Xbox 360 Launch

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Discussion

nick heppinstall

Original Poster:

8,247 posts

287 months

Saturday 5th November 2005
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Well it's less than a month away now. Anyone else planning on getting one ?

:J:

2,593 posts

232 months

Saturday 5th November 2005
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Oh yes

Due to not ordering soon enough though, I don't know when

UKBob

16,277 posts

272 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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Ordered, Im '2nd in the queue' (Im not a geek, honest! Just got chatting to the staff thats all ) so I'll definitely be getting one

Hijack (sorry)... A magazine said elder scrolls IV Oblivion will be one of the launch games. Gamespot doesnt list the game as a launch title. Will it be available to buy on the release date?

Baconbonce

566 posts

242 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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UKBob said:
A magazine said elder scrolls IV Oblivion will be one of the launch games. Gamespot doesnt list the game as a launch title. Will it be available to buy on the release date?


No, it's been put back until March 2006

Neezer

391 posts

235 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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Well, Elder scrolls 4 is out on the 25th of november for the pc. I think it's only a couple of weeks behind on the x360, if its any at all.

Should be pretty damn impressive.

UKBob

16,277 posts

272 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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Baconbonce said:
UKBob said:
A magazine said elder scrolls IV Oblivion will be one of the launch games. Gamespot doesnt list the game as a launch title. Will it be available to buy on the release date?


No, it's been put back until March 2006
Bummer. Its been 100 years since I last played an RPG - it looks like a great game!

Who'se getting what for launch? Nick? Perfect dark zero looks good

steve_evil

10,689 posts

236 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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Neezer said:
Well, Elder scrolls 4 is out on the 25th of november for the pc. I think it's only a couple of weeks behind on the x360, if its any at all.

Should be pretty damn impressive.


Nope. It's been put back for the PC as well. They were concentrating on getting the 360 version done first (although the release dates didn't reflect this) so the PC version is now due out at the same time as the 360 one next year (sometime after the middle of february, Gameplay have it down as March 24th)

Edit: I've had my 360 on order for months, getting Perfect Dark and Project Gotham 3 with mine, also just forked out for a HDTV so I can get the most out of it.

>> Edited by steve_evil on Sunday 6th November 11:46

UKBob

16,277 posts

272 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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steve_evil said:
getting Perfect Dark and Project Gotham 3 with mine
HDTV That'll be nice mate! Does the frame rate remain the same with or without HDTV?

dxg999

8,794 posts

267 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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There's an very short hands-on tour of the xbox going round the country at the moment. You turn up, get given an armband and get half an hour with the machines, loaded with game demos. I went along (is this sad?) to the Glasgow show on Friday and was hoping to ask lots about the general "media box" experience it's supposed to offer - and the media centre extemnder function in particular (as I already have an mce pc), but all they had there were staff who knew nothing.

Still, PGR3 looks *incredible* in the flesh. Really nice motion blur on the tarmac (and when you look left/right). The night mode also has a really nice haze effect coming off the roadside light sources. The level of detail in the gfx even goes down to reflections bouncing off the outside of the windscreen when you're in the "in cabin" view. I never worked out how to get it into rainy weather conditions, but hopes are high. The gameplay was just the same though and I did rather feel it was just "more of the same".

There was a basketball game and a football game there that genuinely did look like tv (with slightly soft-looking light), though. Other games were variable in their quality and some looked to be low resolution that has been scaled up to the hd tvs.

Overall, it does look good and I'm glad I've got my order in. Interestingly, you do realise that the whole "shortage" thing is being fabricated? Before they get their stock, retails are even being instruction on how to orchestrate their "hurry, only 2 left!" signage.

Anyway, details of the tour are here:
www.xbox.com/en-GB/community/news/360tour.htm

and details of the "shortage" camaign are here:
www.xboxtoday.ca/11042005/12/is_there_really_an_xbox_360_scarcity

Oh, btw, the most disturbing thing about to this tour was the MS employee I overheard on his mobile saying something along the lines of "Yeah, it's going great. Really good turn out and we're collecting lots of data" (!)

>> Edited by dxg999 on Sunday 6th November 12:45

steve_evil

10,689 posts

236 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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UKBob said:
steve_evil said:
getting Perfect Dark and Project Gotham 3 with mine
HDTV That'll be nice mate! Does the frame rate remain the same with or without HDTV?


Pretty sure the framerate remains the same, just a lot more pixels on screen, currently using it as my PC monitor (1360x768) and Half Life 2 looks amazing on it, only problem with it being so sharp is that with the current gen consoles everything looks twice as sharp as with a normal TV so it tends to look really rough as it highlights the low number of polygons used and just brings out the flaws.

nick heppinstall

Original Poster:

8,247 posts

287 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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UKBob said:
Baconbonce said:
UKBob said:
A magazine said elder scrolls IV Oblivion will be one of the launch games. Gamespot doesnt list the game as a launch title. Will it be available to buy on the release date?


No, it's been put back until March 2006
Bummer. Its been 100 years since I last played an RPG - it looks like a great game!

Who'se getting what for launch? Nick? Perfect dark zero looks good


Hey Rob. Pre ordered in 2 places. HMV and Game. HMV in Sheffield ( and it's a big branch ) say they will only be getting 10 machines !! I'm number 10 on their list so fingers crossed. I'm about 33 on the Game preorder list.

At lauch I should be walking away with :

X360 Premium
Wireless adapter
Extra wireless controller

PGR3
Kameo
Live gold subscription

May get another game if anything takes my fancy. Have Oblivion on pre-order.

Forgot to mention. I've also got a nice 32" Tosh LCD thats HD ready. Looking forward to stretching its legs a bit !

>> Edited by nick heppinstall on Sunday 6th November 16:22

beedub

1,993 posts

233 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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yup ive ordered mine and im number 8, currys have told me i will get my machine as they are getting 25. their current order is at 104!!! their is going to be some very disspointed kids on christmas!! ha ha! ive ordered the premium system with 2 games and an extra pad for the mrs on PGR3! lol

mr bee

290 posts

263 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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Count me in. pre ordered and hoping it arrives before christmas. Otherwise ill have to watch Eastenders. Going for perfect dark and elder scrolls.

remal

25,010 posts

241 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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i will be getting one but am in not rush. when they are in stock i will get one. and they are already talking about reducing the cost down from "280 to less within a few months

nick heppinstall

Original Poster:

8,247 posts

287 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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mr bee said:
Count me in. pre ordered and hoping it arrives before christmas. Otherwise ill have to watch Eastenders. Going for perfect dark and elder scrolls.


Chris. Oblivion had been put back a few months ...

UKBob

16,277 posts

272 months

Sunday 6th November 2005
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nick heppinstall said:
mr bee said:
Count me in. pre ordered and hoping it arrives before christmas. Otherwise ill have to watch Eastenders. Going for perfect dark and elder scrolls.


Chris. Oblivion had been put back a few months ...
What a shame. Elderly Scrotes looks like a cracker. Ashamedly, I'll Admit that in all the years Ive owned a PS2, Ive only ever played one game a lot (San Andreas) and Im only 30% complete

I was looking forward to ES Oblivion to tide me over till the next next gen consoles came out ND Zero looks like the best game to keep you occupied till ES comes out, if you enjoy the whole FPS thing

Jaglover

43,834 posts

242 months

Monday 7th November 2005
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I probably won't buy it until Halo 3 comes out.

huge

1,138 posts

291 months

Monday 7th November 2005
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Jaglover said:
I probably won't buy it until Halo 3 comes out.


Well said that man.....every other computer game is dull and pointless after Halo

UKBob

16,277 posts

272 months

Monday 7th November 2005
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Ive never played a snow boarding game before, the closest I came was wave race 64... I watched a video of amped 3 on gamespot.com which gave you a strong feeling of actually being on the board, in the snow, same incredible feeling that wave race gave.

Love the look of the game, but am hesitant to buy without reading a review, knowing its going to be great, or not, whether it has lastability, gets boring fast etc.

Is amped regarded as a good boarding series, worth getting upon launch as a second game?

>> Edited by UKBob on Monday 7th November 19:06

steve_evil

10,689 posts

236 months

Monday 7th November 2005
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Amped is about as realistic as you'll get from a game, loved amped and amped 2 although the controls took a lot of getting used to, these have been greatly improved on for the new game making it a lot more accessible, although they've still managed to cram in another 120 new moves (on top of the huge number of existing ones)

Landing tricks is a case of getting your moves done in the air and then making your board is level and pointing in the right direction before you land, frustrating at first (and very annoying later when you launch off something huge and pull off a great trick only to fluff it right at the end) but greatly satisfying when you pull it off, the polar opposite to something like SSX where so long as you don't land headfirst you're ok.

It's gonna have snowmobiling and sledging in too (there is a sledging mini-game where the aim is to hurt yourself as much as possible) you can also unlock items to trick off, from benches to helicopters and place these anywhere on the slope, so if you're having a tough time with a challenge you can tweak the course a bit to help you out. There are no reviews as of yet, but as the American release is only a couple of weeks away and they're releasing the games a week before the console (next monday in the states) i'd expect reviews of all the launch titles sometime next week on gamespot and IGN.

I'm interested in this one myself so maybe the Girlfriend can treat me to it at Christmas.