#270081 - 19/11/2005 14:46
Just Played X-Box 360....
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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The shopping centre I was working at today had an X-Box 360 display setup, quite impressive, they had taken over an empty shop unit and filled it with 360's.
One of the guys running the show noticed I was working on the centre's broadband lines and was asking me some questions, they were running the whole show off a 3G card in a laptop! Quite impressive in itself.
Anyway, they let me jump the queue and have a quick go. From a distance the footbal game (excuse my ignorance I'm not a gamer) look like it was a real match! But other than that it was pretty much what you would expect, just with higher res graphics, same old boring games. Nothing that will make me run out and buy one...
...apart from it's media centre features, if you have XP MCE, the 360 connects to it and you have access to all the features on your X-Box too, and this comes straight out of the box (so the guy says). This may be enough to sway me, as I was thinking about using MCE to run my MAME machine.
One other thing, the PSU, IT'S HUGE!!!
Cheers
Cris.
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#270082 - 19/11/2005 22:26
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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enthusiast
Registered: 17/08/2000
Posts: 334
Loc: Seattle, WA. USA
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Quote:
if you have XP MCE, the 360 connects to it and you have access to all the features on your X-Box too
I might be reading this wrong, but you are saying the 360 works as an extender to the MCE box, not that the MCE box gains features of the 360, correct?
_________________________
Brian H. Johnson
MK2 36GB Blue, currently on life support
"RIP RCR..."
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#270083 - 20/11/2005 01:16
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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Someone I work with just got a 360 from the mountain dew contest. He couldn't give much of an opinion though he couldn't even remember what game he got with it.
Reviews I have read say if you don't have an HD tv don't expect it to look much better than the xbox.
I probably won't get one at launch since the only game I want for it is Kameo and one game isn't worth 450.00
_________________________
Matt
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#270084 - 20/11/2005 09:39
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: bootsy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
Quote:
if you have XP MCE, the 360 connects to it and you have access to all the features on your X-Box too
I might be reading this wrong, but you are saying the 360 works as an extender to the MCE box, not that the MCE box gains features of the 360, correct?
Yep. Extender.
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#270085 - 22/11/2005 00:11
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tman]
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enthusiast
Registered: 17/08/2000
Posts: 334
Loc: Seattle, WA. USA
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Quote:
Yep. Extender.
Darn... I had hoped I misunderstood. I had not heard of any "upstream" capabilities like that.
_________________________
Brian H. Johnson
MK2 36GB Blue, currently on life support
"RIP RCR..."
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#270086 - 23/11/2005 06:24
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: bootsy]
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veteran
Registered: 08/05/2000
Posts: 1429
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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Ok, I played at Frys today. Graphics were impressive. Could only try a few games. One game seem to be all show and not very fun to play (King Kong), but games like Call Of Duty 2 and a few others look amazing. Didn't get to see or try Project Gotham, but I've heard it's amazing.
I want to get one but didn't pre-order. Frys was sold out, and aren't getting another order in until mid-December!
Anyone know where I can buy one at MSRP in the SF Bay Area?
- Jon
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#270087 - 23/11/2005 14:49
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: jbauer]
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veteran
Registered: 08/05/2000
Posts: 1429
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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#270088 - 23/11/2005 15:15
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: jbauer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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If you think about it shipping machines that crash all the time is a pretty good anti-piracy feature.
What I mean is, to get a game to run (even a legal one) you have to run an update, now to get the update you have to have a legal machine as the update checks what you have on your HD and BIOS and will only update a fully legal machine, or what M$ sees as a legal machine. Pretty Simple.
It's this exact same thing that has forced me to shell out for a full copy of XP MCE to run my Mame Box, I can't get the new remote/keyboard to work without running a live update, and that won't run unless I have legal copy. Very smart Microsoft, it simply isn't worth the hasstle for me to run anything but a legal copy anymore.
Cheers
Cris.
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#270089 - 23/11/2005 15:32
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
What I mean is, to get a game to run (even a legal one) you have to run an update, now to get the update you have to have a legal machine as the update checks what you have on your HD and BIOS and will only update a fully legal machine, or what M$ sees as a legal machine. Pretty Simple.
Hmm. What a cunning plan. It is as cunning as a fox that is professor of cunning at Oxford...
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#270090 - 23/11/2005 15:36
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tman]
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veteran
Registered: 08/05/2000
Posts: 1429
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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Quote:
Quote:
What I mean is, to get a game to run (even a legal one) you have to run an update, now to get the update you have to have a legal machine as the update checks what you have on your HD and BIOS and will only update a fully legal machine, or what M$ sees as a legal machine. Pretty Simple.
Hmm. What a cunning plan. It is as cunning as a fox that is professor of cunning at Oxford...
Ok, that's a good theory, but the negative publicity that is going to happen when the mainstream press get a hold of this will be far worse than some piracy...
The press are gonna eat it up, I think. They love to hurt M$.
- Jon
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#270091 - 23/11/2005 15:39
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: jbauer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
The press are gonna eat it up, I think. They love to hurt M$.
In this case I believe they've got the right to do so. Microsoft have been rushing everything and everybody to get it released before Christmas. It isn't ready by a long shot as evident by the huge shortages and massive showstopper bugs. I'm curious as to how they're going to patch stuff since not everybody has the HD...
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#270092 - 23/11/2005 15:40
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tman]
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veteran
Registered: 08/05/2000
Posts: 1429
Loc: San Francisco, CA
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Quote:
Quote:
The press are gonna eat it up, I think. They love to hurt M$.
In this case I believe they've got the right to do so. Microsoft have been rushing everything and everybody to get it released before Christmas. It isn't ready by a long shot as evident by the huge shortages and massive showstopper bugs. I'm curious as to how they're going to patch stuff since not everybody has the HD...
Yeah, I guess I agree with that. They use the planet as their extended Beta test (Alpha test?).
- Jon
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#270093 - 23/11/2005 15:42
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tman]
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/02/2002
Posts: 3411
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Quote:
Quote:
What I mean is, to get a game to run (even a legal one) you have to run an update, now to get the update you have to have a legal machine as the update checks what you have on your HD and BIOS and will only update a fully legal machine, or what M$ sees as a legal machine. Pretty Simple.
Hmm. What a cunning plan. It is as cunning as a fox that is professor of cunning at Oxford...
..but has moved on and is now working for the U.N. at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning.
_________________________
Mk2a 60GB Blue. Serial 030102962
sig.mp3: File Format not Valid.
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#270094 - 23/11/2005 17:03
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: jbauer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 06/02/2002
Posts: 1904
Loc: Leeds, UK
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Quote:
The press are gonna eat it up, I think. They love to hurt M$.
I don't think M$ will be worried, as long as the words X-Box and Microsoft are in the headlines it can only be a good thing for them.
Gamers won't be bothered about it either, they only ever want the latest thing on the market. They will all buy a PS 3 when that comes out too, even though the games are similar on each platform.
Now if it were their latest OS crashing, that would be a different thing altogether, as they would loose the corperate sales straight away, for that they just restrict features at release, and add them via live update, for example the new MCE keyboard drivers, only released as part of rollup 2, via live update 
At the demo I was at, they had about 30-40 360's none of which showed any sign of crashing, my guess would be they didn't have the "factory" firmware on them 
For me this is the only reason I can see why X-Box Live Silver would be a free feature all of a sudden, to keep an eye on the users. Or maybe I'm over thinking this?
Cheers
Cris.
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#270095 - 23/11/2005 17:29
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
For me this is the only reason I can see why X-Box Live Silver would be a free feature all of a sudden, to keep an eye on the users. Or maybe I'm over thinking this?
Xbox Live is one of the big features of the Xbox 360. Online play on the PS3 is going to be fragmented as Sony have decided to let each individual company organise their own servers.
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#270096 - 23/11/2005 18:56
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tman]
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addict
Registered: 02/04/2002
Posts: 691
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My buddy got 360 on launch day. Had to wait 12 hours in line, but managed to purchase two premium consoles.
Anyways, after setting it up for him, I was flipping through the owners manual. Found an interesting little picture, the xbox supports plugging in an MP3 player to the USB ports to access the music from that device. The MP3 player they had in the picture was the Rio Nitrus 1.5 gb player. I thought it was quite interesting they used a Rio player as the example.
_________________________
Oliver
mk1 30gb: 129 | mk2a 30gb: 040104126
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#270097 - 23/11/2005 21:30
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: oliver]
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enthusiast
Registered: 17/08/2000
Posts: 334
Loc: Seattle, WA. USA
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Quote:
Anyways, after setting it up for him, I was flipping through the owners manual. Found an interesting little picture, the xbox supports plugging in an MP3 player to the USB ports to access the music from that device.
I tried this at work and it's pretty cool. I plugged my Archos in and was disappointed it didn't show up as a supported MP3 player. But then I noticed the "Portable Device" tab and there it was.
Really nifty... and you can access it from any game.
_________________________
Brian H. Johnson
MK2 36GB Blue, currently on life support
"RIP RCR..."
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#270098 - 23/11/2005 21:43
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: bootsy]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Yeah. "Portable Device" means it has found a mass storage class USB device.
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#270099 - 24/11/2005 10:32
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
At the demo I was at, they had about 30-40 360's none of which showed any sign of crashing, my guess would be they didn't have the "factory" firmware on them
To be fair, the one users photos and video seem to be pasted all over the internet making it seem like a much larger problem. Slashdot linked to 3 postings. Out of the launch units, this is still well below the norm for defective products. I think in this case it is just the tech media having fun poking at MS for no good reason. Really a slow news day I guess when they can't find a real issue to latch onto.
As far as the XBox 360 goes for me, I can confidently say it has the best online experience of any gaming platform, PC included. My friend had his unit up and running, and I grabbed the second controller to play with. In a few moments of setup, I had my XBox Live account online on his console bound to the second controller while his remained bound to the first controller. I started chatting with a friend online using the headset, and nothing done on controller one was interrupting it. This included playing Project Gothem, then exiting it and putting in Need for Speed. I was rather impressed with that alone, something that seems won't happen with the Playstation 3, and likely not the Revolution.
Microsoft nailed online gaming nearly perfectly. Combine Steam, XFire, and Skype, and make it work well and you have the new Live.
Oh, a cool feature on the new XBox. The XBox Marketplace offers downloads of quite a few things from skins and icons to video trailers or even game demos. Not only demos of the Arcade games like Gauntlet, but also the full store released games. Very cool use of the hard drive, and a great way to try out a future game without having to find a demo on some game magazine CD.
I'll post more of my impressions later. I decided to keep mine after one attempt on eBay. The prices plummeted from where I had my reserve set, so it didn't sell. That was pretty much my deciding factor on keeping it was if the market was going to fall that quickly on reselling them.
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#270100 - 24/11/2005 18:00
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: drakino]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31601
Loc: Seattle, WA
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I've got one question. Can you get Halo 2 on the xbox 360? I never played it on the xbox, not sure if they're gonna port it to the PC, wondering if I should just get an old xbox to play it on, or if I should get a 360.
Only problem is that I'm already out of inputs on the TV set, I'd have to do a switch box. Gr.
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#270101 - 24/11/2005 18:05
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
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_________________________
Matt
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#270102 - 24/11/2005 18:52
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: msaeger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31601
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Okay, cool.
I guess I have more than one question now:
- Do they play well through that emulator, or are they choppy and slow like most emulators?
- Do they take advantage of the 360's widescreen high def video output?
- Can they play online just like they would have on the original Xbox?
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#270103 - 24/11/2005 19:06
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31601
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Some of those questions are answered in the Q and A link at that page... Hm. Interesting.
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#270104 - 25/11/2005 05:57
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
- Do they play well through that emulator, or are they choppy and slow like most emulators?
- Do they take advantage of the 360's widescreen high def video output?
- Can they play online just like they would have on the original Xbox?
- The one game I have tried, Crimson Skies played very smoothly. In fact, it looks better to me, I think because the system is doing more anti aliasing to it then the XBox could do.
- It's not a widescreen game, but the XBox 360 is keeping my TV at the 720p resolution I set, and pillar boxing the game.
- Live support in the game worked fine, even to the point of showing the old XBox dashboard downloading screen when it grabbed a game update. Supplemental content also was downloaded and worked fine. Sadly when running an old game, the cool Live blade that pops up when pressing the X Logo key does nothing beyond allow you to shut down. With the 360 games, it allows you to see what friends are on, play custom music and a few other things.
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#270105 - 26/11/2005 22:10
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
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Maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't a gaming console be an appliance which doesn't need updating?
If it needs updating, then it's a computer, and should let me type papers, edit pictures, and manage my empeg. Its lack of this functionality makes it seem like an overpriced PC.
/me plugs in Super Nintento to continue working on Zelda 3.
_________________________
- FireFox31 110gig MKIIa (30+80), Eutronix lights, 32 meg stacked RAM, Filener orange gel lens, Greenlights Lit Buttons green set
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#270106 - 26/11/2005 22:17
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Most tech devices these days have upgradable firmware and usually this is a good thing. My cell phone, router, portable gaming unit, Rio Karma, empeg, XBox, and Vonage call box all are upgradable, but none of them are a general purpose PC. Instead of having to get a new portable console, I can online update mine to add in support for better movie codecs, or have a web browser added.
With my XBox 360, online updates mean more then just low level bug fixes or whatever. It also means I can go on and download a game demo before I go to the store. Or grab a classic game like Gauntlet or SmashTV. Even Nintendo is going this route with the Revolution, allowing online users to browse the entire catalogue and play a game. If I wanted to, I could play Zelda 1 - Twilight Princess on the Revolution. All because it is online and upgradable.
Most updates for the 360 will be backwards compatibility updates to allow more and more XBox 1 games to run on it.
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#270107 - 27/11/2005 07:48
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
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The firmware updates for the Sony PSP add complete new features, like a web browser for example (and also fix security holes that allowed people to run pirated games from the memory card).
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Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday
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#270108 - 27/11/2005 11:59
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
Maybe I'm missing something, but shouldn't a gaming console be an appliance which doesn't need updating?
Have you ever written a significant program that is 100% bugfree the first time around?
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#270109 - 27/11/2005 13:32
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: FireFox31]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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I don't understand this. The XBOX 360 seems like an "overpriced" PC? !? What part of the $299 price tag ($399 for premium) is "overpriced?" My PowerBook cost $2600. A Mac Mini costs $499.
The $399 price in fact is a steal for the package you're getting. Most people don't equate the capacity to update/upgrade with "personal computer" - because all consoles, back to the dawn of time, have been "computers".
And you may very well be able to connect the empeg to it. It already handles the iPod and any mass-storage MP3 player without a problem. Seems like HTTP access to the empeg might just work out of the box.
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#270110 - 27/11/2005 14:13
Re: Just Played X-Box 360....
[Re: Cris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 05/01/2001
Posts: 4903
Loc: Detroit, MI USA
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I've got a dumb question that I think I know the answer to, but I'm hoping that I'm wrong...
What about us guys that play PC games mainly because we can play FPS games with a keyboard and mouse with no problems but can't play on one of those controllers to save our lives?
Even if I got that problem sorted out (assuming the answer will be "practice, practice" I still have the problem of having to battle for time w. the TV if I ever want to play a game. Will my wife dig the fact that I'm not letting her watch her soaps so I can play a game?
I guess the PC is still the best "for me". I also like that I can seamlessly go between email, internet, gaming, photoshop, etc. All at the same seat.
I'm not knocking consoles, I just don't think they are for me.
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Brad B.
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