FOR THE MAGAZINE: Microsoft – Your Opinions

[ScotsWahey]

Hard Disk Drive not High Definition DVD. The PS3 has a HDD at both price points. 360 should really have done the same. Not having a HDD can hold developers back.

[Somerset Bumpkin]

No the HD can be used to expand the RAM (Virtual) etc, it can also load extra stuff, as its quicker to read from the HDD than it is from a DVD

[ScotsWahey]

Hard Disk Drive not High Definition DVD. The PS3 has a HDD at both price points. 360 should really have done the same. Not having a HDD can hold developers back.

What?
If the 360 had a HDD as standard it would have been more expencive. Expencive is what microsoft want to stear clear of becaus people DONT like expencive. Secondly it wont hold developers back because DVD has more than enough space for current games. Blu Ray has well in excess of the space required to store a game. It seems to me like a complete waste for them not to store two games on it because that is what they could do. All this talk about games requiring a lot more space is BULL!! The only reason some developers go about space is because they want to store their cruddy FMV on it with stupid actors voice acting.

Seriously what are you talking about? The option to have a HDD as standard has nothing to do with DVD capacity. Streaming from the harddrive makes life a lot easier for developers aswell as reducing load times by half.

Also Blue Dragon is on 2 disks. Yes it has a lot of cutscenes but being on 2 disks is a huge annoyance if you ask me. It'll be interesting to see if games like GTA4 will be able to fit all the content on 1 disc. Blu-Ray may not be the greatest solution but hey if its not atleast the PS3 has a HDD as standard to download games onto.

[ScotsWahey]

I dont want my gaming session interupted with having to get up and change a disk. Games like GTA that stream off the disk are going to be limited by the size. GTA SA used a good chunk of the space available on a dual layered DVD. Add to that High def visuals and sound and you'll be pushing it to get everything in.

[PRNelson]

I dont want my gaming session interupted with having to get up and change a disk. Games like GTA that stream off the disk are going to be limited by the size. GTA SA used a good chunk of the space available on a dual layered DVD. Add to that High def visuals and sound and you'll be pushing it to get everything in.

So let me get this straight. If you were to play blue dragon you would be spending 35 hours on the first disc. You then have to change discs which will take all of about five minutes at most. Are you really tha lazy that that could in fact be a minus point in your opinion of whether or not to purchase that game. I mean you do have to change discs to play other games does that upset you too? Would you rather you just sat in a chair that had a catheter tube and nurse on standby drip feeding you food because taking a 20 minute break to eat is too much bother.

Now lets all take a deep breath and not be so spiteful. Lets not forget that ScotsWahey has had to master to art of playing videogames with his child carefully cradled in his arm at the same time! So it's not just a case of changing the discs, it's also about managing the childcare issues as well! Then what we could do, is just except that different things inconvenience us in different ways! Just an idea.

[ScotsWahey]

I dont want my gaming session interupted with having to get up and change a disk. Games like GTA that stream off the disk are going to be limited by the size. GTA SA used a good chunk of the space available on a dual layered DVD. Add to that High def visuals and sound and you'll be pushing it to get everything in.

So let me get this straight. If you were to play blue dragon you would be spending 35 hours on the first disc. You then have to change discs which will take all of about five minutes at most. Are you really tha lazy that that could in fact be a minus point in your opinion of whether or not to purchase that game. I mean you do have to change discs to play other games does that upset you too? Would you rather you just sat in a chair that had a catheter tube and nurse on standby drip feeding you food because taking a 20 minute break to eat is too much bother.

Hey remember when people used to have to shovel coal on a fire to keep warm? Hey remember when people used to wash their clothes with a washboard and soap? Hey remember when people used to get up off the sofa to change channel? Hey remember when games took forever to load? Hey remember when you needed 5 floppy disks to load a game? Hey remember when you needed 5 CDs to play a game?

Hey remember when people had to get up and change a DVD midway through a gaming session because the disks werent big enough to hold the whole game.

Damn those people were ghetto.

Its called progress. I could live in a cave and eat mutton grilled on a fire but I like convenience. Call me lazy all you want but when was the last time you hunted for your dinner you lazy bastard?

[toneeblair]

ScotsWahey, just to let you know some PS3 developers have been saying that, due to the slower read speeds of Blu-Ray, they've been using the extra space on the discs for the same information so that the laser isn't too far away from the information it needs at any time. all this to reduce the ghastly loading times.

progress!

on-topic... well, can't say i'm too enthused with Microsoft at the moment. the \"working replacement\" to my jiggered launch 360 didn't even last half as long. and i need to pay through the nose for a new \"working replacement\". can anybody say diminished returns?

[ScotsWahey]

The speed of the BluRay does seem a bit shizz actually but with the option to dump alot of the game onto the HDD it doesnt cause as big a problem. Well... until you run out of space on your HDD that is.

[TheBoldman]

Having been playing FF7 recently on the PS, I have to admit that I don't give a s**t about how many discs a game's on. If Blue Dragon's on two discs, that's OK, so long as I don't need to boot up disc 1 before putting in disc 2 once I'm that far through the game.

Maybe this stems from my Amiga days where Monkey Island 2 came on, what 11, 13 discs? After that, I'm immune to any feeling of inconvenience!

[MikeHaggar]

11 discs... Played MI2 on Amiga myself

[dangerboyjim]

Somehow they become the market leaders through great design and innovation. They're marketting department is still years behind Sony (the adverts are franlly rubbish), so the success of the brand is purely due to quality of the product, not just the console itself but the online service blazing a new trail that everyone else is trying to follow.

Match the Sony!

[Kyle]

ScotsWahey, just to let you know some PS3 developers have been saying that, due to the slower read speeds of Blu-Ray, they've been using the extra space on the discs for the same information so that the laser isn't too far away from the information it needs at any time. all this to reduce the ghastly loading times.

My girlfriend told me all about this, but her point in telling me was that she had read some other articles somewhere about how this was a load of nonsense. Now I don't know who to beleive, since neither of you have any links for me... )

[Noize]

Regarding all of the so-called \"next-gen\" systems... and Microsoft in particular...

When the 360 launched, I wasn't interested at all. There was nothing that was really telling me that I needed to buy one. There was no system seller game out there, and even if there was one, to me, it takes more than one game to make me shell out so much money for a game system.

At that time, I was still a Sony believer. Not a fanboy by any means, but I still had hope that Sony, willing to compete with Microsoft and win another round, would come out with something better, for the same price or lower. I still had hopes that Sony would sort out their online plans, and come up with something similar to LIVE. I had hopes Sony, like any other company, would try to come out with a killer product, like they did with their PS1, and subsequently, with their PS2. Both had flaws, like any other systems, but they were still great gaming platforms, with an unprecedented support from the game industry.

Then, Sony dropped the bomb.

The PS3 would be a lot more expensive than the 360.

And then everything from that point went downhill.

While Microsoft was trying all the time to improve the LIVE experience and to get more and more games on board, making the 360 a better investment everyday, Sony went from blunder to blunder, litteraly pissing on those people who made both the PS1 and PS2 success stories.

Non-replaceable batteries in PS3 pads. The Lik-Sang case. Micro-payments for games like Gran Turismo HD. No Wifi out of the box for basic version. No game being really better than anything on the 360. Compatibility problems with PS2 games. Online plan being basically the same as the PS2 one (letting developper themselves manage it). HDMI cable not even included with the system (I bought a 59$ DVD player that included it in the box). Overall, a HUGE letdown.

Granted, some issues (like PS2 game compatibility) are ironed out with OS patches, but still, I think the PS3 does a very good job at being a strong selling point for the 360.

At launch, the 360 was also a let down to me, as it was looking to be merely an Xbox 1.5. So on a scale of 1 to 10, I would say my letdown could've been rated 5. For the PS3 though, I think I would rate it right up to 11.

So while Sony was busy pissing off its loyal fan base, Microsoft was gaining more and more ground, and they still are. Their only problem so far seems to be one of hardware reliability, or lack of, should I say. Many, many people I know have 360s that went bust at one time or another. And this is only slightly more than a year after launch. Not very good, if you ask me, and something that will makes me hold off for a while before I'll buy one.

Another thing that Microsoft could have done better, would have been to lower the price of the 360 at the PS3 launch. Microsoft is now making profits on its hardware, so a 100$ or even a 50$ price drop would have mean a lot more people buying a 360. Because even if there are good games out there, up here in Canada, it is still 500$, and thus, a bit too much expensive for MANY gamers, myself included.

We don't have to wonder why Nintendo Wiis are selling so well. Its innovative interface (that is still not used to it's full potential), coupled with the lower price point is what make it sells. I still can't find one in any store out there.

Microsoft should have learned something from that.

Never underestimate the power of a lower pricepoint. And quality hardware.

As soon as Microsoft figures that out, I'll be getting myself a 360 and some games...

[the_13est]

Microsoft have delivered the public some gems. Windows for starters, with the new vista coming out and the software in all it's versions fascinating members of the public for years and years shows that even without the Xbox microsoft would still be awed by people in the gaming industry.

I can only admire Microsoft and the Xbox as it has done more than enough to claim itself as a veteran in the gaming world with it's two outstanding pieces of hardware. The company seem to be going from strength to strength, with it outselling giants like Nintendo and Sony and getting itself some brilliant exclusives. Not one person can possibly say that Microsoft havn't put the effort in to make a name for itself.

Microsoft have achieved what they aimed to do, become a legacy. And that, they have certainly become.

[Cutty]

From a sales standpoint the Xbox 360 has been doing fine, despite the Wii flying off the shelves. In terms of games, Microsoft's machine certainly hasn't been short of them and the future releases for the system have us all watering at the mouth.

Sure, we have Xbox Live, a superb feature that provides an excellent online service, Live Arcade, video downloads and lots of features for the future, but all of this wouldn't do anything for the console if games were being released for it and, thankfully, they are. With releases like Blue Dragon, Bioshock, Halo 3 and Lost Odyssey, the 360 will always do well when put next to the Wii and the PS3, both of which currently have little software worth purchasing the machines for.