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Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

Updated info on 360's backwards compatability:

��We��re not sure where this came from, and is incorrect. At launch, Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top Xbox games. Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new ��version�� your original games will work on Xbox 360.��

Other 360 bits of interest:

Xbox 360 demos and G5 dev kits

More details on the 360's GPU

A good look at the 360's User Interface (Click the image in the article for more photos of the UI.)

Decent article from Wired about J Allard.

After finally getting to watch the Microsoft's press conference, my opinions are shifting. While Sony's press conference (torrent here if you want to watch the 2-hour show) was all about possibilities and things that may be, MS was straightforward and laid out exactly what you'll be getting from the 360. They didn't list every single detail about what it can and can't do, but they seem a lot more focused than Sony. Sony's showing was very impressive, but I'm haunted by memories of what they'd claimed about the PS2.

I've only been able to find the MS press conference as a stream, but you can get it at this link. (If clicking that link doesn't work, paste this url - http://www.gamespot.com/live/stream_asx.html?speed=300&path=2stream_microsoft_e305_pressconf_hi.asx - into Windows Media Player.)

If you want to see Nintendo's press conference, that torrent is here.

And one last thing - about those teraflops Sony and MS are claiming? I call BS.

The Tflop specs Sony and MS have put out are theoretical upper limits, combining both the CPU and GPU. They are most certainly not real-world number.

Sony claims 2 Tflops, right? If you look at the top 500 supercomputer rankings, #124 on the list pumps out 1.999, and that's with 602 Xeon processors. Do you really think you're going to get that level of power in a home console?

Another example, WETA Digital's system only puts out 2.026 Tflops, and that's with 1176 of the same 2.8Ghz Xeon processor. Does Sony really think they're going to have as much power as WETA's renderfarm? Does MS think they're going to have half that much power?

I sincerely doubt it.

It'll ultimately come down to the how good the development kits are, and what the game studios can produce from them. The next round of consoles will be nice, but don't go expecting massive supercomputing power from them.

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

Here's what may be the last tidbit of Xbox 360 info to come out for a while.

Anandtech's hands-on where they check out the console and controller samples, along with some of the new Xbox Live features.

mishlert · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Location: On the 3rd rock from the sun

Well, I asked an XBox vendor when the new XBox will be in Korea, and he said that it should be here just in time for Christmas. When I asked him if the price will be KW 400K-450K, he said that he wasn't sure, but that seemed to be in the ball park.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

Here's great news about the Revolution. It will be released with 200+ NES, Super NES, and Nintendo 64 games at no extra charge.

http://www.gamingevolution.info/?id=715

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

Demophobe · Joined: 17 May 2004

[quote="Walter Mitty]
And one last thing - about those teraflops Sony and MS are claiming? I call BS.

The Tflop specs Sony and MS have put out are theoretical upper limits, combining both the CPU and GPU. They are most certainly not real-world number.

Sony claims 2 Tflops, right? If you look at the top 500 supercomputer rankings, #124 on the list pumps out 1.999, and that's with 602 Xeon processors. Do you really think you're going to get that level of power in a home console?

Another example, WETA Digital's system only puts out 2.026 Tflops, and that's with 1176 of the same 2.8Ghz Xeon processor. Does Sony really think they're going to have as much power as WETA's renderfarm? Does MS think they're going to have half that much power?

I sincerely doubt it.

[/quote]

Yeah...I read that myself and almost choked laughing on my morning coffee.

This kind of "math" is always used during these run-ups to reality which, when they do arrive, often leave these whimsical numbers off in the distance; they look much better on paper that on a monitor.

dogbert · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Location: Killbox 90210

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

If you haven't seen the "Tokyo Tralier" for Project Gotham Racing 3 that came out this week, you really should check it out. 1up.com has them in WMV and MOV format, or you can get the high-res versions (in WMV) from Bizarre Creations' site for the game.

The Shinjuku section is beyond impressive. (Even moreso if you've been there before.)

The guy from BC who was presenting the video at the Xbox Summit in Tokyo said the trailer was put together entirely from in-game footage. Shocked

mack the knife · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: standing right behind you...

I just breezed through KOTOR again over the last few days, and it's still a great game, every time. Can't seem to buy Morrowind at Yongsan, though. When I asked for it last time they gave me 3 other games instead (for free!) How could I complain? Anyway, my panties are all in a wad about the Kingdom Under Fire sequel, which looks like it will be fantabulousness and fantastousity combined.

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

Japanese 360 details revealed:

Walter Mitty · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Tokyo! ^.^

I just got back from TGS, where I went hands-on with about half the demos they had up and running on the 360. Here are some quick initial impressions.

The Good:

Ninety-nine Nights - Sweet. It was the most "next gen" of any of the playable demos. Tons of enemies on the screen at once for you to beat the snot out of. A handy counter keeps track of your combo (hits in a row). I was mostly mashing the attack buttons and using the special moves as best I could and managed to get it up to about 350. The guy I was watching while waiting in line had things figured out already. He got his combo up to 1940 right before he got killed. (Sadly I only got a pic of it at 1376.)

Kameo: Elements of Power - This one was nice too. The graphics were sharp and the gameplay was pretty much spot on. My favorite move was in her Yeti (best name I can think of for it) form - grab an enemy, toss 'em in the air and skewer them on the spikes on your back. (I had three on there at once.) Want to make use of their corpses? No problem! Just grab one off your spikes and fling it where you'd like. Or use his body like a club and beat other guys senseless.

Dead Rising - Wow! This was the best of all the demos I played. It's just like what you've seen in the gameplay videos and trailers. (Thought the in-game graphics on the build they had out for play weren't as crisp as the shots in MS's TGS brochure.) Multiple weapons, health items you can use all at once (small ones) or as you need them (larger ones, like a gallon of milk). You start off with a bat but can grab a 2x4 pretty quickly. (The bat's better, since you can swing it a lot faster. The reach of the 2x4 isn't worth the loss of speed.) Dozens of zombies on screen at once, all trying to get you. The game has a much different feel than any other undead game you've played.

The Less-than-good:

Need for Speed: Most Wanted - How about "least wanted?" This game did not look like a next gen title at all. It may have been the age of the build, but I was seriously underwhelmed. The visuals were very muddy and washed out, and there was no real sense of speed like some other racers have. It looked and played below most PS2 racing games. It wasn't all bad, though. The audio was nice, especially the police radios. They seemed to dynamically respond to in-game events. For example, I pulled into a bus station to turn my car around to try and get away, and I hear a cop on the radio commenting that I was trying to lose him in the bus station. Very nice. I just hope they get the rest of the game working that well.

Test Drive Unlimited - More like "limited." This was a joke. I didn't even wait in line (a three person long line) to play it. It looked bad and wasn't even running at 30fps.

The Others:

Final Fantasy XI - This had the longest line of all the 360 games. It looked nice and the units it was running on had keyboards hooked up to them. I've never played either the PC or PS2 version, so I gave this one a pass. (Plus, my Japanese isn't good enough to try and jump right into an RPG.)

Call of Duty 2 - Playable, but I skipped it. Looked like any other PC-quality WW2 FPS.

eNCHANT arM - Playable, but I skipped it. Looked nice, but I was moving on to other things.

Every Party - Playable, but I skipped it. I'm not into party games. It was the only game to have two controllers hooked up, though.

The 360 itself - The contoller feels great. Even better than the Controller-S on the Xbox. Very comfortable and everything feels like it's just where it should be. The addition of the second shoulder buttons is welcome, and they're located so that you can hit either them or the triggers without a thought. They only had wired controllers set up at the demo stations.

The 360 and most of the accessories (with the exception of the various video cables) were on display, but only behind glass. The only exposed 360 I saw was at the Atari booth, and there was a guy sitting next to it who never moved. It was hooked up and powered on, but I never saw it being used for anything.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_1771912,00.html