Games: Xbox 360 [!OT]

**Cataferal** · May 17th, 2005, 06:42 PM

Well, the Xbox 360 is getting Final Fantasy XI, and will be backward compatible. That pretty much says it all really, but if your wanting more details, look here.

I guess this is Microsoft's defensive strategy now that the PS3's just been unveiled. I'd say these are two major positives in terms of marketing, even though i personally dislike FFXI, and already own the original console anyway.

**SMTP** · May 23rd, 2005, 12:44 PM

The 512MB of Ram is perfectly fine! PS3 has 256MB and the Xbox 1 only had 64MB. So actually for a console 512 is ALOT. =P

5. Support for 4 wireless controllers

Wireless = waste of money for snobs and a pain in the ass (recharge, no more gaming if they're out of energy, batteries die, etc). Although this doesn't mean standard controllers will be wireless. I hope they're not wireless

They are all going to be wireless and cost the same the original controllers did on Xbox 1.

Yes they are rechargable, when they die you just plug them into one of the usb ports to recharge and keep playing! (YES real usb 2.0 ports. Even supports usb keyboards for fast typing! =P)

- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each

Very promising. In fact that's too much, if they won't take graphics. One of these would have been more than enough.

Yes the processors take some of the graphic processing, and 3 cores are needed because you can download, IM people, and play games all at the same time. So the cores are really needed.

1. Support for [...] DVD-R/RW [...] CD-R, CD-RW

Won't believe this until I see it. M$ doesn't want you burning stuff.

This feature is real. Its even supported on PS3.

[ May 23, 2005 09:52 AM: Message edited by: SMTP ]

**Cataferal** · May 23rd, 2005, 02:43 PM

Yeah, in fact, even the PS2 slimline supports CD-R's and CD-RW's.

**mrwiseman** · May 23rd, 2005, 04:57 PM

IRT SMTP: The 512MB of Ram is perfectly fine! PS3 has 256MB

Those 512 MB are for graphics too, while the PS3 has two separate 256 MB program+data and a faster 256 MB for graphics.

In both cases I'd have gone for a little more. Non-bloated games should run perfectly, but you might want to do stuff like video edition or MMORPGs with very large RAM buffers.

They are all going to be wireless and cost the same the original controllers did on Xbox 1.

But I'd rather have non-wireless controllers for cheaper, which I like better.

3 cores are needed because you can download, IM people, and play games all at the same time

Um... Nope, not at all; you can do as many things as you want with a single processor. Processors switch tasks appropiately. In fact these are not three tasks but many more; today's games have usualy some 15 execution threads in charge of different tasks like music, input, graphics engine, IA, network, etc.

IRT Cata: Yeah, in fact, even the PS2 slimline supports CD-R's and CD-RW's.

What do you mean by supports? What can you do with them?

**SMTP** · May 23rd, 2005, 05:47 PM

3 cores are needed because you can download, IM people, and play games all at the same time

Um... Nope, not at all; you can do as many things as you want with a single processor. Processors switch tasks appropiately. In fact these are not three tasks but many more; today's games have usualy some 15 execution threads in charge of different tasks like music, input, graphics engine, IA, network, etc.

Yea, but the 3 cores will help ensure that while doing all those things (download, IM people, and play games =P )That it will not have any slow down.

**mrwiseman** · May 23rd, 2005, 05:53 PM

That doesn't really help at all; a single core of equivalent power would do exactly as well. And in the particular case of downloads and IMs, they take so little CPU time, evenly divided with infrequent context switches, and rely so much on blocking IO operations, they wouldn't slow down a demanding game at all even with one fifth the power of only one of these three cores.

The only reason you'd like three cores is to run the game threads faster. But I think these are overkill.

**Cataferal** · May 23rd, 2005, 07:29 PM

IRT Wiseman WRT CD-RW/CD-R support - Yeah, the description is a little vague, come to think of it. Sony just advertised the slimline as being "CD-R/CD-RW compatible". Im doubting you can play video, but i'd guess you can play audio tracks from them.