X360 Reviews start appear.

With the US release a week away we are now seeing the reviews hitting the gaming sites.

PDZ IGN
PGR 3 IGN. With video review.
Kameo IGN. With video review
PGR 3 1Up.
NBA2K6 IGN
Maddem NFL06 IGN With video review.
PDZ Gamespot
Quake 4 IGN
Tiger woods PGA Tour 06 IGN
Ridge racer 6 IGN
Condemned IGN
NFS: Most wanted IGN
Amped 3 IGN

If you intend on streaming music from your PC then you are going to need to install Windows media connect for this to work. The readme on the page only shows XP based OS.

I thought Microsoft were claiming the console to be released at the same time everywhere?

This is only reviews, press always get things earlier for review purposes only.

Mainly interested in NBA 2K6 and PGR right now :D

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Originally Posted by unreal

Mainly interested in NBA 2K6 and PGR right now :D

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I loathe basketball.

I want an Oblivion review :(

That line in the PGR3 review, that if you are not playing on a HDTV it looks just like an Xbox game... thats not good.

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Originally Posted by Stewart

That line in the PGR3 review, that if you are not playing on a HDTV it looks just like an Xbox game... thats not good.

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I agree. Time to order a new TV I think :)

£280 for a console with one pad and no games, £40 for a years Xbox Live so you can get the most out of your games, £40 a pop for the games and a new tv needed to make them look any better than current gen titles?

Eek.

This is expensive on a very big scale.

The sort of scale you'd find on a fat dragons arse.

Does anyone know if youll be able to output hd content to a standard dvi monitor? or does it need to be hdcp compliant?

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Originally Posted by smtkr

I loathe basketball.

I want an Oblivion review :(

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I want Oblivion too :(

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Originally Posted by herulach

Does anyone know if youll be able to output hd content to a standard dvi monitor? or does it need to be hdcp compliant?

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You'll be able to connect the XBox 360 to any computer monitor via a VGA cable that you will have to buy separately.

Read this for a bit more info:

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6139672/p-2.html

I'll qoute the important bit:

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The system allows you to set your display resolution and aspect ratio depending on the type of video cables you use. VGA cables will give you six different resolution options: 640x480, 848x480, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x768, and 1360x768. Component cables will give you 480p, 720p, and 1080i resolution choices. Games are actually rendered internally at 720p, and the ATI video engine scales the video up or down to the desired resolution.

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If your monitor can support the HD resolution of 1280x720 ( and lets face it, if you have a CRT monitor or a 1280x1024 native resolution TFT you'll be fine) then your in luck.

Those with a 1280x1024 TFT will simplly have two black bars along the top and bottom of the picture.

Those with a Dell 24" Widescreen will be wanting to use the component lead and 1920x1080 interlaced.

I'll be personally using my Dell 2005FPW (native resolution of 1680x1050) and 1280x720 progressive scan.

The panel can stretch the picture to fill the whole screen or keep the resolution the same but with borders around the screen.

I'll probably have it stretched as games at 1024x768 look fine on it in my eyes. Ok, it won't be as sharp as its native resolution but it'll be miles better than playing on a poo TV screen! At least I'll also be able to hook up the sound to my Hi fi amp and speakers :D

Roll on December 2nd!!

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Originally Posted by Caged

I thought Microsoft were claiming the console to be released at the same time everywhere?

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Nope. MS are only releasing in 3 markets for now. US 22nd Nov. Europe 2nd Dec & Japan 12 Dec. All other markets are still TBA which means sometime 2006 when MS can get enough stock put aside for the rest of the world.

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Originally Posted by Stewart

£280 for a console with one pad and no games, £40 for a years Xbox Live so you can get the most out of your games, £40 a pop for the games and a new tv needed to make them look any better than current gen titles?

Eek.

This is expensive on a very big scale.

The sort of scale you'd find on a fat dragons arse.

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But still a lot cheaper than a top end gaming PC. And also about the same price as every other console launched in the last 10 years, this is the price they always start at.

Sadly I cant read gamespot at work coz "games" sites are blocked :(

Anyone know how the connectivity for video file streaming goes? I know you can link it with a media center... But none of my media is on my media center... Its all on my fileserver running Win XP Pro.

Eveything's being a bit vague on that front.

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Originally Posted by GuruJockStrap

......

Those with a Dell 24" Widescreen will be wanting to use the component lead and 1920x1080 interlaced.

I'll be personally using my Dell 2005FPW (native resolution of 1680x1050) and 1280x720 progressive scan.

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Personally I'll be hooking it up to my home cinema projector. 78" wide screen gaming will suit me just fine :)

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Originally Posted by BlackDwarf

Anyone know how the connectivity for video file streaming goes? I know you can link it with a media center... But none of my media is on my media center... Its all on my fileserver running Win XP Pro.

Eveything's being a bit vague on that front.

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If you dont have MCE you can only stream audio.
this guy has a nice little review from a Halo fanboy perspective.
http://www.halomovienews.com/xbox360.php


also a nice shot of a comparison of Halo 2 running on Xbox/360
http://www.halomovienews.com/newsadm...parison2TH.jpg

Well i do have MCE... my MCE PC has MCE... but it doesnt hold any of the data.

Thats lame. I'm sure someone'll figure out how to do it.

PGR3 and Kameo still top of my games to buy list after reading those reviews. Ill also be playing some Halo 2 at 720p on my TFT I reckon :D

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Originally Posted by TheBuZZard

But still a lot cheaper than a top end gaming PC.

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Yeah, true. And a very good version of Half Life II has just come out for the Xbox, which will work on the 360, so I'll probably pick that up as well as my 360 games, see how it compares.

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And also about the same price as every other console launched in the last 10 years, this is the price they always start at.

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Hmmm... yeah, new consoles launch at about this price, just not used to having to buy a new (expensive) TV to make my next-next-gen titles look like next-next-gen titles. Still, better than HDTV being ignored I suppose.

Time for a new telly. D

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Sadly I cant read gamespot at work coz "games" sites are blocked :(

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Kameo got 9-9-9-9-7-9. Only 'value' let it down, as apparently its a bit short and can be completed in 10 hours. 8.7 out of 10 overall.

Media streaming is great in theory, but you can bet your bottom dollar it'll only play mp3 and wma audio (not a big issue) and avi/wmv video. Forget DivX and xVid. That's well pants, and is a dealbreaker for me and probably many others.

My original (chipped) Xbox could stream xvid/divx just dandy. <sulk>

If its streaming from MCE it wont be in xvid/div/wmv format it will be in the streaming media format.

Ive havent read if people are able to play divx/xvids off CD/DVD yet but if you cant now its something they could easily add later I would guess.

Will I be able to run the Xbox on my 2005FPW monitor in HD? Can I already order the cables needed? I'm currently running it at 1680x1050

Yeah, the monitor will upscale the image internally. Basically, get the vga cable for the xbox360 and set the xbox360 output res to 1280x720(720p) the monitor will then upscale the image to the native res.

There is something else though, if you choose 'aspect' scaling from the image setting menu on the monitor then the image will leave a small black bar at both the top and bottom of your screen. This is so that the image is at the correct aspect ratio (16:9).
If you choose 'fill' scaling then the image will fill the enitire screen but the aspect ratio will be slightly changed (16:9 -->16:10), this can end up causing slight image distortion. The first option is considered the better option in terms of image quality, though the difference in picture quality is very slight imo and i prefer not having the black bars at the top and bottom.

Edit : just noticed your HDTV site, so i'd assume you know all the above already :)

Being able to run at 1080i would be even better. Just need one of those BIG 24" TFTs :(

buzzard - yeah, 1080i is supported via component as well :)

The Anandtech boys have taken an Xbox360 apart already :) http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2610

I know 1080i is supported, its just only very few people will be able to use it. 720p is there from anyone with a PC monitor though, which is great.

hehe LOOK WHAT I HAVE :)


http://g-prime.net/x360/x8.JPG

I call bull, put the axim on top of it and the coins on the mousepad and take another

its the real deal..........

What size monitor that?

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Originally Posted by herulach

I call bull, put the axim on top of it and the coins on the mousepad and take another

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orly

http://g-prime.net/x360/xx2.JPG
http://g-prime.net/x360/x7.JPG

I don't think so....

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Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

hehe LOOK WHAT I HAVE

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LOL you wish! I wish too actually, so I can go to yours again for some drinks :rockon: and have a thrash at it

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Originally Posted by Famished

What size monitor that?

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24" Variant, some guy posted pictures of the monitor in all three HDTV modes too (480i, 720i and 1080i). Looks fantastic...

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Originally Posted by Stewart

That line in the PGR3 review, that if you are not playing on a HDTV it looks just like an Xbox game... thats not good.

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This is whats going to happen with all the next gen concolse games isnt it :(

This big leap isnt going to materialise until we get new tv's and hdtv is still pricey :(

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Originally Posted by unreal

24" Variant, some guy posted pictures of the monitor in all three HDTV modes too (480i, 720i and 1080i). Looks fantastic...

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Cool I have got the 20" version so should still look amazing :)

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Originally Posted by Famished

Cool I have got the 20" version so should still look amazing :)

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Same here, I was thinking of getting the 24" version for 1080i but 720i looks good already so I don't think I will

"Which is better, 720p or 1080i?

Miles of webspace have been devoted to this much argued topic. 1080i is higher resolution, but is interlaced as opposed to progressive. 1080i TVs can be more expensive and aren't probably worth the extra. All 360 games will have to be 720p. 1080i is an option although it uses more processing power, so it is less likely to be used."

Good :)

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Originally Posted by Stewart

£280 for a console with one pad and no games, £40 for a years Xbox Live so you can get the most out of your games, £40 a pop for the games and a new tv needed to make them look any better than current gen titles?

Eek.

This is expensive on a very big scale.

The sort of scale you'd find on a fat dragons arse.

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Oh yeh, £300quid for a 7800 GTX then 20 month for WOW. Not to mention the CPU/Mem/HD/Soundcard/Mobo/psu, yeh it's pretty cheap compared to PC gaming.

Seems like a bargain compared to my Opteron rig with a 7800gt.

Glad I won't need any patches either. Straight in and play. Unlike bloody Battlefield 2/Vampire Masquerade to actually make the games work on such exspensive parts.

Can't wait for launch day and my games WOOOHOO! :rockon:

You seem to be forgetting that a gaming rig isn't just a gaming rig, it does everything a PC does as well, because it is one.

Anyway, you are preaching to the converted - I've owned super fast gaming rigs, I've had MachII GT cooled CPUs flying at silly speeds, and the latest &#163;400 GPU, gig of Corsair XMS, etc, and really, I've always been a console gamer at heart.

Just saying that with all this Xbox Live stuff and having to buy a new TV to get the most out of it, this console is very expensive.

Or maybe I'm just a bit older now and as such, more miserable. :D

I think you are correct stuart. If you had a really old TV it would cost you a good &#163;1000 to get a small LCD, the console and a couple of games. I'm lucky I can use my PC monitor to output HD or I might have brought a new Tv. I'm cutting back on games though and only getting two (PGR3 & Fifa 06) i'm waiting for demo discs to start appearing.

Have a read of a few reviews before you buy FIFA 06 mate. Its well dodgy. No club teams, not the best looking game, and its so sloppy, the frame rate on replays is so low, the ball flickers in and out. Its got panned on all the reviews I've seen.

I suppose its a laugh, it doesn't seem to be a quality, polished finished product. And for a shiny new console, you want shiny new games.

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Originally Posted by Stewart

Have a read of a few reviews before you buy FIFA 06 mate. Its well dodgy. No club teams, not the best looking game, and its so sloppy, the frame rate on replays is so low, the ball flickers in and out. Its got panned on all the reviews I've seen.

I suppose its a laugh, it doesn't seem to be a quality, polished finished product. And for a shiny new console, you want shiny new games.

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I smell EA games

Its a "Road to the world cup" version rather than a proper version. First footy game Ill buy for Xbox360 will be PES next year.

Agreed. And if it's better than the already-sublime PC version - well, I mijght just..er, 'mess me trousers'!

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Originally Posted by TheBuZZard

Its a "Road to the world cup" version rather than a proper version. First footy game Ill buy for Xbox360 will be PES next year.

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Road to World Cup excuses the lack of club teams, not the fact its a (according to the reviews) lazy, shody football game. Anyway at &#163;40 it costs as much as a 'proper' game. :D

Pro Evo 5 should be much better, yes. Looking forward to it.

so a 360 is pretty useles without a hdtv innit? so all and all it will cost enar enough teh exact same has a gaming rig has someone mentioned before.........

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Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

so a 360 is pretty useles without a hdtv innit? so all and all it will cost enar enough teh exact same has a gaming rig has someone mentioned before.........

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But I guess the same thing can be said about all the next generation consoles. As the graphics get better, they reach a limit with TVs with low resolutions. Lucky for me I have a HDTV compatible monitor :D (I heard you can run the Xbox360 through VGA on a computer monitor, don't think HD mode though, completely unsure?)

Wait - a good rig with no monitor, or a really powerful console with a HDTV. I don't see how that can be compared to each other at the advantage of a computer. Unless you use a decent computer monitor, the same concept can be said for 'unless using a decent tv'?


One more thing, apparently, since these are release titles, they are using no more than 25% of the Xbox360 power. I can believe that since the console is new, and there are three cores to make use of. (I heard there are 2 operations these cores can do at a time, making it 6 cores in theory?)

yea man sounds sweet.. i will wait till games use the full potential of the 360. you still will be spending over 1200 on a 360 with games and a decent size hdtv with it. near enough the same price has a gaming rig!!! i rather save up and wait till pc's are superior than a 360 and spend money on that!

the fact that hdtv aint cheap is a major concern for alot of people. not just me. i mean ok how many people from the general public can actualy own or afford a hdtv??? i can see alot of people playing 360 on crappy tv's

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Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

the fact that hdtv aint cheap is a major concern for alot of people. not just me. i mean ok how many people from the general public can actualy own or afford a hdtv??? i can see alot of people playing 360 on crappy tv's

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Yeah I agree on that... maybe they will buy the Xbox360 promising themselves in the future that they will buy a HDTV? Because even if they wait for the playstation 3 to come out, either way they look at it both consoles will look poor on their standard tvs.

yea and it aint good mate... consoles are getting as pricey has pc's now if u add up all the accessories u need to make full use of the console...

/me has an hdtv \o/

heheh very lucky man

Sorry for possible newb question, but can any dvi TFT monitor work as an HDTV input?

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Originally Posted by gedalia

Sorry for possible newb question, but can any dvi TFT monitor work as an HDTV input?

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no. HDTV requires either an HDMI connector, or a DVI connector capable of carrying HDCP info (which computer monitors can't). The target screen needs to cope with 1280x720, progressive scan.

However, the 360 has an official VGA cable, which will transmit HD-quality video signals about - the cable also allows for a wider array of quality options.

If you want to use a 360, any monitor can do the high-definition job, if not officially be an HD-device

I doubt it'll look "bad" on a half decent non-HDTV set, probably a bit better than the original Xbox. :)

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Originally Posted by Howard

I doubt it'll look "bad" on a half decent non-HDTV set, probably a bit better than the original Xbox. :)

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only marginally. most reviews are saying PGR3 and PGR2 look identical on an SD TV

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Originally Posted by directhex

only marginally. most reviews are saying PGR3 and PGR2 look identical on an SD TV

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If that really is true, well, that applies to about what, 90% of people with TV's, at least?

It's a bit of a subjective term really. PGR3 on a 360 will have higher resolution textures, more detail in the buildings, better detailed cars, better Live support, etc. etc.

Yes, the screen resolutin will be the same, but without doubt you'dd be able to tell the two apart!

Aye, as I don't have anything about this HDTV stuff, does it just up the resolution?

I bet only 1% of people buying the 360 will have a HDTV in their front room. 10% will play it through their TFT with the VGA cable and the other 85% will be annoyed that the graphics still looks the same as the first Xbox.

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Originally Posted by Famished

I bet only 1% of people buying the 360 will have a HDTV in their front room. 10% will play it through their TFT with the VGA cable and the other 85% will be annoyed that the graphics still looks the same as the first Xbox.

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I'm part of the 10% then :D HD resolution on a widescreen monitor, sit on my lovely bed and play the crap out of it :D

I'll have a HD-TV by the time my Xbox 360 arrives, safely tucked away in my room, for much games playage.

Premium pack is pre-ordered, and I've gone for a second wireless pad, 2 play and charge units, years gold Xbox Live, and for the games; Kameo, Project Gotham 3 and Call of Duty 2.

5.1 speakers will be up nice and loud. I am expecting to be impressed.

Call of Duty 2, on a nice big HD screen with the sound up and the sub woofer booming should do the trick, but I'm most looking forward to Kameo; after all, this is an Xbox, and we all know that means an endless flow of racing, fighting and FPS games, so any decent Zelda style adventure type games will be like gold.

Could I link up my current surround-sound system to an Xbox360? It is the Creative Inspire 6600 model, but since I know nothing about speakers (ironically, since I want to work with sound and music for a living :/) would I be able to directly plug it in? I know there are a massive variety of connectors and adapters available, but I simply don't know about this aspect! Thanks...

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Originally Posted by unreal

Could I link up my current surround-sound system to an Xbox360? It is the Creative Inspire 6600 model, but since I know nothing about speakers (ironically, since I want to work with sound and music for a living :/) would I be able to directly plug it in? I know there are a massive variety of connectors and adapters available, but I simply don't know about this aspect! Thanks...

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Just had a quick look, the Creative Inspire 6600 does not have an optical input, so you will not be able to connect it directly with the 360. To get full 5.1 you are going to need a decoder box, Creative have the DDTS-100 decoder.
I don't know what soundcard you have but some of these have on-board (X-Fi with I/O drive comes to mind) DD/DTS encoding with optical in, if you do have this then it should be easy to get 5.1.

just added more reviews on first post. PDZ, Quake 4, Condemned and more.

News on new downloadable content for PDZ has surfaced. Counter-Operative mode, scenarios and more maps are planned in the future. Some will be free others will need to be paid for. More info can be found on IGN

well acording to people from the US, the majority of them are not happy with their 360's.. ist because they had high hopes that the graphcis where going to be amazing and the gameplay being innovating but that diddnt happen. look at the launch titles. 9/10 are sequals, update season for sports games and pc ports.. x360 performs more like xbox 1.5 LOL!!

you got any links Jonney?, Can't see any normal person web sites saying anything yet.....

TiG

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Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

well acording to people from the US, the majority of them are not happy with their 360's.. ist because they had high hopes that the graphcis where going to be amazing and the gameplay being innovating but that diddnt happen. look at the launch titles. 9/10 are sequals, update season for sports games and pc ports.. x360 performs more like xbox 1.5 LOL!!

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Perfect Dark Zero is a sequal, as is Project Gotham 3 and Call of Duty 2, and those are 3 of the strongest games on the system.

Kameo, by all accounts, looks great and is innovating (compared to most Xbox games anyway), and the graphics are supposed to be very special, but only if you have a nice HD screen. I don't think those complaints (which come from where, by the way?) hold much water.

The dodgy sports updates however, seems to be spot on. FIFA is very bad, apparently, and the rest are average-at-best American sports games, of which only Madden is interesting me.

Its a reasonable enough launch list - I'm sure anyone with Perfect Dark \ Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham and Kameo would have a nice mix of games, all quality, all very different.

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Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

well acording to people from the US, the majority of them are not happy with their 360's.. ist because they had high hopes that the graphcis where going to be amazing and the gameplay being innovating but that diddnt happen. look at the launch titles. 9/10 are sequals, update season for sports games and pc ports.. x360 performs more like xbox 1.5 LOL!!

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I cant ever remember a console launch where the game-lineup was anything to write home about, and to be fair, i think the 360 has done reasonable on that front.
The playstation 2 launch games were laughable for example. The Xbox wasnt much better.

Ill wait for a few more titles to come out before making my decision on it :)

Also its always unhappy customers that make the most noise, the happy people are too busy enjoying themselves. Unless you have surveyed a very large random sample such statments are worthless.

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Originally Posted by Agent

I cant ever remember a console launch where the game-lineup was anything to write home about

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Think back to the 2d days.

We could be pleasantly surprised by the Revolution

yes and this is why its not good to buy a console that JUST comes out... i got the info from basicly an american version of hexus type forum

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Originally Posted by smtkr

Think back to the 2d days.

We could be pleasantly surprised by the Revolution

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They were better, but still nowhere near the quality they should have been.
The entire delay with releasing a game worldwide was worse then than today in a lot of cases.
Ill excuse the NES in this case, as i think Nintendo did a fairly good job with its titles and keeping fresh ones coming.

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Originally Posted by Stewart

£280 for a console with one pad and no games, £40 for a years Xbox Live so you can get the most out of your games, £40 a pop for the games and a new tv needed to make them look any better than current gen titles?

Eek.

This is expensive on a very big scale.

The sort of scale you'd find on a fat dragons arse.

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I think this is the case for every new release of a console. Just resist for a few months, and your patience will be greatly rewarded!

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Originally Posted by bertoli

I think this is the case for every new release of a console. Just resist for a few months, and your patience will be greatly rewarded!

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Without the new Tv bit, yes. :)

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Originally Posted by Agent

They were better, but still nowhere near the quality they should have been.
The entire delay with releasing a game worldwide was worse then than today in a lot of cases.
Ill excuse the NES in this case, as i think Nintendo did a fairly good job with its titles and keeping fresh ones coming.

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the super seekrit rumours coming from nintendo suggest that the revolution won't have a simultaneous launch - it'll be europe getting it first (not entirely unheard of, a few n64 and gamecube games and a fair number of ds games came out first in europe, including nontendo titles)

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Originally Posted by Stewart

......having to buy a new TV to get the most out of it, this console is very expensive.

Or maybe I'm just a bit older now and as such, more miserable. :D

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welcome to our world ;)

IGN have finally got their review of PDZ up.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/670/670730p1.html