The Official XBOX360 topic

[Rising1980]

Τώρα εσύ με διαψεύδεις ή με επιβεβαιώνεις; :-P

[privateer]

Moore's War

For Microsoft, the new Xbox is the biggest launch since Windows 95. For the man leading the charge, it's also a chance for revenge against Sony's PlayStation mastermind.

 

http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,1122948,00.html

[panther_512]

Συγγνώμη παιδιά' date=' αλλά έχει σημασία η διαμάχη XBOX 360 vs PS3 όταν και στα 2 συστήματα θα δούμε ξανά τα ίδια παιγνίδια με διαφορετικό αύξοντα αριθμό;

Μόνο τα γραφικά αλλάζουν. Κατά τ' άλλα από gameplay τα ίδια και τα ίδια. Αλλά βέβαια είδαμε και τι αντιμετώπιση είχε το Dreamcast που πήγε να διαφοροποιηθεί. Δηλαδή εσείς που μετράτε μέρες να πάρετε XBOX (ναι, έχω πάει στρατό ) γιατί το κάνετε; για να παίξετε PGR 3, Halo 3, Malakia XXIV κτλ;

Πραγματικά, δεν θέλω να προσβάλλω κανέναν και συγγνώμη αν το έκανα. Έχω βαρεθεί όμως να έχω την ίδια αίσθηση deja-vu σε κάθε νέα ανακοίνωση-παρουσίαση κονσόλας...[/quote']

 

Γι'αυτό ακριβώς το λόγο το Nintendo Revolution είναι η μοναδική κονσόλα που με ενθουσιάζει πραγματικά. Είναι η μόνη κονσόλα που θα μας προσφέρει κάτι διαφορετικό.

 

Από το BBC:

Microsoft Xbox shortages looming

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4456398.stm

[Rising1980]

Μακάρι, αν και δεν το νομίζω. Anyway ύποπτη αυτή η έλλειψη μηχανημάτων...

[privateer]

Microsoft's Red-Ink Game

Redmond will sell every Xbox console at a big loss, says researcher iSuppli. Not to worry, the profit is in the associated software

 

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2005/tc20051122_410710.htm

[GordonFreeman]

Το gametraillers έχει 2 βιντεάκια από PDZ σε ανάλυση 850χ480.

 

Στο πρώτο δείχνει ένα από τα δύο οχήματα του παιχνιδιού. Το οποίο είναι ένα φουτουριστικό hovercraft. Ένας στο τιμόνι και ένας στο όπλο :razz:

 

 

Το δεύτερο είναι ένα MIX από gameplay με μπόλικο πιστολίδι .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Τα screens που πήρα δεν είναι και ότι καλύτερο σε ποιότητα αλλά όποιος ενδιαφέρεται μπορεί να τα κατεβάσει από εδώ:

http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=2184

 

Είναι πάνω-πάνω με την ένδειξη GT-HD (για 850χ480).

[BlizardBill]

Moore's War

For Microsoft' date=' the new Xbox is the biggest launch since Windows 95. For the man leading the charge, it's also a chance for revenge against Sony's PlayStation mastermind.

 

http://www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/print/0,17925,1122948,00.html[/quote']

Πολύ ενδιαφέρον ... βάζω ένα μεγάλο κομάτι του και εδώ.

 

The stakes are enormous. If Moore’s attack makes significant inroads into PlayStation’s market share, he will have almost single-handedly realized Gates’s vision of Microsoft as a home entertainment powerhouse. But if Kutaragi has the last laugh, then Microsoft -- already scrambling for a looming war with Google (GOOG) over the desktop -- may have an even greater rival on its hands. It’s no secret that Kutaragi expects the PlayStation to one day replace the PC. “For Peter,” says Xbox executive J. Allard, “this time it’s personal.”

 

Moore, the son of pub owners from Liverpool, England, is a former professional soccer player and PE teacher. In 1992, Moore switched to Reebok, where he started the company’s soccer business, built the first large-scale factory for soccer ball production…

Moore’s marketing playbook became so legendary that in 1999 the Japanese game publisher Sega hired him to broaden the appeal of its Dreamcast console -- a mere seven months before it was due to launch in the United States. When Sega’s president found out, he cornered the U.S. CEO and said, “We make videogames. Why do you bring me a shoe guy?”

The Dreamcast failed to gain steam in Japan, but its U.S. launch was spectacular, with 1.8 million units sold in the first four months.

 

Then in 2000, Kutaragi started hyping what he called the “emotion engine…

“What Kutaragi did to Sega is legendary,” says Andy McNamara, editor-in-chief of Game Informer magazine. It even became a verb in videogame circles: To “Dreamcast” is to use the power of nothing but a dream to crush the competition.

Bleeding money, Sega pulled the plug on Dreamcast in January 2001. From then on, it would be a company that made nothing but games -- mostly for the PS2. Moore agreed with the decision but had to fire 52 employees, many of whom he had personally recruited from Reebok. “A part of me still hurts from that experience,” he admits.

 

Moore wasn’t the only one smarting from the PS2’s success. In the late 1990s, Gates was in talks with Kutaragi to include the Windows operating system in the PS2. But Kutaragi had long seen Gates as the most lethal threat to his empire. Bernie Stolar, a former Sony executive, remembers Kutaragi asking him as early as 1994 where he thought the nascent PlayStation console’s main competition would come from. Nintendo, Stolar guessed. Maybe Intel. Kutaragi looked him squarely in the eyes. “No, Bernie, you are wrong,” he said. “It is Microsoft. And I will kill them.”

 

Rebuffed, Gates fast-tracked a plan for Microsoft to design and launch its own console system in 18 months -- even though the company typically creates software and services, not hardware. “It was a half-baked plan,” Allard now admits.

 

Moore joined the Xbox team in January 2003. He’d been heavily courted by Microsoft CEO Ballmer, who was frustrated that Xbox hadn’t gained more ground. (It had stalled at a 23 percent market share in the United States.)

Moore, by now one of the most respected executives in the gaming business, was also being courted by game publisher Electronic Arts. But he couldn’t resist a rematch with Kutaragi -- this time with Gates’s checkbook in his pocket.

Moore has banned technology from the commercial. He ripped up earlier storyboards for computer-graphic-heavy ads deemed “too PlayStation.” Instead, the TV campaign is supposed to evoke childhood memories of playing with friends. “The idea is, if you aren’t involved you’re missing something,” he says. To be cool, in other words, you have to be part of the Xbox gang.

Moore did extensive consumer research to prove that this wasn’t the case with the original Xbox.

 

The real danger, of course, is that the Xbox 360 won’t make enough of an impact in the crucial window before the PS3 launches. And Sony has caught Microsoft off balance once already, at the E3 trade show earlier this year in Los Angeles.

So far, analysts say, there’s no must-have game (like Halo 3, which insiders say won’t come out until late 2006 at the earliest) to drive Xbox 360 sales.

 

Moore is undaunted. “We are not going to be Dreamcasted,” he insisted in a rousing speech to Xbox employees in September 2004. “I will not let that happen again.” Standing in front of a giant picture of Winston Churchill, quoting from the war leader’s speeches, Moore recalled the pain of losing once to Kutaragi. Question his current confidence level and he points to Sony’s corporate struggles: In September, CEO Howard Stringer announced that he would lay off 10,000 employees. The parent company’s woes may affect Kutaragi’s ability to launch the PS3 at a reasonable price. So will Microsoft win the console war and destroy Sony?

[BlizardBill]

Και λίγο πιο χαλαρά... φωτογραφίες από celebrities να παίρνουν xbox360 στο "kick off party" της Microsoft.

http://entertainment.msn.com/xbox360launch?photoidx=8

 

Η Paris Hilton λένε κάποιοι ότι πήρε και 200.000$ εκτός από το Xbox ,για 20 λεπτά "δουλειάς" !!!

Υπολογίστε πόσο θα κόστισε συνολικά

(δεν πάμε καλά μου φαίνεται .... )

http://grumpygamer.com/7742459

[Bourdoulas]

edo pairnei alla tosa gia ligotera lepta "doyleias"...leme tora...xexexe

[sugoruyo]

pantws oi polemoi gia to poia konsola einai i kalyteri dou mou vgazoun noima proswpika.

 

nomizw oti auto pou kanei ena mixanima epityxemeno i oxi einai oi titloi pou exei.

 

px mporei to xbox360 na apoktisei ta kalytera beat em up (poso kairo exw na paiksw tetoio?) opote sigoura 8a piasei stin ameriki

 

to ps3 apo tin alli mporei na dia8etei tous kalyterous titlous gia tin giapwneziki agora (gran turismo, final fantasy)

 

to revolution exei mia diki tou agora pou vasizetai se games opws zelda,mario pou ka8e nea ekdosi pros8etei prwtotypa stoixeia sto gameplay anti na servirei ksanazestameno i akoma kai kryo fagito

 

pantws oloi 8a fane kala.

 

twra mia lista 40 grammwn me specs pou apotelountai apo 3000 syntomografies den exei kai poly noima

[BlizardBill]

Οκ, αλλά παρόλα αυτά μην χάσετε την φοβερή BPSOD (Black Pixelated Screen Of Death) που κάνει θραύση αυτή την επόχη ...

http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEFkZkkkyEHasmrPqu.php

 

Και από εδώ μήπως την βγάλουν ... πολύ καλή σαν wallpaper παιδιά .

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/blizard/15766/497362/0/pgr3_crashing.jpg

 

ΥΓ

Σοβαρά τώρα, πρέπει να είναι μεγάλο το πρόβλημα τελικά, αφού και πολλές από τις κονσόλες που δουλεύουν υπερθερμαίνονται, χωρίς να έχουμε και τίποτα ζέστες αυτή την εποχή.

Με τίποτα δεν πρέπει να αγοράσει τώρα όποιος σκοπεύει να του βάλει τσιπάκι... τεράστιο το ρίσκο.

[Rising1980]

Προβλέπω Xbox Update κατά τα πρότυπα του Windows Update.

Και μ' αρέσει που καταρρίπτεται ένα από τα πιο βασικά επιχειρήματα των υπέρμαχων της κονσόλας έναντι των PCs:

Πάρε κονσόλα και ξεμπέρδεψες με patches !!!

[privateer]

Launch Dates:

 

The Xbox360 will launch in the three major territories on the following dates:

 

North America -- November 22

Europe -- December 2

Japan -- December 10

 

 

 

"So what did they really improve?": Why you want an Xbox360

.

.

The old-school developers are on-board.

 

 

Not only is Jeff Minter, the creator of Tempest 2000, designing the music visualizations for the Xbox360, but Xbox LIVE Arcade is going to carry a metric fuckload of classic games. By Christmas alone, Gauntlet, Joust, Robotron, and SmashTV will be available for download over Xbox LIVE Arcade, all updated to run in 1080i with improved graphics, some even sporting online scoreboards. Sega, Midway, SNK, and a bunch of others have all signed on to distribute even more classic games over LIVE over the next few years.

 

If that wasn't enough, the creator of Tetris, Alexy Pajitnov, has also created a new game, HexicHD, specifically for the Xbox360. By all accounts, it's as addictive as the original. And guess what? It'll be included for free on every Xbox360 hard drive.

 

The Japanese Developers are on-board.

 

 

* Hironobu Sakaguchi (credits: Final Fantasy, Super Mario RPG, Kingdom Hearts)

* Tetsuya Mizuguchi (credits: Space Channel 5, Rez, Sega Rally, Lumines)

* Yoshiki Okamoto (credits: Street Fighter, Resident Evil)

* Yoshihiro Maruyama (credits: Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII)

* Hiroshi Kawai (credits: Final Fantasy VII through IX)

* Tomonobu Itagaki (credits: Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive)

 

 

 

What do they have in common? They're all developing Xbox360 titles. And that's only a partial list.

 

All the big-name development studios have signed on, too:

 

 

* Square Enix has signed on to the Xbox360 to produce FFXI and other announouced additional games.

* Phantagram and Q Entertainment have signed on too, and are currently working on Ninety Nine Nights, to be available at the Japanese launch, as well as other, unnannounced titles.

* FromSoftware, the team that brought us Armored Core, Tenchu, and Otogi, has also signed on for multiple titles, starting with a new franchise, Enchant ARM, and the uber-sexy mech game, Chrome Hounds.

* Itagaki's Team Ninja is coming out with Dead or Alive 4 at or near launch, as well as Ninja Gaiden 2, DoA: Code Cronus, and yes, again, other, unnanounced projects.

 

'nuff said.

 

 

It does really nifty things.

 

One of Microsoft's big goals this time is to finalize, and put into place fully all the ideas they introduced with the original Xbox. That means a ton of nifty little options and just general cool things for you:

 

* The console supports wireless controllers, right out of the box, using a proprietary system Microsoft has developed to increase battery life, and reduce latency, as well as add several features..

 

* Like battery warnings. When your battery is almost out of juice in your Xbox360 controller, you'll automatically get an on-screen warning notifying you of that fact, and the vibration motors will turn off to conserve energy. You'll also get a persistent visual reminder in the form of the ring of light on the front of the console and your controller, which will turn amber. When the batteries finally kick the bucket, games will automatically pause and wait for you to replace the batteries.

 

* It'll also support progressive scan DVD playback out of the box this time. (You won't need a DVD remote)

 

* All games made for the Xbox360 will be required to support Xbox LIVE in some way, as well as output at a MINIMUM of 720p (720 lines of progressive scan) HDTV resolution. For you PC gamers, that means a resolution of 1280 x 720.

 

* They've also improved the dashboard sotware expontentially. Now called the Xbox Guide, it allows you to:

- Play music, movies, and look at a slideshow of your pictures

- Transfer files such as pictures, movies, and music from your Camera, MP3 player (including the iPod), Sony PSP, USB flash memory, MP3/WMA CDs, and through your home network from other computers.

- Not only transfer them, but stream them: In other words, you could connect your iPod up to your Xbox360, and play the music straight from it, without first transferring any files over.

- ...and do that all at the same time, too. At GC2005 in Europe, a microsoft representative demonstrated playing music from his iPod, while viewing a picture slideshow comprised of files on his PSP, both hooked up to the Xbox360 at the same time through it's dual front USB ports. Even cooler, at X05 in Amsterdam, Xbox head honcho Jay Allard demonstrated going into audio chats, slideshows, playing LIVE Arcade (I'll go into that a bit later) games, and doing a plethora of other things, all while his custom playlist played in the background, streaming from his iPod.

- And one awesome bonus for WMCE owners -- The Xbox360 will act as a Windows Media Center Extender from the get-go, meaning that you'll be able to access all your pictures, movies, music, and live television seamlessly, straight from your PC. The Xbox360 GUI video in the gallery demonstrates this, I really suggest you take a look.

- I'll also let you shutdown the Xbox360 remotely. No more getting up from the couch. Woo.

 

* The console also now starts remotely, right from the controller. Couch potatoes rejoice once more.

 

* Custom soundtracks are now MANDATORY for every game, (so you don't have to listen to those godawful "EA trax"!) What's more, custom soundtracks are also expanded by a large degree -- like with regular media playback from the dashboard, now not only can you rip music to the hard drive and play it from there, you can also choose to play the music straight from a portable device (like an iPod or PSP), streamed. In game. The Kameo video in the gallery demonstrates this, check it out to see this functionality in action.

 

 

Xbox LIVE is expanded even more; You'll now be able to:

 

- Download and play demos of the latest games, just like you would on a PC.

- Download and watch trailers of the latest games and movies

- Voice AND video (using the new Xbox360 webcam) chat with your freinds, over Xbox LIVE, at any time, whether you're in-game, downloading content, or even while watching a DVD.

- Download and play small and/or classic games like bejeweled, minesweeper, and pac-man from Xbox LIVE Arcade

- ...and play those games WHILE you voice and video chat with your freinds, too.

- Download (and pay for, occasionally) new content straight from the dashboard for your games

- Send, view, and recieve positive and negative feedback straight from the dashboard, or while doing anything else.

- View and interact with a list of the last few gamers you just played with, like Halo2 offers, again, straight from the dashboard, or while doing anything else.

 

* The "ring of light" around the power button highlights which wireless controller is being used, highlighting player one's activity in the top-left quadrant. The ring of light also appears on the controllers, where it is used to notify you of which player you are. For instance, if you're player two, the top right quadrant will be lit, whereas player one's controller will have the top-left quadrant of it's ring of light lit

 

* The ring of light does other things, too. As mentioned earlier, it will notify you of your wireless controller's battery status. But it will also blink to notify you of important things, like when you recieve a message.

 

* The really cool part is that when the console is laid on its side, (remember, it's built to stand in either a vertical or horizontal orientation like the Ps2!) it senses this and starts using the top-left quadrant as you see it with the console laid flat.

 

* Among the various options and widgets you'll find on the Xbox360 is the Gamer Profile. The Gamer Profile is a record of you, a list of all your preferences and your online personality, like your avatar, motto, favorite games, skill level, and other various things. One of the things that the Gamer Profile will include is your common game settings for different types of games. So for example, you always use automatic gear in racing games and inverted Y-axis controls in first-person shooters, once you load any racing game or FPS, the game will automatically load your Gamer Profile settings, and you'll automatically be set up to use an inverted y-axis in every FPS, and an automatic trasmission in every racing game.

 

 

The Lineup is Awesome.

 

Just at launch, we're looking at Perfect Dark Zero, Condemned (a game by Monolith, the makers of NOLF and FEAR), GUN, Quake4, Call of Duty 2, Kameo, Project Gotham 3, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Dead or Alive 4, and every single sports game you can think of.

 

 

Further on, Bioware's got a new franchise called Mass Effect AND Jade Empire 2 both coming for the 360, as does Epic's CliffyB with his new Gears of War. iD's working on a new Wolfenstein game, too, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. A quick list of the notables confirmed for the Xbox360 so far:

 

Alan Wake (It's made by Remedy, the Max Payne people)

Battlefield 2: Modern Combat

Call of Duty 2

Condemned (by Monolith, the NOLF/FEAR guys)

Dead Or Alive 4

DOAX2

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Final Fantasy XI

Gears of War

Ghost Recon 3

Halo 3 (ok, it's not really confirmed.. but seriously.. fuck that, we KNOW it's coming...)

Kameo: Elements of Power (by RARE)

King Kong (by the creator of the Rayman games and Beyond Good and Evil)

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Ninety-Nine Nights (By Phantagrams)

Ninja Gaiden 2

The Outfit (by Relic)

Perfect Dark Zero (by RARE)

Prey (by 3d Realms)

Project Gotham Racing 3

Quake IV

Ridge Racer 6

Shadowrun (yes, that Shadowrun)

Too Human: Part 1

Top Spin 2

Unreal Tournament 2007

 

 

Xbox 360 Summary

 

 

What you need to know:

 

- The Xbox360 is the succesor to Microsoft's Xbox (duh...)

 

 

- It'll come in two versions:

 

A 'core' system for $299, with a power cable, a wired controller, and composite cables. This version does NOT include a hard drive. That means you'll need to buy either the hard drive for $99 Standalone, or a 64mb memory card for $40, bringing your total to at least $340.

 

AND

 

The 'premium' bundle for $399, with a power cable, ethernet cable, 2AA batteries, wireless controller, combo composite/component (AKA, HDTV-enabled) cable, a DVD remote, the 20 gig hard drive, and an Xbox LIVE headset.

 

 

- In case you haven't figured it out already, the core system is a REALLY shitty deal, and the Premium bundle is actually a really awesome deal. Silly marketing folks at Microsoft, I guess? But yeah... don't even bother with the core system.

 

 

- The Premium bundle also differs from the regular version in another way: It's DVD tray is painted with a chrome finish. The hardware, however, is internally exactly the same.

 

 

- Since the hard drive is removable this time, Microsoft has mandated that developers must not count on it always being there. They're still allowed to use cacheing, but each game must still work when the hard drive is not present.

 

 

- Backwards compatability with Xbox games will be supported through the use of a software-based emulator, stored on the hard drive. To that end, a hard drive will be required for backwards compatability. Also, due to the complexity of creating such a program, 100% of Xbox games will not be compatible from the very beginning -- Microsoft will not give numbers, but they say that only the bestselling games will be compatible from launch. Patches will be released on Xbox LIVE as time goes on, adding further support for more Xbox games. So far, Halo2 is the only game absolutely confirmed to work, through screenshots that were leaked over the net.

 

- The console is slightly smaller than the Xbox, and slightly larger than the PS2, for those of you wondering about size.

 

- The X360's 12x DVD drive is three times faster than the Xbox1's DVD drive; 150% faster than the PS3's Blu-ray drive. That means less loading times for you. Yay.

 

- ...And all of that is free, thanks to LIVE Silver. If you actually want to play online in normal DVD-based games, however, you'll still need to pay a fee for LIVE Gold, which is basically the same thing as the current LIVE service.

 

- In fact, any current LIVE subscription you have will automatically be rolled into a LIVE Gold account come November, with the launch of the Xbox360.

 

- One more thing: They're hoping to cut down on the number of assholes, 10 year-olds, and gangstas (yeah tite, shait muthafucka!!!!) you encounter on the service through the introduction of LIVE Zones: Basically, when you go to play online, you'll be allowed to choose between several zones based on your style of play, similar to how you can currently choose to play either unranked or ranked games in many of today's LIVE-enabled games. The Zones include "Family", "Underground", "Pro", "R&R", and possibly a few others.

 

 

- Don't worry about LAN parties or your neighbour controlling your games inadvertently, by the way: Using the standard they've created, hundreds of wireless controllers can co-exist in the same room by using different channels, and each controller can be locked to a specifc Xbox360 through the use of "wireless link" buttons on the fronts of both the controllers and the console. You can see the button on the controller here, in a picture taken by our very own Rohaq and Rohan, when they visited Gamecon7 in Ireland in early August and had first hand experience with it.

 

 

- Both Rohan and Rohaq, by the way, describe the controller as very comfortable and intuitive. Other people who have had time with it have gone so far as to call it the best controller ever created. Here's a comparison shot with the Xbox's controller-S: http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/screen/40362/Xbox-360/ (Also taken by Rohaq/Rohan)

[iSpO_fAcTo]

H politiki tis microsoft gia na kataktisei tin elliniki agora: Project Gotham Racing 3 mono 6.499 euro! Monadiki prosfora! H monadikotita tou pexnidiou fenete oti aksizei poli perissotero apo tin idia tin konsola! Pate edo gia perissotera:

http://www.xbox.com/el-GR/games/p/projectgothamracing3/

Telika to xbox 360 den bgazei exei pollous tipous errors apo wireless provlimata overheating provlimata mexri kai selides me provlimata

[GordonFreeman]

1stUP

PERFECT DARK ZERO REVIEW - 9.0 OUTSTANDING

The Xbox 360's Halo? You'd better believe it.

 

Ένα καλό review που (όπως και το αντίστοιχο του Gamespot) λέει όχι μόνο τα θετικά , αλλά και τα αρνητικά του παιχνιδιού.

 

 

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3145846&did=1