*** Official *** XBox 360 Hardware DISCUSSION Thread (1 Viewer)

[George_W_K]

Come on, Phil. Everyone is doing it.


It's really your choice whether or not you want to upgrade right now. Are there enough games out to make it worth your while? How many of your old Xbox games will you play again?

As for the over heating issues, the 360 had a 3% failure rate from what I remember. That's less than the normal failure rate for new electronics. I can say that I haven't had a problem yet and I've had mine since November.

I'm happy I bought mine.

 

[Yumbo]

yes

 

[Ken Chui]

Games such as HALO 2 will see a visual improvement on the 360 if you have an HDTV and/or VGA adapter for your monitor; any upgrades in visual quality may be negligible on an SDTV.

George raised a very interesting question: Are there enough games out to make it worth your while? Your decision to acquire a 360 at this point-in-time should be driven by the software, both current and upcoming. If you think that the 360 versions of games such as Burnout Revenge and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter are worth a $10-20 premium over its Xbox counterpart, the 360 may be in your future (though, without an HDTV to take advantage of the visuals, it may be a wash, leaving the 360 exclusives such as Kameo and PGR3 to drive your decision).

 

[Phil Florian]

I find it is one current game (Oblivion and I don't have the computer to handle the PC version) and some future games that are driving my decision (namely Stranglehold and the Bioware game that I can't remember...but I pretty much love anything by Bioware). So while there isn't a hurry to get it (only one of three pieces of software I want are out at this time) it is a decent time financially (because I want to spend next year's money on HD set). So I am working REALLY HARD on selling myself but it is always fun to hear other people's opinions.

I have read bits of the thread but a lot are from people's initial takes on the machine. It has been out a while now and I am hoping this generation of machine is a bit more solid than the original generation of machine. It sounds like a 3% failure rate is normal (but that seems a bit high to me but what can you do).

Thanks for advice so far.

Ciao!

 

[Chris Bardon]

Oblivion should be all the reason you need. Easily the best game on the system right now, and well worth the "next gen" price. I'm already 28 hours into it, and haven't even touched the main story missions

 

[JoeyR]

I havent touched Oblivion, not getting involved in that type of game after family issues being hooked on Star Wars Galaxies. Been playing The Outfit everynite though, alot of fun.

 

[Ray Ruggaurs]

anyone bought the basic version?

I'm not really into online gaming so i'm thinking it might be worth it? Any thoughts


Thanks!

 

[Yumbo]

Need a memory device, or slow game - no cache.
No backward compatibility without either.

 

[Phil Florian]

What has been the practice with backwards compatibility? I found the list on Xbox site and was surprised to see Black on it but not a geek favorite like Lego Star Wars (Geeky kid, that is...or old geek like me...either one). I finished the original and even played it with my younger daughter and it is a hoot. I will be REALLY upset if the new Lego Star Wars game doesn't make the jump. Creepy as that is, it is one of the reasons I dread to get rid of my original Xbox (though to make a deal with the devil, one must go...gah!!). Granted, all it takes is a look at Oblivion or future games like Stranglehold or Gears of War to make me forget it...almost.

 

[Jonathan_]

What is the code that I need to use on HTF to make my gamer card look like Chris and Joey's signature?

 

[Doug Miller]

I'm officially selling my 360. I'm really bummed, I've been waiting for the new MLB2K6 to come out, and sure enough it does but has lock-up/system crash problems galore'. I play 2 kinds of video games, football and baseball. Other than that, I'll try it a few times, and usually lose interest. With the problems with MLB2K6 it's up on eBay (where I hope to recoup somewhere close to the $670 or so I put into it after games and controllers - shrug).

I'm officially on the wait for the PS3 bandwagon, where at least when I'm not playing video games I can be watching Blue-Ray movies. If the 360 had HD-DVD playback, I wouldn't be selling it.

Doug

 

[George_W_K]

Football and baseball, huh? Sucks to be you as EA has the rights to football and the 2K series is better and 2k has the rights to baseball and the MVP series by EA is better.

The exclusive agreements are showing their ugly heads right now.

Madden was a lazy port and MLB 2k6 is a buggy one. I don't see how the PS3 will be immune to this kind of behavior either.

 

[Ken Chui]

Microsoft to upgrade Xbox 360's CPU

 

[Doug Miller]

George -- I think the biggest reason why PS3 will be better for football, is that they'll have the bugs worked out of Madden. I remember Madden when I got the PS2 on release day, wow, it was as good as it would ever get... then I got the XBox on release day and Madden looked even better. I think PS3 will have it's share of flaws, but ultimately, the two games I really wanted to play now were either underwhelming (Madden) or really screwed up (MLB2K6).

 

[Phil Florian]

Is there any predicting what games will be backwards compatible or not? I am close to getting the 360 (my original Xbox just sold so all it is now is waiting for the time to buy it) which I am excited about but I am holding out home that a couple of the new Xbox-only games will be compatible on the 360. Some games make the jump fast, like "Black" but others are still missing. In particular (and don't make fun of me) I love (and moreso my daughter) the Lego Star Wars game which right now isn't compatible. Any chance that the new game will be backwards compatible out of the box? Are they doing releases like that or do they wait and see how it sells first and then decide what will work and what won't? Frustrating!

 

[George_W_K]

I wish there was an answer for this, Phil. MS has been keeping really quiet about the BC list. E3 is in a couple of weeks where a lot of info about the 360 should come to light. Hopefully, we'll find out when Street Fighter II and Texas Holdem are expected to be on arcade. When the video cam is supposed to be out. Future games, of course. You know, stuff like that.

 

[Luke_A]

Greetings,

Tomorrow, I am thinking about taking the plunge and purchasing an XBox 360.

But, here is my situation: I do not have an HDTV.

The television I currently own is a Sony W/Vega 32" 4x3 FSsomethingorother. Am I going to be able to tell a difference between the 360 and a regular Xbox? My television does have that 16:9 squeeze feature and component support. Is this going to help out picture quality at all?

I don't want to come home, hook in the console, and then proceed to weep uncontrollably.

Thanks.

Luke A.

 

[James T]

It'll depend on which game you play. Games like MLB 2K6 and NHL 2K6 will look like old Xbox games, but games like Ghost Recon, Fight Night and Oblivion make up for all that.

I have a 27" Wega and it too has a squeeze mode. I don't use it, though.

 

[Luke_A]

Is there a particular reason as to why you don't use it? Is there a way to set the system to 16:9 on a 4x3 set, and then use the squeeze mode to create a 16:9 picture?...I hope that makes sense.

 

[James T]

The default squeeze mode by Sony is pathetic. It makes 2.35:1 ratio movies look like 7:1. And yes, I'm adjusting the 360 as well to read as 16x9.

I honestly don't see a difference, so I just don't use it.