XBox 360 - Is it worth it?

[Pako]

Sorry, not using Zone Alarm. For a partial Hijack, goto www.zune.net and download the software. You don't need the Zune hardware for this to work. Once installed, go into options and make sure you have "Share my media" checked. Once installed access your 360's Dashboard and away you go. For detailed instructions, check this link:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup/alldownloads.htm

Gamer Tag GTP Pako.

See you guys on the dark side...

 

[G.T]

Thanks for the help. I did set-up everything like you said, but after going into the Zune's help section, I presumed it was Zone Alarm blocking it, as with Windows Firewall it worked.

At least it sees my father's PC fine...

 

[bennyrrr]

Congrats Pako. Welcome to the family. And to anyone else outhere who wants a 360. The 360 might have a bad rep as being unreliable (red death) but at least it doesnt beat the crap out of you *cough * www.wiihaveaproblem.com

 

[TopHat]

Congratulations to Pako for having the ultimate gaming are in the world. PS3+360=teh sex.

I'll send a friend request Pako.

 

[Zrow]

Turn Gears up LOUD - it's the only way to play.

 

[socomplayer2]

Well, I almost picked one up at best buy...... Don't know why, but I put it back,.... I might wait for the price to drop a hundred bucks or so before I jump on the 360 wagon.

1 day leter....

Well...., I ended up getting one today

Lol, congrats:tup:. You will not be disappointed. Some games you should seriously consider, Dead Rising, Test Drive: Unlimited and, Saints Row (A gta nicotine patch if you will). Oh yea on the saints row thing download the domeo first and you can roam around freely for as long as you want so you can see if you like it, same w/ Test drive and dead rising(15 mins).

 

[DuckRacer]

Nope, any 360 owner with a Media Center PC can do it. All you need is Media Player 11 installed on your XP Media Center box basically.

Actually, IIRC, you just need a Windows XP computer for streaming pics and music. And you need WMP11 (I think) for streaming WMVs and MP4s. You just need a Media Center PC for some of the more advanced functions (watching TV, etc).

For Macintards (like me), there's a program called Connect360 that lets you steam your music, photos, and movies from iPhoto, iTunes, etc.

Congratulations to Pako for having the ultimate gaming are in the world. PS3+360=teh sex.

And he has a Wii. He's definitely set.

Well...., I ended up getting one today with an additional wireless controller. It came with Madden '07 and I picked of 'Gears of War' which was one of the main reasons to getting the 360 in the first place. Cool game, very cool game...

Anyways, if you have XP SP2, you can download the Zune player software that will allow you to stream content from your PC to the 360. Works without flaw. The 360 had to download a little patch for certain file types, but so far so good.

Thanks guys for the input.

Congrats! Welcome to the dark side. Now you have rumble!

Also, definitely pick up Test Drive and Dead Rising (or better yet, try the demos). Same thing with Rainbow Six, Lost Planet, G.R.A.W., and even Burnout Revenge and/or PGR3. There's definitely some great games to play out there. 👍

I'll be sending a friend request too (DuckRacer1).

 

[Zrow]

For Macintards (like me), there's a program called Connect360 that lets you steam your music, photos, and movies from iPhoto, iTunes, etc.

Oooooooh...

Do I need the wireless connector for the 360 or what? How does that work?

EDIT: Got it. This is great!

 

[DuckRacer]

Oooooooh...

Do I need the wireless connector for the 360 or what? How does that work?

EDIT: Got it. This is great!

Nope, just a router and a wired connection. I assume you're a Macintard too?

It (Connect360) is shareware, so if you didn't pay for it, you can only stream a limited amount of songs 'n stuff.

 

[Zrow]

Sure am!

I'm gonna test it out for a while to see how much I want to use it before I shell out the 20 bucks. It's great for games like sports or racing games, but there's no way I'd use it for something like Gears of War, which I play pretty often.

 

[CDailey]

Congrats Pako! Expect a whole bunch of friend requests soon

For Macintards (like me), there's a program called Connect360 that lets you steam your music, photos, and movies from iPhoto, iTunes, etc.

Awesome! Thanks Duck!

 

[Zrow]

Hey Duck, I just sent you a friend request as "AndrewPaul". I would have PM'd this, but it won't let me PM you for some reason.

 

[DuckRacer]

Hey Duck, I just sent you a friend request as "AndrewPaul". I would have PM'd this, but it won't let me PM you for some reason.

Really? Strange...

 

[Zrow]

My computer doesn't support the special character you have for the "C", so it wants to send it to "Du?k".

 

[DuckRacer]

My computer doesn't support the special character you have for the "C", so it wants to send it to "Du?k".

Hmm, weird.

If you ever want to type it in, it's ċ.

 

[Pako]

Thanks guys for the support, suggestions, feedback, and welcoming comments. I've already accepted a couple 'friend' requests and look forward to some great 360 gaming experiences. The 360 feels like a product that has matured, especially with it's xbox live content. I was surprised to see as much available as there was. I even played an old time classic demo of Joust. Man did that bring back memories.

 

[CAMAROBOY69]

Well...., I ended up getting one today with an additional wireless controller. It came with Madden '07 and I picked of 'Gears of War' which was one of the main reasons to getting the 360 in the first place. Cool game, very cool game...

Anyways, if you have XP SP2, you can download the Zune player software that will allow you to stream content from your PC to the 360. Works without flaw. The 360 had to download a little patch for certain file types, but so far so good.

Thanks guys for the input.

I just accepted your friend request Pako when I got to work this morning. If you go to xboxlive.com you can log in and check your 360 friends list or messages at any time from a computer. Congrats on your 360 purchase and welcome to the dark side. 👍 If you ever want a co-op partner for Gears of War then just send me an invite. I will be able to drop in at any time of the game to help you out. Its one of the coolest features in Gears of War. I have been through GOW over 11 times now just helping friends with levels or finding cog tags or just having fun with them. I dont play the multiplayer in GOW that much because it honestly bores me after a few games. The co-op is the highlight of GOW.
Another game I highly recommend is Rainbow six Vegas. It has a 4 player co-op for the campaign!! Thats right you and 3 of your friends can all play through the entire campaign together. Also 4 player co-op terrorist hunt. As you play RSV you will unlock new armor, new clothing, new ranks, new glasses, and even new guns. It also has a very good multiplayer.
If you are into driving games I highly suggest Test Drive Unlimited. You get to free roam the entire island on Hawaii. One of the races is literally an Hour long! You can also free roam with 8 people total and take pictures at any time. The single player in TDU is easily 100 hours.
Also dont forget there are a lot of arcade games you can download from the marketplace. I just recenty downloaded Heavy Weapon and thats a very fun 4 player arcade game. My girlfriend and I spent over 7 hours straight on saturday playing Heavy Weapon. Xboxlive arcade games.
Since you like RTS games you should check out Viva Pinata some time. Very fun game and if you like Roller coaster tycoon or zoo tycoon games you will love Viva Pinata.
If you ever have any questions or need a co-op partner just let me know. We can also voice chat at any time just like a telephone. You can even be in a totally different game but we can still voice chat.
You can also check out some of the GTP reviews in this game reviews thread. I listed quite a few games I like in post #5.

 

[Pako]

Thanks for the heads up and suggestions Adam! I'll definitely take you up on some of those offers. I currently am playing GOW, Lost Planet, TDU, and Maden. I just finished GOW on easy with my bro this weekend but I have been having an absolute blast with TDU. I've burnt hours just cruzin around. Since I used to live on Oahu, it's cool to see how much they put into the game and how recognizable some of the streets and locations are. It's cool for sure! I've been holding out on RSV because it's also coming for the PS3 and well....frankly I feel kind of sorry for the PS3 as it hasn't been getting too much play time lately. Like I said, I guess the dark side ain't so dark after all.

I need to figure out how to get the head set to work as well as look into assigning Alias' to friends, other than that, hours of fun are just flying by.

 

[Touring Mars]

I am still considering whether or not to invest in an Xbox 360, and have been sorely tempted in recent weeks... My main reason for staying with Sony is the Gran Turismo franchise, and from bitter experience, I know now that waiting on GT5 coming out could entail a very long wait* (*Some things to do while waiting: raise a family, repaint the roof of the Sistine Chapel, that sort of thing...) However, I've come to realise that I am spending less and less time playing games, and am looking for more than a game-playing station from either the PS3 or the Xbox 360. So how does the Xbox square up to the PS3 in terms of an all-round entertainment centre? (By the way, it's extremely unlikely I'd buy both, hence why I need to make up my mind on one consol or the other...)

 

[Pako]

I am still considering whether or not to invest in an Xbox 360, and have been sorely tempted in recent weeks... My main reason for staying with Sony is the Gran Turismo franchise, and from bitter experience, I know now that waiting on GT5 coming out could entail a very long wait* (*Some things to do while waiting: raise a family, repaint the roof of the Sistine Chapel, that sort of thing...) However, I've come to realise that I am spending less and less time playing games, and am looking for more than a game-playing station from either the PS3 or the Xbox 360. So how does the Xbox square up to the PS3 in terms of an all-round entertainment centre? (By the way, it's extremely unlikely I'd buy both, hence why I need to make up my mind on one consol or the other...)

Oh man...that's a tough one. Comparing the two side by side today, I would say go with the 360 hands down, however....when I get my crystal ball out, I anticipate the PS3 to supersede the 360 in terms of package entertainment within the next year. As you can see, I couldn't make that decision and thus I have both consoles. You could always get the 360 now and the PS3 in the fall.

In playing/owning both consoles, the 360 feels like a mature product, the PS3 on the other hand gives me the impression that they are still working things out as it relates to online content and gameplay. The hardware of the PS3, however, gives the end user more options for what software they can develop as well as offering you a complete media solution without the use of an external PC for media content. Then you have the whole HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray....you decide the outcome there, personally I would anticipate HD-DVD being something of a novelty but not really taking off as a standard.

Then there are exclusive gaming titles that are coming out on both systems that will offer some great gaming enjoyment opportunities. We have finally started to reach a point in gaming technology that I dreamed about as a boy and looking at my own mortality (just turned 33 earlier this month) I don't want to miss any of it.



All I can say is good luck and choose wisely.

 

[G.T]

Yeah, I certainly agree with Pako.

The PS3 in the long run will probably be the console worth having, due to a better game line up (personally), more potential output with the hardware, especially the built in blu-ray drive, and, of course, all awaited Gran Turismo 5. Personally, if I could only have one console, I would go PS3 mainly due to the Gran Turismo series. The 360 does a lot, but not as much as the PS3 WILL do.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

I'm curious how PS3 games with over 7GB of data will get ported to the XB360? Resistance, while not likely ever to be an XB360 title, was 22GB (although some reports say it is 16GB), and it is being speculated that the next Metal Gear Solid game will be close to 50GB. If any game that was 50GB on a PS3 that gets ported over to the XB360 without anything being cut or downrezed would require it to be spread over 7 DVD-ROMs.

I wonder how GTA:4 will compare on both systems, or do you think they will develop the game to the lowest common denominator?

If third party developers take advantage of the extra capacity and processing power of the PS3, then I don't think it will be long before we see a big difference between PS3 & XB360 versions of the same game.

I agree though, as long as there are exclusive titles that you really want to have, then you are pretty much stuck having to buy multiple consoles... or have friends with different consoles that wont mind you coming over for some game nights.

 

[DuckRacer]

I'm curious how PS3 games with over 7GB of data will get ported to the XB360? Resistance, while not likely ever to be an XB360 title, was 22GB (although some reports say it is 16GB), and it is being speculated that the next Metal Gear Solid game will be close to 50GB. If any game that was 50GB on a PS3 that gets ported over to the XB360 without anything being cut or downrezed would require it to be spread over 7 DVD-ROMs.

Resistance is 16GB, Ted Price himself said so on his blog. It was lowered because they figured out they could convert the NTSC stuff into PAL on-the-fly, so they could remove all the PAL stuff on the disc. And if Resistance used better compression than what they're using now and removed any other crap from the disc (like the PAL stuff), it would fit on a DVD9 real easily. And it's not going to the X360 for the simple fact that it's published by Sony.

As for multi-platform titles... I doubt they'd be going over the 8.5 GB mark. And even in the rare case they do, there's a little thing called disc 2. I seriously doubt Call of Duty 5 will be 15GB, or that Fatal Inertia will be 12GB, or that Assassin's Creed will be 24GB, or whatever.

Exclusive PS3 games are going to use the full potential of the PS3. They're going to use all the space they can get, just because they can. With multiplatform titles, they'll probably be made so that it fits on one DVD9. I seriously, seriously doubt GTA4 will be cut down to fit on the 360. If anything, the PS3 version may not reach it's full potential.

But we'll see.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Resistance is 16GB, Ted Price himself said so on his blog. It was lowered because they figured out they could convert the NTSC stuff into PAL on-the-fly, so they could remove all the PAL stuff on the disc.

That makes sense, thanks for the clarification.

And if Resistance used better compression than what they're using now and removed any other crap from the disc (like the PAL stuff), it would fit on a DVD9 real easily.

What better compression are you talking about? I had the impression they were using MPEG4, and of course this only impacts audio and video compression, not data. However, even VC-1 (SMPTE 421M), which both the XB360 and PS3 support, can not compress audio and video more than MPEG4 can.

As for multi-platform titles... I doubt they'd be going over the 8.5 GB mark.

I was under the impression that XB360's DVD-ROM only could store 7GB of data.

And even in the rare case they do, there's a little thing called disc 2.

Of the thousands of game titles released on CD & DVD, how many are 2-disc releases? In fact, how many XB360 games are 2-disc, let alone multi-disc releases? I was under the impression developers and consumers were not a fan of multi-disc game titles.

I seriously doubt Call of Duty 5 will be 15GB, or that Fatal Inertia will be 12GB, or that Assassin's Creed will be 24GB, or whatever.

Well a few months ago, prior to Resistance you also said you doubted any PS3 games would exceed the capacity of what a DVD could hold, and that it would be a long time, if ever that they would use all the space that Blu-ray provides.

Exclusive PS3 games are going to use the full potential of the PS3. They're going to use all the space they can get, just because they can.

That would be nice, but considering the developmental learning curve, time, and cost, I'm afraid not all exclusive titles will take full advantage of everything the PS3 has to offer.

With multiplatform titles, they'll probably be made so that it fits on one DVD9. I seriously, seriously doubt GTA4 will be cut down to fit on the 360. If anything, the PS3 version may not reach it's full potential.

I suspect you are probably right, or maybe a little of both, thus the PS3 version may be a little larger then the XB360 version, and maybe a few extra features. As you say, we will just have to wait and see.

BTW: What is the size difference between the PS3 and XB360 versions of Fight Night: Round3?

 

[V1P3R]

I decided to be daring and put the 360 vertically for the first time. Surprisingly, it didn't chew up the disc like my friend claims his does. It's better because a lot of times my 360 has to be mobile when I go to a friend's place.

 

[KieranMurphy]

And if Resistance used better compression than what they're using now and removed any other crap from the disc (like the PAL stuff), it would fit on a DVD9 real easily.

Are you sure? I thought that the issue with the size of the game data wasn't so much to do with data compression, more to do with the overall size and scope of the game world, the polygon details of the models and characters, the game levels size and details, etc.

As for multi-platform titles... I doubt they'd be going over the 8.5 GB mark.

But I think that Digital-Nitrate raises an important point with regard to GTA4. San Andreas supposedly used up most of the space on a double layered DVD (I think so anyway). And that was a game with relatively worse graphics than other similar PS2 titles, regardless of the enormous size and scope of the game. How are Rockstar going to deal with trying to push a next gen title of a similar size but with higher resolution textures, higher-polygon count buildings, cars, characters, etc. onto the same type of disc that San Andreas filled most of.

And even in the rare case they do, there's a little thing called disc 2. I seriously doubt Call of Duty 5 will be 15GB, or that Fatal Inertia will be 12GB, or that Assassin's Creed will be 24GB, or whatever.

But that'd never work for a free-roaming GTA-style game where most of the data consists of the game world itself and a game world that you're supposed to be able to explore and drive around on a whim, not a linear game where one level follows the next and thus disc swaps would be rare and minimal. Loading times on GTAIII and Vice City were already a slight annoyance that were thankfully done away with on San Andreas, but imagine having to swap discs when just driving around exploring the game world, especially when you're driving around at breakneck speed being chased by the cops.

No thanks. I'm curious myself as to how Rockstar are going to deal with fitting all of the next GTA game onto a 8.5Gb DVD disc.


KM.

 

[KieranMurphy]

Of the thousands of game titles released on CD & DVD, how many are 2-disc releases?

A good few of my PC titles come on multiple CDs!

But of course all the relevant data is put onto your hard drive, so it doesn't count as there's no disc swapping once the game is installed...


KM.

 

[Pako]

Maybe loading games on the hard drive is how the 360 will deal with larger games. Offer larger hard-drives for the 360 and problem is solved.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

A good few of my PC titles come on multiple CDs! But of course all the relevant data is put onto your hard drive, so it doesn't count as there's no disc swapping once the game is installed...

I should have been more specific, I meant for consoles. I know what you mean about PC games though, I remember for the third Myst game, (Riven?), it had five or six CD-ROMs, and we had to swap out the discs depending on what "island/world" we were on. (boy that brings back memories.... I used to love those Myst games, but its been years!)

How are Rockstar going to deal with trying to push a next gen title of a similar size but with higher resolution textures, higher-polygon count buildings, cars, characters, etc. onto the same type of disc that San Andreas filled most of.

Precisely.

imagine having to swap discs when just driving around exploring the game world, especially when you're driving around at breakneck speed being chased by the cops.

I suspect this is one of the reasons why multi-disc console games are so rare.

Maybe loading games on the hard drive is how the 360 will deal with larger games. Offer larger hard-drives for the 360 and problem is solved.

I think they will have to,but even a large 100GB HDD would only have space for 2 50GB games, or 4 25GB games. This would not only mean having to use up all your HDD space, but if you had more games than that, you'd have to be constantly erasing and reloading your games.

Another point to consider is that the average data rate of the DVD in the XB360, is 8MB/s, that means it would take an hour to download less than 30GB... and with 7GB per disc, that also means downloading four full DVDs. 50GB games would take close to two hours and require dowloading seven DVDs.

In reality, if Microsoft wants to give developers the same amount of capacity for games as the PS3 without making them release multi-disc titles and force their customers to not only buy large HDDs, but depending on the size and number of games, also have to constantly erase and reload games...they will have to come out with the version of the XB360 that they should have in the first place, one with either an HD DVD or Blu-ray drive (in the event HD DVD continues to lose support, or if they really want the same capacity as PS3 games) that supports ROM discs.

The leaked information on Microsoft's prototype 360 version with HDMI and large HDD may mean they are in fact going to also address the capacity issue in regards to games.

 

[BlackZ28]

The 360 is worth every penny. If you are seriously asking this question its probably not for you.


Welcome to the family.. heh.