X-Box, I know it ain't a PC game but what's the

big deal with this new X-Box 360?

I'm not a real gamer, but from the little bit I've heard this sounds interesting.

 

It's just a poor man's PC. I get tired of them stating it's so much more powerful than a PC when my one Pentium-M does some 8 commands per cycle and their 3 IBM cheapo processors do a total of 6 commands per cycle. I've got more ram and a better video card too. They've already butchered Quake 4 to consolize it and although a few of the XBox260 games look interesting, I'll wait for a while to even consider buying. It's just too expensive. The price for performance and $60 games do not interest me either. Prices are going up but development time keeps getting shorter thus making poorer games. That and a lot of the games coming out right now are just recycling old ideas. There's very few that stand out as different or polished.

 

Not everyone has money to be shelling out 100-200 bucks for a graphics card every other month. You cant discount it because it does not measure up to your PC. Thats just asinine. Its all about the software, and the xbox 360 has some great games. Not everyone can afford to beef up their computer or buy a new one to play games like Elder Scrolls Oblivion on PC. Stop being so narrow minded.

 

With a PC you don't need to shell out 100-200 bucks every other months for a graphics card. Only if you are a freak.

 

For an xbox 360 although the hardware is not as powerful, it does not have any "background processes" or anything to interfere with the game, therefore there will be no lag or anything... Halo 2 and Doom 3 which is quite demanding can be played smoothly on an original xbox. (The original xbox only have 64MB of ram)

 

Oh man you are so wrong! They are porting games for the Xbox360 to desktops. Let's think about this, if there porting the games from the Xbox360 to desktops then the Xbox is more superior then any desktop out there right now. Heres a link to the specs page.


http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm

 

Wow, so they're using 3 IBM PowerPC cores that process 2 instructions per cycle (total of 6 instructions per cycle) and that's somehow better than a single Pentium-M that does 8 instructions per cycle or an AMD64 X2 that does 16 instructions per cycle?

Oh, and they're using 512mb's of RAM! Oh no, that surely can't compete with a laptop or desktop equipped with 1GB or 2GB's of RAM like my system uses! And don't forget the additional 256MB of video RAM too.

And wow, games on the Xbox260 will run at 720p or 1080i! That's like 1280x720 or 1460x1080! Oh wait, my laptop and desktop operate at 1920x1200. Uh oh, better than the Xbox260 again.

No hard drive for the Xbox260? I've got a 60GB drive and my desktop has a 2x80GB's and 1x30GB. Got ya beat again there too.

And your memory bandwidth is 22.4 GB/s? Mine is 32.2 GB/s! Ouch.

The XBox260 is not the most powerful machine in computing. It does have a lot of power, yes, but it cannot stand up to the leading edge computers of this year and last. Do your homework.

 

No, actually it means the opposite. You can port games from a slower machine to a faster one, but never the opposite, since a game designed to run on a fast machine will choke on the slow one. Can a PC emulate a SNES? Yes. Can a SNES emulate a PC? No. So, the fact that they are porting XBox->PC would suggest that the PC is more powerful.

 

There is too much hype about the 'power' of the XBox360. People do not take things with more than face value. Sure, it has a tri-core processor, but it is extremely primitive - I saw a test where they put the tri-core in the Xbox up to some regular PC-tasks - they were so slow it was nearly impossible to perform anything, where a regular CPU, such as a Pentium 4 or Athlon 64, does without even thinking about it.

My Pentium M processor will beat out the XBox without breaking a sweat, and my graphics card will too. I can play games at 1680x1050 without any problems - the XBox can only manage 1460x1080? Come on.

Consoles cannot compete with PC's - it's an entirely different arena.

 

I think as a console it will be pretty awesome, but imho the styling looks kinda dumb! Its design just doesn't make as strong a statement as that of the original xbox or the gamecube!

 

I would consider buying any of the systems if the games are good, but ideally I want to stay on PC. I'm starting to get on a budget here so spending like crazy on new systems is not something I'm very interested in doing, especially when they're really expensive. That and soon I'll be able to make games by myself. The hype for these new consoles is just unreal though, especially coming from Microsoft. Way way too much in-your-face advertising. It's excessive.

 

Yes, if you compare the 360 to the leading edge in PC hardware, the 360 will lose. BUT, if you compare similarily priced PC hardware to the 360, the 360 trouces it. What can you get in a $400 PC? Not a whole lot, and certainly not something that will be able to play gemes 3 or 4 years down the road.

The bottom line? Certain genres of games are better on the PC, and that won't change in the near future. Similarily, other genres of games are better on consoles. I see PC gaming as not in competition with console gaming, but rather complementing it.

 

never thought of it that way.

 

No, you can't get a lot for a $400 PC. You can get quite a good bit for an $800 PC though. At the end of that 3 or 4 year timespan it can be resold as well for a salvage value of around $200. The console is cheaper, but the next iteration of major game consoles will likely close the gap or turn things the other way around. You also would not see as much salvage value from a console at the end of its lifespan though. I'm going to question an exception on Nintendo products though since they never seem to break.

I would not dispute this nor call it law either. When the day comes that they figure out how to combine a PC, console, and the rest of the home entertainment stuff all into one box that you can still get mods, develop for as a user, and afford while having quality games, then that'll be the day. I look forward to something like that. But that would rip into their profits so it's likely not to happen for a long long time.

 

Also, don't forget that every xbox will have the same configuration (Obviously) so developers can tune games specifically for the hardware, they don't need to cope with 50 different graphics cards and different amounts of memory.

 

That doesnt surprise me, it also wouldnt surprise me if a lot of people also didnt think about that either, because thats basically the whole point of buying a console over a top notch computer. You dont have to keep pumping money into in order to keep it "top notch". When you buy it, its gonna be good for about 3 or 4 years, depending on whenever the next generation comes out. But with computers during those same 3-4 years in order to keep making your computer being able to run top notch and run new games you have to buy newer graphics cards, maybe bump up the RAM, plus your still spending money on the games themselves.

So figure, and this is being VERY generous, you want to keep your computer running top notch, lets say you buy 2 new games a year, thats about $100 dollars right there. Now figure you buy a new graphics card in order to run these new games, so lets say you buy one new graphics card during those 3-4 years ( thats also being VERY generous) and lets say that costs $100 (again generous).

Ok so just with those estimations lets add it all up and go with 3 years instead of 4 years. Thats roughly $400 alone to be able to buy games and play them the way they were meant to be played. And all this is without figuring if you buy more RAM or other upgrades as well. In the long run, its just not worth it.
With consoloes you know what you are buying, it wont need upgrades or optional cards to make it play games the way they were meant. Thats why PC gaming will never really overtake console gaming. Im a fan of both, so dont take this as some biased opinion, I play consoles and play PC games on my laptop.

 

I was a die-hard PC gamer for a while, but got tired of playing catch-up all the time with my PC Config. Sure, I can build a maxed out PC today, but in a year, if I want to play the latest games at the maxed resolutions, I'll need to be upgrading at least my video card, and maybe other components as well.

A console is, more or less, a one-time smaller investment, and the trade off is that it generally has a life-span of 3-4 years before the graphics start becoming somewhat dated compared to PCs. You also don't have the same control options as with a PC (no flight sims - not enough buttons), but the benefit is you don't spend hours tweaking and re-tweaking your config to get the most out of your games, or upgrading your PC - real plug and play.

Now, the XBox360 will be taking the Xbox to the next level not just in terms of graphics and processing power, but the whole online multi-player interactive experience via the Live service. It's a package deal now, as a basic 'Silver' membership in the Live service is included for no charge. With a broadband connection, there is immediate online play available, including matchmaking services & 'friend' lists, simple built-in voice chat, the ability to see which friends are online and which game they're playing, stat tracking and comparisons, and more all from a common interface across all games, and even the Xbox.com website and forums. In addition, being a closed system, there's alot less hacking and a much more level playing field when online. Throw in the Media Extender functionality of the Xbox360 and there's a whole lot in that little package for $300-400 (whether you like the styling or not), so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it too quickly...wait and see.

-Lee
MS MVP, Xbox

 

Honestly, I believe we can compare the new release of the xbox as to a new graphics card for the pc...only in the console world, it takes years for a newer version while in the pc world...months..even weeks.....each has it's own advantage with different games...but one isn't better than the other..... it's just a matter of personal choice.... Do u want Halo 3? or do you want WOW?