teh Forum

Anyone even notice? I was awakened to the fact that it launches in less than 2 months only a few days ago and have been catching up with the news and rumors.

IGN posted this status report which may help fill you in on the dev cycle.

Pros: Hot as shit graphics and some cool games like Project Gotham 3 and DOA4.

Cons: $$, waiting for the mod chip, and the need for an HDTV to really enjoy the graphics in their full splendor.

I just spotted a video of NBA 2k6 that blew my mind... [here]

that along with the in-car vids of PGR [here (the "off screen" vid)], have got me wanting to pick up a 360.

That PGR video almost made me shat myself! I think that may be the launch title im getting.

The clothing was pretty cool in NBA2K6 as well.

WOW!! I just watched the PGR3 video and I am incredibly excited for that game. It looks better than really driving. I imagine the dirty windshield, while incredibly realistic, is one of those things that might be better turned off.

I'm pretty excited to grab one of these. I'll be waiting until they clear out all the early holiday adopters and auctioneers though. Maybe in January/February I'll pick one up. (I'm going to get a DS soon though, (it's much higher on my list.))

I think the new XBox360 games look great. The real reason I'm so excited though, is that I'll be able to play Azurik again. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! Funny that that game still hold so much value to me. Perhaps it deserved a bit higher of a rating than 6%.

I should play azurik, well I need to beat psychonaughts first actually.

I have a similar motive for getting a PS3, I will finally get to play all those PS2 games that I never could. XBOX 360 comes way higher priority for me though.

Some nice Ridge Racer 6 Screenshots up over at 1up.com. It has been confirmed as a launch title.

Nice, I always liked the Ridge Racer play style. Much more than PGR.

I am a big fan of Kudos - I guess I kinda like em all.

And I'm a big fan of Chuck Norris!
All this talk about Chuck is making me want to get married all over again.

Oh damn...

Torn! i'm so torn! PRG looks nice, but RR is my favorite!

I just like overly fast paced simplistic racing games. That's why I like the NFS games too. If I wanted to drive a real car with real physics and limitations, I'd hop in my car. When I'm playing a racing game, I want to rocket down a winding highway track at what looks like 250MPH against cars named after Namco games and characters. (to wacked out Japanes hardcore music as well) PGR just tries to be too realistic. It's too realistic to satisfy my arcade racing needs, and not realistic enough for me to be happy with it as a simulation. (simulations would still be a very distant last place in terms of games I want to play anyway, (at least where vehicles are concerned.))

I just hope that you appreciate that the car in the Ridge Racer shot is sponsored in part by Phozon.

I couldn't appreciate anything sponsor-related more than I appreciate that. I glad, and I'm glad about THAT.

Have you played Burnout 3? It is a really fun "turbo-always-on" kinda racer. I liked the race modes more than the crash modes - but those are fun too.

Have yet to try it. May have to give it a whirl sometime.

I've been playing burnout 4 actually, burnout three is so last year. Just kidding, I think I actually like 3 better.

Went to check out the Xbox 360 Lounge in Aoyama today. The sound of crickets chirping was louder than the gameplay, but it was cool all the same. Here are some pics.

Exterior:


Logo busting out of the ceiling:


Patron trying out Ridge Racer; I got to play this a bit and it was...very very very nice. Sweet touch that the roof of your car reflected anything you drove by. Lots of varied courses to choose from too. I had to chase away two little boys to play.


Nice living room set-up to try the games out. They also serve alcohol after 5pm.


Some of the "designer" faceplates they had on display everywhere.


There's a pretty funny/accurate review of the opening day by Youngfook over at Gizmodo.

I just noticed that my left pec is larger than my right pec...does that help?

p.s.

Still on the masquerading tip where l2icks0r == |)runken l2icks0r!

Quit yer drunken hijacking!

Gizmodo is pleased to introduce its new Tokyo bureau chief, Yongfook.

hmmm, I wonder what ever happened to the old bureau chief...

That is a great article. This guy is funny.

You could only find a more inappropriate position for the Xbox Lounge if you smashed down the emperor’s palace and built it there instead, whilst all the time calling him “Ching Chong Chinaman Charlie†and beating his wife about the face with your penis.

Hey they could have put it in Ginza. Then really no one would have gone. But I have to agree Akihabara would have made a lot more sense - or even someplace crazy like Odaiba.

Good to hear Ridge Racer was fun. Any more comments about the game(s), controller, etc? You thinking of buying one? Do you agree that MS is setting themselves up for another flop?

Any more comments about the game(s), controller, etc? You thinking of buying one? Do you agree that MS is setting themselves up for another flop?

The controller was not too different from the current one. If anything, it might have been a bit more ball-shaped and slightly larger. I only played one other game...but I forget the name. It's the one set in medieval Japan and you run around a battlefield slicing and dicing huge armies of footsoldiers, etc? Pretty good fun, but boring after awhile. I watched another game where your character is very armadillo-shaped and you roll around a castle (echoes of Marble Madness, Sonic and Katamari); the guy playing it sucked though, so I couldn't tell if the game was any good. He kept rolling around in a corner and laughing at his inability to progress through the game while his girlfriend/date eyed the door.

I think the 360 may do better than the original Xbox, but they should have placed this lounge in Shibuya or Akihabara or Shinjuku. I won't get one right away, but that's more a comment on my lack of available playing time.

Are there any games about drunken forum hijacking?

I think I'm going to wait for the first couple of runs to clear out, a few more titles to show up, and then pick one up. I'm more interested in the Revolution, but I do want a 360 I think. I'm not in a hurry to pick up a new console at all, (which is a good position to be in.) I usually just jump on the opportunity to get a new toy, but there isn't anything significant this time around saying "You MUST have me, look at all the wonderous things I can do!!" Consoles are getting to be a bit like PCs where we are getting small incremental updates rather than huge leaps in performance and features. Every other MAJOR console release cycle had HUGE improvements over the previous generation. Now I'm just seeing a few extra polygons, some antialiasing (and even that is pretty sparse) and some extra light sources. We'll see, hopefully there's a bit of extra power that someone will squeeze out of it and impress me.

Currently the only reason I want the 360 is so I can play Azurik. (I wasn't joking when I posted that elsewhere.)

I feel kinda the same way - coupled with the fact that I don't have a HDTV - manage-a-trois-ed with the fact that I don't have any money. Hmmmm... Add that all up and throw in some don't really have time to play games anyway and you get a solid "which of my friends is gonna buy a 360 so I can at least check it out."

I'll have one by the time a mod chip comes out.

With 360 launching this week, many a review site are posting their thoughts about the models showing up in their mail rooms.

Anandtech has a few nice articles focusing on the tech side of things.
Inside the 360 (learn how to take the bitch apart)
In-Depth with the 360 Motherboard
Older details about the Xenon CPU and Xenos GPU.


Getchyar Serial Bus On...

Wow...I just can't get totally excited anymore about the latest console release with the latest technology...I was at Best Buy today and all I noticed was improved graphics and the outrageous price tag. The only thing that has really caught my eye is Call of Duty 2.

Anyway, it's like there is this never ending battle between PCs and consoles. Whenever a new console comes out it's more powerful than a PC but then later the PC catches up and then a new console comes out and then later the pc catches up...and so on...Eventually it will all just be photo/sound-realistic and then what? I guess it just comes down to the games that are available which will probably be multi-platform...

ack...drunk...

That is why Nintendo has completely jumped off of the graphic-tech-is-god bandwagon. This article gets a bit long but it is a somewhat interesting look at the direction this generation's consoles are heading.

HEE HEE, everyone who has played both says that Call of Duty on the 360 looks like crap compared to the PC version, which also doesn't look that great. Not to mention the very poor control methods available on the 360 for such a game. I tend to agree, but then I'm not into such a game in the first place (so I wouldn't be a fair judge.) I actually don't think any of the games (with the exception of maybe Kameo) look that great, or seem like they'd play that great. Now, if they made Azurik 2, I would kill someone, in front of their own mamma, to get a 360. (or a ten speed... whatever...)

I think Azurik 2 is most likely a long ways off... as in around the time hell freezes. But maybe it would be worth looking into the creative team behind Azurik and seeing if they have been working on any other Adventure games.

Everyone who plays PC games knows that you don't buy a console for first person games. That aside, there certainly are some gaems that are more fun to play relaxing on a couch and looking at a tv. The console vs PC debate is tired. But I think it should be perfectly obvious that more thought needs to go into games that are about more than just pushing polygons.