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Xbox360 Kiosk...

polycounter lvl 18
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sonic polycounter lvl 18
Has anyone had a chance to check out the 360 kiosks they got set up at Walmarts around the US?

Friend and I were at Walmart as it was being set up. First thing I saw was the fuckin massive AC adaptor! I mean wow, that thing is huge!

There were 3 playable demos: King Kong, Kameo, and COD:2.
Before I start talking about the games, I'd like to say that supposedly many people are seeing different things on different systems. Some think that they set up many of the systems wrong, so this is what I saw.

First, Kameo. I've been excited about this game since it's first gameplay video, yet I was disappointed to say the least. There were noticable jaggies (remember that free AA the 360 was promised?), and the gameplay was extremely simple and boring. A lot of the normals looked good and the design was unique, but the gameplay was awful.

Next was COD2. I had lots of hopes for this, seeing as how I loved the demo for the PC and thought it looked great, save the low res textures in certain areas. First thing I noticed was how damn smooth the game was. 60+ fps with the occasional drop, but nothing really noticable. Besides the terrible amount of jaggies, it looked comparable to the PC version, if not worse, which isn't really too bad of a thing.

Lastly, King Kong. I almost shit myself when I saw the insane amount of aliasing. The rain effect was great, and the normals were done pretty well, but holy fuck!, everything looks like it had razors coming off the sides of it.

The controller is comfortable, although the plastic feels a bit cheap for some reason, I really like the firmness in the new triggers and the general feel. Probably the best thing about the console.

In the end, I was underwhelmed. With all the hype and footage I had seen, I was really expecting better. The whole free AA thing was a joke. Although stunning graphics really aren't my main concern with consoles, I can't stand all those monstrous fucking jaggies in all 3 games! I hope something is cleaned up for launch, because it was bad enough for me to remove my preorder.

And before anyone calls me a Sony fanboy tongue.gif, I modded Xboxs as a job for over a year, played Halo competitively, and have never loved a console more than my Xbox. smile.gif

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  • Joshua Stubbles
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    Joshua Stubbles polycounter lvl 19
    Not sure how you can say the plastic feels cheap. I thought it was quite nice...
    Although these current titles have alising present, I'm sure that won't be the case in future games. It's like saying, "why do the first gen PS2 games look like shit, in comparison to the latest releases?" Developers have been rushing to get their games complete for the launch, and have missed many things, more than likely.
    When developers have more familiarity with the final hardware, and it's specific architecture, I'm sure things will start looking much better. smile.gif
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    I agree completely, I just cancelled my preorder due to my new expectations of the launch titles.

    I'll still get one whenever the price and games get better smile.gif.
  • Taimaishu
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    Taimaishu polycounter lvl 18
    Non final builds tend to have low or no anti aliasing, but rest assured that the final version of every Xbox 360 game will have AA. It's one of the requirements MS has in order to approve the game.
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    Isn't that just a simple API call to enable AA? Wouldn't it be worth the trouble for a demo that's supposed to make people buy the game?
  • Frank
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    Frank polycounter lvl 18
    I'm fairly certain modding Xboxes isn't a real job.

    Frank the Avenger
  • Ninjas
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    Ninjas polycounter lvl 18
    Well, I wouldn't be surprised if the games look worse than the hype, and that MS said a bunch of stuff that turns out to be false. Not to single out MS but that is SOP in marketing.
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    I'm fairly certain modding Xboxes isn't a real job.

    Frank the Avenger

    [/ QUOTE ]

    One e-prop to you my friend!
    You showed me!
  • Jeff Parrott
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    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    I'm guessing the geniuses at Wal-Mart installed most of these. Apparently they don't know how to set 720p on a native 720p tv. That's probably why you're noticing really bad jaggies.

    http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6359
  • sonic
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    sonic polycounter lvl 18
    A representative from Microsoft installed the one here, and I swear to you it's in 720p. But I have heard of others having a 480i/p signal on theirs. Either way, the resolution shouldn't affect the AA. Even though jaggies disappear with higher resolution, the AA should be unaffected.
  • gauss
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    gauss polycounter lvl 18
    surprise! the next generation is made out of the same stuff as before, just a little better. not ponies and rainbows and holographic 3D magic as advertised.
  • Scott Ruggels
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    Scott Ruggels polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    surprise! the next generation is made out of the same stuff as before, just a little better. not ponies and rainbows and holographic 3D magic as advertised.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Awwwwwww man!!! You're so mean!! Someone please tell the publishers, before they kill the developers?

    Scott
  • Jeff Parrott
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    Jeff Parrott polycounter lvl 19
    I'd be happy with puppy dogs and sunshine.
  • PaK
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    PaK polycounter lvl 18
    On the PS2 AA is a pain in the ass AND it sucks cuz it slows down the entire machine by alot.

    AA with direct X is easy to impliment, so i agree KDR, it makes no sense why they wiouldnt just 'turn on' that feature.

    But just for the sake of argument: usually the features that don't hault production are completed towards the end of a production cycle.

    Wishlist and low priority features that don't hault production are left until the critical path items have been completed...like tri stripping, or soft stencil shadows :P (which i love btw) These change the way production goes, and are usually on top of the list.

    For some of the games I have worked on they draft tech to figure out the footprint and flesh it out later. As a footprint is critical path for resource intensive features..but sometjhines the fetaure itself isnt...if that makes any sense.

    -R
  • Keg
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    Keg polycounter lvl 18
    apparently the 360's wireless is interfering with walmarts wireless network (scanners and shit)
  • Moz
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    Moz polycounter lvl 18
    [ QUOTE ]
    apparently the 360's wireless is interfering with walmarts wireless network (scanners and shit)

    [/ QUOTE ]

    It's seaking out enemies
  • KDR_11k
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    KDR_11k polycounter lvl 18
    That's the Rev jammer MS built in, any Nintendo wireless within 500m of the XBox 360 will fail, unfortunately it tends to jam other communication as well.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    [ QUOTE ]
    Non final builds tend to have low or no anti aliasing, but rest assured that the final version of every Xbox 360 game will have AA. It's one of the requirements MS has in order to approve the game.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    Um, you realise that this console is coming out next month right? Some of the games have gone gold and I'm currently making ads to convince people to buy the games that they want to sell BEFORE the console comes out!
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