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Saner
Posts: 6877
Location: Uk
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 Posted: Sat, 10th Dec 2005 18:04 Post subject: [XBOX] 360 review |
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The dashboard is amazing. Anyone who has used a modded xbox, will have some idea of where Microsoft got a lot of the ideas from. It features (If you have a Windows XP Media Centre edition OS) Video stream, music streaming and picture streaming (If you have XP, you cant stream Video's) this all works fine, the only draw back is that you cant stream Divx / Xvid and a lot of other third party codecs. This becomes annoying because esentially the 360 is acting as a second monitor, so it is perfectly capable of running those files, microsoft has decided to block it.
Xbox Live Arcade.
When I first read about this, I doubted it would be any good, the list of games avalable at launch on Xbox where crap and I couldnt see how anyone would pay for them.
However I have now paid over 20£ for games. Hexic HD comes free on the Premium Hard disk (and on the HD you can buy for the core), I have also purchased Smash TV, Bejewled 2 and a Pool game.
The pool game came in at the most expensive a whopping 1200 Microsoft points (around £10) but IMO is well worth it, just because you can play over Live! against other players. Smash Tv was the cheapest at 400 points (around £3.50) Smash TV also has a co-op mode you can play over Live!.
Live! arcade is a superb feature, for anyone who likes laying the simple games for bordom beating, I can see myself throwing a hell of a lot of money away on the silly games. They all feature Leaderboards that keep you in touch with how crap you are when compaired to the rest of the world (Still #1 on the Pool game! =D)
USB
I have only one USB tool really that I could test conectivity with, and that is my digital camera. I plugged it in and within 20 seconds I was viewing the images stored on the camera, i could even set on of the pictures of the Daughter as a wallpaper, so whenever I am on the 360 I have her face staring back at me (Wife wouldnt let me have Jenna on there )
Demo's
Demos and trailers are great also, the collection of things is somewhat limited at the moment, but in time I can see no reason to buy things like the Official xbox mag, as you can just download Demo's
At the moment downloading Demos is somewhat slow (arcade games are not) I can imagine this is because if you view the official Xbox forums, you can see people boasting on how they have donloaded everything on there, so the servers are being hammered, this will I imagine either get better over time when people get bored, or Microsoft will add more content servers, as Live is something they have always prided themselves on.
Hardware.
As I bought my xbox on the first shipment, I got a free Mini media remote with it, this was im limited supply and I somehow doubt they will be in the second shipment. Its a good little addition and works well, one of the nicenst features is when I am playing games I can skip songs I am streaming with the media remote, without having to press the guide button (and pause my game). This in single player is not a problem but when you are online and one of the wives songs starts playing, you suddenly realise you cant pause!
The Controller is one of the best I have played with, I was a little worried about the shoulder buttons, as with the Gamecube controller I always had trouble with the "Z" button, and now microsoft has positioned the old black and wihite buttons up on the shoulder, but it works well, they have postitions them in a place where I havent had to struggle to press either, although i do sometimes still reach for the old black and white buttons and where the start and back used tobe on the S-Controller.
the batterys that come in the box for the Wireless controller and remote are high quality Energizer ones, and I easily outdid 50 hours of gameplay before needed to replace them.
Since then I have bought the "Play and charge" kit, that basically charges a battery pack (comes with the kit) as you play via the box's USB ports, for the price of £15 its a must have for the wireless remote, imagine how much good quality batterys wouldcost over a year £15 is peanuts.
I always noticed on the original system, everything felt well built. I found with the Playstation and the Gamecube, things felt like they where low quality, and they didnt feel like they where well built, Microsoft carry this on with the 360, everything is really tough and I have already dropped my controller countless times and it still works fine with no signs of wear.
The system has worked fine over the past 8 days, some people have been having problems, I would say use some commen sence, keep it in a well venterlated area, and (for disk scrating) dont move it when its on. The amount of people complaining of scratched disks, and then later say how they turned the console is unbeleivable.
Commen sence and things seem to work fine.
Games,
I got Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo at launch, neither are really my cup of tea, PD:0 is fun, but I cant play FPS games anymore, Kameo is ok, I really havent sat and given it a chance but it seesm to better looking of the two.
That being said some of the level of detail and especially everything that goes on all around you is superb, things will only get better once they harness the power a little better (keep in mind 3 months or so ago, dev's didnt even have final hardware to make there games on)
I am keeping games short, because they are about opinions.
In short, I would reccomend the 360 to anyone with High Speed internet, if you dont have Broadband, then i would say only buy it if it has games you want to play. Once you lose the Live features you are basically left with an Xbox with better Graphics.
Its a very impressive piece of kit, and will get better in time.
One thing is for sure, no matter what you buy this is going to be onbe hell of a generation of gamers, and it brings back memorys of the Old SNES / Megadrive wars of years gone by.
| ragnarus wrote: |
I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ? |
Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa!
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| Posted: Mon, 12th Dec 2005 10:15 Post subject: |
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What an execellent review , well done mate.
Just one question , where on earth did you manage to get hold of your play and charge kit in the Uk cos I cant get hold of one anywhere ?
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Saner
Posts: 6877
Location: Uk
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| Posted: Mon, 12th Dec 2005 10:38 Post subject: |
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I phoned the store I bought the system from and they ordered one in for me.
Its a small store, so the name would mean nothing to you 9I doubt) but its worth speaking to small stores they are usually more willing to order stuff in for people.
| ragnarus wrote: |
I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ? |
Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa!
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Supino
Posts: 699
Location: Norway
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| Posted: Mon, 12th Dec 2005 17:44 Post subject: |
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Nice review |nSaNe!
after reading a lot about the box, it seems to be high quality stuff. I'm happy to see hard core gamers praise its functionality! Looking forward to buy one when it gets available again. (I just felt it was too stupid to stand 6 hours in line for it at launch)
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| Posted: Tue, 20th Dec 2005 04:47 Post subject: |
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Excellent review...thanks heaps...good to know these things before we get 360 here in Oz..thanks
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| Posted: Tue, 20th Dec 2005 11:52 Post subject: |
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I'll probably be getting one in march next year. Nice review, thanks.
"Techniclly speaking, Beta-Manboi didnt inject Burberry_Massi with Benz, he injected him with liquid that had air bubbles in it, which caused benz." - House M.D
"Faith without logic is the same as knowledge without understanding; meaningless"
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| Posted: Wed, 21st Dec 2005 03:38 Post subject: |
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Ya I agree with your review. but Pd0 online is so addictive...love it...SP some levels seem rushed well others are great.
If you can't play FPS anymore you should try Condemed truely an amazing game.
I also seen some new Gears Of War footage...this game is going to rock... its looks great.
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Godlikez*
Banned
Posts: 2722
Location: In Your Illusions
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| Posted: Wed, 21st Dec 2005 11:06 Post subject: |
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ut oh here we go again. omho Live is microsofts biggest acheivement and sonys biggest downfall. Live makes games so much more in this second iteration. Trust me pgr3 and xbox live = addiction. With the whole live experience set to become so much more over the next 12 months what we see now on the xbox360 is only the first step in what they have planned. Hideo Kajimo's honest opinion is that the ps3 and 360 dont really have much difference and i'll take that guys word over forum fanboys any day. The gap will narrow with the wealth of japanese devs already working on next gen games for xbox360. Its gonna be a tough cal plus if any of you recently heard the playstation honchos comments at some show..they went something like this..."this shit wont be cheap its gonna be expensive" coupled with no live type experience i can see maybe the EU/american market adopting the xbox360 more this time round. Plus the fact that sony always insist on rlsing the product in japan and not in the rest of the world for like 6 months. Time will tell sony have a huge fanbase to work from. But expensive media ie blu ray coupled with lack of online features...maybe just maybe microsofts console this time round is the better overall buy.
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Saner
Posts: 6877
Location: Uk
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| Posted: Wed, 21st Dec 2005 11:07 Post subject: |
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| cybersurfer wrote: | Ya I agree with your review. but Pd0 online is so addictive...love it...SP some levels seem rushed well others are great.
If you can't play FPS anymore you should try Condemed truely an amazing game.
I also seen some new Gears Of War footage...this game is going to rock... its looks great. |
Condemned is something I am going to pick up in the new year, First person or not, i want to play that one 
| ragnarus wrote: |
I saw things like that in here and in other "woman problems" topics so...... Am I the only one that thinks some authorities needs to be alerted about Saner and him possibly being a rapist and/or kidnapper ? |
Saner is not being serious. Unless its the subject of Santa! |
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| Posted: Thu, 22nd Dec 2005 00:31 Post subject: |
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| |nSaNe wrote: | | cybersurfer wrote: | Ya I agree with your review. but Pd0 online is so addictive...love it...SP some levels seem rushed well others are great.
If you can't play FPS anymore you should try Condemed truely an amazing game.
I also seen some new Gears Of War footage...this game is going to rock... its looks great. |
Condemned is something I am going to pick up in the new year, First person or not, i want to play that one |
I only rented this one and beat in a week. But I must say I want to play it again and thats rare for me....+ I never unlocked all the achievements. Mabey I'll pick up cheap some where 
Oh one thing to add the game is kind of repeative...alot is hand to hand combat...but I must say it never gets tired of clubing a guy with a pipe |
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| Posted: Thu, 22nd Dec 2005 00:33 Post subject: |
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| dvsone wrote: | | ut oh here we go again. omho Live is microsofts biggest acheivement and sonys biggest downfall. Live makes games so much more in this second iteration. Trust me pgr3 and xbox live = addiction. With the whole live experience set to become so much more over the next 12 months what we see now on the xbox360 is only the first step in what they have planned. Hideo Kajimo's honest opinion is that the ps3 and 360 dont really have much difference and i'll take that guys word over forum fanboys any day. The gap will narrow with the wealth of japanese devs already working on next gen games for xbox360. Its gonna be a tough cal plus if any of you recently heard the playstation honchos comments at some show..they went something like this..."this shit wont be cheap its gonna be expensive" coupled with no live type experience i can see maybe the EU/american market adopting the xbox360 more this time round. Plus the fact that sony always insist on rlsing the product in japan and not in the rest of the world for like 6 months. Time will tell sony have a huge fanbase to work from. But expensive media ie blu ray coupled with lack of online features...maybe just maybe microsofts console this time round is the better overall buy. |
amen great post |
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| Posted: Fri, 23rd Dec 2005 00:39 Post subject: |
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Nice review!
Think I'll buy myself one after new years.
The more things change, The more they stay the same.
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