Xbox 360 - released 2.Dec.2005

The xbox 360 is released in Europe today. Were any Toytowners down at the shops this morning to get their grubby mits on one?

Save your bling for the PS3 is the official line released from the offices of Timmeh this morning

I will probably think really seriously about getting an XBox...
better than that PS3 rubbish, any day

They're nice bits of kit, but without a decent HD telly its not really worth splurging out the money for one; they don't look much better than s current xbox on a normal telly from wot I've 'eard. There is also no killer game on the market yet atall whatosever. Might have got an earlier launch that the PS3, but there is a really really average selection of gaming on offer right now.

hoping for the xmas market, innit
I read in one of my mba books (or somewhere) that 80% of the units are shipped at this time of year

PS3 all the way. According to Rory Armes, European studio general manager for EA, they are under the impression that the PS3 will pack more punch then the XBox 360. Personal choice but in the console business I would always take Sony over Microsoft.

Im boycotting them both, lucky i hate consoles.

What is the going rate for the XBOX 360 anyway? I've always likes PC games better but I've been rebitten by the console bug as of late.

I heard there were the usual stock shortages - people selling on ebay at up to $5,000?

Also saw a link to some geek site giving 10 reasons why the PS3 weill be better, except I didn't really follow any of the reasons. Anyway PS3 is like a year away I think? 12 months is a long old time in this game.

Edit: Rumours are March 2006 in fact I see.

Last I heard they were talking about a March to May release although that could be in the US. Will have to check on that one though.

I'm with Wibble there too, Sony over M$. I've heard that the PS3 will be possibly 2-3 stronger in processing grunt than the XBOX 360. Most gaming sites say the PS3 is the better machine. The XBOX is truly only an XBOX 1.5 not version 2. Also, the games aren't backwards compatible??? WTF???!! The PS3 is backwards compatible to the PS1

I thought it was backwards compatible?

http://www.qbrundage.com/michaelb/pubs/essays/xbox360.html

"We are very pleased to announce that Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible with the top-selling Xbox games."

-- Robbie Bach
Senior Vice President and Chief Xbox Officer, Microsoft

200 Titles that are backward compatible here:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/666/666344p1.html

Why Top-selling X-box games and not all X-Box games?

I've read that the output connections will be better on the PS3 - you have an optional HDMI to go all HD digital sound & video to your HD TV if you got one, whereas the Xbox 360 will "only" have component outputs as their top output (only is in quotes cuz telling the quality difference between a component and HDMI connection is quite difficult I've heard - never seen it myself). But HDMI is the future, everyone agrees on that...

Official XBOX answer here:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilityqa.htm

Games need to be rescaled at higher res or some tekkie bollox.

The xbox 360 has almost nothing in comment with the original xbox, as they've changed the cpu at the heart of it, so the xbox games have to be emulated, rather than run directly.

My point was why he used this adjective in front of games. Which was answered by the JE reference.

I had a quick go on one yesterday in Karstadt. There was a driving game, not sure which one, and it was on a widescreen.

Other than average graphics, the cars handling not being that great and some annoying sales rep telling me off for "smashing up" a 300 grand Aston and then telling other customers "Oh look, he smashed up an Aston on a test drive and didn't even pay for it!!!", I was rather unimpressed. Just another console game.

Maybe it's cos I am used to good graphics on PC games, but my brief 3 minute play on the Xbox 360 did nothign for me.

Umm...From what I've seen in the lab, I wouldn't buy a XBOX 360 until they do a redesign of the GPU. That's all I'll be saying. Wait aboot 3 months and a more stable version will hopefully be available.

And yes, there is no HDMI/DVI output available yet for the 360, only component video output is available. There could be an adapter soon for HDMI but nobody is really sure. Also, if you want to play older XBOX games you need to buy the more expensive XBOX 360 version which includes a hard drive.

We sell MS some of the main memory for the XBOX360. Blazing fast, it's about the fastest DDR3 memory that is available at the moment.

Regarding buying the first version of anything: I don't EVER recommend this unless you are a die-hard. The first versions of any products with semiconductors in 'em are not a perfect design, and are more likely to fail in early or mid life. Still I bought a mobo early to play Doom3 on an Athlon64 with the latest chipset (at the time).

Ha! M$ is being sued for their buggy XBOX 360. I like this quote:
How very unlike M$

What I don't really understand aboot the XBox 360 is why MS uses such a shitty 3 layer board. Sure you want to cut costs but c'mon. Looking at the board it's hard to believe that it runs at hundreds of MHz. One other stupid thing they did was putting no cooling for the 4 GDDR3 memory chips on the bottom of their board. They're pressed up aganist the bottom of the case which is completely useless and has no airflow.

It seems that the bugginess of the XBOX 360 has been traced to a 3rd party power supply that gets too hot. String fix.

Anyway, I'm not sure why people get all excited about the politics of Sony or Microsoft when looking at a game console, PC games, TV, whatever. The only question I ask myself is if I'll get my money's worth. If so it's a done deal.

i've gotta get one of these for my son back in the UK. Anybody know of a site other than Amazon where i can order online and get it delivered there for Xmas ?

I've got a few boards sitting on my desk right now...want one??

@DW: The power supply is not the only source of bugginess..believe me. If only that were true!!

Quick Question. If I buy an XBOX 360 here in Germany, can I switch the default language to Engleeesh, and when I buy games I assume I must buy them as UK versions?

@JE - No problem with switching the language to English. It's part of the set-up options.
As for games - You can play any European version of the game, on an XBOX 360 purchased in Europe. I avoid purchasing games from stores in Munich, as I prefer to have them in English. So normally purchase them online, through Amazon or Play.

@JE - Best is to ask at the counter if they play in English. There are some games that will automatically play in English, but some games will come with every language but...

Thanks - I am not 100% Germophobic these days, but certainly if any kinda strategy game, with chat I would prefer in English.

Am I proper saddo geezer? (rhetorical question - answers not required).

Was in zee shops today and walked past...the NEW MICROSOFT WIRELESS XBOX 360 STEERING WHEEL.

Holy mother. I thought not released until December.

It is now MINE MINE MINE. I shall test at the weekend and report back on Monday. Looks sexy in the box however.

Listen, I was going to leave the bike in the garage this weekend but I feel a sudden need to bond with you.

anyone on xbox live?

´maybe we should start a new hread for gamertags so we can do online meetups and get some frag'in going...