XBOX 360, PS3 & Revolution - News & stuff

[terminallyrelaxed]

Trailer for the MTV 'event':

http://www.xboxusersgroup.com/MTV-Xbox.mov

There also apparently a new image on the ourcolony.net website but I'll be fucked it I can remember how to log in, somone else will have to get it.

With just a few weeks to go until Xbox 360 is unveiled, a new teaser trailer for the MTV special has been released.

There's not an awful lot to see - a bunch of trendy youngsters, a lot of shiny skyscrapers and what looks like a giant lump of kryptonite floating about the place - but if you want to take a peek, it's available via the Xbox users group (direct link, QuickTime required).

The MTV special will be shown in the US on May 12 and in the UK on May 13, starting at 8pm. It will feature performances from contemporary popular beat combo The Killers and will be presented by Frodo Baggins.

Slightly more revealing is a new picture that's appeared on Xbox 360 viral site ourcolony.net. It seems to be a picture of the console, though from what angle is anybody's guess, and suggests that we can expect the new machine to sport a shiny chrome casing.

There's also a picture of what's said to be an Xbox 360 development kit knocking around, but it looks an awful lot like a Mac with some Microsoft labels stuck on it to us. However, there's been talk of Mac-shaped dev kits in the past, so maybe, just maybe...

Ctrl-V, but we'll keep you posted. Sorry, I mean: Microsoft was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but we'll keep you posted.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58739

That was as of 2 das ago, anyway...

Also:

Multiple Xbox's planned, one with web-TV?

Microsoft's is still planning to ship two different versions of its Xbox 360 console at launch, according to sources close to the company - while reports suggest that the high-end version may feature the firm's WebTV system.

It's long been thought that Microsoft plans to ship two different Xbox 360 bundles, one with a hard drive and one without, and give users the option of upgrading the low-end system with a hard drive accessory.

Sources close to the firm have confirmed this week that there's much talk of two distinct price points, which seems to indicate that this is still the plan for launch - while a report on well-connected gaming blog Kotaku gives an indication of how the two different models will be differentiated.

The site reports that the basic edition of Xbox 360 - the version without the hard drive - will not have backwards compatibility, while the "premium" version with the hard drive will ship with Microsoft's WebTV functionality built-in.

WebTV is Microsoft's effort at bringing internet communication and media functionality to the living room, and includes basic functionality such as web, e-mail and IM access along with the ability to stream music and video channels from the 'net or from local PCs.

Integrating the system with Xbox 360 would be a logical move, and a major land-grab for Microsoft in this space - which is tipped to become more important in the coming years as increasing amounts of content are broadcast over the Internet as opposed to over traditional TV networks.

A major question mark over the possibility of a the two-tier Xbox launch, however, lies with the question of customised content - one of J Allard's most vaunted goals for the new system - and how that would tie in with a low-end Xbox 360 without a mass storage device.

One part of the answer to that question is the inclusion of a high-capacity solid state memory device with the system, which wouldn't be large enough to store music or movies in any significant volume - or to act as a cache for Xbox games, as the existing Xbox' hard drive does - but would be able to act as a cache customised game assets.

Indeed, last year Israeli flash memory specialist M-Systems confirmed that it is working on a memory solution for Xbox 2, with CEO Dov Moran stating that "when users want to save their e-mail messages, copy music, or anything like that, the only storage they'll have is what we give them."

Another part of the answer to that question may come from Kotaku's sources, who indicated to the site that around 80 per cent of the systems produced for launch would be the "premium" version - suggesting that the lower-end model is, more than anything else, a concession to launching a competitively priced "games only" system.

Sony is also widely expected to launch multiple versions of the PlayStation 3 console, which is due to arrive in 2006, with both "home media server" and stripped down "basic console" versions believed to be on the cards.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=58696

[terminallyrelaxed]

So it looks like, to have full gaming functionality out of the new machine, you have to have the media centre model. So leaving yourself open to all the usual windows bollocks like viruses and backdoors and downloading fucking service packs and hotfixes.

[wheatgod]

pretty much confirmed photos, courtesy of gamesradar:

[InfiniteFury]

My eye-sight is shocking -  does that say 40GB on the left side of the bottom picture. Presumably that's the hard-drive attachment.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Phhwwoooooaaaarrrrrrr!

I like it.

I guess that '40GB' display thing is on an inserted hard drive, which begs the question of whats that thing on the right in the top picture?

Did they already say that that the controllers would be wireless or am I imagining that? The picture of the controller on the previous page has no cable, but if not they'll have to go in that flap or round the back.

edit: also a built in infra-red receiver is a giveaway for wireless buitl-in, too, I'd say.

[Regular John]

The flap on the right is probably a recharging port for the controllers!

I think the IR receiver is for built in DVD playback and media center (sic) functions as the 360 name is supposed to represent an all-in-one entertainment box.

[terminallyrelaxed]

I think they're giving you the option of having it upright there, with the right had side being the bottom - you-re hardly going to put it down on top of the hard drive and its display are you. Also the power symbol is only the right way up that way.

[m...wW(wwMww)Ww...m]

Well, certainly looks a lot prettier than the first one.  And smaller too.

[VegaLA]

Hmmmmm... maybe i'll be getting this a bit sooner than I planned. It will personally cost me a fortune though, i'll have to buy all new toys to go from Black to silver.....

[A Passing Turk Slipper]

That is pretty damn sexy. How much do you guys reckon this is going to cost?

[Huzzie]

I think they're giving you the option of having it upright there, with the right had side being the bottom - you-re hardly going to put it down on top of the hard drive and its display are you. Also the power symbol is only the right way up that way.

Yeah, I thought that and strangeley, the eject button is on it's side on the bottom pic while being on it's arse on the top pic. The two pics are probs the 2 different box's that will come out and it looks like the eject button can be turned in the way the Ps2 icon can.

[RFT]

That is pretty damn sexy. How much do you guys reckon this is going to cost?

we kind of discussed this earlier in the thread.

With the current rumours of there being 2 variants- a barebones one without a hard drive and a high-spec on with HD, WebTV etc, I reckon
200-250 for the cheap one, 250-300 for the expensive one.

anything above 300 would be asking for trouble, particularly as MS couldn;r maintain the original Xbox at £300 for more than a month.

market conditions are slightly different (Xbox 1 launched against an established PS2 user base, Xbox 360 is leading the new generation), but I think £300 is about as much as you can get way with charging for any console these days.

part if the problem (particularly for MS) is going to be that the games running on the new hardware aren't going to look mind-blowingly better than what's gone before. A graphically top-end current xbox title (Jade Empire, Outrun 2, fable) looks so good these days that generation improvement may just be limited to polish...

[InfiniteFury]

edit

[Regular John]

With Microsoft owning Rare, and one of the launch titles expected to be Perfect Dark Zero, I expect at least that one game to be pushing the machine to somewhere near it's limits.

Obviously as the deveopers learn how to use the architecture better then things will become more optimised but I fully expect PD0 to be gorgeous!

[VegaLA]

Here's another angle....

F@ckers took the image offline !!

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

That's K9!

So how is it that the X-Box games can be developed to exceed the previous ones?  The previews of Half Life 2 said "it would take four X-Box consoles to get it (the PC version) to run, but we've got it to work".  So how do they get increased power (graphical, CPU usage etc) out of a console that isn't upgraded?

It's like the new Splinter Cell is (supposedly) graphically better than the previous 2 (although I can see it myself)...

I guess it's improved coding?

[The Man With Brass Eyes]

Another thing, about those X-Box 2 pictures.
I wonder if they've been "leaked" by MS to put the scent off the real console design.  Afterall they are renders and not photos.  It would be clever stuff indeed if that was the case.
And even if they were real, I'd bet they were released straight from Microsoft - as we're only deliberately seeing tantalising sections.

[InfiniteFury]

The shiny one with the huge green reset button is a pre-production render, however the other picture is the real thing.

The images were circulated to the mags/websites under a press embargo recently - however, since they've been leaked, a few publications have confirmed that they match the content that they had under wraps.

[Regular John]

That's K9!

So how is it that the X-Box games can be developed to exceed the previous ones?  The previews of Half Life 2 said "it would take four X-Box consoles to get it (the PC version) to run, but we've got it to work".  So how do they get increased power (graphical, CPU usage etc) out of a console that isn't upgraded?

It's like the new Splinter Cell is (supposedly) graphically better than the previous 2 (although I can see it myself)...

I guess it's improved coding?

Yeah basically. Better compression techniques for assets (models, textures and sound) and more efficient procedures for the fancy stuff like lighting or shaders leave additional memory and CPU/GPU power to make it all the more fancy like.

[VegaLA]

New logo has been exposed. Not long now till the MTV feature !!

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/8189/Xbox-360-Logo-Revealed-at-MTV-Show-Taping/

[terminallyrelaxed]

www.ourcolony.net

XBOX 360 preview video is up there, if this hasn't already been posted in Game Releases....

Sounds extremely bloody nice....

Basically go to our colony to log in and it will offer you a zip file with a 30Mb movie which is basically an extended infomercial with lots of enthusing and chucked-in statistics, but all in all it looks gorgeous. Live out of the box, video messaging, 3 CPUs - although I found it a bit comical when the guy was having an orgasm about 512 RAM....

[terminallyrelaxed]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4541961.stm

[Timmay]

"Water cooled heatsink solution?"

Eh? Sounds a bit much for just a bladdy console. 2:18 into the video if you were interested.

[terminallyrelaxed]

Yeah I heard that. I thought it was pretty much par for the course with PC processors these days.
Hey, maybe it can put itself out in the event of catching fire....

[Space ghost]

D'ya think you'll be able to fast forward and rewind the music tracks you've stored on the hard disc this time around, eh? EH?

[terminallyrelaxed]

Launch Games:

Call of Duty 2
Quake 4
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
Madden NFL 06
Need For Speed: Most Wanted
Ghost Recon 3 (shown)
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06
The Darkness
NBA 2K6
Perfect Dark Zero
Kameo: Elements of Power
Project Gotham Racing 3
Gears of War
Saint's Row

[terminallyrelaxed]

Aha! "All xbox 360 games will be live-enabled" - try and wriggle out of online gaming now, you Tiger-Woods-ruining EA cunts.

[RFT]

live-enabled isn't neccesarily the same thing thing as live-playable...

[terminallyrelaxed]

Yeah, I know, but I refuse to believe they won't make the next one Live playable, I mean they are'nt imbeciles are they? Otherwise they might as well call it 'Yet Again, Buy Links Instead 06'.

[wheatgod]

that preview video on ourcolony.net was HILARIOUS
"check out how goofy us designer people are!!"
the "SURROUND SOUND" bit did raise a genuine chuckle, though.

spot the original xbox games being played? seems like a nod towards backwards compatability, and apparently you can see "Xbox 1 Zone" somewhere or other.