Thoughts on jumping back to the 360

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:29 pm

Dan you'll love Bioshock. Don't forget Condemned, Tomb Raider Legend, all good games. Are you keeping your PS3?

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 6:49 pm

Would those who've purchased 360's recommend spending the extra bucks to pick up the Elite would it be better just to pick up the standard 360 (halo or non halo version)? Just wondering how significant the extra hard drive space is in practice for folks.

Thanks,

Doug

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:18 pm

Doug if you plan on downloading tons of Movies or TV Shows and planning on keeping tons of demos on your HDD then the Elite might be for you. If the answer is no then it's a waste of money unless you want an all black system. I personally think the Premium is the way to go, IMO.

dougb · Post by **dougb** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:44 pm

Thanks!

I really don't have much interest in downloading either movies or tv shows. Reason for picking one up would strictly be for gaming.

Doug

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:49 pm

dougb wrote:Thanks!

I really don't have much interest in downloading either movies or tv shows. Reason for picking one up would strictly be for gaming.

Doug

Get the Premium then it's the best deal for the 360.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:36 pm

The Halo 3 edition of the 360 apparently has the smaller CPU chip people have been waiting for since the first RRoD:

http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/2782/2/

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 8:44 pm

Feanor wrote:The Halo 3 edition of the 360 apparently has the smaller CPU chip people have been waiting for since the first RRoD:

http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/2782/2/

I think I read they first started showing up on the Halo 3 SE consoles with Lot#0734.

Dan's Halo 360 has a Lot#0730

MizzouRah · Post by **MizzouRah** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:00 pm

sportdan30 wrote:Picking up NBA 2K8 for sure. More than likely, CH2K8 as well. After that, most likely COD4. I'm interested in finally checking out some of the demos I've missed out on over the last four months or so. Plus, of course I'll be renting Bioshock and Halo 3 over the next week or two. In regards to sports games, I'll check out NHL 08 and Madden and see how they compare to the ones I played on the PS3.

I've got a lot of downloading to do as I have a good 8 arcade games I purchased in the past.

I'm not big on basketball, but NHL 08 is fun, if not aggivating at times.. in fact, both hockey games are fun.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 10:31 pm

It took me forever to sign back on to Live. My goodness, I kept getting a message stating that the Xbox Live signup has is unavailable. Please try again later. I talked to 10 little indians on the phone, finally I think speaking to an american. He alerted me that because of all the people online playing Halo 3, the servers were taking a hit. 3 hours later, I'm finally connected.

By the way, the Halo 3 360 is whisper quiet and cool to the touch......thus far.

And to answer you question Rodster, no I didn't end up keeping the PS3. I sold it to a friend of mine who was interested in the PS3. At the very least, I'll be able to check out newest PS3 games.

I have that nirvana feeling once again hooking up the 360, similar to when I first purchased my launch system. With the PS3, I never got that excited feeling, although I very much enjoyed how put together the system was. Nothing jumped out at me, but it's still an excellent console.

And I stand corrected on the controller preference. IMO, there's no comparison between the 360 and the six axis controoler. I missed the weight and size of the 360 controller, along with the two trigger buttons. On the six axis, I always felt as though my fingers were going to slip off the L2 and R2 buttons. Also, the analog sticks on the PS3 controller need a more concave feel IMO.

Rodster · Post by **Rodster** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:07 pm

Sounds like you made the right choice. I agree that the 360 controller is the best and comfortable on any system. If you say the system is very cool operation wise it sounds like you may have the 65nm chips inside.

Congrats on your purchase. How does the Halo Green 360 look?

jondiehl · Post by **jondiehl** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 11:07 pm

Dan, did you get to keep your old same gamertag? I've got to re-add you.

edit: nevermind, I added you and obviously it's the same since you're now online.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 12:14 am

I say Dan doesn't get any sleep until Wednesday.... Welcome back to XBL!

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:02 am

The number of downloads is overwhelming to say the least. I'm not complaining, trust me. I think there's like 144 demos available. The PSN is well on its way with their weekly updates, but it has a long way to go to match what Live has.

Thus far, I downloaded NBA 2K8, NHL 08, and Bioshock. Besides NBA2K8, which only took a half hour to download on PSN, the other two would have taken at the very least, two hours on PSN. With Live, I downloaded all three within an hour. That is definitely refreshing. And maybe it's just me, but the games I've played thus far seem more responsive on the 360. The games themselves just seem more enhanced in terms of presentation and gameplay. It's hard to explain. It's not to downgrade the PS3 sports games, but there's a subtle difference. And it's not just the 60fps on the EA games.

There were five demo games already preloaded on the 360 I purchased (can't remember all of them, but there was Lost Planet, Lego Star Wars II, Madden 07, COD3, and one other). I deleted all but Lego Star Wars and COD3. My son love Lego Star Wars, so he'll be happy to mess around with the demo. COD3, which I don't remember playing is just ubelieveable.

After an hour of messing around, the fans on the 360 are definitely noticeable, but seems overall less noisy than my original launch system. It's just a bit louder than the PS3 fans. The 360 is warm, but not as hot as hot as I remember it. The system shuts down much more quicker than the PS3.

I do have a question. Does the 360 have a optical cable input? Right now, I'm only getting sound from the tv. After experiencing 5.1 surround sounds, it's strange to just get volume from only the television.

That's it for now. And yes Greg, I'm exhausted! But looking forward to getting home to play around some more.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:19 am

sportdan30 wrote:Does the 360 have a optical cable input?

I'm pretty certain you mean output and the 360 has an optical out on the component cable (I think the "advanced" S-video AV cable too). It is on the large plug that goes into the 360 AV port.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:57 pm

sportdan30 wrote:I do have a question. Does the 360 have a optical cable input? Right now, I'm only getting sound from the tv. After experiencing 5.1 surround sounds, it's strange to just get volume from only the television.

That's it for now. And yes Greg, I'm exhausted! But looking forward to getting home to play around some more.

Yes it has one on the AV plug in the back of the 360.

Didn't you get HDMI though? Does your system not support that?

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 2:19 pm

Danimal wrote:
sportdan30 wrote:I do have a question. Does the 360 have a optical cable input? Right now, I'm only getting sound from the tv. After experiencing 5.1 surround sounds, it's strange to just get volume from only the television.

That's it for now. And yes Greg, I'm exhausted! But looking forward to getting home to play around some more.
Yes it has one on the AV plug in the back of the 360.

Didn't you get HDMI though? Does your system not support that?

Here's what I purchased, or something close to it for the PS3:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... age=search

It has the same end on each side. My current HDTV does not have a HDMI input. To get surround sound, I simply plugged in the cable I purchased from Radio Shack in to my receiver.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:49 pm

That cable should work fine, just plug it into the optical out on the 360 plug.

You know the big gray thing that has the switch for Standard and HDTV. It's right on there.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:08 pm

Danimal wrote:That cable should work fine, just plug it into the optical out on the 360 plug.

You know the big gray thing that has the switch for Standard and HDTV. It's right on there.

Thanks D. I'll have to check that out when I get home this evening.

GameSeven · Post by **GameSeven** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:10 pm

I think what sportdan is running into is an unfortunate difference between the Elite and the Pro or Halo SE 360.

It appears that the Elite comes with an audio dongle which fits the existing AV jack and merely passes L-R audio over RCA jacks, as well as an optical out, both of these usable in conjunction with the HDMI jack.

However, to take advantage of the TOSLINK jack with HDMI on a non-Elite requires Microsoft's proprietary HDMI cable (MSRP 49.99). I suppose one could try to get just the audio dongle, but I am under the impression it is not for sale separately.

EDIT: As Danimal posted, it's entirely possible that plugging in an unrelated AV cable with the TOSLINK jack might work at the same time as the HDMI or it is possible that one could preempt the HDMI jack. Please let us know what you find.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:48 am

Danimal wrote:That cable should work fine, just plug it into the optical out on the 360 plug.

You know the big gray thing that has the switch for Standard and HDTV. It's right on there.

Danimal,

Thanks a ton! You were right about there being a optical out on the 360 plug. I seriously would never have noticed that unless you mentioned it. What a world of difference it made playing the Bioshock, NHL 08, and NBA 2K8 demo. Especially Bioshock....wow!

Thanks again.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:14 pm

Yeah it's not in a logical place.

With the HD-DVD drive and the camera add-on the whole 360 hookup has wires everywhere.

I'm just waiting for the cooler chips to be mass produced and i am switching to an HDMI one myself.

greggsand · Post by **greggsand** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:18 pm

sportdan30 wrote:
Danimal wrote:That cable should work fine, just plug it into the optical out on the 360 plug.

You know the big gray thing that has the switch for Standard and HDTV. It's right on there.
Danimal,

Thanks a ton! You were right about there being a optical out on the 360 plug. I seriously would never have noticed that unless you mentioned it. What a world of difference it made playing the Bioshock, NHL 08, and NBA 2K8 demo. Especially Bioshock....wow!

Thanks again.

With Bioshock & R6:Vegas, 5.1 is a MUST!

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:25 pm

greggsand wrote: With Bioshock & R6:Vegas, 5.1 is a MUST!

Condemned might be the best one of all, actually. Play that in the dark, lights out, 5.1 cranked, and tell me you don't get freaked out from the heavy breathing behind you, the bottle tipped over and rolling to your right, etc...

WillHunting · Post by **WillHunting** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:33 pm

I would add Gears of War as a must for 5.1 in multiplayer, since you can hear the chainsaw revving sound behind you.

matthewk · Post by **matthewk** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:12 am

Insterad of starting a new thread, this looks like a good place to ask for some guidance. I'm finally getting close to getting either a 360 or PS3. Of course the wife doesn't know this yet, but that's another battle

I was leaning towards a PS3, mainly because of the Show. I currently have a PSP, but I'd likely sell it if I got another console. I have a Wii and Power Pros, but I'd also like another baseball title around.

I love the SHow, and have heard many bad things about MLB 2k7. I read there's an update for 2k7. Is 2K7 post-update on par with the Show? I'm a huge baseball fan, so having good baseball games is a must for me. Hitting on the Xbox version of 2k7 seemed a little messed up. Wherever you moved the batting cursor was where the ball would usually go. I could virtually direct which part of the field my hits would go to. I just
don't think it shuold be that easy, which is why I love the Shows interface.

OK, enough about baseball. I want BC in my next console. That drops the rumored $400 40GB PS3 off my list as it will not have PS2 BC. So a PS3 would be $500 compared to $350 for a premium system. I do not have an HDTV yet, but will by this time next year.

Are there 65nm Premiums out there yet? I read about the Halo versions. A while back I thought these "fixed" versions would be out by now, but I want to be sure. I really want to avoid using an MS coffin if at all possible.

How does BC work on the 360? Do the games play well, or are they crippled?

Other than the Show and full BC, I can't think of good reason for a PS3. The 360 has the installed base, more games (like Moto GP and PGR4), and I prefer the controller. I still have a Wii for kids games.