Anybody else addicted to Guitar Hero?

[_moksha]

Anybody eager for Unreal 3?

[_Mr. Coffee]

I had an XBox 360 for just under 3 months. It broke after not much use...this was before Gears came out. I returned it and got my money back. I think the 360 definitely has the best selection of shooters out there, but the hardware issues keep me from buying another one. I have a PS3 but it currently lacks the good titles. Rainbow Six Vegas is finally coming out, so I'll get to do some good shooting soon. A partial track list for Guitar Hero III is out and a lot of the songs are master tracks performed by the actual artists. I'm looking forward to the Priestess song. The new Les Paul controller looks pretty great, too.

I know a couple of people that have had issues with the 360's hardware crapping out on them, but it seems to be so hit an miss that I'm not sure if it's actually a hardware issue or if it's a combination of what manufacturing facility the box was made at along with end user treatment of the box. I've got two 360s, one of them is a first model I picked up right when the platform luanched. Never had a problem with either. Best bet is to made sure that you 1. place the box horizontally instead of verticaly, and 2. place it somewhere it can get lots of air for proper cooling.

Most of the issues I've heard of are the result of overheating and the system getting bonked from falling over.

And, yeah... I've got a 360 Elite ordered. 120gb HD FTW!

Oh, and the PS3 sucks. The specs look great on paper, but Sony gets an EPIC FAIL for onscreen performance.

Have you played Shadowrun? I checked out the specs needed to play the PC version, and they're pretty high. Apparently you need to have 2GB RAM, a dual-core processor, and be running Windows Vista. If you meet the specs, you can hook up with Xbox 360 players on Live.

What say you? Yeah? Nay?

I'm waiting for it to go to rental before I'll buy it. If it turns out to be worthwhile, I'll buy it. But seeing as I've never been a big fan of futuristic shooters, probably not.

[_silentkid]

I had an XBox 360 for just under 3 months. It broke after not much use...this was before Gears came out. I returned it and got my money back. I think the 360 definitely has the best selection of shooters out there, but the hardware issues keep me from buying another one. I have a PS3 but it currently lacks the good titles. Rainbow Six Vegas is finally coming out, so I'll get to do some good shooting soon. A partial track list for Guitar Hero III is out and a lot of the songs are master tracks performed by the actual artists. I'm looking forward to the Priestess song. The new Les Paul controller looks pretty great, too.

I know a couple of people that have had issues with the 360's hardware crapping out on them, but it seems to be so hit an miss that I'm not sure if it's actually a hardware issue or if it's a combination of what manufacturing facility the box was made at along with end user treatment of the box. I've got two 360s, one of them is a first model I picked up right when the platform luanched. Never had a problem with either. Best bet is to made sure that you 1. place the box horizontally instead of verticaly, and 2. place it somewhere it can get lots of air for proper cooling.

Most of the issues I've heard of are the result of overheating and the system getting bonked from falling over.

And, yeah... I've got a 360 Elite ordered. 120gb HD FTW!

Oh, and the PS3 sucks. The specs look great on paper, but Sony gets an EPIC FAIL for onscreen performance.

I treated my 360 like I treat all other consoles and games...with extreme care. When mine broke, I went online to see if others had similar problems. I was surprised to see how many 360's had crapped out. MS has had to delay returning repaired consoles recently because they ran out of shipping boxes (coffins). When people are on their fourth or fifth console, that's ridiculous. If you have to buy a cooler or a huge-ass fan just to keep your console cool and quiet, there are manufacturing problems. My PS3 has had no problems, runs quietly, never overheats, etc. The only problem I have seen with the PS3 is the lack of games. The onscreen performance has been great on the games I've played. Resistance has never hitched up, no framerate stutters, nada. The only games that have had performance issues are those that have been ported from the 360 (like FEAR). I don't play games online, so I don't care about the 360 Live network...even when I had my 360, I wasn't willing to pay the extra fee just to be able to play games online.

[_Mr. Coffee]

I treated my 360 like I treat all other consoles and games...with extreme care. When mine broke, I went online to see if others had similar problems. I was surprised to see how many 360's had crapped out. MS has had to delay returning repaired consoles recently because they ran out of shipping boxes (coffins). When people are on their fourth or fifth console, that's ridiculous. If you have to buy a cooler or a huge-ass fan just to keep your console cool and quiet, there are manufacturing problems. My PS3 has had no problems, runs quietly, never overheats, etc. The only problem I have seen with the PS3 is the lack of games. The onscreen performance has been great on the games I've played. Resistance has never hitched up, no framerate stutters, nada. The only games that have had performance issues are those that have been ported from the 360 (like FEAR). I don't play games online, so I don't care about the 360 Live network...even when I had my 360, I wasn't willing to pay the extra fee just to be able to play games online.

Maybe you've just got your hands on a lemon 360. That happens occasionally. Like I said, I've heard of people having problems, but it isn't anywhere near the huge issue that somepeople make it out to be. Most all of the issues the 360 had at release have since been corrected. Pretty much the norm for consoles these days. We saw it when the PS2 and the Xbox came out, the first run of boxes had problems and those problems were corrected in subsequent releases (MS has been very good about this in particular with not just offering hardware support, but also offering free sortware updates).

What has really turned me off to the PS3, wasn't the price ($700USD for the full system?!? WTF!), it was things like their inability to upgrade the harddrive, the lack of titles, the nerfing of backwards compatability with PS2 titles, and the overall "Screw you" attitude Sony seems to have towars it's customer base.

With the 360, I bitched about the reletively small snap-on harddrive and MS listened. They're about to release a 120GB snap-on drive. I bitched about the lack of true HDMI support, so along with the 120gb drive, they're releasing an entirely new box build around Hi-Def gaming complete with HDMI so I can take my games all the way up to 1080p (Yeah, I've got TVs that support it).

Meanwhile Sony thinks that a motion sensitive controller and a distinct lack of support and gamesa will win me over because they slapped an outragious pricetag on it. “F”, for the money I spent buying my PS3 I could have gotten another complete 360 system, four games, and paid for two months of Live service (three if you count the free 30day service included with the 360).

It used to be that in order to play certain title I'm a big fan of, like Grand Theft Auto, I had to buy it for a playstation because it was released there first, or in the case of some games it was exclusive to Sony. Not true anymore. Rockstar is releasing the next GTA game for both systems concurently, the FF franchise is possibly going the same route, and I've heard romurs that Konami is noodling with the idea of moving the MGD franchise outright.

Sony can kiss my ass. About the only thing they've managed to get right lately was the PSP.

[_silentkid]

Maybe you've just got your hands on a lemon 360. That happens occasionally. Like I said, I've heard of people having problems, but it isn't anywhere near the huge issue that somepeople make it out to be. Most all of the issues the 360 had at release have since been corrected. Pretty much the norm for consoles these days. We saw it when the PS2 and the Xbox came out, the first run of boxes had problems and those problems were corrected in subsequent releases (MS has been very good about this in particular with not just offering hardware support, but also offering free sortware updates).

I probably did get a lemon. But when I heard they were going to be changing the chipset so it would run cooler, I decided to wait. I think the Elite has the new chipset.

What has really turned me off to the PS3, wasn't the price ($700USD for the full system?!? WTF!), it was things like their inability to upgrade the harddrive, the lack of titles, the nerfing of backwards compatability with PS2 titles, and the overall "Screw you" attitude Sony seems to have towars it's customer base.

The price point difference between a 360 and a PS3 aren't all that much different when you factor in the cost of the external HD DVD attachment for the 360 (if you like hi-def movies...that was a big selling point for me with the PS3). As for backwards compatability, the 360 completely botched any attempt to make it work. My main last generation system was an XBox. I had a lot of games and would have liked to play them on my 360. The PS3 has fixed all problems with backwards compability in their system updates and even upscales the older games. You can upgrade the hard drive on a PS3. The instructions for doing so are in the manual.

With the 360, I bitched about the reletively small snap-on harddrive and MS listened. They're about to release a 120GB snap-on drive. I bitched about the lack of true HDMI support, so along with the 120gb drive, they're releasing an entirely new box build around Hi-Def gaming complete with HDMI so I can take my games all the way up to 1080p (Yeah, I've got TVs that support it).

The cost of the snap-on 120 gig hard drive is $180. Couldn't they have made that a little more reasonable? I bought a 160 gig external hard drive for my computer 2 years ago for $120. I like the fact that the new 360 elite is set up with HDMI. I think MS made a good choice there. I'm thinking about buying one.

Meanwhile Sony thinks that a motion sensitive controller and a distinct lack of support and gamesa will win me over because they slapped an outragious pricetag on it. “F”, for the money I spent buying my PS3 I could have gotten another complete 360 system, four games, and paid for two months of Live service (three if you count the free 30day service included with the 360).

I'm not a fan of the motion sensitive controller. I think Sony made a mistake trying to implement that into its system. As for the lack of games, the system has not even been out a year. Most of the big titles (like they did with the 360 a year ago) will be coming out in the fall.

It used to be that in order to play certain title I'm a big fan of, like Grand Theft Auto, I had to buy it for a playstation because it was released there first, or in the case of some games it was exclusive to Sony. Not true anymore. Rockstar is releasing the next GTA game for both systems concurently, the FF franchise is possibly going the same route, and I've heard romurs that Konami is noodling with the idea of moving the MGD franchise outright.

I think console exclusive titles, with the exception of those made by Sony, MS, or Nintendo, are a thing of the past. I'm happy about that. I'm looking forward to GTA IV.

Sony can kiss my ass. About the only thing they've managed to get right lately was the PSP.

I think people are writing the PS3 off too early. I'm willing to give it some time. I have a PSP as well. I really like it.

[_skippy the dead]

Oh, and the PS3 sucks. The specs look great on paper, but Sony gets an EPIC FAIL for onscreen performance.

Nuh-uh! My PS3 rocks. Killing all those fraggin' aliens in Resistance: Fall of Man looks awesome (and is terribly satisfying). And I'm hooked on Oblivion. Still trying to decide which motorsports game to get. The on-line play for Resistance is far better w.r.t. reliability than Xbox - their system was spotty and faulty. I hated getting booted out of games due to Xbox server issues.

Plus, getting a Blu-ray disc player was gravy. I definitely recommend getting the BD remote, though.

[_Mr. Coffee]

I probably did get a lemon. But when I heard they were going to be changing the chipset so it would run cooler, I decided to wait. I think the Elite has the new chipset.

Not just the Elites, but any 360 made in the last year has much better cooling ability than the launch box did. That's about the only "add-on" I've gotten for my first 360... A third-party cooling system. Inanycase, I've never had much issue with overheating, certantly nothing even remotely like the overheat issues I've had with every single PS2 I've gone through.

The price point difference between a 360 and a PS3 aren't all that much different when you factor in the cost of the external HD DVD attachment for the 360 (if you like hi-def movies...that was a big selling point for me with the PS3).

Here's the prices of both systems from BestBuy.

Xbox360
$399.99 includes wireless controll, wired controller, headset mic, 20gb hard drive.

Considering there aren't any games released in HDDVD format as of yet, the HDDVD option isn't necessary. Besides, that's what I bought the HDDVD drive for my PC and the stand alone player for my entertainment center for. Something I learned the hard way with the PS2's barely functional dvd playback capibility is this; you use your game console for playing games, you use dedicated audio/video equipement for playing music or watching movies.

PS3
$599.99, includes 1 controller, internal 60gb drive, HDMI support for 1080p.

$200.00 more than the 360, and all you get is the ability to play Blu-Ray (Which is why the damned thing costs so much).

But hey, let's do one better...

Xbox360 Elite
$479.99, includes one wireless controll, headset, native HDMI support, a more powerful graphics processor, and a 120gb hard drive (twice the size of the PS3 drive). And for just $79.99 more than the standard 360. Still $130 less than a PS3.

Go look at game prices and figure out how much more bang for the buck you'll get with a 350 than you will with a PS3.

Hell, for the price difference, if I was inclined I could by the add-on HDDVD drive for the 360 elite and still have enough left for a lot of beer and pizza after taxes then if I got a PS3.

As for backwards compatability, the 360 completely botched any attempt to make it work. My main last generation system was an XBox. I had a lot of games and would have liked to play them on my 360. The PS3 has fixed all problems with backwards compability in their system updates and even upscales the older games. You can upgrade the hard drive on a PS3. The instructions for doing so are in the manual.

Which is why every last one of the Xbox titles I own still work on my 360, and they actually render smoother on the 360, amirite?

Meanwhile, if I play GTA: San Andreas on my PS3 it looks like I was playing it on a PS2 with a terminal case of heatstroke.

The cost of the snap-on 120 gig hard drive is $180. Couldn't they have made that a little more reasonable?

Well, considering that you're getting six damned times the storage capicity of the 20GB drive, and only paying $80 more...

Seems pretty damned reasonable to me. Six times the storage for .8 times the cost. For what the 20GB drive costs I would have to spend the cost of a PS3 for the same storage as the 120GB drive.

More importantly, since the 360 drives are external, this means that in the dfuture Microsoft can release increasingly larger drives. At the same time, as the 360 becomes an even more capible system, the PS3 is still stuck with the HD it came with. My 360 drive finally dies, I can go out and buy a new drive. Your PS3 drive dies and you have to go get a new PS3.

I bought a 160 gig external hard drive for my computer 2 years ago for $120.

Yes, because game consoles = personal computers....

As for the lack of games, the system has not even been out a year. Most of the big titles (like they did with the 360 a year ago) will be coming out in the fall.

And? The 360 released with quite a few very good launch titles with more and better games popping up rapidly. The PS3's big "Wow" game, Gran Turismo High Def isn't even shipping until NEXT YEAR. So far, about the only title that's available for the PS3 that's even worth playing is Resistance: Fall of Man, and even that's just a brightly polished FPS, and a very thinly vieled rip-off of the concept behind Gears of War.

I think people are writing the PS3 off too early. I'm willing to give it some time. I have a PSP as well. I really like it.

I wrote the PS3 off when these colorful quotes by former PlayStation boss Ken Kutaragi were made describing the PS3: "It's probably too cheap," "It's 4D," and "[We want] consumers to think... 'I will work more hours to buy one.'"

crap like that combined with an PR campaign that almost seems to be designed to turn people off to the PS3 make me think that SONY is out to commit corporate suicide. I wonder if they'll have a subsidiary waiting with a katana to take off their head after they make the belly incision...

[_silentkid]

You seem to have a lot of resentment for Sony. Again, I understand that the Xbox 360 as a stand-alone system is a less expensive system. As I stated above, I wanted the ability to play hi-def movies from the start. The 360 didn't have this ability until they added the HD-DVD drive. If I added the HD-DVD drive ($200) and a larger hard drive ($180) to my existing 360 setup (at $399) my final price would be $779 plus tax. Sure, I would have 60 gigs more hard drive space. Instead, I decide to buy an Elite to save some money. I pay $479 for the system but I still want that hi-def movie capability...add $200 and I end up paying $679 plus tax. Cool, I got a headset and caught a break on the cost of the bigger hard drive. I paid $599 plus tax for my PS3, which came with hi-def movie capability and HDMI support.

More importantly, since the 360 drives are external, this means that in the dfuture Microsoft can release increasingly larger drives. At the same time, as the 360 becomes an even more capible system, the PS3 is still stuck with the HD it came with. My 360 drive finally dies, I can go out and buy a new drive. Your PS3 drive dies and you have to go get a new PS3.

Again, you can upgrade the hard drive in a PS3 (it shows you how right in the users manual that comes with the system). You can currently get a 160 gig drive for it. I don't need the extra memory right now, but I may in the future. So, for my purposes, I actually saved a little money by going the PS3 route.

you use your game console for playing games, you use dedicated audio/video equipement for playing music or watching movies.

I agree with this, to some extent. I never used my PS2 for DVD playback because it was terrible. I have used the PS3 for Blue-Ray playback and it's pretty amazing...and less expensive than stand-alone players. Also, Sony has the ability to use the extra storage capacity of Blue-Ray disks for gaming. MS has stated that they will not use the HD-DVD for gaming.

Yes, because game consoles = personal computers....

I know that computers and console systems are not the same beast. I was making the point that the cost of the 120 gig hard drive purchased separately from the Elite bundle is a little steep for those who already own a 360 and only want to upgrade their memory.

Which is why every last one of the Xbox titles I own still work on my 360, and they actually render smoother on the 360, amirite?

I looked up the recent backwards compatability list for the 360 and it looks like they have included a lot more games. When I had my 360 the support was poor. That was a while ago. I apologize for the mis-statement.

As far as games coming out this fall, I guess it depends on the kind of games you like to play. I'm looking forward to the new Ratchet and Clank and the Halo rip-off, Haze.

crap like that combined with an PR campaign that almost seems to be designed to turn people off to the PS3 make me think that SONY is out to commit corporate suicide.

The Sony coproration, like MS, is much bigger than just its gaming component. I doubt that problems with their PS3 PR campaign would be enough to sink the ship.

[_Mr. Coffee]

You seem to have a lot of resentment for Sony.

Not so much a resentment of Sony, as I own quite a bit of Sony's audio/video products. It's that I remember Sony's history with trying to be innovators, one that with very few excepts, never ends well for Sony. Remember MiniDisk, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, Digital Audio Tape, or BETAMAX? All failed against other standards. Sony's got a long and ignoble track record of failure, and by the looks of things, Blu-Ray is going to end up being another.

Again, you can upgrade the hard drive in a PS3 (it shows you how right in the users manual that comes with the system). You can currently get a 160 gig drive for it. I don't need the extra memory right now, but I may in the future. So, for my purposes, I actually saved a little money by going the PS3 route.

I can do the same thing with my 360 using an off-the-shelf SATA drive.

Also, unlike Microsoft, Sony has yet to announce if they will make an upgrade for their PS3's harddrives. Though there's a lot of sites that go on in great detail about how you can DIY a new drive. But with the 360, that 120gb drive will not only work with the system without any problems at all, it'll even match the damned box. What's even more fun is that OTS SATA drive option doesn't require me formatting the drive to use a propriatary file system. It'll come out of the box and work with the 360.

I agree with this, to some extent. I never used my PS2 for DVD playback because it was terrible. I have used the PS3 for Blue-Ray playback and it's pretty amazing...and less expensive than stand-alone players.

And it's not nearly as functional as a stand-alone Blu-Ray player.

Also, you're assuming that Blu-Ray will win out against HDDVD. If it doesn't, then in a couple of years you're screwed for new movies, where as I am not.

Also, Sony has the ability to use the extra storage capacity of Blue-Ray disks for gaming. MS has stated that they will not use the HD-DVD for gaming.

Ok, so name me one title that will use up all of the space on a Blu-Ray disk? That's the reason why Microsoft hasn't bothered with HDDVD format games... It's not anything to do with capabilities, it's all about finding a developer that can make a game with that much content.

What's fun though, is I can burn a 360 game onto a HDDVD disk, drop it into the HDDVD add-on, and still play the game. The support is there, it's just a matter of game developers making games that need that much storage space.

I know that computers and console systems are not the same beast. I was making the point that the cost of the 120 gig hard drive purchased separately from the Elite bundle is a little steep for those who already own a 360 and only want to upgrade their memory.

Steep in comparrison to what? That's the cost of two games and a new controller. Ouch, that certainly hurt my wallet...

Not.

As far as games coming out this fall, I guess it depends on the kind of games you like to play. I'm looking forward to the new Ratchet and Clank and the Halo rip-off, Haze.

Why bother with a Halo wannabe when Halo III releases on September 25?

The Sony coproration, like MS, is much bigger than just its gaming component. I doubt that problems with their PS3 PR campaign would be enough to sink the ship.

Yet Sony's Playstation arm accounts for the bulk of the company's profits, where as Xbox is tiny compared to Microsoft's other areas. If Microsoft botched their campaign for the 360, it's wouldn't really have harmed the company much. Sony, on the otherhand, is hemmorhaging money left and right thanks to the PS3. Thanks to the PS3, Sony's Computer Entertainmen division posted an operating loss of $2.32 billion.

You're right, that's not entirely due to their PR campaign. The bulk of it is due to the PS3 being so expensive to manufacture, which translates into high retail prices, which translates to less people buy PS3s.

[_asbestosman]

I think another cool thing from Microsoft is that you can develop your own games for Xbox 360 if you're in to that sort of thing.

Check out XNA. MS even lets you download the development tools for free which also lets you make games for your Windows PC.


Speaking of Halo, I just got Halo 2 for the PC yesterday. I half regret that I only have a PC instead of a modern console, but I prefer hooking up with my bros and the only thing they ahve is PC or Wii.