more on Xbox 360 revealed

[NEXT BOX]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/gossip/xbox-2/xbox-360-revealed-033435.php
"Not everyone has to wait around to hear details of Microsoft's sexy new
Xbox 360-and now, thanks to Kotaku, neither do you. An exclusive Kotaku
source has revealed a bevy of facts about the next-generation console set to
rock the Xbox world.

The original Xbox was a manly chunk of square black-and-green plastic meant
to win over a generation of hardcore male gamers. The Xbox 360° will be
about winning over gamers of all persuasions, with a customizable look and a
kindler, gentler Circle of Light marketing campaign.

Our inside source says that the console is a sleek silver device worthy of
countertop display, and features an inhaled design that turns the harsh
angles of the original Xbox into sweeps and curves. The device will also be
able to stand upright or on it's side, much like the Playstation 2. The side
of the 360° is dominated by an oversized, back-lit power button called the
ring of light, and the rest of the case can be customized with colorful
designer face plates that pop on and off. The 360°s dashboard will also be
customizable, making each console a thing totally unique to its owner.

Some of the inner workings of the 360° have also been confirmed. The device
will feature high definition audio and video and wireless controllers, and
will come in two flavors-one with a hard drive and one without. The biggest
shock is that while Microsoft wants to make their 360° backwards compatible,
they haven't yet been able to pull it off.

"They're working on it," said our source.

I wasn't able to get any pictures of the 360°, but Gizmodo's Joel was kind
enough to do a mock-up of it's face plate for us."

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/images/360mock1.jpg

 

[Doug Jacobs]

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/gossip/xbox-2/xbox-360-revealed-033435.php
"Not everyone has to wait around to hear details of Microsoft's sexy new
Xbox 360-and now, thanks to Kotaku, neither do you. An exclusive Kotaku
source has revealed a bevy of facts about the next-generation console set to
rock the Xbox world.

The original Xbox was a manly chunk of square black-and-green plastic meant
to win over a generation of hardcore male gamers. The Xbox 360? will be
about winning over gamers of all persuasions, with a customizable look and a
kindler, gentler Circle of Light marketing campaign.

As a gamer (and a hardcore male gamer, at that) I'm more concerned what's
*inside* the box, than what the box itself looks like. That said, XBox's
design really didn't do anything for me. PS2 is OK, but still not very
impressive (the slim version is pretty slick though.)

Our inside source says that the console is a sleek silver device worthy of
countertop display, and features an inhaled design that turns the harsh
angles of the original Xbox into sweeps and curves. The device will also be

I don't want sweeps and curves - makes it harder to fit into an AV rack,
or stack something else on top of it (not that you could do this with
Xbox..)

able to stand upright or on it's side, much like the Playstation 2. The side
of the 360? is dominated by an oversized, back-lit power button called the
ring of light, and the rest of the case can be customized with colorful
designer face plates that pop on and off. The 360?s dashboard will also be
customizable, making each console a thing totally unique to its owner.

"ring of light"? Good grief. Well, at least the thing sounds like it'll
be easy to turn on/off. As for customizing the face/case - is this really
something people are concerned about? Would this be a deal breaker to not
include? I never understood the need to customize the case. Just let me
play the games and leave me alone.

Some of the inner workings of the 360? have also been confirmed. The device
will feature high definition audio and video and wireless controllers, and
will come in two flavors-one with a hard drive and one without. The biggest
shock is that while Microsoft wants to make their 360? backwards compatible,
they haven't yet been able to pull it off.

"They're working on it," said our source.

That'll be interesting. The architecture of the XBox360 is totally
different from the Xbox's. The only reason the PS2 is backwards
compatible is because it contains the guts of a PS1 on a single chip
inside the PS2. Somehow I don't think Microsoft will be able to such a
thing with XBox360 (for one thing, Intel probably won't let them!)

Standard wireless controllers sound good though.

And how are they going to handle having 2 models of the Xbox floating
around? If it's a low-end/high-end type of thing, that's just going to
cause confusion among consumers - especially when (not if!) games start
appearing that won't work on one model or another.

I wasn't able to get any pictures of the 360?, but Gizmodo's Joel was kind
enough to do a mock-up of it's face plate for us."

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/images/360mock1.jpg

So from black, boxy, and green to silver, rounded and green. I really
don't care to have a shiny-chrome/silver thing in my AV stack. Flat black
is just fine. And lose the green. It's like that sickly zombie green you
see in bad horror flicks whenever someone plays around with radiation or
toxic waste.

 

[Rene Garcia]

"ring of light"? Good grief. Well, at least the thing sounds like it'll
be easy to turn on/off.

Look at the bright side, at least you won't need a night light.

 

[Scott]

So from black, boxy, and green to silver, rounded and green. I really
don't care to have a shiny-chrome/silver thing in my AV stack. Flat black
is just fine. And lose the green. It's like that sickly zombie green you
see in bad horror flicks whenever someone plays around with radiation or
toxic waste.

I thought you just said you didn't care what it looked like!!!
;-)

All I want to know is: If one model has a hard drive - what's it gonna be
used for? Media centre type device? PVR? Xbox Live!? What? Any ideas people?

Scott

 

[Mike Kay]

I thought you just said you didn't care what it looked like!!!
;-)

All I want to know is: If one model has a hard drive - what's it gonna be
used for? Media centre type device? PVR? Xbox Live!? What? Any ideas people?

Scott

ok i for 1 will be very dissapointed if the harddisk isnt standard
across all models, optional extras generally mean everything made for
the lowest common denominator & i dont think solid state technology is
cheap or fast enough to do what the xbox 1's harddisk does..

xbox backwards compatibility would be nice, but i am not really bothered

i also hope my existing periferals still work on it, i dont want to
shell out for anotehr FF wheel or light gun...... or extra pads (ok i
know the out of the box one may we wireless but it still shouldnt negate
the use of older wired pads.

however afaik there is no facts offically released yet so fingers crossed.

 

[Dog Bowl]

That'll be interesting. The architecture of the XBox360 is totally
different from the Xbox's. The only reason the PS2 is backwards
compatible is because it contains the guts of a PS1 on a single chip
inside the PS2. Somehow I don't think Microsoft will be able to such a
thing with XBox360 (for one thing, Intel probably won't let them!)

Its the one thing in the article which makes it utter bollocks. Intel
won't be a problem though. There are plenty of intel x86 emulators out.
Its the Nvidia microcode emulator thats the problem. It would be a ****
load of work to get that working. Too many people think "oh its just
direct x". It aint its *far* more than that. On top of that, for
something like a Power PC CPU it will need a good 5x10 times the CPU
power of the Xbox x86 cpu to emulate it. On top of that, the power would
almost certainly be needed in a single core on the CPU as the X86
processor is a single core. Some of the work could be off loaded onto
the other cores (IIRC 3 in total at present). With the core of the xbox
2 almost certainly being around 1.5 ghz (which is about the right price
range for a Power PC CPU) it would be a job and a half. They may push it
to 2ghz but I doubt personally. At 1.5ghz it will be certainly cheaper
to produce wiht a higher yeild and the multi cores will generate a lot
of processing capability.

 

[Dog Bowl]

ok i for 1 will be very dissapointed if the harddisk isnt standard
across all models, optional extras generally mean everything made for
the lowest common denominator & i dont think solid state technology is
cheap or fast enough to do what the xbox 1's harddisk does..

Easily, data through put is generally a little slower than a decent hard
drive, but what really makes up for it is nigh zero seek time. Add to
that say 256meg cards being 10 to 15 quid and with 4 of them you have
enough storage for most game collections.

xbox backwards compatibility would be nice, but i am not really bothered

i also hope my existing periferals still work on it, i dont want to
shell out for anotehr FF wheel or light gun...... or extra pads (ok i
know the out of the box one may we wireless but it still shouldnt negate
the use of older wired pads.

however afaik there is no facts offically released yet so fingers crossed.

Of course with all the talk about wireless pads it seems to have been
forgot that all (at least AFAIK) wireless pads don't have a headset
socket at present. I assume this is a lack of bandwidth on the
controllers to keep the response time up too. I could envisage dual
channel wireless controllers with either a wired headset or blue tooth,
but that again will add extra expense for headsets and the like.