surprised I was to see everything that Xbox Live gives you.  Grab demos (SP and Online MP demos), trailers, movies, tv shows, XBLA stuff etc...  It's fucking awesome.  On top of that, the friends list and chat system is incredibly well done -- you won't miss your keyboard at all, believe it or not.  Gears and GRAW are so much fun to play online, I haven't even touched Kameo, PD0 or Ninja Gaiden yet.  I'm also really digging the R6:Vegas and Battlefield 2 MP demos, which I originally thought woulda sucked, but I now plan on buying as soon as I can.

If that isn't overkill already, by hooking it up to your router you enable the 360 access to your PC's (or Zune, if you have one) MP3s, movies, and pictures.  I used to run the S-video cable from my computer to my TV so I could watch whatever movies or shows I had downloaded on it, but it was always such a hassle.  Since my laptop doesn't have an S-Video Out port, I was always forced to use my desktop upstairs, and likewise forced to use the only TV that was close to it -- a shitty 19" SDTV from like 10 years ago.  It was almost too easy to set up my 360 for this, and now I can finish season 3 of The Wire on the nice 60" HDTV we have downstairs.  I seriously couldn't be happier with this thing.  If you decide to take advantage of all the shit this thing's got in it, it really will surprise you.

EDIT: Cobra, I was just looking around amazon and they have PGR 3 for $16 bucks used.  Definitely browse around all the 360 games, because a ton of them are really cheap and you might find something good.  The condition my used games came in were perfect, too.  You could hardly tell they were used.  I personally don't like realistic racers like PGR or Gran Tourismo, so I couldn't recommend it, but I will say that GRAW is an amazing game and Burnout can be pretty fun.  I know some of you guys didn't like NFS:MW too much, but I thought it was a blast, and probably my favorite racing game in a long time.  It's pretty cheap too.

[Cobra951]

You said I won't miss my keyboard, but I read that now there's full support for USB keyboards.  I'm in no rush to add any more peripherals yet.  There's no way in hell I'm paying $100 for a WiFi adapter, so I'm going to have to get a long cable to reach my brother's router.  I also read about connecting a PC to the 360, but I'm not clear on what that gives me, or what the PC requirements are.  I still need to go back to NY and bring back all my gear, before I can attempt that.  (I'll be going up in a couple of days, and staying through at least Christmas, maybe New Year's.)  I was surprised enough that I could access MP3s and JPEGs from an SD card in a USB reader.

[ScaryTooth]

I was a little skeptical at first too. I was actually regretting buying it. But after I messed with it some more, I love it. Get Gears of War, it's freaking amazing. I've been playing it online and it rocks hardcore. It's just an insanely cool game. Live is decent. Being able to download demos, and videos is pretty cool. Plus you can network your computer, and pc together, and actually stream video to it. Haven't figured that part out yet. Online play is okay. The people suck so far though. I was in a GoW match earlier today, and had to leave because all of the suburban white kids talking ebonics just annoyed the shit outta me. I've maybe ran into 3 people that seems to be pretty cool.   

All, and all, I'm digging it. I want to get Raindow Six Vegas, or Viva Pinata next. Saints Row is pretty cool it seems. Assasin's Creed looks like it's going to rock. GTAVI is no longer exclusive to the PS, so it's going to be on 360 as well as PS3 when it hits. And there is no way in hell I'm buying a PS3.

[angrykeebler]

I resisted. Instead I bought a DS Lite with Final Fantasy III and Mario!

[wizall]

Well, I picked up a 360 yesterday along with a new TV (32" LCD HDTV) and I have to admit, I'm a little overwhelmed.  To be hit with HD for the first time along with 360 graphics (I used to game on the PC all the time, but it's been just about two years now), so I'm damn near blown away.  It's incredible.  I realize, of course, this sense of awe will fade and I'll be left with only my impression of the games themselves...but at the moment, I'm just basking in the awesomeness of it.  Please, let me be naive for a while. 

But really, I plan on hooking up Live tomorrow when I have more time.  A friend lent me three games (Gotham 3, Perfect Dark, GRAW) so I'll be checking those out over the next few days.

But again, wow.  This is quite an upgrade from my shitty 19" fish bowl. 

[Quemaqua]

I have Dead or Alive 4, Kameo, Dead Rising, Gears of War, and Viva Pinata.  All are quite good.

As for your questions about Live, Cobra, I'm on the other side of the fence.  It's good to hook up even with just a silver account because you can get patches and such, but I think Gold is total bullshit.  I've been playing games online for free on my PC since the beginning of time, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay anybody for the right to play my games with other people.  So no gold membership for Que other than the free one.  I care more about playing local coop GoW games than I do the competitive stuff anyway.  Like Scary said, too hard to find good people.

[ScaryTooth]

FYI

Viva Pinata is going to be $29.99 at Best Buy tomorrow only. Last minute shopper thing or something. Rainbow Six: Vegas is going to be $44.99 I think.

I'm going to hit both of them I think. Viva Pinata for sure.

[Cobra951]

I have Dead or Alive 4, Kameo, Dead Rising, Gears of War, and Viva Pinata.  All are quite good.

As for your questions about Live, Cobra, I'm on the other side of the fence.  It's good to hook up even with just a silver account because you can get patches and such, but I think Gold is total bullshit.  I've been playing games online for free on my PC since the beginning of time, and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay anybody for the right to play my games with other people.  So no gold membership for Que other than the free one.  I care more about playing local coop GoW games than I do the competitive stuff anyway.  Like Scary said, too hard to find good people.

I'm with you on multiplayer online.  I never much cared for playing with distant strangers, and there's no way I'm paying extra for the "privilege".

Viva Piñata looks similar to Harvest Moon.  Is that fair to say?  I could never get into the Harvest Moon games.

I tried Dead Rising today.  I'm glad you mentioned starting over with a leveled-up character from a previous death, because otherwise, I think I'd be frustrated all to hell.  I've died twice now in the gun battle in the food court.  Both times, I saved the status and quit.  Maybe 3rd time will be a charm.

The game has no display adjustment of any kind, and looks a bit washed out on this monitor.  Not really bad, though.  I got spoiled by Kameo's LCD setting.  The range of brightness & contrast adjustment on the monitor is very crappy.  There's no way to add more contrast (blacker blacks, especially) from what I already have it set on, and lowering the brightness would just dull the image.  Aside from this issue, the graphics are not bad, in a gritty fashion.  As with Kameo, it just blows my mind to see so many NPCs roaming about in clusters, with no performance hit. 

The game does a great job of filling you with dread and desperation.  Trying to navigate through rooms and exteriors crawling with the undead is something I've never experienced to this extent before (or anywhere near).  I don't like having to fight this gunman at all.  It seems so out of place, takes me out of what I'm wanting to do and learn more about (whacking zombies in creative, gory ways).  Hopefully, it will have a good reason in the story, which I don't know yet.

[Quemaqua]

The story isn't terrible, and it's fairly amusing to see it unfold, but it isn't the greatest thing ever or anything.  Still, it wasn't bad, and it does set up some really cool stuff later in the game.  And yeah, I didn't enjoy that gunfight much either.  The "boss" fights in the game are truly hit and miss.  Some are just totally awesome and some completely suck, and others are all over the place in between.  Just keep at it and you'll eventually get it.

My biggest piece of advice is to try and get the story-related (i.e. mandatory) stuff out of the way as fast as you can, then spend the rest of your time until the next big event just doing side stuff.  I found that was the easiest way for me to do it.  And use transportation to get around faster!  Stocking up on a few skateboards or grabbing a bike can really cut down on travel time.  And remember that not only is it okay to start the game over a few times, it's okay to play through it multiple times.  There's a ton of NPCs that you can't save or won't even *see* your first time around, so playing again and trying different things at different times will yield some pretty different situations.  Plus it takes a number of play throughs to get to the max level.  I played through about 1 & 3/4 times, started over in my first game at least three times, and also had Sy and Pyro playing it for a couple hours each... and Frank still isn't maxed out yet.  So you can really get a lot of mileage out of this one.

And yes, Rare does a great job with the screen options.  Viva Pinata is also one of theirs, and the screen options are so much better with that and Kameo than most of the other 360 games I've got.

[iPPi]

I bought Rainbow Six: Vegas.  I played it for about 10 minutes and it looks like it's gonna be great (gotta take cover and stuff like Gears of War).  I just want to finish GRAW before playing R6V.

[ScaryTooth]

I picked up Viva Pinata, and R6V today.

I Have a $5 off coupon for any game at best buy too. So I got Viva for like $25, thats the way I'm looking at it though. R6V was only $45, so I figured why not. Gonna mess with Viva, but I want to finish Dead Rising before I dive into R6.

Plus I've been having so much fun with Gears of War MP.

[poomcgoo]

Hell yes!  My girlfriend just bought me R6:Vegas and Fight Night Round 3 for Christmas...  Vegas is so awesome.

[Pugnate]

What the hell kind of awesome girlfriend do you have?

[poomcgoo]

An awesomer one than I thought apparently.

[iPPi]

What's your gamertag poomcgoo?

Btw, Scary and poo, we can do some coop together for R6V if you guys want to.

[PyroMenace]

Alright, I want to know something. I want to get a 360, but theres a few Xbox games I want to play on it, but Ive heard the emulation on the 360 sucks. The games Ive wanted to play are Panzer Dragoon Orta, Ninja Gaiden, and I wanted to get the Halo games.

[iPPi]

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

[PyroMenace]

Damnit, Orta isnt on there. Has anyone had any experience playing Xbox games on the 360? How do they fair?

[poomcgoo]

I got Ninja Gaiden in the mail the other day and it works perfectly.  Looks sweet in HD, but I'll be honest, this game is overrated.

My gamertag is timota but I'm gonna be sending my 360 in to get fixed soon (before my warranty runs out), because it has some hardware problem with it that it's had since I got it.  So I might have a new gamertag soon.  It still works, but sometimes it doesnt turn on the first time.  Why can't they get this shit right for $400?

[Quemaqua]

I can't even do the emulation because I don't have a hard drive.  It's required.

But thank God Psychonauts and Deathrow are on there.  Few are the games I really and truly care about, but those two the world needs.

[idolminds]

I dont know if it was posted or not, but MS has extended all 360 warranties from 90 day to 1 year. If you already had your 90 day expire and paid for repairs, MS is mailing you a check to cover the costs.

[poomcgoo]

Score, I thought it was 30 days, even 90 would have sufficed.  In that case, I'll use my 4 free months of Gold on this 360, and ship it off.  Maybe they'll give me a new one with 4 more free months.

[wizall]

I'll be getting R6V soon, I think.  I've been playing the demo today and I really like it.  I'd like to get in on some of that action, as well.

[iPPi]

Sweet, did they really extend the warranty to 1 year?  Do you have a link or something like that idol?

[idolminds]

Shacknews had it as well as other sites. I'll copy and paste the press release:

REDMOND, Wash. -- Dec. 22, 2006 -- In a move to benefit customers, Microsoft Corp. announced today that it will change the Xbox 360 warranty from 90 days to one year from the date of purchase in the United States and Canada. Microsoft extended the warranty in these territories to be consistent with the standard one-year Xbox 360 warranty that is available throughout most of the world. The news is reason to celebrate this holiday season; it applies to both would-be purchasers and those who already have Xbox 360 and are still within their first year of ownership.

Effective today, the one-year warranty is now the standard for the Xbox 360 console. Customers who experience hardware issues with their Xbox 360 within one year of purchase can have their consoles repaired at no cost. Moreover, the new warranty policy is retroactive, so consumers who may have already paid for an out-of-warranty Xbox 360 repair within one year of purchase will be eligible for reimbursement of their console repair charges.

"Customer satisfaction is a central focus and priority for the Xbox 360 system," said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Global Marketing for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "In addition to jaw-dropping features such as high-definition graphics, an amazing catalog of over 160 games, and social online and entertainment experiences on Xbox Live., the Xbox 360 system now offers this extended warranty upgrade. It is truly the industry's most compelling home entertainment offering."

Customers who have already paid out-of-warranty repair charges within their first year of ownership can expect reimbursement checks for the amount of their console repair in approximately 10 weeks. Reimbursements will be automatically distributed, so customers need not contact Microsoft. Customers who have questions regarding this policy change or experience any hardware issues should visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/contact where they can check their warranty status, find troubleshooting information for common issues and find Xbox support contact information.

[Quemaqua]

They have the money for it, so it's good to see them do something other than horde it.  Taking care of customers should always be job one, but that isn't the case much of the time these days.  I'm no M$ fan, but this is definitely a big mark in their favor.  Of course, I hope I don't have hardware issues with the thing *ever*, but still, it's nice to know they did this.

[iPPi]

Good to know.  Thanks for letting us know idol. 

[Cobra951]

Awesome!  I almost bought into the Microcenter replacement deal, but now I'm glad I resisted.  I got the system less than a week before this news story, and the warranty  in the box is for 90 days only.

[beo]

after beating my dad and brothers at poker, and getting a decent haul of cash and checks on christmas day, i decided to pick up a 360. been playing gears of war pretty much non-stop since i got it! i'm really impressed with how well it all fits together - from the audio player, to the xbox live/arcade/marketplace integration.

i'm in the process of trying to hook up the media functions to my win2k box to the 360, but i feel i might be out of luck as the official microsoft software for the PC end of things only works with XP and above. if anyone knows any different, let me know...

[Jedi]

Picked up a 360 myself, me and my brother played through the whole of Gears of War (split screen) in one afternoon/night/early evening sitting!
I was going to wait until I get paid before getting R6 but I think I'll pick it up tomorrow. At this stage tomorrow (new years eve) will be filed with drinking and playing on the 360 then heading off to a party.. should be sweet.

I'm yet to setup my XBox Live account though

[Pugnate]

I was going to get my bro a PC this year, but have decided on the 360 instead. Just easier.

[HxCeddie]

If anyone wants to play R6 co-op or competively, hit me up. hxcEddie is my gamertag.