Do You Have Any Worries About The Xbox 360?

[ChaosLord13]

Hey guys, while I am new to this forum I have been in many others so I am not a newbie (just for your information). Anyways I started this thread to talk about any worries you might have about the Xbox 360, whether it be when it's launching, what the hardware is like, about the games, or anything. It all goes here.
I have one worry about the Xbox 360 myself and it has to do with both when it's releasing and about the hardware. I'm that a) the xbox is acutally hitting its prime and that it could still be in the spotlight for longer amounts of time, hey it's still got over 200 games to be released the best aren't out yet and also b) because of it's early release date the 360 still uses a normal DVD 9 drive that can hold 9.5 GB while the PS3 is using Blu-Ray that can hold 54 GB.
Considering that Xbox games already take up on average half of the DVD 9 running at standard definition and with much smaller files than those will be of the 360 I'm worried that many games will either only hit the PS3 because of the size issues or that they will turned down a few notches before getting to the 360.
What do you think?

[Grindstone]

I understand your concern. We've discussed this a couple of times before about whether HD-Dvd should be released or not. Otherwise, M$ would have to buy into Blu-ray tech and support Sony's product on a M$ console. What if Blu-ray wins the Dvd war, then you have all these Xbox 360's with worthless technology if HD-dvd was put in.

Halo 2 used 3.5 gig of the 9.5gig[sic] on the dvd. How close will the next gen come to completely filling up the entire dvd space is hard to say. As I understand it, even games such at ES:Oblivion will not be using that much space, and that is a game that has a lot of detail as it has been in development since 2002. My second thought is, I could care less if in 4 years I am forced to have games with 2 discs to load. It is no real loss to me, as a casual gamer. I rarely get angry because of "load time" and if it is just putting disc in, well, I was probably waiting for a good time to take a leak anyway.

My concern is the 1mb of L2 cache that may be a bottlenecking problem for the console. I honestly haven't looked into this problem in great detail, but it's on my "to-do" list. Of course, it would be nice if someone already did that research...

[pApA SmerF01]

another beautiful post grindy!

the only concern for the 360 in my eyes is the 1mb cache. it's workable, but not preferred. i would've felt safer if each core got 1mb cache instead of sharing. but then again, that's too much interconnectivity between the main memory buffer and the data linking system that routes to the gpu.

it's a bottleneck, but think of it as a sobe bottleneck, those suckers are huge.

also, for the games releasing on the xbox, good for the 1st gen.

if xbox can go in the green while the 360 is still covering the overhead, kudos, because it won't matter that the xbox is still pumping out games. the ps still was for 2 years into the ps2 release and look how well it sold. not a factor.

[pApA SmerF01]

My concern is the 1mb of L2 cache that may be a bottlenecking problem for the console. I honestly haven't looked into this problem in great detail, but it's on my "to-do" list. Of course, it would be nice if someone already did that research...

fine, grindy, i'll get right on it and make a new thread explaining. i should have it up by the end of the weekend. i gotta redo some of my research.

what i can tell you is that the 1mb cache of memory is for specific regular processes to be stored, that way the cpu isn't deciphering the same logic-code constantly. it saves time. not necessarily a bottleneck, but i'll do it anyways... :top:

[Jacksmith28]

I have a gamecube. I don't play it much (but I did at one point). Now I want a 360 for 2 reasons 1.Gamecube doesnt have sh!t for games and 2. Everyone will have a 360 and live. I've never had a videogame system that is new. I figure, the reason I get bored with my games, is beacause its the same thing. But I figure with live, It will always be a little diffrent with online play. So I fear, If thats not true, I will have blown 300 fuc***g dollars on a 360. But I belive 300 will be a small price to pay for this awesome system! :top:

[Grindstone]

fine, grindy, i'll get right on it and make a new thread explaining.


Yes! I love it when procrastination and blatant laziness pay off. Thank you smerf01, my weekend just cleared up! I look forward to your post.

On a lower subvert level, I should say that one of my worries, although unfounded and perhaps stupid, is; what if the PS3 does render Killzone 2 graphics and the Xbox 360 does not? I know, I know, it was pre-rendered and not running on Cell tech, but what if? I've read all the anti-PS3 material and pro-Xbox 360 tech specs, but still, what if! It's just tiny-wheeny lil' thought in the back of my mind. You don't have to spout off all the info about how stupid that nagging idea is, but if we're airing grievences, that one sticks with me. I just couldn't be happy if I was stuck on an inferior machine (gaming wise, Blu-ray is a moot issue with me).

[Superior Grant]

well, with the 360 pad have the black + whites as shoulder buttons, that means my trigger fingures are gunna have to become b + w and my middle fingure will have to become triggers, and i cant imagine that :S

[ChaosLord13]

I never really considered the cache to be an issue mostly because up till now I never knew what it did.... (i'm not worthy!!! lol). But wow three cores with 1 MB shared!!! Most processors on PC's have like 2 MB for 1 core. But you know they are beasts of speed so maybe it wont be much of an issue 'cause it'll be able to repeat the same code over and over again fast enough to not impact the gameplay that much. Thx for the insight PaPa SmerF01 :top:

And Grindstone, I worry about that too because one of my friends is an intense PS3 supporter if Sony can pull off something M$ cannot I'll never ever hear the end of it. PLZ M$ MAKE US PROUD TO BE A 360 SUPPORTER!!!

[MH_prophet]

well, with the 360 pad have the black + whites as shoulder buttons, that means my trigger fingures are gunna have to become b + w and my middle fingure will have to become triggers, and i cant imagine that :S

Just move your trigger fingers as needed to press the triggers and black and white buttons. I don't think you'll need to use your middle finger.

[Superior Grant]

Just move your trigger fingers as needed to press the triggers and black and white buttons. I don't think you'll need to use your middle finger.

yeah i think thatll be possible for most games

but in pro evo (winning eleven to you non europeans) you use black too much for that to be possible i think

[zCraven15]

the new black and white buttons r called bumpers. im not worried, check out my new thread in the general catagory called "ps3 not so hott"

[Iron Orta]

On a lower subvert level, I should say that one of my worries, although unfounded and perhaps stupid, is; what if the PS3 does render Killzone 2 graphics and the Xbox 360 does not?

As far as i have been informed the movie at E3 was for Killzone 3 and not 2. Killzone 2 will hit the PS2.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/624/624671p1.html

[pApA SmerF01]

uh oh.....ps3 rendering killzone 2 graphics???? the 360 is doomed.....*oozes sarcasm*...

i just wonder how they're going to concentrate on killzone 2 when they showed off the killzone 3 cg movie trailer.

[ChaosLord13]

While this isnt actually a worry about the controller i think they should have done what they did with the black and white buttons on the shoulders but still keep the original black and white buttons (only for extra complex RPG stuff, no action FPS uses) i just think they're good to have in case...

[Adrenaline]

I have one worry. My only worry is, will there be a Halo 3. As, I've stated before. I wasn't a Halo 1 fan but Halo 2 blew my mind away after all nights and all days playing it to achieve a High Level on XBL. If there is no Halo 3, I think some Xbox/Xbox 360 people may switch to PS3. Why, I don't know..just a feeling.

[ChaosLord13]

Well, I have good news for you adrenaline, being the bungie halo 2 freak i am, i know that bungie is currently hard at work on their "next project" which is no doubt halo 3, and what's better is that it's expected that it will ship the launch day of PS3!

[Adrenaline]

Well, I have good news for you adrenaline, being the bungie halo 2 freak i am, i know that bungie is currently hard at work on their "next project" which is no doubt halo 3, and what's better is that it's expected that it will ship the launch day of PS3!

I just hope they come out with it. But..wait. Didn't the PS3 get delayed till 2006? If so, wow this will take forever to play a good game.

[Grindstone]

I just hope they come out with it. But..wait. Didn't the PS3 get delayed till 2006? If so, wow this will take forever to play a good game.

I think you mean, 2007, right? `Cuz it was slated to launch Q2 of `06 to begin with.

And Halo 3 will not be the only good game out there to play. If you haven't checked out some of the recent trailers for next gen games, its about time you do.

[ChaosLord13]

And also I'm not sure how you could expect it to come out before 06/07ish because Halo 2 took 3 or 4 years to make so if they started this year or even last year to make Halo 3 it would make sense for it to come out 07 at the earliest, and also as already stated other great games will already be out there: PGR3, Call of Duty 2, Gears of War, THAW, Condemned, Oblivion and so on...

[KahNManN]

I'm very worried about the 360 Lite approach they've decided to take. I think it's a very poor business decision to offer a hard-drive-less version of the console. Telling the developers not to count on a hard drive being there is (as a software developer myself) is like telling them not to use the hard drive. Or just to use it for holding "personal soundtracks" (a featuer I've never used...didn't see the point).

Does this one make anyone else nervous? I like the Xbox HD, I like the saving options it gives you. How are they going to do content downloads to XBoxes that do not have a HD? How are they going to patch those? Will it all be on memory cards?

[Grumpy Old Fart]

It is a bit odd that they can't offer both versions with a HDD. My only thought is that the HDD less package may appeal to gamers who don't intend to play on-line and don't want to download the free on-line downloadable content. Therefore giving them a cheaper alternative to purchase.

[Exxo]

The hard drive is also required to play Xbox games. So let's recap:
Without a Hard Drive you can't:

-Use Xbox Live
-Download Content
-Play Backwards Compatible Games
-Save Data
-Store music, photos, and the like

I am so glad I didn't preorder one of these.

[bxgladiator]

Yea xbox really messed up doin that stupid sh$t

[ChaosLord13]

I'm fine with the approach of the Xbox 360 Core Package as long as that doesn't mean us Premium Package people have to suffer with less content and less developer features because they feel that not enough people have the hard-drive.

The way I see it, I expected the system to be around 399 US given all the features so it just means that their is an option for sales to the less hardcore gamers out there, hey any chance to overtake Sony's sales makes me happy, and this is a good chance. So as long as they make it seem like "hey this premium package is the real xbox 360.... and this core package is also here if you really do not want a hard-drive, headset, wireless controller and such" that way developers will see the premium package as the majority of gamers. And the truth is that lots of the core package buyers will buy the HD later on anyways, some of them might purposefully be doing so to save the hundred and wait for the 40 GB... I hope that most buy the premium, but I think it's gonna be good in the long run to have a choice.

But I do have one worry with the choice, the way I see it, once we start having choices the choices might grow and it might turn into a PC type situation where the choice isn't about a HD but about better CPU's GPU's and so on... what do you guys think?

[blackmamba]

ChaosLord13 I agree with your concerns and in fact have voiced my concern about the absence of the hdd on another thread. I think MS has not only let down the gamers but also the developers who were quite open about the prospect of using the hdd for added features and/or bonuses...such as map creators and downloadable upgrades. Now what? Do we have to have a collection of 64 mb memory cards that we carry around in a shoebox? That is not next gen to me. I'm afraid MS just threw away one of their best selling points that put them ahead of the other consoles.

[ChaosLord13]

Now what? Do we have to have a collection of 64 mb memory cards that we carry around in a shoebox? That is not next gen to me.

I agree with that, how last-gen we all had HDD's and now there's a choice not to have it!? If you didn't have a choice in the beginning very few consumers would be angry saying "well I would've bought it if it was exactly 100 dollars less without a hard-drive". I mean if they had only put out the premium with no choice everyone would have the same system and it would still cost less than the PS3. It changes Xbox 360 from a system with the advantage of an HDD to now "being able to have one" sounds like PS2 to me!! Last-gen there were games that took advantage of having a HDD now since not everyone has one they won't be innovating games like that because not everyone with a system would be able to play them. Come on Microsoft if you're teenaged fans can think of this why can't you... too many million-dollar bills clouding your brain!?!?!?! What do you guys think?