OB1og

After playing Dead Rising for twenty minutes at my cousin’s house, I’ve pretty much settled on a 360. I’ll wait until Xmas, though, at which point they’ll have hopefully ironed out a few more of the hardware bugs.

You might want to wait until next year. Reportedly, they have a redesigned chip that will go into play next year – that will result in better heat distribution inside the box. Of course, most of the early hardware issues have been resolved – so the likelihood of getting a shoddy box now is pretty slim. Like a PC – you do have to keep it out in the open. I had mine on top of my entertainment center (not boxed in) and never had heating issues. If you close the cabinet or leave it on a Shag carpet (like Sean does) you’re gonna’ have issues.

As for the HD-DVD option – by purchasing that (in addition to a $400 360) – MS is now only $30 cheaper than Sony’s top-of-the line model – and Sony’s $600 unit comes with a 60GB hard-drive – compared to Sony’s 20GB. Suddenly, Sony doesn’t look so crazy.

Picked this off of CNET –

Microsoft’s 1080p plans may be more flash than substance, however. Because the 360 lacks an HDMI output, the only way to get the improved HD resolution will be via the system’s default component outputs or (presumably) by adding a VGA cable (sold separately). The problem: almost no HDTVs actually accept 1080p video signals via their component inputs. VGA/RGB inputs tend to fare better in this regard, but they’re not as prevalent on HDTVs as the ubiquitous component inputs are. Also, movie studios have the option of adding a so-called Image Constraint Token to their HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies, a copy-protection option that delivers less-than-optimal resolution through all outputs but HDMI. They have yet to do so, but if they reverse course, watching HD-DVDs on the 360 would deliver a movie-watching experience that’s little better than that of standard DVDs. Similarly, while the software update may enable the 360 to upscale games and videos to 1080p resolution, most games will still be optimized for a native resolution of 720p.

I wouldn’t base your TV purchase on the HD-DVD.

I’ve never been a hardware guy, or even much of a graphics guy. It’s all about the games. And I think that’s how a lot, perhaps even most, gamers make their decisions.

As of right now, 360 has the games I want to play. That’s all it comes down to for me. I mean, I don’t want my 360 breaking, but as long as it functions, I’m good.

But as for HD and cool graphics and whatnot, it takes a lot to make my eyes bleed. I just spent two weeks playing my old N64 and had a grand old time. I can easily play the old Street Fighter II and enjoy myself, because the game is fun. Good graphics are nice, but the greatest, highest-definition graphics in the world won’t save a shitty game–while a great game with mediocre graphics is often worth playing.

If your an SFII fan – the 360 is for you. They currently have SFII available for download (and online play) on X-Box Live Arcade – so you always have a live opponent.

Just re: Ed’s comment about SFII on X-Box Live Arcade – be very wary. The reviews have been very bad for the game, specifically that there’s a lot of lag during online play, the leaderboard is screwed up (if people are losing matches, they can just disconnect and not lose any points) and it’s very, very buggy.