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Does anyone listen to “The Hotspot” podcast that gamespot puts out weekly?
They were talking about recent microsoft announcements at CES that they would be moving towards an IP Television mode for the xbox 360. Basically to deliver cable to your TV through just the 360, and with no need for and additional boxes such as a sky digital box etc. And they also hinted at a possible revised version of the 360 to be released this year at some stage (a very very vague hint of course, which was met with an expected plethora of supposedly “leaked” images of a newer 360 complete with additional ports etc). Obviously this would require a much larger hard drive for the 360, such as the rumoured 120GB size, and may also require a HDMI port to watch shows in “true HD” in a much easier way then at present.
They go through the above in the podcast far better than I can in this post!
But anyway, this leads on to my problem.
I am currently without a ‘next gen’ machine. And I have my eye on a 360. But also a ps3 around the summer time. I see myself buying a HDTV this year at some stage. And im not interested in a Wii at the moment.
So should I wait until some more solid details arise about a possible new 360 to emerge before I take the plunge? Or should I stop missing out on xbox live and a ton of great games and just buy one assuming that it will be easy to upgrade my hard drive in future should a problem arise.
I NEED HELP
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Well whatever about waiting for a larger HDD before getting a 360, don’t hold your breath for the IPTV – this requires providing the service over fiber and the telcos need to implement a whole host of changes to their servers and upgrades to their lines to allow it to happen. It’s likely to take off in the States first, but I can’t see NTL or whoever doing this any time soon.
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While I own none of the consoles themselves this may give you some help in making your decision, at least for the immediate future. Eurogamer recently highlighted some of the best titles coming out for each of the new consoles as well as for the old PC. Now while I may be abit bias I must say the PC titles pretty much cream the console releases but that aside the X360 looks to have some of the better titles coming out over the next year or so…
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IPTV – this requires providing the service over fiber and the telcos need to implement a whole host of changes to their servers and upgrades to their lines to allow it to happen.[/quote:6c0f021bb7]
Magnet already provide this service in Ireland. -
I think its likely the MS will release a revised version of the 360 in the future which will have a HDMI port. But i dont think it will be until the PS3 is established in the market and people begin to look for higher quality images and thus tv with HDMI support.
As for purchasing based on IPTV I wouldnt let that govern what console I’d buy, at present this is just a pipe dream, it may never materialise. And look at it this way if you decide to purchase a PS3 and IPTV does arrive on 360. A 360 will probably have dropped in price a few times, so can probably afford both 8)
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and may also require a HDMI port to watch shows in “true HD” in a much easier way then at present.[/quote:2ba5a772f2]
“true HD” is a term used to refer to 1080p as HD resolution and not HDMI as a method of transferring a HD signal from its source to the HDTV. Both the 360 and PS3 output a 1080p signal and any HDTV I looked at what was capable of displaying in 1080p, namely the Sony Bravia W and X series, would except a 1080p signal from both.
As for the revised 360 with HDMI, don’t hold out for it IMHO, M$ went to great pains to point out that you didn’t need HDMI for HD games so they’re not going to turn around 6 months later and come out it a new 360, maybe in 3 to 4 years. Also the 360’s HDD can be swapped in seconds so there will be no pain in upgrading when they release the new HDD
As for not being interested in the Wii – shame on you!
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As for the revised 360 with HDMI, don’t hold out for it IMHO, M$ went to great pains to point out that you didn’t need HDMI for HD games so they’re not going to turn around 6 months later and come out it a new 360, maybe in 3 to 4 years. [/quote:9944fa0d1d]
They’ve already prototyped one.
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I would be surprised of they only had one prototyped but I can’t see them bringing a revised 360 to market any time soon, it doesn’t make sense to me at this stage, less than 18 months since the consoles launch
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As for the revised 360 with HDMI, don’t hold out for it IMHO, M$ went to great pains to point out that you didn’t need HDMI for HD games so they’re not going to turn around 6 months later and come out it a new 360, maybe in 3 to 4 years. [/quote:6d772d1815]
They’ve already prototyped one.[/quote:6d772d1815]
Microsoft game developer group boss Chris Satchell has addressed recent rumours of revised HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 hardware, saying that the remixed console is simply an “experimentation”…..
“At the moment, everything you might have seen is just looking at our experimentation back in Redmond, not really a product that we’re thinking about announcing,” Satchell told Gamespot.[/quote:6d772d1815]
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Actually I’d find their switch over to the 65nm CPU cores to be just as important. As I said my only prolonged experience of the X360 has been in the XBox Live Gaming Centre in town but even then I was amazed at the heat the units could generate.
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Thanks for your replies.
I’m not personally interested in the IPTV thing anyway, but the larger hard drive is definitely something I’d like to see in the 360.
I also dont want to become some sort of AV nerd in order to just get going with a 360 and ps3 hooked up to a HDTV. I’d love if it was as easy as “red cable plugs here, other colours plug in here. Now I can play games in the best quality that the HDTV can.” From watching videos (particularly by jeff girstmann on gamespot, on his recent points update video blog thingy he talks about his new TV ) about the whole setup of the thing, even just setting up a HDTV seems amazingly overcomplicated.
I’d be more than happy with my current TV but as I said it would be cool to upgrade to HD this year at some stage.
At the moment a 360 seems like the best option.
But I also thing the PS3 is just missing its “gears of war” esque game to just get it going.
My head hurts
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I would say go for the 360, but i’m a bit bias.
I hook my 360 up to a my old crap monitor, it looks great! I got a vga switch so I can switch between pc and 360 when ever i want… very handy
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about the whole setup of the thing, even just setting up a HDTV seems amazingly overcomplicated.[/quote:5d9bf9c8e5]
I bought a 32″ Samsung HDTV 2 weeks ago and from opening the box to firing up Gears of War in glorious HD was less than 10 minutes
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HDMI, HDTV etc. – quick recap’
HDTV in common parlance means anything above DVD
HDTV really means 720p and above
True HDTV really means 1080pComponent (Y/U/V), HDMI and DVI don’t as such offer any improvement one over the other in terms of resolution, but HDMI and DVI implement HDCP and therefore make your TV HDCP-compliant.
Aside from resolution, the problem with HD is more to do with HDCP than anythign else: current XB360 and the 20GB PS3 are not HDCP-compliant, therefore if Time Warner etc. decide to ‘set the HDCP flag’ to ‘on’ for any HD/Blue Ray DVD or HDTV broadcast piped through these two in the future, you won’t be able to watch it on your big-@ss non-HDCP LCD TV.
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about the whole setup of the thing, even just setting up a HDTV seems amazingly overcomplicated.[/quote:14212810df]
I bought a 32″ Samsung HDTV 2 weeks ago and from opening the box to firing up Gears of War in glorious HD was less than 10 minutes[/quote:14212810df]
But maybe not for someone not so technically sound. He also said that 7/10 people think they have their HDTV set for an optimum picture but it turns out their settings are way off.
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Now while I may be abit bias I must say the PC titles pretty much cream the console releases but that aside the X360 looks to have some of the better titles coming out over the next year or so…[/quote:cd813f8407]
There are some cracking games coming out for the DS and PS2 in the next few months.
Okami, FF 12, Zelda DS to name but a few. I not in a rush to upgrade till a few worthwhile games come out for them anyway.
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Now while I may be abit bias I must say the PC titles pretty much cream the console releases but that aside the X360 looks to have some of the better titles coming out over the next year or so…[/quote:3da3585d4e]
There are some cracking games coming out for the DS and PS2 in the next few months.
Okami, FF 12, Zelda DS to name but a few. I not in a rush to upgrade till a few worthwhile games come out for them anyway.[/quote:3da3585d4e]
I guess im in the same boat. I still have to finish Kingdom hearts 2, get and finish those games you mentioned, and then somehow decide. Hopefully it will be a far easier decision by then…..
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Almost finished KH 2. About 6 more hours to go id say. Good game but its a little easy (For all the disney loving kiddies i suppose). How far in are you eDen?
EDIT: Sorry for going a little off topic.
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really offtopic:
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Almost finished KH 2. About 6 more hours to go id say. Good game but its a little easy (For all the disney loving kiddies i suppose). How far in are you eDen?
EDIT: Sorry for going a little off topic.[/quote:0f29dd4813]
I bought it and it sat on my shelf for a while. I was finishing off a few other games, such as splinter cell and guitar hero 2 among others. Im just finished the mulan world, so about 4-ish hours in i’d say? No complaints so far. Pretty solid game. It is a bit easy but the story is pretty good so far so i’m enjoying it. I’ve just been envying the character modeling for most of the cutscenes though! it’s fantastic.
How long has it taken you to get where you are? And how many worlds are there?
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Im about 35 hours in and im just starting the last world now. Theres about 12 worlds but you visit them a couple of times like the first game. Its a compelling story, very interesting at the beginning with little advancements in each world before it kicks off again about 30 hours in.
The drives shake up the gameplay a bit. The level design is very good. I still recall having no idea where to go next in the first game in some worlds. The Alice in Wonderland world really stands out for that. But here in KH 2 its very well done.
Enjoy, ill be trying to finish it next weekend!
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Just motoring through it, on world 6 now at the moment and really enjoying it!
Also, because the PS3 is going to be 630 euro here, and is out March 23rd, I think I’ll be getting me a 360 pretty damn soon…
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I am very near the end now, finishing it tongiht or tomorrow hopefully, i suppose could go and do all of the sidequests but i have other games to play as well! If you 100% every square enix game you’d wake up when your 64 and go, "what happened to my youth?" :roll:
There’ll probably be a 360 price cut to coincide with that date, does anyone know?
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found this article on gamasutra
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20070126/wen_01.shtml3 analysts give their opinions on the battle of the consoles, may be of interest to anyone currently trapped in the great 360 or ps3 or Wii debate
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Thats a pretty good article. And I think it further proves the decision i’ve made to be right!
I’m going to go for the 360, hopefully I’ll buy it in 2 weeks.
And if the playstation has some (metal gear) solid titles this time next year, or maybe even around Christmas, I’ll hopefully get one then.
360 wins
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Bought a 360 earlier today!
Gears of war is really nice. Kinda just ducking and shooting but sure looks pretty. Also managed to Chainsaw my first dude a few minutes ago. Nice and satisfying!
Got Smackdown and gears in the bundle. Smackdown is good enough, just the same old animations etc but 2 player is pretty fun, and season mode seems great too. haven’t bought a smackdown game in about 2 years so theres at least a fair bit of new stuff.
Gonna get Dead Rising during the week, and then hook it up to the broadband when I finally fix up my PC…
Really like it though
Also, what a damn huge power brick it has!
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