Microsoft boo boos!

Ginjirou is right, there' s way too much Sony bashing here. So instead of wasting posts arguing about what Sony has and hasn' t done right, lets discuss what Microsoft have done wrong since their entry into the games industry.

I' ll start by saying ...

...the Xbox was way too big. I think Microsoft should have put more money into minimizing the size of the console. Perhaps even doing what Nintendo do with their handhelds and Sony do with their own consoles, and releasing modified, re-designed revisions of their hardware.

...the original Xbox pad was a joke. While the analog stick placement and inclusion of proper triggers were nice, the pad was simply way to big to be comfortable in the hands of the average non-giant.

...not securing more Japanese content was a huge mistake, if only because it' s equally popular in the west as it is in Japan. Xbox was laden with western developed, shader heavy titles, many of which lacked any sense of style.

...Xbox 360' s BC, while not completely rubbish, has been a joke as far as making the most popular titles compatible. I sold my Xbox just before getting my 360 at launch and was pissed off to find that i couldn' t play Oddworld: Strangers Wrath, the KoF & Metal Slug games and Conker: Live & Reloaded. Microsoft' s decision to pick and choose titles has been very unfair on gamers.

...not getting Virtua Fighter 5 for 360 is a crime and J Allard should pay with his life!

I was very pissed off when an viable system, being the xbox was killed when the 360 started to sell.

I would have loved to have seen a sub $100 xbox console, maybe something as slim as a laptop.

That would sell well anywhere.

Ginjirou is right, there' s way too much Sony bashing here.

Just for the record, are you making fun of me or are you actually agreeing with me?

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Ginjirou is right, there' s way too much Sony bashing here.

Just for the record, are you making fun of me or are you actually agreeing with me?

Agreeing, that' s why my list was serious.

-Hiring Peter Moore as a figurehead. He makes some right boo boos! It doesn' t seem like he understands his target audiences much.

-Openly confessing they want 1 billion people to buy 360, but mostly only cater towards action fans and casual gamers.

-The Japan launch. What a disaster. More proof they don' t understand their target audiences.

-Relying on Halo too much. Sure it' ll sell, but they' re allowing it to define the system. I don' t think the Japanese like the macho Master Chief character much (nor do I), and could actually have been a big factor in the lack of popularity over there ' imo' . GRAW didn' t help and Gears of War is going the same way. (Now imagine if MC took off his helmet and he actually had spiky blond hair and looked like a girl! )

Saying that, I' m more optimistic about 360s prospects, just from what good things developers have had to say about it. MS as a company is a different story. Although I' m pleasantly surprised about what Peter Molyneux had to say about MS in Kikizo' s interview. (Another good one as usual )

Ahem... ok so here it goes.
Microsoft is in a grey zone to me. I don' t dislike them but I don' t like them either.

I like Windows, it' s an easy OS with many good features.

The Xbox never got my attention because it had so many flaws:
-Big controller
-Bad buttons on the controller
-Big console
-Few great exclusives
-Little support from japanese developers
-Bad marketing
-They charge you for online multiplayer
-To much focus on power, too little focus on gameplay
-DVD playback was not included, you had to buy an additional DVD remote
-Most games were PC ports, multiplatform games or remakes

All that made the Xbox the least interesting console to me. Of course, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Otogi, Shenmue 2 and other Sega titles made me want it but it wasn' t enough.
But since the Xbox was their first try and Microsoft was facing hard competition from Nintendo and Sony I think the Xbox was just their way of getting into the market. They knew it wouldn' t be able to truly compete with Sony. They did a pretty good fight against Nintendo though.

The 360 is very interesting. I can' t really find any major mistakes there, just a couple of disappointing things.
-Online multiplayer is still charged for
-It' s still getting to many PC ports and multiplatform titles compared to its exclusives.
-The core pack
-They should' ve made a Saturn d-pad since they pretty much have a DC controller anyway
-Some problems in the beginning regarding broken discs, overheating, dangerous power cords and such
-They rushed it. They could' ve waited a little bit longer since there was no competition anyway.
-No titles at launch that I liked
-Most great titles are still to be released

My view is basically
Xbox = bad
360 = good
Microsoft in general = Ok

Microsoft didnt put a harddrive in the 360.

As Majik said, they didnt secure a Japaneese market!

They didnt lie as much as Sony (hey if it works getting a market share ;)

Good point about the DVD playback requiring you to buy the remote. That sucked!

I really cant see why you say the 360 is lacking exclusives? there are plenty there! And getting loads of multiplatform titles isnt negative, but positive. Sony has just as many multiplatform titles!

There' s not enough exclusives. I want more. Mooooooooooooooore! Not Peter Moore. Just more. For me exclusives are very important.
Multiplatform titles aren' t negative but they don' t make me more interested in the 360 since I might as well play them on another console/PC.
Btw, I mean the exclusives that are released. I see many titles coming for the 360 that looks awesome but right now I don' t feel the 360 has what it takes to make me buy one. But I feel that' s gonna change real soon. I' ll probably go for the Wii60 in the end. I' ll get the PS3... some day.

This is just childish,so because SONY is making bad things 24/7 and embarssing themself we have to find faults with MS now?

Why?

-No remote for every premium.
-core package

that' s all.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

GRAW doesn' t interest you?!

It does. But that' s one of the few titles that actually interests me right now. I' m not a big fan of tactical police shooters (except for Swat 3 & 4, love those) so GRAW alone can' t sell the 360 to me.
Other titles I find interesting are DoA4, Full Auto, Kameo and Table Tennis.

Full Auto is crap.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Full Auto is garbage!

What' s Table Tennis like Quez?

Full Auto is crap.

Full Auto is garbage!

Well that reduces my 360 list down to four titles. That' s not enough for me to buy a console. But as I said, the future is looking good.

Table Tennis is gameplay at 95/100,its extremly fast pace and easy and fun to play.
Sometimes you can reach rally' s up to over 100 balls.

XBL with online tournaments and 1vs1 battles is 94/100.

SP is worth like 80/100.

If you gonna play it online you have to buy it.
If you think you gonna find great SP try it first.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Btw,change out full auto for PGR3 or Motogp 06.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

In order to not keep things too serious, I’ll break down my list of some disappointments I had with the BIG X in a somewhat more primitive language (but do know I also hold no grudge against the original Xbox and have high hopes for the 360).

…Here goes:

It BIG.
It Noisy.
Smelly.
No has Shenmue 3.
To much Peter Moore.
It BIG again. Small hands + BIG controller = No good.
Also, why no have DVD? It has? Must by controller? Why?!
It noisy again. When shaking. Controller shaking is NOISY!
It is hard. I hurt when using it as pillow. Stupid!
Ugly!

I have rockstar table tennis, it' s like virtua tennis on a table (in so many words)

It' s fluid, graphics are great, and the rally' s are very tense.

And for £30 definitely worth a buy!

Hayley is the best, and we all know Quez plays as Jesper!

I' ll rant on about Microsoft later, I am sketching at the moment, and the list for
the problems with the big X is a LOOOOOOOOoooOOOOoong list.

(But not as big as the problem I have with Kaz " Ride Racer" Hrai)

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

I had a quick go on Table Tennis in a shop the other day. They' ve done a great job on the feel of the sport, and I imagine it' d be awesome over Live.

It did feel a bit unnaturally floaty occasionally, especially on the slow shots (not the slow motion of course!) but mostly it was as fast paced as the real thing. And I' d say the feel of the spin isn' t quite there, but you still have to think about counter-spin etc and the controls are very intuitive and quick.

It' s simply R stick directions for different spins, power depends on how long you hold it for (and when you let go?), and forehand backhand and positioning is all taken care of automatically. You can move left and right with the L analog quickly and precisely of course. There' s a ' focus' function with the triggers, but I' m not sure what they do...?

Not as good as the real sport of course, but definitely the next best thing. I suppose Pong' s the only real alternative though.

Also is anyone else trying the PGR3 tournaments recently? I got close to qualifying for one, but some people are too good at that game! That MaxFatality dude is playing, if that really is him.

You build up your focus meter when holding in and putting more power into your shots,its also a bit risky,but when using the FOCUS and then a hard perfect spinball then,Tadadaaaa!!!a

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

that' s the kind of thread I was waiting for :)

MS did a lot of shit wrong...

1.Xbox - size, design , incredibly loud, crappy controller - this system never felt like a console to me.

2.Antialiasing was good but it made every game look a bit softened.

3.Many games were poor PC ports with bugs often glitches and lack of polish.

One thing that I totally hate about MS and Xbox brand is their hype of poor products.

To name a few:

Fable was a nice game - it showed tremendous potential yet this potential was unrealised.hype was huge and the game itself was more like a betabuild than a retail version.

Forza - while some people love it - I think this game sucks and it' s all thanks to 30FPS and boring tracks - GT4 wins with no problems here.Again the hype was crazy.

Halo 2 - this was by far the most overhyped production since SW:Episode one.In the end - another good game (I' m not talking about multiplayer here)

almosyty every huge release was disappointing to me.

There were some good PC games that I' m thankfull I had the chance to play - full spectrum warrior, splinter cell , half life 2, doom 3...

But most games that I remember as worth getting Xbox for are japanese - OTOGI1,OTOGI2,Outrun2,Ninja Gaiden,SoulCalibur2,Dead or Alive3,Shenmue2 and so on.

Europe and US however had some cool games like Halo1 ,PGR1,2 and Rallisport challenge 1,2

They didn' t do well with it - it wasn' t a great system when I think about it - most games I played on it were multiplatform titles with few exceptions.

To sum it up - the hardware had crappy design,software was very often disappointing,controller was just crap and they could' ve made some quality control on them lazy fuckin developers.

It was way to PC (when I say this I mean all the bad sides of PC not the good ones) for me to like it , but after modding it and getting emulators,media stuff and so on it became my system of choice with new paintjob and some cool modifications (I really hate the way retail Xbox looks).

off topic
I have to tell you that after seeing Oblivion video head to head for PC and 360 , the difference in visuals is just huge - it makes me wonder if I should get a high end PC to play those awesome games like bioshock and Oblivion that look much better on PC' s...but then again I hate playing with mouse on some small monitor - couch and 5.1 setup on a nice SD 36" TV is where it' s at baby :)'

anyway it' s just disappointing - I Wonder if they could make it just as good on 360...

Its not a huge diffrence Gangsta in OB,also the PC version cant use HDR+AA at the same time.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

What' s most important HDR or AA?

one downer about Xbox360 is although it has a few good games, it STILL hasnt a killer Ap in my eyes...

Also i must stress ' Not' having VF5 automatically makes it the second chioce for fighting games.

Well,HDR is a next gen light system,that make the sun act like a sun so lights can blend you and make enviorments lights up extremly realistic.
In gRAW the sun moves in MP or rather the cloud cover up some of the light,however when it doesnt you might get blended so you have to move to be able to see clear.

in half life2 its the best feature to have on.

AA = less jaggies,ofc with high reso you get them down a bit also however it still look a bit strange.

My friend had max +HDR with 1280' 1024 and played in 60 fps.

Looked kind of strange,he ended up with using 4xAA which looked much better to me.
But then HDR was gone :S

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

What' s most important HDR or AA?

I couldnt care less about them, ild rather constant 60fps everytime. (the wii looks likes this will be standard and thats least powerful)

What' s most important HDR or AA?

It doesn' t matter for 360 owners since they get both (most games having 4x AA but every game having to use at least 2x). The difference HDR makes in general though is massive.

With regard to 360 and PC titles. I seriously see very little difference between the versions of Oblivion and 360 has the added loading advantage (though more frequent 1 sec pauses when moving through large outdoor areas). There' s zero texture difference and Oblivion played on 360 using HDlooks pretty much the same as the 360 version, although characters faces in the PC version do seem to be more realistic. It takes a badass PC to get it looking anywhere near as nice as 360 though so it' s not like it makes any difference.

On the same topic, CoD2 on 360 better looking on 360, having better lighting, shadowing, draw distance and smoke effects, and the 360 version of GRAW...

KILLS!

...the PC version in every respect.



I wish the 360 came in black though. I' ll be pissed off when they announce a black version!

What' s most important HDR or AA?

Well honestly I had no idea what HDR meant, but after reading Quez’s explination of it, I have to say HDR sounds (to me) more important. “Jaggies” have never really bothered me, however I really do like going “Oooh, look at all the pretty lights”, so I side with HDR.
But none of those is what tends to really annoy me graphics wise, what really tends to bug me are ugly textures. But even so, I don’t think high res textures are a necessity (though it tends to help), as I have seen games with really low res that looks really great (btw: I’m thinking about ICO right now).

HDR=high dynamic range btw.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

The x1900xt can do AA+HDR in Oblivion when you use a patch. But I dont have one... [:' (]

I thought HDR was overbearing in OB though. I opted to play with just Bloom and AA, which I thought looked more realistic. When used subtley HDR can look gorgeous however.

Perhaps the latest patch has fixed that,however im done with OB.

I saw it,i played it and i loved it,but its time to move on,and yes i havnt done anything near what i could have done,but i gotta move on with HL2:episode one and Table Tennis over XBL.



Btw it feels awesome to own a 360 already.
Lets say your dissapointed in OB,FN3,graw,kameo,pdz,table tennispgr3 or whatever you didn' t like these games are still being dev...

Ninja gaiden 2
Halo3
Resident evil5
Gears of war
Alan wake
Viva pinata
Rainbowsix
Forza 2
Lost odyssey
Blue Dragon
Mass effect
Bioshock
Fable2
Valve' s game.
Tri-ace new rpg (dev behind star ocean/valkyrie profile)
Sonic
Dead rising.


These are just some games that popped in my head when thinking off 360,im sure you others has something similiar.

Im a very happy xbox360 gamer,the question is,are you?
And do you own one?
Remember that i bashed 360 also,but when looking at the games being dev for it...i was sold.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

HDR=high dynamic range btw.

And you say you' re not a Dev Jesper??

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

Im not jesper or am i ?

Oh,and im not a dev but i knew that.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Im not jesper or am i ?

Oh,and im not a dev but i knew that.

Well call me Hayley...Or, Liu PiiiiiiiiIIIIIIIIiiiiiing...

I love Table Tennis!!

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

Moto GP 2006
Prey
Chromehounds
Dead Rising
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights
Test Drive Unlimited
Tom Clancy' s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Just Cause
Tom Clancy' s Rainbow Six Vegas
Phantasy Star Universe
Tony Hawk' s Project 8
Call of Duty 3
Viva Pinata
Too Human
Brothers in Arms: Hell' s Highway
Killing Day
Sonic the Hedgehog
Stranglehold
Gears of War
Unreal Tournament 2007
Huxley
Soulcalibur 4
Galaga
Stuntman 2
Mass Effect
Castle Wolfenstein
House of the Dead
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Jade Empire 2
Forza Motorsport 2
Resident Evil 5
Alan Wake
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007
Crackdown
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Lost Planet
Elveon
GTR
Virtua Tennis 3
Overlord
Dark Sector
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable 2
Lost Odyssey
SEGA Rally Revo
The Darkness
Haze
The Club
Indiana Jones
Omikron KARMA
Halo 3
Hellboy
2 Days to Vegas
Project Sylph
Blue Dragon
The Outsider
Ninja Gaiden 2
Avalon

..just what i' m looking forward to on 360.

You' re sucha slut...

Moto GP 2006
Prey
Chromehounds
Dead Rising
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights
Test Drive Unlimited
Tom Clancy' s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Just Cause
Tom Clancy' s Rainbow Six Vegas
Phantasy Star Universe
Tony Hawk' s Project 8
Call of Duty 3
Viva Pinata
Too Human
Brothers in Arms: Hell' s Highway
Killing Day
Sonic the Hedgehog
Stranglehold
Gears of War
Unreal Tournament 2007
Huxley
Soulcalibur 4
Galaga
Stuntman 2
Mass Effect
Castle Wolfenstein
House of the Dead
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Jade Empire 2
Forza Motorsport 2
Resident Evil 5
Alan Wake
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007
Crackdown
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Lost Planet
Elveon
GTR
Virtua Tennis 3
Overlord
Dark Sector
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable 2
Lost Odyssey
SEGA Rally Revo
The Darkness
Haze
The Club
Indiana Jones
Omikron KARMA
Halo 3
Hellboy
2 Days to Vegas
Project Sylph
Blue Dragon
The Outsider
Ninja Gaiden 2
Avalon

Er... ditto!

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

Moto GP 2006
Prey
Chromehounds
Dead Rising
N3: Ninety-Nine Nights
Test Drive Unlimited
Tom Clancy' s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Just Cause
Tom Clancy' s Rainbow Six Vegas
Phantasy Star Universe
Tony Hawk' s Project 8
Call of Duty 3
Viva Pinata
Too Human
Brothers in Arms: Hell' s Highway
Killing Day
Sonic the Hedgehog
Stranglehold
Gears of War
Unreal Tournament 2007
Huxley
Soulcalibur 4
Galaga
Stuntman 2
Mass Effect
Castle Wolfenstein
House of the Dead
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2
Jade Empire 2
Forza Motorsport 2
Resident Evil 5
Alan Wake
Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007
Crackdown
Medal of Honor: Airborne
Lost Planet
Elveon
GTR
Virtua Tennis 3
Overlord
Dark Sector
Grand Theft Auto IV
Fable 2
Lost Odyssey
SEGA Rally Revo
The Darkness
Haze
The Club
Indiana Jones
Omikron KARMA
Halo 3
Hellboy
2 Days to Vegas
Project Sylph
Blue Dragon
The Outsider
Ninja Gaiden 2
Avalon

Mmm Thats what i mean! I' m so glad i got my 360 and have a HD' tv, its super cool!