The HD Era Begins - 360 Fnazzle

[ReNo]

I've actually heard that the 360 version of Madden was missing out on some features of the other versions, but I haven't done any sort of investigation to weed out what truth there is behind it.

[Gaz]

I'm bored of rehashes and the done to death.

Big whoop they look better on PS3 or Xbox 360, they are at the end of the day the same games.

The revolution however, yes the graphics are better, but the way you interact with it is new and interesting, with the new controller interface it uses games might not be 100% fresh, but the way you play them will be.

The video I saw in Edge magazine a while back had people using the controller as a sword, a flash light and gun, and other interesting uses.

[Mazy]

I think most people here will agree that the Revolution is gonna be the most interesting of the bunch. However theres nothing wrong with moving along, especially since it means that you'll be able to stash away that big old ugly black box

By the way, regarding the teaser movie for the Revolution controller where they were jumping all over with it, then its already been said that pretty much 90% of the time you're using it, it will be small hand twists rather than actually moving your arm

I love that picture of a guy swinging a sword though, sells the concept pretty easily.

[Izuno]

I'm bored of rehashes and the done to death.

Big whoop they look better on PS3 or Xbox 360, they are at the end of the day the same games.

The revolution however, yes the graphics are better, but the way you interact with it is new and interesting, with the new controller interface it uses games might not be 100% fresh, but the way you play them will be.

The video I saw in Edge magazine a while back had people using the controller as a sword, a flash light and gun, and other interesting uses.

Got to hand it to Nintendo for trying new was of thinking. While not a massive re-invention of handheld gaming, certainly the DS tried something different with dual screens...now just gotta see what interesting games will evolve to use it.

The Revolution is bigger gamble. Nintendo has blown it before with some "revolutionary" ideas for sure: Virtual Boy and the Power Glove. One could argue the Revolution controller is just another gimmick. But if it breaks through it could really be a revolution. I have not seen it up close so obviously I can't say yet. They have their work cut out for them to make it a winner, for sure.

Back to the X360 and PS3....

Yes they will have greater graphics and capacity than Xbox and PS2, but besides that the strategies behind them are fairly clear: extend the reach of the gaming console to be an entertainment/media center for the home. The 360 has all those features for displaying media content from your PC etc and to be a DVD player (like the Xbox) and I'm sure the PS3 will have all the same crap. These seem like evolutionary changes of what a platform can do. Even the online marketplace Microsoft is trying to launch with the 360 isn't all that hard to believe. We all saw it coming. It's basically a way to sell more crap and draw more revenue from the gaming audience, all the while hoping to expand the audience.

One thing is important to note with the expansion of graphics and presentation capabilities: the more "cool" something looks (meaning better graphics and presentation) the more non-gamers might be tempted to cross over and start playing. Sure, they need something they can understand that's easy to play (using a controller) so that means stuff they can relate to: sports games, racing games, fighting games, etc that look pretty. So is it any wonder that at consol launches the typical lineup is mostly sports, racing and fighting? Sure, the Xbox had Halo and that worked well for the "core gamer" who bought the Xbox. This time at launch we have a few shooters like CoD2, Quake4, Perfect Dark...maybe one of them will take off like Halo. The point is that Microsoft's strategy isn't all that different in terms of game content compared to the Xbox launch.

Is this bad? Too early to tell. If you get a 360 and hate the games or are otherwise dissapointed, yeah it's bad. In the end, the only measure of the success for Microsoft will be how it does financially in the long haul, but that will probably correlate to the average gamer's acceptance and fun with the platform.

In a way, that puts part of the onus on the game development community to come up with compelling new content. If that means a pretty shooter with a better story and better level design (meaning an evolutionary change as opposed to revolutionary) is what gets my attention and give me fun, so be it.

Ok i can ramble on but I'll stop now...

[KungFuSquirrel]

woo! got mine!

going home until monday

[ReNo]

Download Geometry Wars Retro Evolved from the Xbox 360 Live arcade - the original minigame from PGR2 was an absolute blast and the videos and review I read of this update make it sound even cooler. It's a panic inducing retro game with crazy particle effects - pure adrenaline pumping fun

[Mazy]

Download Geometry Wars Retro Evolved from the Xbox 360 Live arcade - the original minigame from PGR2 was an absolute blast and the videos and review I read of this update make it sound even cooler. It's a panic inducing retro game with crazy particle effects - pure adrenaline pumping fun

Yup, been hearing alot of good stuff about it. Do you have to pay something to play it or wut?

[ReNo]

Yeah, it costs 400 marketplace points or something, which equates to about £5 I believe. There is a free demo you can download first though, so check it out and see what you think

[D3ads]

Not bothered at all really, only thing I'm interested in is the enhanced version of Quake II that comes with Quake 4...

[Tequila]

Not bothered at all really, only thing I'm interested in is the enhanced version of Quake II that comes with Quake 4...

Yeah. Co-op 4-player Q2 over Live is... special.

I was originally going to get one on Dec. 2nd, but now it's just not feasible/I can wait.

It is a must-buy though, for PGR3 alone.

[FrieChamp]

Funnily enough the only games which caught my interest and make a 360 purchase to me still possible in the near future are "tony hawk's american wasteland" and "need for speed - most wanted".

I'm not kidding, the Tony Hawk series were some of the most fun games for the Playstation and since I've never had a PS or PS2 or any other console one of these games was on (I only played THPS2 on my PC with a controller or at friends places).

I also missed out on all the recent NFS games, although to me "NFS3 - Hot Pursuit "still is one of the best arcade racing games ever made. And now that the "fast-and-the-pimp-my-ride" underground is gone and the cops are back, it might be fun.

I really consider myself as a casual, occasional gamer when it comes to consoles nowadays, I rather play complex, immersive games on the PC. Oh, and especially FPS, because of the controls and I'm a little fed up with FPS after FEAR and Q4.

[Kosmo]

The way game industry is right now, the only console I'm going to buy from the new ones is going to be the Revolution. All other games are multiplatformers so I can buy them for my PC regardless.

And the only games that actually differ from PC games are Revolution games, thanks to their licences and the new controller. Why would I want to buy a console and play the same games I do with PC?

[JynxDaddy]

As a once strong Nintendo Fanboy I'm surprised by the amount of Revolution support. When I'm still having my doubts whether I want to sit in my living room waving my arms about like an idiot trying to play a game.

I know one person with a HDTV, most people will have to play it on a computer monitor to get the goodness, and thats getting way to close to a PC for me.

[Kosmo]

As a once strong Nintendo Fanboy I'm surprised by the amount of Revolution support. When I'm still having my doubts whether I want to sit in my living room waving my arms about like an idiot trying to play a game.

And I'm suprised about the amount of rant I have heard from people regarding the Revolution controller.

But Revolution actually is the answer to my prayers, I have always hated the FPS and RTS games on consoles, pads are just the worst way to control those games, they were designed for Mouse&Keyboard in mind and adding them to the consoles makes them literally PCs (especially if you use it on a PC monitor.) Revolution controller fixes this, the most intuitive controller for many game genres.

But then again, I really hope that Nintendo does the pad extension well because even as intuitive as the Revolution controller is, it's close to the worst controller for fighting games I can imagine. So it's a double edged sword.

[JynxDaddy]

So it's a double edged sword.

But you control that sword is a completely innovative way!