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Review : Xbox 360 Videogame System

So I decided to cast a vote of no confidence on Sony's $600 future train wreck of a game system and got an Xbox 360. I have had it for while so here is my review. Sorry it took me so long to write.

The Xbox 360 started off as Project Xenon over at Microsoft slightly after Xbox Live came out on the first Xbox. It represented a completely new start with new hardware partners. Rather than sticking with Intel x86 chips that they used in the Xbox Microsoft opted for a triple-core PowerPC-based CPU from IBM dubbed "Xenon". Not content to stick with Nvidia chips they hired ATI to develop a very powerful graphics chip called "Xenos". The console has 512 megs of 700 megahertz GDDR3 RAM and has a 21 GB/s front side bus, a built-in 100BASE ethernet port, three USB ports and high speed wireless controllers that can support two way voice chat. There is an detachable 20-gig hard drive technically optional.

The Xbox 360 started the era of high definition gaming on HDTVs or VGA monitors. There were some Xbox one games that had higher resolutions on a HDTV and the Dreamcast had a decent VGA cable but this is the first time all the games on a video game system are pushed beyond the NTSC 640x480 and PAL TV systems that have been limiting graphics on video game systems since the days of Pong and the Atari 2600. The old standard TV resolutions were long dismissed on PC games. No serious PC game would run a first person shooter at 640x480 on a large monitor so it is just about time that console video games moved beyond using the same damn limiting RCA video cables or a RF tuner.

I have small LCD TV that I have my Xbox 360 running at it's native 1024x768 using a VGA cable. You can use the Xbox 360 on a standard TV on most games but in order to really get all you can out of it you really should get a HD hookup. Now the PS3 is also going to be HD while Nintendo is going to stick with standard resolution video out put on the Wii! Microsoft requires all game developers to use a HD system when developing their game and there is a few problems when playing two 360 games on a standard resolution TV. The 360 version of King Kong comes off as too dark for standard TVs and does not really look better than the Xbox one version of the same game. The Capcom's zombie killing extravaganza Dead Rising uses a font for on-screen text that is way to small to read on normal TVs. This leaves the game mostly illegible and impossible to progress in on standard TVs. These two games might be the only ones to have these graphics problem and I am sure that game developers will test their games on standard old TVs in the future.

The graphics of the Xbox 360 are so gorgeous that you can't actually express it easily in words. I can tell you that it can easily pull off full screen anti-aliasing, has a hell of a lot of ram for super detailed textures, enough power to run some really awesome physics, object specific motion blurring, reflections, but that does not tell you the amount of depth and detail that game developers can pull off with this hardware. This system is not just about doing the exact same games but with better graphics but it can enable games that were not technologically possible using previous hardware platforms. Games like Dead Rising the player has to run trough a incredibly detailed shopping mall filled with tens of thousands of zombies in massive detailed crowds that react as intelligently to the players stimuli to the extent that the living dead zombies can.

I have not seen anything in the videos of the PlayStation3 that the Xbox 360 can't do and hopefully game developers will deliver a good number of cross platform games. I am excited that since Dead Rising has been selling so well in the US that Capcom is rethinking their PS3/ Xbox 360 game development strategy to include the first 80% of game development to be done platform independent to enable cross platform development work. Dispute packing a $200 more expensive price tag I don't believe that the PS3 is graphically superior to the Xbox 360 since I have not seen anything to back it up. I know that the Xbox 360 is pretty much doomed to obscurity in Japan because of marketing, games and nationalistic zeal behind the brands of Sony and Nintendo but it will be interesting to see if the Japanese game developers produce 360 games for the Western audience. It looks like game development on the 360 is a much easier experience than older game console platforms. It is still going to take a small army of graphic artists, animators, producers and programmers to make a top notch game but it looks like it is not going to be "Sega Saturn" difficult to make a good 3rd party game for the 360.

Since owning a Xbox 360 for a bit there is no way that I will ever want to own a windows PC just for gaming. I know this is strange but it is extremely liberating as a Mac user to have such and excellent gaming outlet such as the Xbox 360. I no longer feel as if my Mac is the red headed stepchild of gaming since the gaming bliss that I get from consoles such as the Xbox 360 is so damn good. I can use my Mac for other multimedia internet goodness and not feel that I am getting left behind because my Xbox 360 has my HD kick ass gaming needs covered.

The Xbox 360 is not a minor purchase and the total cost of ownership is not cheap. The Xbox 360 Premium Package is a crisp $400 bucks and you are going to need an HDTV or a good LCD monitor to really get the most out of it. This deal comes with the detachable hard drive, a wireless controller and headset for Xbox Live. I guess the removable hard drive is so your saved games and gaming data can are not so intimately tied to a single console like the Xbox one and all the content that you download from Xbox live will reside on the hard drive. The cheaper bundle without the hard drive for $300, a wired controller, no head set and bundled HD AV cables seems like more a marketing ploy than an acceptable choice for gamers. I think that if you are going plunk down the big buck for an Xbox 360 that you should at least save up the extra hundred bucks in order to do it right. The "Core" systems need a memory card unit and stores are now carrying external 360 hard drive for core owners that are now regretting their previous choice. I think that Sony is sort of following Microsoft's folly by having two configuration packages of the PS3 at $500 and $600. Game developers can also use the hard drive to cache data from the DVD to reduce load time, provide downloadable extra content, bug patch updates if needed, and quick saving. It looks like the hard drive is an unofficial necessity to get the most out of the 360. The wireless controller is quite tight and I love the fact that you can start up and shut down the system right from the wireless controller.

The sound on the Xbox 360 is just as powerful as you would expect it to be. The large amount of ram gives sound designers lot to work with and they have the best implementation of music on any game system with the custom soundtracks. I rarely play Xbox 360 without first hooking up my iPod to listen to my own music.

The 360 is not without it own technical problems. The first run of systems had numerous technical glitches are were know to crash and display the screen of death. Microsoft just announced that they will fixing any 360 that were built in 2005 for free. I am glad that I waited for a later batch. There is some major fans working to cool the super powerful hardware and there is a potential threat of having the system overhead if you don't store it in an open air space or are playing it in a hot or humid environment. The fan can be quite loud and I make sure to crank up the volume on my stereo so I don't hear the system fan over the game audio. When I got my 360 I purchased an external cooling fan but i have not used it since I have never had any overheating or crashing problems.

It has pretty bad selection of backward compatibility titles with the original Xbox. If you have a large collection of Xbox one games you should plan on keeping the old Xboxen around so you can play em.

Microsoft introduced two different levels to access the Xbox Live network. The Silver access is free and it allows to to downloaded game demos, patches, arcade games game and movie trailers, buy free and pay downloadable content but you can't play on line against other people without the Gold account. A gold account is a yearly fee that is quite acceptable considering how good gaming over the Xbox Live network is. There is a system wide method of ranking how experienced a gamer you are called Gamerscore. Your Gamerscore goes up when you pass certain checkpoints in games and on line matches called Achievements. This helps generate a pretty detailed user profile that Xbox Live can use to help match you up with comparable gamers on Xbox Live. The system is designed to help Newbz from getting 0Wn3D too bad. You can also look up what your friends have been playing and how far they are their games. Penny-Arcade did a comic about how it is almost too much information but it should help keep on line competition fair. The Xbox Live Marketplace is a pretty cool example of a purely digitally distributed videogames economy

The Xbox finally has a pretty decent operation system that allows you to make multiple user accounts, to set a log on password and to set user permissions. A family might make an account for the kids that can keep them out of Xbox Live and playing games that are outside their desired ratings. This is exactly what we need to deal with the problem of social conservatives calling for censorship of video games. Since it is a technological issue it is entirely possible to have a tech solution. Ownership of an Xbox 360 costs some serious adult spending power and should reward Generation X gamers who are now in their 30's and 40's with some content equivalent to other entertainment mediums they enjoy. This way the kids can play their Spongebob Squarepants games ( which may or may not lead to homosexuality ) and the folks can play games like Dead Rising ( which may or may not lead to splattering zombies brains with random items ) and Saints Row ( which may or may not lead to pimping, sipping "gin n' juice" and insurance fraud ).

I think that the Xbox 360 has a very bright future and that it is obvious that Microsoft spent the resources needed to attract brilliant hardware engineers and software designers to build what might be the ultimate video game system for the modern gamer. I have every reason to believe that the Xbox 360 will be able to stand up in the market place against Sony's PS3 and will hold their popularity when the PS3 and Nintendo Wii hits the store shelves later on this year. The doomed to be botched PS3 launch is sure to help Microsoft this Christmas and their semi-truce with Nintendo should serve them very well. Microsoft has done a great job attracting game developers in the US and Europe and is working hard at getting good games out of Japan, however they have to work harder to get even moderate success in selling the system in Japan. The Xbox 360 feels like a very mature entertainment option and it deserves a place in the modern den next to an HDTV, in fact my interest in HDTV is driven entirely out of seeing Xbox 360 games in high definition. I am very pleased with my 360 and I think it has a high level of quality and excellence that I have not associated with Microsoft for a very long time. Almost all the rough edges of the company's first videogame console were worked out and refined to create quite possibly the best home videogame experience.

Jake at October 6, 2006 Reviews

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Posted by: Llydis at October 9, 2006 10:28 PM

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