Editorials and Features
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Editorials and Features |
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Article by: MrCHUPON |
 Opinion: Chupon's Next Gen Take - Xbox 360 [Written 2005-10-23]
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Regardless, I'll attempt to take the plunge and infer from Sony and Nintendo's long histories what we might be able to expect to bring you my rambling, structure-less and almost stream-of-thought take on the all-too-rapidly approaching Next Generation of home videogame consoles. I'll be writing my thoughts on all three of them, and how I might expect them to satisfy my videogame urges. Get ready for some of the worst, most unorganized writing you've seen from me, ever. And enjoy it. Because I have fun writing all messy. Today: the Xbox 360. Stay tuned for Revolution and PS3 thoughts. Xbox 360 - The Big Facts This is just a smattering of the heavy hitting facts. For more facts, and detailed hardware specs, hit up IGN Xbox 360, Gamespot, Xbox.com, or any other local web publication that specializes in Xbox 360 skullduggery. Hardware features
Storage and Multimedia
Xbox Live
Odds and Ends
Chupon's Take Gangsta Mad Handles I really, really like the Controller Type S. Moreso than the Dual Shock. It combines a comfortable shape - almost as comfy as the Cube controller - with all the functionality of the Dual Shock plus more. The only problems are those pesky, inconveniently placed black and white buttons. And while the Cube controller is my favorite, why it only had one Z trigger is beyond me. Ever since I used that controller, I've been pining for a setup that had two shoulder buttons and two triggers. So what did Microsoft do? Make the Black and White into L and R buttons that sit just atop the triggers. My take, in one word: AWESOME. I also like that you can turn off the damn system from your couch with the fat button in the middle, and thank god they decided to kill the Dreamcast-era memory-slot-in-the-controller idea. Let me just say that right now the 360 controller is my favorite part of the system. And it's out for Windows PCs already. I think I'll go out and buy one for PC gaming, like right now. Get Live I have to say that even though I haven't gone online with my consoles yet, Microsoft's online structure just seems unbeatable thus far. The upgrades that come with the Xbox 360 era just solidifies that. The ability to have a constant bead on what's going on online or receive messages while playing a game, with the wealth of information Live provides, while integrating it with the other aspects of the Marketplace - trailers, demos, downloadable add-on content... let's put it this way. The fact that I haven't subscribed to Xbox Live yet leads me to think that there's something wrong with me. And there probably is. The Gamercard really does come in handy when determining who I want to play against / with. Any online community should do this well, right? Why would you add someone to your friends list who has no common interests or hates what you love? Likewise, why would you want to play on Live with someone who sounds like s/he could be a total dick from the profile and doesn't have a great reputation? In addition to making you aware of those you play against, the Gamercard records all of your in-game achievements (race times, character levels, scores, et cetera), offers a reputation rating like that of - say - eBay, and other personal gaming information. The different zones also help with matchmaking. I'd probably lounge around in the "R and R" area and that'll be fine - I'd rather not get too competitive and caught up in verbal battles over nothing with a complete stranger. But that's just me. You can take your trash talk to the Underground zone and be right at home there. I'm also glad that Microsoft took a nod from Bungie and Halo 2, and will make your gamercard info accessible from anywhere on the net. This may seem like a small thing, but I appreciate it. If something says Online, I want to be able to access the information anywhere. Nintendo and Sony need to pay attention - something so small and simple can still make things more convenient and ubiquitous. I got your Windows Media PC Right *Here* That $400 you spent does more than just play games. If you're one of those people with 200GB hard drives filled with uh, family video camera movies and wedding ceremonies with the occasional ... "rented" theatrical movie and "borrowed" P. Diddy album (oh come on, if you actually buy Puffy's music...), what you get with the Xbox 360 is basically a hub that sucks all that sheite up and plasters it all over your home theatre given that you know how to network your PC with the 360. What's cooler is the fact that I can plug my iPod or PSP into the damned thing -- though honestly it's more for the "OMFG Micro$oft let teh APPL and teh SORNY product compatble wit teh xbux260!!!!!11" factor. This isn't going to make me personally go and empty my bank account for the console come launch day. But it's one of those nice-to-haves that I'd probably come to appreciate when I least expect it. Wanksta Backwards Backwards Compatibility Yep, Backwards Backwards compatibility. In other words, Backwards Compatibility done in such an iffy way that I consider it "backwards" (as in a step backwards, doofuses). Perhaps there was no other way for Microsoft to achieve this other than through emulation, but hearing the "top selling" and "highest quality" games being made backwards compatible sends a shiver down my spine. Straight from IGN Xbox 360's FAQ: "Backwards compatibility will require the use of a hard drive to store emulation code ... The hard drive will be used to emulate the Xbox 1 hardware and many Xbox games will require tweaks to the emulator code. One emulator does not simply allow the playback of every original Xbox game so Microsoft is forced to pick and choose which titles to spend time on. It is almost a guaranteed [sic] that the Halo games will run from day one with an emulator preloaded onto the hard drive. We've also learned from our sources that Microsoft ... also want[s] the highest quality games on Xbox to translate over to 360 regardless of sales numbers." So there it is. Now. What if I've got a game that the game idiots - I mean critics - deemed as not high quality, but I think I know better? Or what if say, Panzer Dragoon Orta falls off of Microsoft's radar? What if I want to play Outrun 2, which almost certainly will get ignored (and likely not without good reason)? Suppose I have a hankering for the simple but cathartic action of something like Raze's Hell. So many what ifs, and let's say I sell my current Xbox to fund the 360. All my obscure games go out the window. This is the biggest concern for me. Yes, I do play my old games a lot. I keep my PSone library hanging around for all the RPGs I have yet to finish, I do indulge in some Sin & PuN64ishment, I did just lose the original Wario Land for the GB because I brought it with me to play on the plane, and I do break out the Sega Saturn every so often. So I hope to dear god that Microsoft hits all the games that I like, because if I buy a 360, there's no way I want to keep its older, chunky, ugly sibling around the house. Xbox 1.5? My biggest concern with the 360 has to be this - I really do not think it'll change the way I play my games, so I don't think I will have spent my money wisely if I buy one. This is a concern that also rings true of the PS3, but we'll get to that next time. I look down the list of potential games coming up and I see myself interacting with these same games in the same way, pushing the same buttons and all. I don't see anything refreshing. All I see is stuff that looks prettier. Yet, let's think about that. Why would a gamer want to give up playing the type of games that they still enjoy? I certainly still get a kick out of my current-gen games. Hell, I get a kick out of games damn near 20 years old. There's no reason to frown upon the next evolutionary step when it means you'll get the great gameplay you know and love and want more of. At least, that's how I see it. I guess my concern here is that I still want more change after all is said and done. This is $399 we're talking about here. When the current-gen systems came out, the big leap in hardware led to some things that would just be too clunky to play on the older generation systems. GTA 3 could probably have been done on the PSone, but with highly choppy, buggy and unplayable results - imagine the load times on that baby. Same thing for Metroid Prime and the N64. When a gamer plunks down $399 for that Xbox 360, is s/he going to blast off from GTA to GTA: San Andreas, and from NBA Live '97 to NBA 2K6? Or... is s/he going to crawl from Mario 64 to Super Mario Sunshine, from Crash Team Racing PSone to... Crash Team Racing PS2? Confused Developers Hard Drivin' So you've bought the version with the hard drive, but your favorite game developer waffled on Hard Drive support because enough morons bought the $299 hard-drive-less package. What good is your $100-more-expensive package if you can't play the games with proper hard drive support? This is a much debated issue with Microsoft's decision to offer two different SKUs. It's not a huge deal - developers have already been quoted as saying they're making the games detect and take advantage of hard drives while still providing support for hard-drive-less gamers. But for games that could REALLY use the hard drive to take off and open up new worlds and possibilities, will publishers balk at the prospect of not being able to penetrate a big market because there are too many people out there without hard drives? Honestly, with the kind of stuff Xbox Live has to offer, and going by my gut feeling about the gaming community, I don't see this to be as bad as people want to make it out to be. Enough people will spend the money for the better package, and even if not too many games took full advantage of the drive, you've still got the Marketplace. You've still got the option to put your own custom soundtracks in. You've still got to own a hard drive for backwards compatibility. But it's still a little thing to be concerned with. Consoles provide a nice, clean set of standards to develop for. Introducing a customizable configuration - in which a *huge* component is one of the optional pieces, and is expensive as well - could shatter that comfort zone. Time to Stop Ranting All in all, I'm really excited about what the new generation of Xbox Live presents. I may finally hop on the console-online bandwagon. I'm also stoked about the controller, and even though the games don't look too refreshing to me right now, I know I'm going to want some familiarity during my next 5 years of gaming. If the games end up surprising me as much as my current Xbox library has, then I can definitely see a reason to pick one of these up after a year or so. But right now, the only "killer app" aspect of this thing is Live - and I'm not ready to wait in line on launch day for that. |
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