Paul Chapman
Province
Wireless controllers are just one of many, many extras Xbox has included with the new 360.
On Tuesday the video game world will be making a huge leap into the future.
The Xbox 360 is upon us, and this new machine takes it to another level — bigger than the leap of the first
Xbox, or even from the original PlayStation to PlayStation 2.
The computing power is much bigger, the games faster and the graphics sharper. But the Xbox 360 is not just a little diversion for the nights when Desperate Housewives is in reruns. This is a full-on, grown-up media machine.
Online use is huge, both in gaming through Xbox Live and the 360’s media-centre capabilities. DVDs, music, streaming video from your PC, gaming in single player mode or online with foes from around the world — this is a true multi-media machine.
There are two packages, one for $399, one for $499, with the more expensive one being a way better deal as you get a whole host of extras such as a hard drive, headset and wireless controllers that would cost you much more buying them separately. Don’t be scared off by the price. This is a machine that will be front and centre in your entertainment life for at least five years, if not longer.
The geek speak sounds impressive even if you don’t know what on Earth it means: 3.2 gigahertz, multicore, IBM CPU, a custom ATI graphics chip and multichannel surround sound, a 12x DVD-ROM drive that can read Xbox 360 DVDs and the usual optical media formats, such as DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3 CD, and JPEG Photo CD. You can move files onto the 360 through the USB ports, or through the Media Centre extender capabilities by streaming media over to the box from any Windows PC on your home network.
There’s 512 megabytes of system memory, and an advanced 500MHz ATI graphics chip. The chip has 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines. They tell me today’s PC desktop video cards max out at 16 pipelines, so I know the Xbox 360 is better. How? I don’t know, but those numbers are impressive.
This is good ol’ American technology. Big numbers, big capability. One of the peripherals comes with a 20-gigabyte removable hard drive that stores 300 times the data as the 64-megabyte memory card that is also available. There are wireless controllers, high definition AV cables, it’s all high-end stuff.
But all this means nothing if you don’t have the games. Here’s a look at some of the launch games:
CALL OF DUTY 2
Some are saying this is the game that shows off the most evidence of what the 360 can do. It has limited appeal — it’s a war game — but for the ones who want to be first in, will be a huge seller.
KAMEO: ELEMENTS OF POWER
A magical heroine takes on the persona of other creatures to fight evil. Getting a big marketing push and probably the most generally appealing game at launch.
MADDEN NFL 06
The sports giant looks incredible. A system-seller for hard-core football fans and sports gamers.
NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED
Locally developed racing game will show off the speed of the system perfectly.
PERFECT DARK ZERO
A franchise that was stolen from Nintendo, this spy shooter may be the most anticipated launch game.
PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 3
This one looked near-perfect on the Xbox; on the 360 will be amazing.
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 06
One of the best sports games out there will look stunning on the 360.
TONY HAWK’S AMERICAN WASTELAND
Big franchise makes the leap, taking action and adventure on a skateboard to the next level.
FIFA 06
Another Vancouver-made game, this brings the ultra-realistic soccer franchise to more computing power. With the World Cup next year, this will be a must-own title on the 360 for soccer fans.
NBA LIVE 06
The third launch game done here in Vancouver, this may be one of the best yet — the detail here is stunning.
PETER JACKSON’S KING KONG
The famed Lord of the Rings director was involved in the game, so you know it’s going to look stunning and play just like the blockbuster. Giant apes and dinosaurs in a video game, how can it miss?
The second generation of games, though, may be the reason to buy the 360. The coming months are going to see some amazing titles:
SAINT’S ROW
Being tabbed as a Grand Theft Auto-style game that is turning heads behind closed doors.
QUAKE 4
This one will be huge. People were raving about how Doom 3 looked on the Xbox, but Quake 4 rocked the hardest cynics back at E3.
ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION
Fantasy, role-playing, action and amazing immersiveness make this one a hotly anticipated title.
FULL AUTO
Road combat, a la Twisted Metal with a Crazy Taxi and Project Gotham twist. I loved the preview for this at E3.
GEARS OF WAR
A sci-fi-themed tactical shooter from an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective, this will rival Halo. One of the best-looking games I’ve ever seen with a great story. This will probably end up as a movie.
© The Vancouver Province 2005
