Video game thread

[Seabiscuit36]

Thanks Murp....Good read. 

[Zanshin]

The interesting thing is that the more of a perceived flop the PS3 becomes, the more of a flop it will be.  A friend of mine went out and bought one last week...and my first thought was "why?"  It just doesn't seem to make a ton of sense to drop more money on a console that seems to be getting crushed in the market...for the sole benefit of having access to a blu-ray drive.  I'm a PS2 guy, too...but if I had to buy a next-gen, I'd definitely go either 360 or Wii.  Probably 360 to play online with a few friends who have them.  If the PS3s don't get some sort of an angle going, there's going to be crap games released and it'll eventually just fall off the map.  And I'm not even sold on blu-ray being the defacto standard of the future thing.

[Seabiscuit36]

And the problem of the Blu ray is every PS2 that was used for DVD's had loading problems because the dvd constantly was reading info unlike games that load up info and slow down their rotations. 

[Seabiscuit36]

* A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
* Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
* A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
* Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
* Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
* A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
* New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
* Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

The Spring Update is free beginning the week of May 7 and will be easily accessible to every Xbox 360 owner through Xbox Live or on Xbox.com.

You may not even notice all the new features, but they are all designed to enhance your Xbox Live experience. Some of the other features in this upgrade include:

* The name of game in tray is now displayed in the dashboard.
* When the tray icon is highlighted, a list of achievements, game icon and gamerscore for that game is displayed.
* Video trick modes are enabled for content that is being progressively downloaded from Video Marketplace.
* Playback progress bar indicates download completion.
* Improved skip forward, skip back functionality during video playback.
* Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native).
* Player and friends lists now quickly show session presence information for quick identification of users that are joinable.
* Support for streaming WM-DRM protected content from a PC
* Folder view for video content on connected devices
* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
* Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices.
* Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file.
* Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content.
* Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 "chapters" allowing you to quickly skip around video content.
* The information bar that is turned on via the On Screen Display (OSD) now shows you exactly where you are in the playback of the video file. In addition it will also show for Video Marketplace content how much of the file has been downloaded and where the "chapters" exist in the file.
* Windows Media protected content (WM-DRM) can now be streamed from the PC to the console. If the WM-DRM license is missing or corrupted then a specific error message is displayed to the user. Bookmarking is also stored for protected content.
* When the user is in the dashboard and an Xbox 360 game is in the console then the name of the game is displayed in the tray icon of the dashboard. If the user highlights the tray icon then achievements and gamer score are displayed for that game based on the signed in user. Xbox1 games show the name and image of the game.
* Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays. The user can delete all bookmarks but this will reset all bookmark information for every video that the user has played. The bookmark database is exposed in the system/memory/system items
* When a user selects an item for download from Marketplace then the system will determine if there is sufficient disk space for the item and, if not, will ask the user to delete content on the HDD. The system provides a sorted by size list of videos, game trailers, demos and arcade content to aid the user in the deletion process. The same list of items are also available from within memory so that users can quickly see which items are consuming the most disk space.
* The console will block the user who attempts to download content onto a storage device that will never have the capacity to store the item without deducting any points associated

[Seabiscuit36]

I stole this from another board, but the above and this info is about the new update for the 360

Xbox 360 owners can connect with more than 260 million Windows Live Messenger users on Xbox 360, Windows-based PCs and Windows Mobile-powered devices beginning the week of May 7.

Redmond, Washington — April 8, 2007 — Your Xbox Live® friends list is about to get a whole lot bigger. Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of Windows Live™ Messenger on Xbox 360™, connecting friends across Xbox 360 consoles, Microsoft® Windows®-based PCs and Windows Mobile®-powered devices. With this update to Xbox 360, friends and families can easily connect and chat directly from their television using Windows Live Messenger, a network of more than 20 billion relationships and more than 260 million active accounts.

Connected Experiences
Members of the six-million-strong Xbox Live community currently send more than two million text and voice messages a day and can now use Windows Live Messenger to text chat with up to six people on their contact list at one time, while playing games, listening to music, or watching movies. Text chat adds to the variety of options friends and families already have to communicate with on Xbox Live, including voice and video chat.

Current relationships on Windows Live Messenger and Xbox Live will be unified on Xbox 360 and users will see at a glance if their existing friends on Windows Live Messenger have gamertags, instantly expanding the breadth of connected experiences they can share online.

- A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list.
-Enhanced family settings features for Xbox Live communications enable different defaults for video chat and voice chat.
-A new Xbox Live Marketplace blade lets Xbox Live members access the content they seek—whether it is game content or TV shows and movies (available in the United States)—from one place on Xbox Live.
-Updates to Xbox Live Arcade allow owners to quickly see which Xbox Live Arcade games their friends are playing and join in the fun. Xbox Live members can also compare progress of leaderboard scores and Achievements directly with all friends on their friends list. Expanded "Tell a Friend" capabilities make it easier than ever to boast about Achievements and high scores.
-A new option in Auto Downloads provides faster access to the entire collection of free, trial-version Xbox Live Arcade games.
-New progressive download controls provide easy access to optimal viewing options by letting people fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume as their video is downloaded from Xbox Live Marketplace.
-Extension of the background download functionality will allow owners to set their Xbox 360 console to turn off automatically after downloads are complete.

[mussa]

My buddy brought over his PS3 to play on my new TV last night. He bought Oblivion and Flying Angels that day. Oblivion is awesome, I could really get into a game like that. Flying Angels is a WW2 flying game, also was pretty fun and had good online play.  The TV makes a hell of a difference. PS3's graphics are just amazing. The sound also is HD, so it just makes the whole experience bad ass. I might just buy a PS3 now....

[Zanshin]

Are they appreciably better than the 360?

[mussa]

Well does X-box use HDMI? I think they have component cables, I could be wrong though. I think the graphics are noticeably better than x-box 360.

I was pretty much thinking about going with the Wii or X-box 360 for awhile now, but after playing the PS3 a few diff. times, its just better. The wii is alot of fun, but its more of a multiple person game console. Graphics are nothing great. X-box 360 has had many issue's with breaking. I think everyone i know who had a 360, had one that died on them.

Only prob with PS3 is the price. It is one hell of a machine though. I'm gonna wait a few weeks though before I get it.

[General_Failure]

I couldn't imagine trying to play Oblivion on a console. Sure, it probably works well, but you lose out on all the custom mods that way.

[mussa]

I couldn't imagine trying to play Oblivion on a console. Sure, it probably works well, but you lose out on all the custom mods that way.

custom mods? jesus christ, that freakin game in so in-depth, i can't imagine doing anything more than whats available. 3/4 of the shtein i have no clue what is does. i never played it before, let alone play a quest game in awhile.

[The BIGSTUD]

360 doesn't support HDMI but the 360 Elite will which comes out April 29th.

But yeah, Oblivion was an amazing game. Might want to check out the Shimmering Isles expansion for that too. As far as I know though, it is only available on Xbox Live to download and purchase for PC.

[General_Failure]

I couldn't imagine trying to play Oblivion on a console. Sure, it probably works well, but you lose out on all the custom mods that way.

custom mods? jesus christ, that freakin game in so in-depth, i can't imagine doing anything more than whats available. 3/4 of the shtein i have no clue what is does. i never played it before, let alone play a quest game in awhile.

Compared to Morrowind, Oblivion threw the main quest right in your face and let you know exactly what you needed to do. Some of the user-made stuff is nice. Better skies, thicker forests, better water, improved map and inventory, henchmen. That stuff held my attention longer than the pay-per-download mods.

[mussa]

is there easier ways to get from town to town? thats a long ass haul between towns even on horseback.

[SD_Eagle5]

X-box 360 has had many issue's with breaking. I think everyone i know who had a 360, had one that died on them.

Had mine for over a year and never had a problem

[Seabiscuit36]

I had a Launch Day 360 that got the 3 rings of death, but the replacement MS sent me works great