EVERYTHING Xbox 360

[Arcmanov]

You can use jpegs, but its the same background for each blade, not like the one above, which has a different pic for each blade.
There was supposed to be a picture pack to go along with that theme as well.

I guess MS thought it was too racy.

[Redlum08]

Hmm....I thought you could edit each blade, I will have to look into that tonight. HMmmmmmm, you have me thinking now Arc....LOL

[Arcmanov]

Some articles of interest.

Rockstar says that the Xbox 360 is 'limiting' GTA IV development.

New maps for Gears Of War on Thursday (03/05/07).


About the Rockstar article, I think they should just assume everyone has a HDD on their 360 and just proceed full speed ahead.
People without it should stop their bloody whining and just get a frakking drive already.  How can you have a 360 and not have
the drive?  In this day and age.....

Steups.

They should make the very best game possible and FORCE people who don't have a drive, to get one if they want to play it.
Final Fantasy XI came with a HDD included (for PS2), and you couldnt even launch the game without it.
If GTA IV is good enough, the stores may not have ENOUGH HDDs for those who don't have em yet.

[W1nTry]

YUh know now that there is a 120GB drive, its prolly worth it to buy the basic system (aka without the HD) and buy the 120GB drive instead... cause honestly... 20GB just won't cut it for long.

[W1nTry]

You refering to the HMDI connector? cause composite comes standard with the normal 360 and thats your HD in right there... i've been wondering though... the Elite version... what kind of rear conenctor does it use? Is it a HMDI out only? or does it use the standard propreitary connector with an HDMI cable for HDMI? but it will work as normal with the original cables? Enlighten me.

[TheApprentice]

You refering to the HMDI connector? cause composite comes standard with the normal 360 and thats your HD in right there... i've been wondering though... the Elite version... what kind of rear conenctor does it use? Is it a HMDI out only? or does it use the standard propreitary connector with an HDMI cable for HDMI? but it will work as normal with the original cables? Enlighten me.

Well in the case of the PS3 there is an HDMI output + standard/composite output.....
So I imagine it to be no different...

[TheApprentice]

According to a recent interview on Official PlayStation Magazine (care of CVG), Rockstar revealed that its development efforts for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV have been stifled by the console's lack of a guaranteed hard drive on every system.



"On PS3, you've got a guarantee that every machine is going to have a hard-drive and, with Blu-ray, you've got plenty of storage," said Rockstar creative VP Dan Houser. "[W]hereas on Xbox 360 there's no guarantee of a hard-drive and you're working with the DVD format."

"Does that create limitations?" he asked himself. "Yep."

Of course, House also admits that both consoles present their fair share of challenges, and "both have their own particular pleasures and pains". The team is reportedly still working hard on solving as many of the development riddles presented by the next-generation of consoles as they can.

At the moment, Rockstar is working primarily on the Xbox 360 version of the game, so it's been rumored that a PS3 release may be out in stores at a later date. However, at this early stage of development, it may be far too soon to tell.

http://www.gametrailers.com/viewnews.php?id=4554

[Arcmanov]

^^^  Do you read?

Look at reply #561. 

[Redlum08]

Arc, Apprentice too busy kissing Sony's butt to notice your Post # 521. I noticed that there is a hint of Fanboyism going on there...

[TheApprentice]

hmmm... I guess i miss that one...lol

But it came up on my source so I post the whole article..

and for redlum, everybody on here knows i like sony...
But if i find good things for microsoft and all.. I post it... look back a few pages and you'll see...

i universally post articles of interest...

[shivadee]

want to make an announcement....where people actually GO to read information...ie not the announcement threads but here

i have a new LIVE account....ill explain why if you decide to add me again
name is ic3cr3amcon3

[W1nTry]

ALready added... now fess up shiv... wha went on?

[shivadee]

well.......

My account since i gave it a Canadian addy was set to XBL Canada. Essentially only XBL in the US gives you all the cool stuff you want. You know like the downloadable movies, the special events and so on. No Canada has it too, but not as much and the events are different


I called up LIVE support, although they were VERY nice and it was free (and they play boss trance music when you on hold) they tell me some sh!t abotu how they cannot transfer my accoutn to the US. I cant even put in a US addy, its not an option.

I was real mad....so i say know what.....f*ck it......just cancel it and give me a new one, end of story. So i do it and lose all the stuff i download.....knights of the nine for Oblivion, and a few XBL games....no seen no seen. i go download it again.....is aite is aite i go live.

At the time i was bussin up a Snickers ice cream cone and it was lashing...so i use that as mih name.....plo TOY!

[W1nTry]

LMAO @ eating sinickers and got idea for name.. cool scene well get ur act together and let's game damnit!

[Redlum08]

Check out this kick a$$ trailer for TimeShift, Xbox 360 exclusive that looks like it'll be alot of fun playing with TIME and kicking a$$ in the process;

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/-Xbox-360-s-Timeshift-An-Army-Of-One-Trailer-4100.html

It'll be interesting to see what the gameplay looks like and plays like.

"The hands on the clock go round and round" LOL 

Here are the screenshots: http://screenshots.teamxbox.com/screen/58289/TimeShift/
Here is a Gameplay video, not too clear but you can get the idea where it's heading, pretty cool that you can freeze time and shoot the enemy and then step back and watch him bust into pieces..LOL: http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/CDFE668F-CF1F-4902-90E1-FF79A3FE9AD9/0/vidtimeshift006Hi.asx

[W1nTry]

From the screenshots, the backgrounds are great. High level of details, nice lighting... but the shots of the actual characters in the game need ALOT of work. No shadows, very little lighting effects and poor design imho. I guess its still in development so I shouldn't be too harsh on them. I guess once yuh see GOW in FULL 1080i/p or say 1280x1024 its HARD to see any game on the 360 platform (FPS that is) look shabbier... It does look like the Q4 engine though... The concept is cool so we'll see how this pans out.

[Redlum08]

Yea, look at the video, looks a bit better than the screenshots.

[W1nTry]

In light of that rather funny post on the 360 killer PS3, I find this relevant and i'll explain after the article:

Xbox dashboard update tips up

Turn on, tune in, download

By Wily Ferret: Thursday 10 May 2007, 10:19
Click here to find out more!
MICROSOFT has finally released its much-vaunted 'Spring Dashboard Update' for the Xbox 360.

The update adds a dedicated 'blade' for Xbox Live Marketplace, cross-platform integration with Windows Live Messenger, improved VGA performance, and support for H.264 and MPEG-4 codecs.

If you're using your Xbox online, you'll have to download it or be booted off.

Interestingly, Microsoft has used the update to jump on the eco-friendly bandwagon. If you're downloading a large game or demo from the Marketplace, the console will effectively switch itself into 'low-power' mode, where almost everything besides the net connection and the hard disk are inactive, enabling you to download overnight with the minimal power requirement. The console will even switch itself off when it's done.

Saving the world one Xbox at a time. µ

Well aside from the (what every Xbox 360 on Live owner should know which is the dashboard update) what i'd like to outline is the power savings features added to the 360. Now taking in context with an nuclear reactor (read ridiculous power usage) PS3, its nice that MS has done a good thing and decreased power usage on the 360, goog job.

Now for something else which I was wondering about myself:

Xbox 360 could beat PS3 in Folding

Microsoft has to think outside the box

By Theo Valich: Thursday 10 May 2007, 09:24
Click here to find out more!
IN AN INTERVIEW with the San Jose Mercury News Peter Moore, corporate VP of Microsoft's entertainment business unit admitted that Microsoft was somewhat caught out by Sony's PS3 Folding@Home client. He said even Bill Gates had a conversation about "applying philanthropic processing power to big problems".

But he souldn't resist a jab at Sony's endeavour. "I’m not quite sure yet whether we’re seeing real tangible results from the PlayStation 3 Folding@Home initiative," he suggested.

Microsoft knows all the deficiencies of IBM's sluggish in-order triple-core PowerPC that is built inside its own console, and does not want to get soundly beaten by IBM's Cell. However, it is unclear whether the Vole of Redmond is aware that it has something far more powerful inside its own boxes.

The Geforce 7900 inside the PS3 is no match for Xenos in the Xbox. Even the Sony Cell would probably end beaten by 48 vec4+scalar units hidden inside Xbox's 360 graphics chip. Folding@Home is Stream Computing at its finest, and six/seven/eight SPE units can flourish in the CPU. But when compared to the GPU, the Xbox 360 GPU would probably run in circles around Cell CPU.

And then Microsoft's marketing machine might get interested in touting Folding@Home for the Xbox 360 console, since it would no longer be a race between a snail and a rabbit, as far as protein folding performance is concerned.

The next question would then be, could Brook get set up running on a Xbox 360 GPU with all the limitations that Microsoft environment is using? µ

I've been wondering how is it possible to use a X1900XTX to do folding @ home yet the Xenos GPU in the 360 hasn't been thought of yet. Well this article at least gives me some hope, as it rightfully points out, the GPU (which is akin to the STREAM processors or the newer 2xxx serries Radeons) should in effect kick the teeth in of the PS3... Now console preference aside, if the 360 GPU is indeed capable to significantly increasing the F@H progression then I say THEY STICKING and NEED to get this running ASAP!!! You know how many Live users they have? I am sure alot would contribute to the cause, I know I and Redlum would.

[TheApprentice]

As with any console in the early stages of its lifespan, owners and prospective buyers most assuredly have a lot of questions that they want answered. In the case of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's Peter Moore took the time to answer some of these fan inquiries directly in a recent segment on the San Jose Mercury News.

While some of the reader questions were questionably relevant, there were a number of noteworthy points that Moore addressed during the course of the interview. Most notably, one reader asked about the reliability of Xbox 360 hardware after claiming that he had personally gone through two defective console units within a 7 month span. He then called into question the validity of Microsoft's 3% failure rate, to which Moore responded:

"I can't comment on failure rates, because it's just not something -- it's a moving target. What this consumer should worry about is the way that we've treated him. Y'know, things break, and if we've treated him well and fixed his problem, that's something that we're focused on right now. I'm not going to comment on individual failure rates because I'm shipping in 36 countries and it's a complex business."

The same reader then asked what Microsoft is doing to make their machines run quieter. While Moore claimed that he
 doesn't notice the noise nearly as much as some gamers have, he does acknowledge that it is a valid complaint, albeit one supported only by a minority of Xbox 360 owners. He then claimed that Microsoft will continue to look at the problem, but it's not "something that's going to be fixed overnight."

In another question asked by the interviewer himself, Moore responded to suggestions requesting that Microsoft engineer software to allow the Xbox 360 to be used in Folding@home similarly to the way the PlayStation 3 is currently involved with the project. Although Moore expresses doubt that the PS3 is producing "real tangible results" with Folding@home, he states that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is looking to apply "philanthropic processing power to big problems". Furthermore, he believes that, should Microsoft enter into such a project, the results from the Xbox 360 will exceed those of the PS3:

"f we truly believe that we can in some way marshall the resources of a much larger installed base of Xbox 360 owners, with a processor that's of equal power to the PS3, then you have my commitment that we'll look at that. And if we believe we can add value to solving a gnarly problem such as the medical problems and the health problems that Folding@home seems to be doing, then we'll certainly look at that very strongly."

And lastly, Moore was asked whether Microsoft's plans included the acquisition of a Japanese software publisher, to which Moore responded, "we'll never comment on our acquisition plans at all." But addressing the broader topic of expanding their influence in the Japanese market, Moore commented that the acquisition of a third-party publisher would force that company into the role of a first-party developer, which he believes is actually a counter-productive act. In his opinion, his established method of building relationships with Japanese publishers has borne much more fruit.

"One thing I've seen -- and I've been going to Tokyo now for eight years, probably 50 times in the last eight years -- is there's a more global outlook now from Japanese publishers than there has ever been. Capcom (is) the best example of that with Dead Rising and Lost Planet, with which they've done incredibly well. They realize the Japanese domestic market is insufficient to sustain them without globalizing, and, quite frankly Westernizing the way that they go to market. Konami, Sega, Capcom, Namco -- all doing that same thing. And that bodes well for us, because obviously they see our strength in the Western world and they're becoming great partners of ours."

[TheApprentice]

Recent reports of the success of Blu-ray over HD DVD, have led several online news sites to claim that the Xbox 360 plans to support Sony's hi-def media format as a "back-up plan". In fact, these stories have gained so much momentum that FightinSunDevil of Microsoft's official Gamerscoreblog has taken the time to dismiss them entirely:

"Some online media outlets have picked up this story and are citing Internet speculation of an alleged Associated Press story that does not exist, along with comments taken out of context from a story in ITmedia that appeared back in January," he writes on his recent blog entry. "This information is being reported as news and as a result of a recent interview, neither of which are true."

The blogger adds that the comments in question were from a January interview with ITmedia, in which Peter Moore stated that "Xbox 360 has the flexibility to adapt to consumers' needs, allowing Microsoft to add features as consumers demand them -- as evidenced by the offering of the HD DVD Player as an accessory." A number of news sites had since assumed that the comments would also lead to the possibility of developing a Blu-ray player for the machine, should consumer demand be strong enough, although FightinSunDevil emphasizes that the speculation is 100% untrue.

"We're fully committed to HD DVD and have absolutely no plans to support other optical formats," he writes in conclusion.