I just played the Xbox 360 and all I can say is...

FifaInspected · Post by **FifaInspected** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:19 am

As for the controller... I really liked it and I'm still using the original large controller. I've never been fond of the "S" controller, yet somehow this felt very comfortable.

Diablo25 · Post by **Diablo25** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 10:10 am

10spro wrote:Any impressions on the gamepad? I mean it looks HOT and comfy but how does it feel for those that had hands on compared to the current one?

Actually, the 360 gamepad for the PC is now out. From everything I've read its a super controller. There are 2 articles below with impressions on the controller.

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/659/659804p1.html

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/652/652597p1.html

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:37 am

10spro wrote:Any impressions on the gamepad? I mean it looks HOT and comfy but how does it feel for those that had hands on compared to the current one?

It's very comfy to hold and it's slightly smaller than the current S controller. Pretty much the same layout except the black and white buttons have been removed and two new shoulder buttons have been added, so we now have like an L1 L2 R1 R2 kind of like the PS2 controller. The difference is that the top two shoulder buttons are still triggers while the lower two are more like buttons without the range of movement that the triggers have. The two analog sticks are kind of offset with the left one being slightly higher on the controller than the right one. All in all, a very comfortable gamepad.

RallyMonkey · Post by **RallyMonkey** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 11:41 am

I too have seen the future in person, and to echo many other sentiments here. HO-LY mother of hell. The 22nd cannot get here fast enough. My biggest problem now is what games to pre-order. King Kong is starting to look like a must and i wasn't even THINKING about it until just getting my hands on it. As far as GR......droooooolllllllllll.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:43 pm

AAAARRRRGGHH, to start saving money for the 360 or wait for the PS3 as I was set to do

Badgun · Post by **Badgun** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:53 pm

10spro wrote:AAAARRRRGGHH, to start saving money for the 360 or wait for the PS3 as I was set to do

You could be waiting a long time for the PS3. Even though Sony says they're still on track to release in the spring of 06 in Japan, it could be Christmas of next year before we see it here. And some insiders are saying 2007 for everyone. I say live for the moment get the 360 now and start saving for the PS3...you should have plenty of time.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 4:22 pm

And considering how much the PS3 could cost, those controllers better do more than vibrate

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:05 pm

As excited as I am for the 360, I'm still a little nervous about how the games are going to look on a standard television. How many homes have HDTV? Less than 20 percent would be my guess.

I wonder if this will deter some parents from buying the system, even though it's not a necessity to have HDTV.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 5:20 pm

Dan does it matter?
How many tech savvy parents do we have out there. Those that know about HD TV probably already have a HD set. Those that don't, wouldn't know if the 360 was HD.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:20 pm

I doubt that 20% of households have HD capabilities. I'd put it at around 10% at most. There have to be some numbers out there somewhere. BD?

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:25 pm

dbdynsty25 wrote:I doubt that 20% of households have HD capabilities. I'd put it at around 10% at most. There have to be some numbers out there somewhere. BD?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/ITFacts/?p=958

As of March 2005, 10 mln homes around the world were watching HDTV programming on a high-definition TV set. By the end of 2005, the worldwide total of these HDTV service households is projected to reach 15.5 mln

There are currently 4 mln HDTV households in the US

So let's estimate there are 5 million by now, even though that would be high.

Now we just need how many homes there are.

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:31 pm

http://www.ncta.com/Docs/PageContent.cfm?pageID=86

US Television Households (January 2006 est.) - 110,200,000

So roughly 3-5% of households have HDTV...

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:38 pm

bdoughty wrote:http://www.ncta.com/Docs/PageContent.cfm?pageID=86

US Television Households (January 2006 est.) - 110,200,000

So roughly 3-5% of households have HDTV...

So even I was high in my estimations. I was going to say 5% but I thought that was too low.

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:42 pm

Guess it all depends on where the stats come from. These people seem to think there was 11% in 2004 and will be 25% by end of 2006.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 922899.htm

I would still stick with the 5% estimate.

AcemanPR · Post by **AcemanPR** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:43 pm

Xbox 360 games won't look any worse than those 720p Xbox games now.

I'd rather Microsoft make HD gaming a standard up front, as the number of people buying HDTVs are going to go up more and more over the next few years.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:48 pm

They've shipped well over 10 million HDTV sets in the US. Some estimates of around 20 million already or after the upcoming Holidays and Superbowl, which are when the big sales of big-screens happen. You can't find non-HDTV big screens (40-inch or more) any more. Now, that doesn't mean most of these HDTVs are being used to view HDTV programming yet.

Most of the early sets, which came without tuners, were used for DVDs, which helped convince some to buy HDTV displays.

There are forecasts for 60 million sets by 2008. Japan and Europe are behind but they should start to ramp up. WC is suppose to be a big marketing opportunity for HD in Europe. Most CE manufacturers plan to push HDTVs and HD movie discs then.

However, the next-gen consoles will have S-video outputs too and downsampling HD resolutions to 480p should yield better picture quality, a kind of free anti-aliasing. Also, the better lighting effects and pixel shading can be appreciated on non-HD sets too. In fact, some developers have said it might be preferable to trade off lower, non-HD resolutions for more effects in some cases.

bdoughty · Post by **bdoughty** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:53 pm

Shipped and sold are two different puppies altogether. Even with 10 million sold it would be less then 10%. I prefer to stick with units SOLD. Because until they are SOLD they are not in the "household." Which last I checked was what was being discussed.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:16 pm

Well lets just say for at least the past 3 years, the CEA has been boasting of high double-digit growth in shipments, 50% or better. They wouldn't be able to increase those shipments that much each year if the sets are sitting unsold or returned to manufacturers.

Also, when you see LCD flat panels, DLPs and plasmas seeing effective price drops every year -- either better product at the same price point or same product at a much lower price or some combination of both -- that is achieved through economies of scale or high-volume production.

Unfortunately, the only attempts to reliably measure installed base comes in proprietary market research, which is costly.

But there's kind of a gold-rush mentality in the display market. They're investing huge capital to build new plants for bigger and bigger flat panels and there's a lot of money being spent on R&D to come up with newer technologies. It's kind of like the dot com bubble with all the new entrants but in this case, there are real revenues and profits. Or else you wouldn't see a company like Dell jump in the way it has.

Gurantsu · Post by **Gurantsu** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:44 pm

I don't have a HD TV, but I do have a 360 preordered. HD is on the list though, somewhere after the PC upgrade!

Post by **ScoopBrady** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:06 pm

Well, I stopped by Wal-Mart on my home again tonight and they had the 360. I got there and stood watching a guy play COD. He got off and right as I stepped forward to take over some little snot-nosed kid ran in front of me and grabbed the controller. He had no idea what he was doing. He kept using the right analog stick to aim but didn't have a clue that the left analog stick was for moving. So I got to watch this kid shoot at planes and throw random grenades. Finally his mom said it was time to go and I had it to myself.

COD looked fantastic. Kameo looked gorgeous. And King Kong looked

. It was easily the best looking video game I've ever seen. The weather effects (wind,rain) and lighting effects were breathtaking. The 360 appears to be the real deal. Now the wait is on.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:52 am

JRod wrote:Dan does it matter?
How many tech savvy parents do we have out there. Those that know about HD TV probably already have a HD set. Those that don't, wouldn't know if the 360 was HD.

Yes it matters. I consider myself fairly tech-savvy, although I gave up on trying to stay bleeding edge a long time ago. I know about HD TV but do not have one. I think you are over generalizing. There are a lot of people who do not have HD sets and will be interested in a 360.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 8:58 am

Does anyone have any impressions on how the games actually played? All I see are comments on the graphics. I mean c'mon, how many of you are really going to run out on launch day to buy King Kong? So it looks good. So did Madden 2001 when I was launched on the Xbox, but that game was terrible.

Spooky · Post by **Spooky** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:27 am

matthewk wrote:Does anyone have any impressions on how the games actually played? All I see are comments on the graphics. I mean c'mon, how many of you are really going to run out on launch day to buy King Kong? So it looks good. So did Madden 2001 when I was launched on the Xbox, but that game was terrible.

COD2 played amazingly smooth. Again, I felt like I was playing it on a high end PC with absolutely NO slowdown. It just had that 'feel' to it. That was the really noticable thing too, the graphics were great, yes, but what was so awesome was the overall smoothness on top of a mind boggling number of effects and action going on around you. It definitely had the feel of a next-gen title in that respect.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 9:46 am

matthewk wrote:Does anyone have any impressions on how the games actually played? All I see are comments on the graphics. I mean c'mon, how many of you are really going to run out on launch day to buy King Kong? So it looks good. So did Madden 2001 when I was launched on the Xbox, but that game was terrible.

I'm getting King Kong, sight unseen. The game is being made by Michel Ancel, the guy who did the Rayman games and BG&E. Also, Peter Jackson, apparently a gamer himself, has had a good amount of input on the game, so it ought to be interesting.

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Tue Oct 25, 2005 10:45 am

I figure if I am going to spend 400 for a game console, I can spend another 39 for the VGA cord and then I can game in high def on my 19 inch monitor and headphones setup that i use for my Xbox with my X-VGA today.