Xbox 360 e3 thread 3

[MonkeyLicker]

Any chance of getting full 1280x720 resolution if I selected 4:3?

 

[aaronspink]

At this point they exist.

Timeline is looking similar to the original xbox launch.

Sony and MS seem to have diametrically opposed philosophies on this one, Sony push out very expensive early devkits in tiny numbers, MS ships a software platform to a large number of devs and waits until they can produce enough devkits to get them out in numbers.

Both have their plus points, personally I'd prefer a combination of both.

I think MS's real failure in this department is not getting closer to final kits to key developers in time for E3 (same thing happened with Xbox).

If they don't have a truly horrible E3 I doubt it will matter in the long run.

Think of it this way....

Microsoft is a convicted monopolist. If they don't have wide availability of dev hardware they could potentially open themselves up to further charges of monopolization, esp if MGS received dev hardware before outside devs.

Sony has a lot more legal freedom in this regard.

Aaron Spink
speaking for myself inc.

 

[Geeforcer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050518/tc_nm/tech_gameexpo_microsoft_dc

Microsoft has also offered game publishers a bigger cut of the proceeds from game sales and hired key executives from within the gaming industry to court developers.

That's also the model Microsoft adopted for Windows, luring top software companies to write programs for its personal computer operating system, making it a monopoly.

"It goes back to our roots," Bach said.

It seems MS is fully prepared to use its massive treasure throve to buy further into the market at expanse of some profitability.

 

[Glonk]

I think we knew that a long, long time ago...

 

[pc999]

Dont sureif it is coming to XB360, but great gfx (in D3 engine , I mean this need to run on , at least a 9800XT)

Quake Wars

http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/...ritory: Quake Wars/1/051805/051705_etqw_1.jpg

http://www.shacknews.com/screens.x/...ritory: Quake Wars/1/051805/051705_etqw_2.jpg

Each time I think that Sony press conference gfx will be, indeed, very possible.

 

[Geeforcer]

I think we knew that a long, long time ago...

We did, this is just another confirmation for those who missed it first time around.

 

[Geeforcer]

Rundown of Anand's article:

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2420

Controller:

- Prototypes at the show were wired and didn't have rumble functions
- More comfortable then current (S?) controller.

Games:

- Tops Spin and NFS playable, didn't look great (yet)
- No AA yet, but expect 4X AA by default

Console
- Games powered by G5 devkits
- LOL at fake X36 in the behind the glass window.
- ATI had a working prototype with a near-final GPU
- Was running R520 Ruby demo, whatever that entails.

 

[PC-Engine]

The controllers look a lot better than those first leaked ones with the glossy finish. Seems the analog thumb pads have a rubber coating too which is good. I'm really liking the new controllers, nice small size and not cluttered with a gazillion buttons.

 

[mech]

- No AA yet, but expect 4X AA by default

Don't get your hopes up too high for this

 

[Mark]

- No AA yet, but expect 4X AA by default

Don't get your hopes up too high for this

I would like to think that the level of AA would be left up to the developers. If the game runs fast enough, sure then AA on. If they want to put more eyecandy in then I personally wouldn't mind a few jaggies.

 

[MrWibble]

Today's amusing E3 sighting:

I was checking out some Microsoft guy playing Kameo on the stand (don't think they were keen for anyone else to have a go on it and seemed to be discouraging photos and non-media attendees from even watching)...

Anyway at one point, perhaps accidentally, he dropped into the game's option menus. There was an option there to lock the framerate - to 10Hz (yup, a whole 10 fps).

Wow.

And seriously the game looked a lot like it was sometimes dropping to around that level, so I guess that's the level they have to lock it to if they want it to keep a constant rate. I seriously doubt their final hardware, given the specs release so far, will get a 6x improvement over the kind of high-end G5 boxes they're reportedly running right now - which they'd need to get out of this game (bearing in mind it's been in development for a very long time and ought not to be unoptimised) to get it to keep 60. And frankly the game didn't look all that great anyway so I don't know what their excuse is.

Need for Speed had slightly better framerate but also didn't look that much better to me than Burnout on current-gen hardware, except perhaps with slightly better HDR style effects. It was still noticeably dropping framerate all over the place though.

For a console that's launching this year not to have much on show at all, and nothing publically playable, is a bit worrying.

I walked away from the stand very unimpressed (and thinking about what I could develop with a budget of $375,000,000)

 

[passby]

Thanks to Anand and MrWibble for giving us actual real feedback without the PR filter imposed by certain gaming sites. The best reports always come from forums.

 

[rabidrabbit]

The xbox360 games on show floor are not running on final xbox360 consoles???
I thought they'd be, as the launch is so close.