feel free to count with me in your time zone!

my time zone: GMT: -8:00, west coast

7 DAYS / 4 hours / 8 min

BTW, funny thing, if you go to geeksquad.com, and see there xbox 360 countdown panel, if you right click and press play, it'll say it has arrived

.

It's funny how they're doing all these things like 'be the first to play the 360!' and blah blah. I've already played it, there's a working one set up down at Electronics Boutique. lol

.

Still debating this one, I play most of my games on the PC. I love games, but can't see shelling out the $$$!

What would you say are the benefits/bonuses over PC games (Since the XBOX is basically a gaming PC)?

Well they haven`t even begun advertsising for its releases down under yet, so all those x-box fans down here still have a long long wait!

I'm too worried about which DS and PS2 games I'm getting. There's a good dozen or so, and I don't have any money. PGR3 does look nice, but unless it is really expansive I think I'll stick to GT4 for now.

oh, really aztec, too bad, yeah one thing is the hardware, hectal, computers now a days only have 1 core, or two if your rich, this thing will have 3, super performance, so there will be no frame rate issues, or horrible loading times.

There was a working one at my local GameStop as well. Pretty amazing graphics. I didn't play. I picked up the controller and left like 5 seconds later. If I had an ass-load of money, I'd probably buy one.

yeah, in my opinion it isnt worth it if cant get the premium 400$ version

.

I agree. The core package is pretty lame. But for an extra 100 bucks, you get so much more. Very generous in that offer.

has anybody gone to geeksquad and done that thing

Yes, you're right! It does saythat the xbox 360 has arrived! I just don't think they were speaking literally when they said it...although senseless if it hasn't been released. Would like to play Halo though

The Xbox 360?

Quake 4?
Halo 3?
Half-Life 3?
Final Fantasy 11?

It's to DIE for.

An Xbox with no load times...ha! The Game Cube had very low load times and it wasn't a multi cored processor machine, infact the Xbox of yesterday had more computing power.

I saw the Xbox 360 at best buy the other day. I was not really impressed. It looked just about like a higher end computer game. If it would have been on a regular TV instead of a high resolution LCD display it wouldn't have looked any better than games I can run on my current computer. If you are all about graphics there is really no point in paying this much for a game machine if you plan on running it on a standard TV set.

Well I guess Halo 3 is going to be so much better on the Xbox 360 than Halo 2 because...well...it has a 3 instead of a 2 by it and looks a little more realistic.

I agree and disagree. That graphics of the launch games aren't really as amazing as Microsoft touts. I think the Xbox360 is like Halo 2, very good but overhyped to appear to be the best ever. That being said, the graphics will improve (if only marginally) with time.
And some select companies will really be able to do amazing stuff with what they have.

You forgot Oblivion, Alan Wake, Dead Rising, Ninety Nine Nights, Kameo etc.

i am me, why do you have to come into this thread, and post your bias opinion, i think its a cry for help, you see someone you disagrees with you, and you have an urge to put them down, check your negative comments at the door, and know that it only make you look bad.

I don't wholeheartedly agree with 'I am me' (though beatle boy, his opinion was quite biased), but I think that 'better graphics' really isn't ticking in my book. You can only go so far with graphics, I think they should concentrate more on the entertaining aspect of video gaming. What would really impress me is that if they create the XBox360 in such a small compartment shell, its just out of our world to see a machine as small to make graphics equal to HD.

When 'I am me' stated that the XBox360 had almost no loading times, and the Gamecube's low loading times weren't very long either, that gives me the notion that Microsoft as well as other companies, enjoy holding back their technological advances to spare time to gain more money so the day that technological advances in videogaming comes to a halt (though I doubt it) won't come as much sooner.

Whoa, I made a one sentence paragraph

i think i am me said that the xbox had bad loading times

.

alot of reviewers are saying with the xbox360 that if you don't have a high definition tv, you basicly will be left with a next gen console with original xbox graphics

.

Well the reviews are in for some of the games

Amped 3
1UP - 7/10

Call of Duty 2
Total Games - 94/100
Official Xbox Magazine - 9/10
1UP - 9/10
TeamXbox - 9/10
Gamespot - 8.8/10

Condemned
Official Xbox Magazine - 8.5/10

FIFA 2006
1UP - 7/10

Gun
GamePro - 4.5/5
IGN - 7.9/10

Kameo
1UP - 7/10
Gamespot - 8.7/10
IGN - 8.4/10
Gamespy - 4/5
Kotaku - 4/5

King Kong
Official Xbox Magazine - 9/10

Madden 2006
IGN - 8/10

NBA 2K6
1UP - 7/10
IGN - 7.8/10
Gamespot- 8.3/10

NBA Live 2006
Official Xbox Magazine - 7/10

Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Total Games - 78/100

NHL 2K6
IGN - 7.1/10

Project Gotham Racing 3
1UP - 10/10
IGN - 8.8/10
Kotaku - 4.5/5

Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Gamepro - 4.5/5
IGN 8.3/10
==========================================================
Still waiting for Perfect Dark review (lots of mixed previews) but so far PRG3, Madden, and maybe Amped the games I'm going to get.

As for loading times developers are just lazy, just add several hundred lines of algorithm and their could be virtually no loading time just like gta, tony hawk. Legacy of Kain was the first game to do it on a console and that was on the playstation.

cool, i have an HD-TV, 64'' (w00t) so im good with graphics, but besides that, the loading will be few and far between, because, the xboxs processor was a p3 733MHZ, and the 360's game wont get TOO much bigger, but the processor will have 3 cores! not to mention a whole new graphics card, which will take even more strain off the processor. and each core timed at 2.3 GHZ, thats about septuple (7x) the power, and most likely why tony hawks game will have no loading time. so unless the games are 7x better, were in the clear)

5 DAYS

EDIT: im sorry, i meant 3.2 GHZ!!

That's completely wrong

Yes, it is wrong.
The Xbox360 they have playing down at EB here is on a small, normal 17' TV. It was playing King Kong, and also a war game i think it was Soldier of Fortune 2 or something. I was very impressed actually by the seamless gameplay and graphics. There's action going on all over in very realistic GC and it actually felt like a real war zone. The faces and buildings and everything were very well rendered. And i don't need to remind you guys that i was highly skeptical towards the graphics of this beat at first.

^Speaking of kiosks, I've got to go down to my local GAME and see if they have one set up yet.

the 360 will look great on a normal tv, it will look 10 times better in hd though. i'm just pissed oblivion won't be out at launch.

did anybody pre-order, I hear most who preordered at Ebgames or gamespot got screwd, because EB Games is not get a lot of them. Microsoft said best buy and walmart are getting the bulk of the 1 million 360 at launch day.

I would say i'm a fanatic, but I don't know if I want to get up early to go to best buy, hopefully I can get one the best buy in my city is getting about 80 of them.

I haven't pre-ordered, I was going to but didn't have the money. Looks like I'm gonna be waiting until after Christmas for mine.

Ten Hot Games (That Won't Play on the Xbox 360)
Thursday, November 17, 2005

NEW YORK — 1. The Warriors ($50; Xbox, PS2)
Rating: Mature
Release date: Out now

Rockstar, the Suge Knight of gaming, continues its long tradition of publishing excessively sexual, controversial and violent content (our fave!) with "The Warriors," a smart beat-'em-up based on the '79 gang movie of the same name. The soundtrack, featuring '90s hits from Method Man and DMX, is also a plus.

2. Mario Kart DS ($35; Nintendo DS)
Rating: Everyone
Release date: Out now

Leave it to the big N's classic racer to make roadkill out of Nintendogs' ill-deserved hype on the DS. Many in the biz are lauding this latest WiFi-playable installment as the "Best! Mario Kart! Ever!" With its classic power-up pleasers (turtle shells and banana peels) and insanely cool new game mechanics (blow on the DS mike to inflate balloons in one of the battle modes), it's hard for us to disagree.

3. Infected ($40; PSP)
Rating: Mature
Release date: Out now

Apropos this era of flu pandemics, here's an exclusive PSP title ripped from the headlines. Well, not exactly. The infection is actually a virus that turns people into brain-starved zombies that must be stopped before it spreads throughout the entire world. Think of your two guns — one with live ammo, the other loaded with your own curative blood — as Tamiflu. Apply both liberally to the armies of the undead. The multiplayer action upgrades this from a maybe-rent to a should-buy.

4. Aeon Flux ($50; PS2, Xbox)
Rating: Teen
Release date: Out now

Madame Flux was recurrently dying in her cartoon years before Kenny on "South Park." Now the enigmatic "Liquid Television" alum has a movie deal (she's played by the delectable Charlize Theron) and a just-released action game in which the oversexed assassin must flip, wall-jump, shoot and bomb her way out of danger. Bonus points if you can make any sense of the true-to-the-show paradoxical story line.

5. Half Life 2 ($50; Xbox)
Rating: Mature
Release date: Out now

The developers mated a first-person shooter with a role-playing game and, voila, "Half Life" was born. Last year, its highly anticipated sequel sold 1.7 million copies for the PC in its first two months, and now — finally — "HL2" has been ported to the Xbox. You play a scientist-cum-soldier armed with various alien- and zombie-killing weaponry that comes in quite handy while battling enemies with adaptable AI. Most of the bells and whistles of the PC version are here — including, of course, the beloved gravity gun that allows you to fling cars at enemies and other neat-o tricks.

6. "Shadow the Hedgehog" ($50; PS2, GameCube, Xbox)
Rating: Teen
Release date: Out now

Faster than one of those crack-addicted park squirrels in London comes Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic's villainous doppelganger. In his first starring role, an amnesiac Shadow must collect chaos emeralds in order to recover his past and identity. Is he good? Is he evil? Based on your decisions, he can go either way.

7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney ($30; Nintendo DS)
Rating: Teen
Release date: Out now

The Nintendo DS has certainly cornered the market on weirdness — where else will you find games in which you raise puppies, learn how to pick up chicks or perform surgeries? Add to that list: trying cases. In this oddball courtroom simulator, you play a slick barrister who must get his client — falsely accused of murdering his girlfriend — off the hook by hunting down evidence and grilling witnesses, among other cases. The dialogue is witty, the cleavage is plentiful and the game play is a lot of fun. Somewhere, Johnnie Cochran is smiling.

8. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones ($50; GameCube, PS2, Xbox)
Rating: Mature
Release date: Nov. 29

Back in the good old pre-Axis of Evil days, it took only the honed acrobatics and lethal swordplay of a mood-disordered prince to handle Middle Eastern baddies. This time around, you'll play as two sides of the prince's personalities to tackle Babylonian opponents. But it's the addition of the new speed and stealth kill systems and the chariot races that make Ubisoft's third installment of its reborn PoP franchise a must-own.

9. 50 Cent: Bulletproof ($50; Xbox, PS2, PSP)
Rating: Mature
Release date: Tuesday

Hate him or love him, 50 Cent's gone from beefing with The Game to starring in one. In this bloody third-person shooter, Mr. Shot-Nine-Times takes on N.Y.C.'s crime families with equal parts guns and martial arts.

10. The Matrix: Path of Neo ($50; PS2, Xbox)
Rating: Teen
Release date: Out now

There is no spoon — but there is, finally, a halfway decent Matrix game after two uninspired flops. The Path impresses in many ways, not the least of which is the ability to play as Mr. Anderson. If that weren't enough, the environments are very interactive, fight sequences (fists and guns, you choose) are taken straight from the all three movies. Plus, the brothers Wachowski, who penned and directed the game, tacked on an alternate ending from the trilogy. Anything different from what we saw in theaters has to be a good thing.

source
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lol wtf are they on crack they have nintendo and psp games on that list. And Half life 2 is bc on the 360.




Don't Buy the Xbox 360
Thursday, November 17, 2005

NEW YORK — The buzz started six months ago.

There's Bill Gates on the cover of Time magazine in May, with a glowing green-and-white machine. "Inside Bill's New Xbox" it screamed.

Since then, the Xbox 360 — a sequel to Microsoft's Xbox video-game unit — has been the subject of breathless profiles, splashy television ads and Internet gossip.

The first shipments, due Tuesday, are already sold out. Analysts are calling it this year's hot holiday gift.

Don't believe the hype — and don't buy the Xbox 360.

Oh, it's an amazing console, don't get us wrong. Plugged into a high-definition television set with a booming sound system, it's amazing, a wonderland of sights and music.

But that's the part of the problem. To get the full Xbox 360 experience, you need to spend hundreds — perhaps thousands — of dollars. All that for a machine that won't play the hot games this season, like "Star Wars: Battlefront II" and "50 Cent: Bulletproof."

Save your cash, and skip the frenzy. Here are five reasons you should say "game over" to the Xbox 360:

Price — The Xbox 360 comes in two versions: the hard drive-less "core" system for $299 and the premium package for $399. But those who buy the lower-cost version are in for a surprise — they won't be able to play any of the Xbox games they already own.

"A lot of parents who go out and buy the $300 system, because they can't afford the $400 system, will have kids who aren't going to able to play 'Halo' or 'Halo 2' because backwards compatibility is going to be on the hard drive," says Brian D. Crecente, editor of kotaku.com, a gaming news blog.

Lack of games — Microsoft has announced there will be 200 backwards-compatible games (including "Forza Motorsport" and "Halo 2"), but only 19 launch titles for the 360. Only a handful are exclusives.

And popular new games, like "50 Cent: Bulletproof" and "The Warriors," won't play on the 360 at all.

Douglass Perry, editor in chief of the Xbox channel on IGN, says, "If you can wait, the second wave of games [due next year] are going to give developers the chance to really show us next-generation gaming in the truest sense."

No competition — Sure, you could rush out and drop hundreds on the 360, but we have no idea what the next-gen PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution are going to be capable of doing. Both of those systems are due next year, and will surely spark a mini-price war with the Xbox 360.

Hidden costs — Right now, the Xbox 360's stunning graphics ability is its biggest selling point, but to take advantage of it, you'll need to invest in a high-definition TV — tacking on an extra couple hundred bucks, at least.

"We've all heard Microsoft basically saying that if you want to get an HDTV, the 360 is going to be the thing that makes you go out and get one," Crecente says. "Most of us dismissed that, but I swear, it's like they designed the 360 to make your TV look bad if you don't have HDTV."

And if you add peripherals, such as the ability to play games over the Internet, the Xbox 360 costs nearly $600!

Older consoles are not dead yet — Both the original Xbox and the PS2 are selling for $149, with the GameCube coming in at a mere $99 — in all cases, a complete steal compared to the Xbox 360.

You could take the money you saved and put it towards buying all the systems, plus a whole bunch of great games like "The Warriors."

Although he's a firm believer in the Xbox 360, Perry says, "If you buy a PS2 or an Xbox now, you're buying a system at the end of its lifespan, when some of the best games are showing up."

source
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what in the hell has got into Fox did Microsoft miss a pay off to the republican party!

4 DAYS

Bah, probably 4 months before us Aussies get our hands on it although I`m no big fan of the X-BOX I still wish to see what its successor is capable of. As well as having a look at some of its upcoming games that have taken my interest.

I do have a TV capable of HD, but i'm not getting it until the price drops. I'm not spending $400(or 300) on a console with better graphics.

^The games have much more longevity, much better graphics, interactivity etc. aswell.

it pays to know people who work at eb, i traded in my ps2, which i never play, with all of the games i had for it and a bunch of xbox games i doin't play, i put it toward the 360, it only cost me $140. nd i don't mind trading all that stuff, cause i don't use it.

I love your new sig Super Pancake

thanks but i did not create it I got it off another site I go on.


speaking of trade in EB games canada all trade in from the ps1, n64 and gameboy advance games will give you 5 dollars credit, even superman which cost like a $1. So What my friend did up in canada was go on craigslist, small gameshops, and ebay and bought whatever cheap game he can find trade it in for five bucks toward the 360. he is getting a 360 all for a grand total of $113. Too bad he is on the second shipment list!

pancake, do you not like the 360, 'cause if you dont, GET THE **** OUT OF THIS THREAD! i didnt start this so all the insecure PS and Nintendo fans could come in and try to swade people from buying it, and i especially hate your sig, ARE YOU REALLY THAT SHALLOW AND STUPID, YOU HAVE NO ******* clue how many threads i start in forums only to have some a**h*l* come in and try to ruin the fun! IM SO ******* TIRED OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IF YOU WANT TO HATE THE 360, GO AHEAD, BUT NOT IN THIS THREAD!!

lol I guess you were not paying attention to your own thread beatle boy

Any way I actually want the 360, the photoshopped pic in my sig was just making fun of the 2 articles from Fox/NY Post I posted on this thread. click here

and my comments on the articles right under them

ok, just makin sure, sorry.

I agree on some points with those articles. Although they are out of if as far as what the "hot games" are. I'm not saying the games in their list are bad, just not excellent.


I played Call of Duty 2 at Wal-Mart today, and the experience was enlightening. The graphics were simultaneously great and unimportant. I was watching the guy before me play it, and thought the graphics were briliant. Planes were dogfighting in the air and crashing into buildings,etc. Gunshots erupted and smoke and debris flew everywhere. And then I played it myself and didn't notice any of it. I was so busy shooting the enemy and worrying about who was shooting me that I didn't have time to notice the texture and dirt on the walls around me. When watching it being played and looking at screenshots, I could appreciate all of the intricate details, but while playing it I was too busy with the game to notice the graphics. Truthfully, I could have played it on and Xbox or Gamecube and I would only have noticed a diference while not playing. I'm sure this is different on slower games. This is just an observation I made this afternoon, and think of it what you will.

And before you say anything, yes it was on a HDTV.

Ill wait for the ps3 thx

Are you serious!

Its Fox news but lets go over what they are arguing about!

1. The Warriors, its an xbox game that in a few days, weeks, months maybe never that can be bc on the 360

2. Mario Kart DS its a DS game of course it can't play on the 360

3. Infected its a psp game

4. Aeon Flux yeah like movie game have ever been good

5. Half Life 2 its bc on the 360

6. Shadow the Hedgehog same as the warriors

7. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney a DS game

8. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones same as the warriors

9. 50 Cent: Bulletproof the game sucks

10. The Matrix: Path of Neo I did not play it but I heard it sucks

Article number 2

They say its expensive, oh really it should cost $99 like the gamecube, of course its expensive

Not a lot of games, What! This is the most launch game for any system! The psp had what like 2,3 games the ps2 was even worse. plus XBL arcade give even more games.

No competition, What that has to do with anything don't buy the 360 because the Rev and Ps3 is not out. It should be an ideal time to buy it buy it now and later you will have money to buy the rev or ps3 later

Hidden cost, wow you need an HDTV to see the games in HD. Microsoft is forcing us to buy an HD when the games look good anyway on SD.

Other systems are out, yeah the ps2 is out but you couls also buy C&C soda over coke and pepsi, you could buy cloths from walmart over expensive name brand clothing.

I bet they say the same thing or something worse about the rev and or ps3 launch

2 DAYS

2 Days, 6 Hours, 30 Minutes!

Can't believe it's finally coming out. It's a shame I'll have to wait atleast another month, though. I really should have tried to preorder.

im with you

spring 2006, maybe summer, probably fall, if not then winter, o well
=-)
ps3 4tw
killzone 2 4tw
gta 4tw
mgs4 4tw

Guess what, my local EB called to tell me that I can go pick up my system before the store even opens... giving me free run of the store without a bunch of kids running around bugging me!.... freakin' sweet...