I need to get a 360 or a ps3, I'm not too excited about the design of the 'new' 360 (it doesn't have a name, which is silly). But you can't complain about (hopefully) better cooling, less noise, wifi, bigger HDD. but the power brick is still huge, and it is kinda an uglier version of the original ps3 and the black wii.
perhaps it's time for me to finally get a 360, though my money would likely be better spent on a neo geo... seriously, neo geo is the shit!
i like the new design. it looks more like a stealth fighter instead of a commercial airliner with its sharp angles and lack of curves. apparently the front buttons don't require touching either which seems like it could be accidentally triggered easily. i'm also not crazy about the shiny black finish as we all know how badly it attracts fingerprints, and matte would be way cooler for that stealthy look anyway.
it's also clearly meant to stand up which makes me wonder if they fixed the problem with it destroying discs in that configuration.
They pulled a new, improved version of their hardware out on an unsuspecting populace. For the video game players, this is all well and good. Their might be a little regret for anyone who bought a 360 in the past month or so. But the rest of us certainly don't mind having more options.
But this was a royally dick move for retailers. Microsoft managed to keep this under wraps for a good long time. Now stores across North America are going to have heaps of older, inferior 360s sitting around at the same price as the newer, shinier models. Stores are going to have to steeply discount their outdated 360s just to get rid of them. If this announcement had come along with a price reduction on the older models, it would have eased the transition somewhat. As it stands, this is going to piss off a lot of retailers. And with new hardware that Microsoft wants to move for this year's holiday season, they can't afford to fall out of grace with brick-and-mortar.
When Sony announced the PS3-slim, they gave retailers more than a month to clear out older stock. And the feature set of the PS3 slim was not far removed from the original PS3. Plenty of people were willing to accept a slight price cut or a packed-in game to get a PS3 fat instead of a PS3 slim. They also announced the PS3 slim alongside a fat price reduction for the original model as well as the new model. That was the proper way to handle a new console model without upsetting the retail chain.
As far as the Kinect goes, I want to see a new River City Ransom game for it.
They pulled a new, improved version of their hardware out on an unsuspecting populace. For the video game players, this is all well and good. Their might be a little regret for anyone who bought a 360 in the past month or so. But the rest of us certainly don't mind having more options.
But this was a royally dick move for retailers. Microsoft managed to keep this under wraps for a good long time. Now stores across North America are going to have heaps of older, inferior 360s sitting around at the same price as the newer, shinier models. Stores are going to have to steeply discount their outdated 360s just to get rid of them. If this announcement had come along with a price reduction on the older models, it would have eased the transition somewhat. As it stands, this is going to piss off a lot of retailers. And with new hardware that Microsoft wants to move for this year's holiday season, they can't afford to fall out of grace with brick-and-mortar.
When Sony announced the PS3-slim, they gave retailers more than a month to clear out older stock. And the feature set of the PS3 slim was not far removed from the original PS3. Plenty of people were willing to accept a slight price cut or a packed-in game to get a PS3 fat instead of a PS3 slim. They also announced the PS3 slim alongside a fat price reduction for the original model as well as the new model. That was the proper way to handle a new console model without upsetting the retail chain.
As far as the Kinect goes, I want to see a new River City Ransom game for it.
Last I checked Gamestop already has a "trade in your old xbox and another thing to get the new one" deal going.
Also I'd the strange if Microsoft marketers just RANDOMLY decides to drop this without even thinking about informing retailers about it first. How else could they be in stores within this week? I'm pretty sure Microsoft let some retail chains know about it before everyone else. People were just good at keeping their mouth shut.
Also this is honestly not enough of a reason to hope they fail.
I'm pretty sure Microsoft let some retail chains know about it before everyone else. People were just good at keeping their mouth shut.
Also this is honestly not enough of a reason to hope they fail.
People are never good at keeping their mouths shut. Have you seen any big sales on the older XBox 360 hardware recently? Because I haven't. If they had given the major retail chains even a few weeks prior warning, they would have been scrambling to empty their current stock. No, I'm thinking if Microsoft clued anyone in to this announcement, it was only a few days ago, certainly no more than one week.
I don't necessarily think they should fail. It was Marshall Bannana who said that. I am just pointing out that this surprise announcement strategy is very risky.
RK... They did say there was a price cut on all the older consoles though...
Wasn't that just for the Arcade models though? I'm pretty sure the previous Elite models aren't being dropped in price. (the most comparable models to the new version)
They're dropping the price of the old 360s, so they aren't that inferior (they will miss some features like built in wifi... which costs $60), they're more affordable. Sure, they may not be reflective, have angled vents, a touch button, or a new hard drive configuration that isnt compatible with all their harddrives they sell for it... but its the "Apple" way. The people who must have it, will get it, while the older versions get marked down, so everyone else who either didn't, or couldn't own one can now.
I'm super stoked, I still have my launch 360, with a vrry small harddrive. can finally get a new one, and start playing games again. I havent been able too, since i procrastinate with getting a new HD Monster Hunter 3 also gets in the way, if only they'd release it for the 360!!!!
I find it hard to believe that Microsoft would do this without helping subsidize the discount. Either way, why upset on behalf of retailers? As far as we know Microsoft cut a deal with the corporate guys at major retailers and just didn't pass the word all the way down the line to franchisees to prevent leaks, and hasn't made a formal announcement because they want to keep the consumer focus on their shiny new hardware.
Actually, it's 'cause I'm still mad at Microsoft for buying out Caligari, and then pretty much immediately cutting their funding and killing Truespace and its community.
What's wrong with them? I don't touch the cars, so I haven't noticed anything immediately wrong with them.
The colours for the them are always washed out in comparison to the real car (desaturated). I discovered the same problem when rendering my cars in mental ray. The problem was the transparency map was greyscale, and would reduce the saturation of the texture in trade for transparency. The fix was using the inverted colour of the texture along with a weight map to control the tranparency.
I don't know what the game engine is capable of so I'm not sure what would be causing the washed out colours. I know it's been doing this since forza2. Not sure about forza1 since I haven't touched that in ages :P
I wonder how long it will be till Microsoft releases a "wand controler" for Kinect. I doubt it will be too long. I just cant see the system being viable for anything but games you wave your hands at the TV and games on rails.
I like the whole minority report style of it all but you need a controller to actually have real gameplay.
Replies
i like the new design. it looks more like a stealth fighter instead of a commercial airliner with its sharp angles and lack of curves. apparently the front buttons don't require touching either which seems like it could be accidentally triggered easily. i'm also not crazy about the shiny black finish as we all know how badly it attracts fingerprints, and matte would be way cooler for that stealthy look anyway.
it's also clearly meant to stand up which makes me wonder if they fixed the problem with it destroying discs in that configuration.
I hope it does. They deserve it.
They pulled a new, improved version of their hardware out on an unsuspecting populace. For the video game players, this is all well and good. Their might be a little regret for anyone who bought a 360 in the past month or so. But the rest of us certainly don't mind having more options.
But this was a royally dick move for retailers. Microsoft managed to keep this under wraps for a good long time. Now stores across North America are going to have heaps of older, inferior 360s sitting around at the same price as the newer, shinier models. Stores are going to have to steeply discount their outdated 360s just to get rid of them. If this announcement had come along with a price reduction on the older models, it would have eased the transition somewhat. As it stands, this is going to piss off a lot of retailers. And with new hardware that Microsoft wants to move for this year's holiday season, they can't afford to fall out of grace with brick-and-mortar.
When Sony announced the PS3-slim, they gave retailers more than a month to clear out older stock. And the feature set of the PS3 slim was not far removed from the original PS3. Plenty of people were willing to accept a slight price cut or a packed-in game to get a PS3 fat instead of a PS3 slim. They also announced the PS3 slim alongside a fat price reduction for the original model as well as the new model. That was the proper way to handle a new console model without upsetting the retail chain.
As far as the Kinect goes, I want to see a new River City Ransom game for it.
Also I'd the strange if Microsoft marketers just RANDOMLY decides to drop this without even thinking about informing retailers about it first. How else could they be in stores within this week? I'm pretty sure Microsoft let some retail chains know about it before everyone else. People were just good at keeping their mouth shut.
Also this is honestly not enough of a reason to hope they fail.
People are never good at keeping their mouths shut. Have you seen any big sales on the older XBox 360 hardware recently? Because I haven't. If they had given the major retail chains even a few weeks prior warning, they would have been scrambling to empty their current stock. No, I'm thinking if Microsoft clued anyone in to this announcement, it was only a few days ago, certainly no more than one week.
I don't necessarily think they should fail. It was Marshall Bannana who said that. I am just pointing out that this surprise announcement strategy is very risky.
Wasn't that just for the Arcade models though? I'm pretty sure the previous Elite models aren't being dropped in price. (the most comparable models to the new version)
I'm super stoked, I still have my launch 360, with a vrry small harddrive. can finally get a new one, and start playing games again. I havent been able too, since i procrastinate with getting a new HD
http://kotaku.com/5563430/xbox-360-drops-price-on-tuesday-morning
I find it hard to believe that Microsoft would do this without helping subsidize the discount. Either way, why upset on behalf of retailers? As far as we know Microsoft cut a deal with the corporate guys at major retailers and just didn't pass the word all the way down the line to franchisees to prevent leaks, and hasn't made a formal announcement because they want to keep the consumer focus on their shiny new hardware.
The colours for the them are always washed out in comparison to the real car (desaturated). I discovered the same problem when rendering my cars in mental ray. The problem was the transparency map was greyscale, and would reduce the saturation of the texture in trade for transparency. The fix was using the inverted colour of the texture along with a weight map to control the tranparency.
I don't know what the game engine is capable of so I'm not sure what would be causing the washed out colours. I know it's been doing this since forza2. Not sure about forza1 since I haven't touched that in ages :P
I like the whole minority report style of it all but you need a controller to actually have real gameplay.
Need Natal/Move hybrid.