Officially pumped.
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Buying an Xbox 360 is nothing short of baffling. I mean, you can just go to the store and get one, but you don't know what you're getting in the box, in that your console may or may not have the new, quiet BenQ DVD drive, HDMI, a second heat sink to prevent the dreaded RRoD, etc etc etc. It's confusing to get a future-proof console, to say the least. Add to this the news that the Falcon chipset (which replaces the CPU, not the RRoD-inducing overheating GPU, with a 65 nm chip) is going to be available imminently, and do you wait? Do you buy now? If you do buy one, how do you tell, exactly, what's in the box? Well, there's a very long-winded but extensive guide on what to expect with different lot numbers and manufacturing dates in the official Xbox forums, which is a good starting point. There's also the DVD visual guide (see link above) and the digicam heatsink check (though I found a flashlight waaaay easier), but I'll probably post a detailed how-to at some point. In other news, the coming Dashboard update might bring a (brilliant) parental timer feature; RRoD may have choked the repair queue; and DO NOT cheat and get onto Xbox Live beta tests when you're not supposed to, or you'll get banned from Xbox Live for 7,000+ years, no joke! |
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There's a great, great great "review" of Bioshock over at the Escapist, from the Zero Punctuation guy. |
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That's right - Hayabusa brings his real ultimate power to the Xbox 360. Sweeeeet... |
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July was a clutch month for all three major companies, and all their of their respective consoles. I'll spoil the surprise: the Wii and DS are still kicking everyone's ass, though for the first time there was a dip in their Japanese sales numbers, giving the competition a chance to catch up a bit, and possibly implying that a similar trend could happen here (at the normal Japan-to-USA-trend-migration-time of the approximately 27 years it takes us to catch up with their tech markets). While technically this means that the growth rate of the massive, staggering gap between the Wii and the fat unloved PS3 had a chance to diminish somewhat, this means less of a catch-up and more a shrinkage in the ratio of Wii:PS3's sold (from 4:1 to 3:1; whoop-de-doo). Meanwhile, back home, things got interesting. Despite early predictions that July would be a huge month for the PS3 wherein it would outsell the 1.5 year old Xbox 360, that never quite happened. The RRoD issues for the 360 piss off fanboys, but people are more concerned with playing the library of excellent games than buying a non-RRoD-prone PS3 and playing Blu-ray movies on it for lack of any decent software. Of course, all three companies wasted no time in putting their own positive spin on the numbers, Sony in particular, but in the end it's the same as it has been: Wii kills the next-gen sales (fastest selling console evarrr in the UK!), Xbox 360 is selling well and will continue to gather momentum as the game library increases (Halo 3 anyone?), and the PS3 is too big, too expensive, and too boring for the masses just yet. Perhaps the rumored price cuts for the PS3 will kick it in the pants... |
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Ouch. Microsoft had a full year of a head start, Sony had Blu-ray and cell processors, and who is the current best-selling next-gen console based on total units sold? Well... ...it's 2 Gamecubes duct-taped together, actually. Hee hee. |
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At long, long last. Well, almost, but close enough for me. First there was the price cut, then there was the Halo 3 tax, and then finally despite the fact that the 65nm "Falcon" chipset isn't being implemented just yet, the inclusion of HDMI and new heatsinks in Premium 360 models is what broke the camel's back. Okay, Microsoft, despite all my previous whining, I'll get one. The HDMI premium looks like the best deal, since it's possible an HDMI Core may never materialize. Besides, it'll be way more fun to play Halo 3 the game, instead of running around looking for people to play Halo 3 Lasertag with... Anyhoo, it's been a mixed couple of weeks for the 360 and Microsoft. Sales dropped almost 60%, which could have tied into all the issues the console was experiencing (even if some were due to clueless users and were just loose cables). Simultaneously, the Wii has been closing rapidly on the total 360 sales numbers, which must make the money-printing fiends at Nintendo giggle and Ballmer bawl or bellow with rage. Furthermore, though the 360 sales are sure to see a substantial jump this month owing to the revised hardware, I was somewhat shocked to see that most 360 users generally don't know how to use their consoles to their fullest extent, including using XBL or media playing capabilities. To round out the current next-gen news and sales figures: Nintendo is ramping up production to (maybe) finally meet Wii demand, their stock jumps handsomely simultaneously (and they're taking along all their parts manufacturers along for the profit-ride). Shockingly, the Wii was seen slipping in the Japanese hardware charts, to a mere 60K units for last month, being beaten by the DS (who else?). On the Sony front, even though the PS3 is the least played console (beaten by it's most-played-overall cousin, the PS2), the price drop has created a minor sales surge, which must be a breath of fresh air to Sony. But what's really making this the right time to get a 360? Halo 3? Naw. It's this. Hit the jump to watch the intro movie for what's going to be my wife's favorite game of 2007. Continue reading "Finally.... it's go time! " |
