The new Zunes are official so let's get to it: a spec-by-spec scrap between Redmond's new Zunes and Cupertino's formidable iPod foe. Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to mention the all important battery performance of their new gear in addition to a few other minor details. Microsoft fans will tell you that's due to an iPhone-like surprise close to the November launch while haters will jump to the conclusion that this is a definite sign of trouble. Still even without that morsel, there's plenty of data to masticate for comparison. The Zune 80GB certainly holds its own when pitted against the 80GB iPod classic on a specification table. That's not the case, however, with the iPod touch as long as you're willing to sacrifice the bytes for the touch's bigger display and heftier price tag. It's a tougher call on the flash-based Zune vs. the iPod nano -- just how important is WiFi to you on a 1.8-inch display? None of this, of course, accounts for the oh so important user experience or the ecosystems supporting their respective players. As such, I'll reserve final judgment until I have the new Zunes in-hand. Until then you'd best dig in fanboys, that November release is a long way off. The tables that follow will provide the fuel to fight the flame wars for the weeks to come.
Follow link for tables.
Omar writes: "With the Horizon Festival coming to breathtaking Japan, you’ll need the essential gear to prove you’ve got what it takes to become a Horizon Legend as you cruise, drift and explore an open world full of spectacular driving experiences. That’s why we’re happy to announce the newest Limited Edition Xbox Wireless Controller and Wireless Headset collection, featuring inspired designs from Forza Horizon 6. The bright cyan and lime colorways celebrate the Horizon Festival’s recognition of iconic cars and hit music, with special features that are sure to impress any collector."
You can get Hall effect controllers slightly cheaper, but you'd struggle to find as feature-rich a package without some heavy, heavy sales.
Pascal Gilcher calls DLSS 5 impressive but shares the "AI slop" sentiment, explaining the likely tech behind it and why he dislikes it.
I fail to see how this is AI shhhhlllloooop. Looking at the different games they showed, this has made many of them look far better.
It's AI slop because it ignores the artists intent and changes the details ESPECIALLY when it comes to character faces. The scariest part of it is introducing it as the next stage of DLSS, a feature where the current iteration already has controversy surrounding it and for quite a lot of games cannot be fully disabled. So reasonably the precident is already set for what path this could take, and it's not good
In case you didn't watch the video then let me point just one part. It overrides the lighting. Then the question of what is the point of ray tracing cost and so on. Many of the lighting deletes shadow, including shadow on the face like eyes even chin.
Why stop at art when it comes to human input - why not just have AI play the game for us, remove human input altogether
If you don’t like it, just don’t enable it. Personally I think it looks great from the videos I have seen.
And what about when you can't? Cause there's plenty of games where you cannot fully disable dlss already, i mean we're well into an era where it's a major crutch for developers to cover up their cut corners, why would this be any different?
You are playing with people's money and allow Nvidia to scam you.
In case you didn't watch the video then let me point just one part. It overrides the lighting. Then the question of what is the point of ray tracing cost. This is all lie to raise the cost of the graphic card.
Making characters look more realistic not ok because we want the developer to decide on how the game was intended to look. - Internet
Change entire game through mods thus changing how the developers intended the game to be is ok. - Internet
Something consumers can do to a product after they have purchased it, entirely optional and can always be undone with a fresh install
VS
The leading gaming hardware manufacturer making this the next iteration of the main AA/Upscaling technique that is heavily relied upod by modern devs and is not optional in most games.
Not at all the same but nice try
At the moment you need 2 5090’s just to get an image on the screen so this is all vaporware until proven otherwise.
It's all about choice in the end. But, I would say that calling it 'more realistic' is quite a stretch. It looks like AI art, and that's rarely realistic.
All the comments I see are reminding me of how we got to the current state of gaming when microtransactions were first introduced: "It's completely optional guys, we promise! If you don't like it just don't buy it!"
I think we all know how that ended up.
I had the same exact thought the first time this was brought up in a separate article about a week ago. Took me straight back to the conversations surrounding “horse armor.” Just don’t buy it they said. Years later, many IPs I previously enjoyed are so infected with monetization schemes that I don’t even consider purchasing them anymore.
DLSS 5 and the like are the same thing wrapped in a different package. History rhymes but many of us never learn from it.
Biggest Scam. Overrides lighting and shadow. So why keep Ray tracing? It's all a scam to raise graphic card. We now see Nvidia with Microsoft downturn anything against them. Sony is next!
Anything from Apple > Anything from Microsoft.
Does the Zune has Gapless Playback?
No? Oh well, looks like I'll stick to my ageing iRiver with Rockbox...
I actually can't believe that bladestar is getting disagrees. It is weird that people are so against certain companies. I can see people not liking a product line but it is rediculous that it carries over to the whole brand. Take me for instance... I'm not too big a fan of the PS3 but I love their cameras, cell phones, and walkmans.
Both Microsoft and Apple both have their flaws and both overcharge and have set some bad precedents at some point. I don't think Ipod are flawless (I own a nano)... I personally know people on their 4th Ipod because their other Ipods broke.
Sorry but I just hate generalized comments that are useless. It is good that Zune 2 has come out. We should all hope the Zune, the Zen, and whatever other listening device is able to make a dent on Apple's marketshare. We need competition so that prices are driven down.
-Joe
the hdd space is the only compliant i have about my zune. i like the software, i download a lot of music so paying a monthly fee instead of per album saves me lots of money. also if you don't download a ton of tunes you can pay per song or album if you want, the monthly fee is optional.
the zune has a bigger screen, no annoying wheel, and there is no conversion so uploading is faster.
i will defiantly consider buying one of these new zunes.