Xbox 360 Launch Date

[Edfilho]

For lots of people, yeah. Like Frosty said, if you have to ask, then the answer is no. I'm looking forward to quite a few games that won't be available on the PC though. To answer the first question directly, there's very little reason not to get an XBox 360 if you play a lot of new video games. In order to have access to a wide range of video game content, you absolutely can't stick to a single platform. There are incredile games I want to play that will on be on the PC, Nintendo DS, PSP, Revolution, PS3 and 360. So you'd want a second platform simply because you don't stick to a limited spectrum of the gaming industry.

I have a computer that can run pretty much any PC game, and I'd pull my hair out if that was all I had. I absolutely need my Mario Party and Donkey Konga on the GameCube, Advance Wars and Nintendogs on the DS, Metal Gear Acid on the PSP, and a ton of PS2/XBox games. On top of that, speaking with 20 years of both console and PC gaming history behind me, I have to say that the PC gaming industry has been incredibly annoying the last couple years. Installation is a waste of time, bugs are more prevalent, my favorite series/genre are being scaled back, better versions of some titles are appearing on consoles and the interface just isn't as good for me. For a typical game that exists both on the PC and something like the XBox, I'd pick the XBox version every time. This will be magnified with the 360. For about the price of a high end 3D card, I'll be getting a self-contained gaming unit that has more power than high end gaming computers. The minimum resolution for 360 games on my 52" screen is higher than I can comfortably look at on my 21" PC monitor. I personally prefer the controller to mouse/keyboard/joystick for most gametypes. The online interface will be much better than what most PC games find, and every single game will be interconnected. I often see my friends are playing one game, and I'll go join them if they allow that or they can come join me, and every game and every player will have a microphone/voice support built in.

You may very well be a person who doesn't play too many games and the ones you do might all be on the PC, so that's enough for you. Ghost Recon, Chrome Hounds, Dead or Alive 4, Ninety-nine Nights, Perfect Dark, Project Gotham, Burnout, Gears of War, Dead Rising and Halo 3 are all XBox 360 exclusive/enhanced titles that I think look fantastic, so I'll be there at midnight to get mine on launch day.

Chris, while most of what you wrote is true, buying ALL machines right away is not an option to many people (those low on cash, or those who have kids, the ultimate money sink), not to mention the age old "time to play" issue.

BTW, I personally still love pc gaming a hell lot, it is my main plataform. I like RTS games, and I really hate playing FPS with gamepads (as do most people, but that is not the issue). I really prefer getting SCCT, Psychonauts, Fable etc. on the pc, I like the gameplay, the monitor graphics... not to mention that here an Xbox costs a fucking fortune (a lot more than an XBOX in the US, even considering exchange rates). Legit Pc games here are actually a lot cheaper than in the US or europe. so there are many reasons why even while liking console gaming a lot, PC gaming still rule for me.

My point is, all these questions boil down to what games you want to play and how you want to play them. Then you have to factor the rest of your life too

 

[LeHah]

The real question is...how high end is your computer?

3.2 Ghz, 2 Gigs of RAM, 256 GeForce video card, SB Audigy somethingerother

No it's not; PCs don't compete with consoles.

Very true; consoles only compete with consoles. But even you admitted to cursing Sony for making us buy a Playstation3 just for the next Metal Gear installment. That being said - I'll probably buy that system, but I've yet to see anything thats gotten me interested in XBox.

To answer the first question directly, there's very little reason not to get an XBox 360 if you play a lot of new video games

True - but a lot of XBox games were also released to the PC and a lot of times I found the PC to be the better of the two choices (in particular, Chronicles Of Riddick). Admittedly, thats a matter of preference and not a 'fact'.

This isn't to say I won't buy a NextGen system or a XBox 360 but I expect to be "sold" on the idea, that Microsoft should be tempting me with preorder crap left and right and absolutely nothing has interested me. Perhaps I'm just getting jaded by what Chris pointed out as the undiversified computer gaming world - I have five Star Wars games on my PC and I'm more than half way through KOTOR without being impressed. I've become really strict in what games I buy these days - the last one being Def Jam: Fight For NY which is excellent but thats the first game in about 4 months.

I don't know. I don't get excited for games like I use to, for some reason.

 

[Edfilho]

Lehah, do you usually like RPGs? Did you play any D&D bioware/blackisle games? the first KotOR is really good, IMO, do you have any specific complaints about it?

 

[ChrisReid]

Chris, while most of what you wrote is true, buying ALL machines right away is not an option to many people (those low on cash, or those who have kids, the ultimate money sink), not to mention the age old "time to play" issue.

Mainly what I was talking about was justifying buying a second/additional console, not necessarily all of them. I don't have all the current ones. And never having time to play never really prevented me from buying games. Kids would be a great justification to buy more, because then they might all actually get played.

 

[Frosty]

I wouldn't say that. First batch mediocrity was a fact for the last generation...

Not really. Any improvements made since the initial releases have been stylistic, mainly. Occasionally we've seen the inclusion of features that have always been there, but which designers simply neglected to use initially. It's not the same thing.

Multi-core programming may not be as hard as was with saturn, but it is no piece of cake either.

The Saturn didn't have multi-core CPUs, it had twin CPUs.

Just the fact that the new machines have differences from the current ones warrant a transition period.

But it doesn't at all represent what it used to.

Reading interviews with the developers describing the games can be really illuminating. If the greatest new gameplay features are not-so-impressive when the guys who made it are plugging it , then it is a safe bet that the game isn't themost innovative kid in town. You can infer and assume stuff, you know, without being automatically wrong.

Isn't Gears of War the one with the enemies that bust out of the ground and jump you? That sounds pretty new to me within the context you've set.

Not really, we can't. Doom is different from System shock 2 in gameplay. Half-life2 is different from Quake. And Quake MP is really different from Unreal 2k4 more exclusive modes. There have been shooters who were just better or worse more of the same (Doom3) or the ones who added something to the genre.

Every game is different from every other game, that's how they sell new software all the time. It lends absolutely nothing to your argument. Show me a concrete example of a fundamental innovation in "gameplay" (oh, how I hate, hate that word) if you can.

I may be wrong and GoW could be really innovative, but everything points to a different outcome.

Only because you strive to see it that way.

Haha. funny. Wait, no, it wasn't.

No, not funny at all, but it proved my point.

Yeah, there is only one truth, only one possible valid opinion, only one true point of view. Wait again, no, there isn't.

You sound a little confused. There is only one truth. That's why it's the truth. As for points of view, well, there can be many, but only one is ever right.

Depends. Mario Kart does not compete with GP Legends or Juiced, but BiA PC competes with BiA Xbox. Not only that, but GENRES compete too. We have a limited amount of time. Whenever I'm playing Fable on the PC, that means I'm not playing Eternal Darkness on the cube, Super Metroid on the SNES, Grandia 2 on the DC or Nintendogs on the DS. I have to chose, because between full time executive job, college, wife, friends and the rest of the family, I really have to maximize my playtime.

That's all software, though. PCs and set-top consoles don't compete.

Very true; consoles only compete with consoles. But even you admitted to cursing Sony for making us buy a Playstation3 just for the next Metal Gear installment.

That's mostly because I hate Sony, though, not because I prefer PC gaming to the exclusion of consoles.

I don't know. I don't get excited for games like I use to, for some reason.

Agreed.

 

[LeHah]

Lehah, do you usually like RPGs? Did you play any D&D bioware/blackisle games? the first KotOR is really good, IMO, do you have any specific complaints about it?

I use to be a rabid console RPG gamer - Final Fantasy Tactics remains my all time favorite game. But KOTOR fails to grab me - theres SO much in it but it lacks a lot. It only feels like Star Wars as a way to sell it; lightsabers and The Force as a minor addition - take them out and its generic sci-fi. It just failed to connect.

 

[Edfilho]

funny, I got REALLY involved with this game. Pitty you aren't getting into it.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I'm a huge CPRG fan. I hope they make one someday.

 

[AD]

Kids would be a great justification to buy more, because then they might all actually get played.

That was my excuse for buying a DS...

KOTOR fails to grab me - theres SO much in it but it lacks a lot. It only feels like Star Wars as a way to sell it; lightsabers and The Force as a minor addition - take them out and its generic sci-fi. It just failed to connect.

Not only that, it's basically just a D&D game reskined to look like star wars (uses the D&D rules)

 

[LeHah]

Not only that, it's basically just a D&D game reskined to look like star wars (uses the D&D rules)

Which is why I don't play the Wizards Of The Coast version of the SWRPG. I stick to the old WEG version - but I will give WotC credit for making a conversion chart.

 

[Edfilho]

The story in KotOR was pretty interesting, to me.