How can something that has not happened be a fact? At most it is guess.
There is no doubt that sales of the XBOX 360 slowed. They should have - MS really hurt its image with the RROD. And the failure to provide proof for when the change took place (or what was done) doesn't exactly cause confidence. However, I am reasonably confident that the 65 nm version is robust - a lot less heat is being generated and the apparently undersized, operating on the edge heat transfer sys...
Kojima was working on a project, got up and spun around in a circle before sitting down. This further substantiates the rumor the MSG4 is heading to the XBOX 360.
So far we have a good feeling that the graphics are going to be pretty good and the cost overruns are substantial. Not a good sign, IMHO. It could turn out to be a good game, sell several million copies and still loose money. Hopefully the work being done has other applications.
And you have to wonder if enough time will be spent making the game polished (bug free). But really, anything at this point is speculation - reviews will tell the story (which is why I never pre-ord...
But I expected to see less of a difference - five pounds would be bad enough but ten? Seriously, if this has anything to do with Sony or the bluray license fee then expect to see a lot of pain for Sony because the game is the same for both consoles (or so close that it takes careful study to notice the difference).
I don't see marketing as being the driving factor though - I think there are additional fees that someone is paying for using bluray and/or making sony games. I su...
This game sounds interesting - I am looking forward to hearing more. I don't want to upgrade my PC so really the XBOX 360 is my only option - nice to know it is going to be a good option.
Here is the thing - procedural generation is the way to go but the problem is lighting. If you create geometry procedurally then you have to cast shadows and providing lighting in a dynamic manner.
Neither the PS3 or the XBOX 360 can handle ray tracing. So you are stuck with less than realistic lighting. That may be resolved with the next generation but doesn't help us much now.
So what I hope is that MS and Sony learn from this generation and use a version ...
Balanced news reports. Thats a good one - I am still waiting to see that (neither CNN nor Fox News comes close).
But that deserves a bubble.
But I think you are full of it when you suggest the graphical ceiling for the 360 has been hit. Perhaps the graphical ceiling for Rev 3.0 of the unreal engine has been hit but that is not saying much - the unreal engine 3.0 has a number of problems. Note, however, that the rumor (for what it is worth) says version 3.5. To the extent such a version exists you would expect it to be better than the 3.0 version(improved lighting, better texture stream, etc.).
But arguments about...
Anyone that thinks there are no games for the 360 is a few cards short of a full deck. The real question is which games meet their hype. Will Too Human be a great game or merely an interesting attempt? What about Fable 2?
Same with Project Offset or Elveon. Lot of new games I am looking forward to hearing more about.
But I agree that there were a few points were I could see the 360 looked better (but only on a side-by-side comparison). I doubt I could tell the difference otherwise. And if you can avoid load times with the PS3 then that seems like the superior version because the graphics are too close to matter.
But to be honest - this seems to be at most a rental to me - not my cup of tea. Still, hope it does well.
First - until the game is played there is no way to know if the game rocks or not. So for all the stuff announced, we really don't know if any of it will be good (previews are generally worthless - reviewers tend to be overly nice so they get an early crack at the final code and keep selling advertisements).
Also, we have no idea which games are going to be pushed back into 2009. So I think it is way too early to say. I will say, however, that the hype for 2008 right now see...
People can hate all they want but Gears 1 was a fun game - two player mode was a blast.
I would buy Gear 2 the second it came out. In that respect, MS really should start promoting it, even if it is a ways out. Something to look forward to (and it gives the fanboys something to fight about - which system makes people wait more - or someting silly like that)
I think that MS wanted to get more 65 nm stuff before they dropped prices (less cost, better reliability, etc.). That is really what it is going to take in Japan - MS needs to provide a XBOX 360 that includes a quiet DVD drive and is safe even if it is placed in a poorly ventilated cabinet (it is not like the Japanese have huge homes with tons of space - space is an issue there).
If MS can produce a quieter bullet proof sku, then sales in Japan will pick up. Probably the same...
VGcharts/spyware was closer than I expected - it would be cool to see an accurate world wide view but I supposed that isn't going to happen anytime soon - Europe is still too fragmented.
Seems odd that Sony would be advertising the PS3 as a bluray player - which is what the latest adds have done.
Oh well - Sony may loose the console battle but appears to have finally won a format war.
What 2008 brings - does Sony start to close the gap or is there no change. In my mind, if Sony doesn't significantly close the gap in 2008 then PS3 will never catch up to the XBOX 360. It will not matter - both systems will be strong - but it has to be a huge disappointment for Sony.
The funny thing is, Sony was so arrogant early on. Now, if they manage to catch up at all it will be a huge moral victory.
The mimimum to get a compentent gaming machine was about $800-$1000. For that price you could get a XBOX 360 and a PS3 and be good for 4 years rather than 2. Or just get an XBOX 360 and you will get most games that come out for the PC for a $350 investment.
It is hard to justify buying a gaming PC anymore. Now, if you need one anyway, then spending $1000 to get a decent PC that can also game is a decent idea - but if you are just surfing the net, might as well save the cash ...
MS's problem with the XBOX was that they didn't own the design so they couldn't price reduce over the years. The 360 doesn't suffer from that problem so the 360 is going to be made longer than the original xbox.
Impossible to predict but I would be surprised is the PS4 includes the Cell - despite the power it is a poor design for a console. I also wonder if optical media will be used - I would prefer to eliminate it because a HDD (or solid state drive) is so much faster.
Hard to compare the first year of the 360 sales with the first year of PS3 sales - the 360 was basically sold out for most of the first year. In that regard, Sony did a better job and was not sold out as long.
The real question is what kind of sales are we going to get at the current prices. $300 or $400 is still pretty expensive. MS can more readily drop the price of the 360 than Sony can drop the price of the PS3. So the question in my mind is what effect the price differ...
or it could be the architechture of the PS3 was a mistake or poorly designed for gaming code. There is no doubt that if Sony had made the PS3 easier to program than the XBOX 360 the reversed would have happened. So Sony has no one to blame but itself.
But in the end the differences should be minor for most games - developers will plan for the lowest common denominator in both systems and games will look about the same.