*** Official *** Xbox 360 REVIEW Thread (1 Viewer)

[Patrick_S]

Both my local BB and CC also told me that they expect some units to be available on Friday.

I might try to make a run at one then but I'm now leaning towards waiting until January.

 

[Rodney K]

I have a PS2 that I bought on launch day. I sent it back to Sony to have it fixed after they finally admitted the drive problem and would fix it for free. It had sat in a closet, broken, for well over a year.

My Xbox is also first hardware revision and I have had to re-solder the incoming AC connector on the power supply twice now because of broken solder joints. I also have a lot of disc read errors with it and it just keeps getting worse.

I decided that I'm going to wait until they've made at least one hardware revision before I buy either an Xbox 360 or a PS3. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

 

[Jack Gilvey]

I'll bump and second Jay's question. Barring actual experience, though, what might the potential advantage be to VGA?

 

[Chris Bardon]

I also still have a launch xbox that's woking perfectly. The only thing I've had to replace are controllers, and that's just because I burnt out the A button on a couple of them (playing Tony Hawk 3 and 4).

As for reports of failed 360s, if there are 1 million units sold at launch, 1000 of which fail, all 1000 of those people will be on the internet complaining just by the nature of the kind of person who buys a console at launch. I don't think it's really that big a problem. Still, MS sounds like they're being really good about replacements.

I wonder though, are there a lot of people who are waiting on the 360 because they don't have an HDTV yet? I know that I'm probably going to wait to replace my TV until I move next fall, so I might just hold off on a 360 until then as well. I only have a 32" CRT right now, so I'm not sure whether it's even worth the upgrade if I'm going to be playing the 360 on an SD set.

 

[Clinton McClure]

I couldn't agree with you more Kami. I'm on my second unit. The first died after a year and a half of only playing 4-5 hours per week. Sony's quality went way down after the PS1. I bought my PS1 a few days after release and kept it until the PS2 came out, playing it 2-3 hours per day, almost every day with no problems. My nephew still has it in good working order. Unfortunately, poor quality coupled with Sony's lack of good games has caused me to reconsider getting a PS3 (despite Blu-Ray) in the spring and instead opt for a 360 when I can get my paws on one.

 

[RichardK]

My 360 hasn't experienced any issues so far. I have it on its side in an open air equipment rack. I can feel the heat from the back, but nothing major. My unit does not run silent at all. The fans run loudest when a game is being played. No big deal, but for me this matters most when Im gaming late at night.

I have tried two BC games I own and they both work fine. Namco Museum and Halo 2. Halo 2 is blowing me away, again.

My 360 games are Madden and NFSMW. They both look & play great.
I have my computer networked & sharing with my 360.
I transferred my orginal XBL account with ease since I had it linked from xbox.com.
I really like the menu interface. The marketplace is cool as well. I downloaded the Kameo and NBA Live Demos. I have also downloaded some movie trailers and game trailers as well. I havent purchased any points yet, i'll wait awhile on that. Hopefully they will release more demos and keep them free as well.

Being able to turn on and off the unit with a wireless controller absolutely kicks ass!

Remember guys, this is only the beginning. I was reading an old XBOX mag and they were previewing the release of Halo2. It talked about the how they were going to v3.0 of XBL. Each version adding new features to enhance the gameplay and the overall XBL experience.
We have some serious games to look forward to and likely some major enhancements to our XBL experience in store for us.

I can(t) wait.
Cheers.

 

[James T]

I'm hoping to do the same...hoping. The temptation of the 360 is easy to fight when it's sold out everywhere except for eBay.

The plus of picking up a 360 next year vs now
+ software updates (and possibly hardware)
+ larger selection of games
+ no lineups
+ avoid overpriced eBay
+ low risk of getting your 360 stolen at gunpoint
+ might even be a price drop if I hang on long enough until the PS3 launch.
The minus...

- the last kid on the block to pick up the latest technology
- being the envy of that last kid on the block who never picked it up
- high price tag

The PS3 I'm having a similar problem. Metal Gear Solid 3 is the game that made me buy a PS2, and MGS4 might be the game that forces me to buy a PS3 on launch.

 

[Scott_lb]

Here's my mini-review of the system. A friend of mine bought a premium package off of eBay and we tried out a few games earlier tonight on his 62" Toshiba DLP. We fired up Kameo, Perfect Dark Zero, Call of Duty 2, and Madden. My thoughts:

1. I really like the new GUI. It's easy to navigate and has cool banners/pictures when hooked up to the net. Not my foremost concern with a system, but very nice nonetheless. I also like the ability to download movie trailers, game trailers, game demos, etc.

2. The first game I played was Call of Duty 2. While I had played the demo version at a few stores, playing it on a large screen in the dark in HD totally blew me away. My expectations were very high and were surpassed. Madden, Perfect Dark, and Kameo looked fantastic as well. I would prefer to play on a screen a little smaller, however.

3. We played for about five hours straight. Every once in a while I'd put my hand on various parts of the machine to see how warm it got. Not once did it seem noticably warm which I find odd given the reports of so many people having machines that overheat. The air blowing out of the back wasn't overly warm either. We placed the power "brick" on it's side so air could get at all sides to keep it as cool as possible, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it. We had the console placed horizontally and another friend of mine said that the system was designed to be placed vertically to allow for maximum cooling. Don't know how accurate that is, but we would certainly like to do what's necessary to eliminate any problems.

4. Had mixed thoughts on Call of Duty 2 on Live. For the most part, it ran smooth as butter and looked great. However, there were moments where I wasn't moving my character and my guy was moving all of the place by himself (or, I was trying to move one way and he was moving another). I have no idea why this was happening and I got killed many times because of it. When it wasn't happening, the game absolutely rocked.

All in all, I hope to pick a 360 up for myself in the next few months. I do have a standard def TV and don't anticipate getting a plasma until next spring or summer, however. My only real complaint about the system is that I don't like the new Live headsets with the "old school" headphone (I like the kind that rest on the back of your neck). It's my understanding that you can plug in any sort of hands-free cell phone adapter and I'd be all for that.

 

[RAF]

Thanks for the mini-review, Scott. It's appreciated. Many of your comments echo my thoughts as well. For example, as immersive as the big screen is with the 360/HD (I'm using a 110" diagonal screen) I, too, would prefer a slightly smaller screen for continuous play over long periods of time. Right now my only HD display in my HT is my Front Projector so Big Screen it is. However, within a month or so I hope to replace my aging 4:3 SD monitor (A 45" Pioneer Elite Pro-75 RPM which I use for "regular" TV viewing) with a 58" 1080p HD set and at that time I'll probably shift the majority of game play over to the new display. Of course the "Big" screen will still be there for the WoW factor.



Speaking of big screen: The only thing that disappointed me about the XBox 360's performance is how it displays regular DVDs. When I watch DVDs on the XBox they appear a bit fuzzy compared to my other DVD players. Of course this might not be a fair comparison since my DVD player is a Denon 2900 and I'm looking on a 110" screen. It stands to reason that the DVD circuitry in the 360 would not be up to the same standard as in the Denon. Also, I would think that the Xbox 360 would do an o.k. job playing DVDs on a much smaller screen. I just wouldn't make the 360 the centerpiece DVD player for a serious HT. It's not really a negative mark for the 360 since I never bought it for the purpose of playing DVDs and it would serve well in that role for the kiddies, etc.

 

[JeffMuller]

I'm also waiting for:

a) when I get an HDTV... maybe next year :-p
b) the bugs to be worked out. I have a first-gen XBOX with the original buggy DVD drive. It's very annoying.
c) price drop. Well if the first two happen, and I get antsy, I may forego the price drop, but this is a pricey bugger. I have a lot less money now that we have such a "booming economy" than I did back in 2000. :-(

 

[LarryDavenport]

I hope mine comes befor Xmas.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

I fully anticipate this with myself as well. Hoping to go live with me theater next month and for the time being I'll relocate my original Xbox from the rec room. I'm expecting to sit in the second row for a bit more breathing room (100" diagonal screen would be too much from the front row with a 36 degree field of vision). Otherwise I'll be puking all over the place. I'm likely to hold off on the 360 until the launch of the PS3 approaches hoping for some bundles or such. Perhaps by then I'll actually finish some of my original Xbox games. :b

 

[RAF]

Speaking of which...

I'd read about the downward compatibility of the "legacy" XBox games with the Xbox 360 using emulation software but I really didn't expect it to be as easy and as seamless as it turned out to be. As long as you have a HD on the 360 and are connected to "XBox Live" it works like a charm. When you insert an original XBox title into the 360 you will either be told that the title is not yet 360-compliant or you will be asked if you want to download the software needed to run the game. If you answer "Yes" then XBox live downloads it, installs it and the game starts to run. As others have mentioned, while not all games are supported, the number is growing as the required code is developed and placed on the web. Halo and Dead or Alive 3 ran great. As of now, Cel Damage and Oddworld:Munch's Oddesee don't have the update so they aren't 360 compatible at this point.

In other words, you might be finishing your original XBox games on the 360 and they should be looking better than ever. I don't know about saved games (never thought about how to port the saved games over from the XBox to the X360) but that's not an issue for me. I'm sure that other XBox gamers can provide additional information to you.

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm surprised DOA3 got attention before DOA Ultimate (or Beach Volleyball for that matter ). Ultimate is so much more involving than 3. By the time I get a 360 I'm sure this won't be an issue.

 

[Jay Mitchosky]

Thanks RAF.

 

[BrianB]

There is no way to move your save games from the original Xbox to the 360, so you won't be "finishing", you'll be starting over again & finishing.

The emulation is fairly spotty at times - some games have major drops in framerate, other games have gamestopping bugs (like Freedom Fighters). On the other hand, games like Halo 2 look very nice upscaled.

 

[Ken Chui]

Some technical analysts have chimed in on the issue of 360 crashes, suggesting that consumers wait roughly 6 months after a product launch for the manufacturer to iron out the kinks for any electronic product, and not just the 360. I think this is sound advice, and given the complexities associated with next-gen hardware, perhaps I should hold off on the PS3 launch (which may/may not be compounded by the Blu-ray drive).

 

[RAF]

Thanks, Brian. I suspected this. All I know is, I was pleasantly surprised with how nice Halo looked on the 360. Not quite as good as 360-specific titles, and a bit choppy at times, but definitely playable and not objectionable. In other words - when I got rid of my XBox, I didn't give away the few titles I had.

 

[Josh Lowe]

I'm becoming fairly confident the heating problems are due to poor ventilation. The 360 moves a -lot- of air and in even a typical entertainment center will probably be recycling hot air being blown out the back in pretty short order. Orientation also seems to matter - my 360 is horizontal and it seems to pull air in from the sides and exit out of the rear. If you have a vertically oriented 360 with little headroom then it may suffer.

 

[LarryDavenport]

EB says they won't get any XBox360s until March of next year. Should I cancel my order and try somewhere else? Or should I stick it out.