Doom on Xbox Live, Jackson Making Halo Game

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops in its X06 Keynote today in Barcelona. The announcements are flying fast and furious: Ensemble studios is making a Halo RTS, and Peter Jackson is making a new Halo game (unrelated to Halo 3 or the RTS). The HD-DVD will be $200 in the U.S. with a release aimed at November of this year. They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock. Bioshock will also be on Windows, of course. Windows is also the platform on which Microsoft is announcing a new Massively Multiplayer game from Cryptic Studios, a new super-hero MMOG based on Marvel Comics' IP: Marvel Universe Online.

Thank God

[Mateo_LeFou]

I was wondering what I'm going to do with my Windows machine...

Re:

[Khuffie]

"So, a Halo exclusive license will only limit Xbox sales. People buy the Xbox to play Halo, get it?"

Erm...you contradict yourself from one sentence to the next.

Re:

[drzhivago]

Microsoft has a monopoly in the personal computer space. They do not have a monopoly in the home video game console space.

Exclusive titles did not start with Microsoft - it did not start with Sony, either - and it's nothing to get all atwitter about.

Re:"Leak"

[Psychotext]

People buy the Xbox to play Halo, get it? Not the other way around.

I'm glad, "People buy the Halo to play Xbox" wouldn't have made any sense at all...

Re:

[krunk4ever]

or "People who play Halo to buy the Xbox" doesn't quite work either.

Re:Thank God

[SilentChris]

There should be a law that if you have no sense of humor you shouldn't be allowed to make jokes.

Re:

[heinousjay]

It's a fun day on Slashdot when a fawning Linux acolyte catches a troll mod.

ATTN: Peter Jackson !

[LDoggg_]

Please don't work on the Halo thing until after The Hobbit.
Your actors aren't getting any younger.

Re:

[packeteer]

I think the LOTR movie series was proof that it does not matter the age or height of your actors. Computers and makeup can pretty much do anything you want.

Re:

[LDoggg_]

Probably true, not to mention the characters that are need to be in the Hobbit are really old even in Hobbit anyways.
Still I was upset PJ even spent time on king kong. If MGM & New Line did indeed get the green light [chud.com] to make The Hobbit, then it should be top priority.

Re:

[MustardMan]

Oh don't worry, with the lack of originality in hollywood, I'd expect a complete remake of the LOTR trilogy within ten years.

Re:

[SanityInAnarchy]

Granted, but it's funny how you use LOTR to take a dig at Hollywood. There's so many movies to pick on (Dude, Where's my Car), but you picked movies this good to fight against?

Re:

[MustardMan]

Did I say I was fighting against LOTR? I simply said hollywood sucks so they will probably try to milk the series by doing a remake sooner rather than later. Way to put words into my mouth.

Re:

[SanityInAnarchy]

I did not miss the point, but you seem to have entirely missed the irony. The "remake" point would be just as valid if he picked "Wild Wild West", but the statement wouldn't also immediately remind us of when Hollywood gets it right.

A shame that this has actually gone this far. Let's drop it, it was offtopic in the first place.

The Lovely Bones

[westlake]

He's going to be doing 'The Lovely Bones' next

How do you make such a fragile fantasy work as a movie?

The closest example would be Robin Williams and What Dreams May Come.

backward-compatibility

[X_Caffeine]

What about the promises of backward-compatibility? Or did they forget about that again?

(yes I'm aware that they didn't specify how much of the library would be backward compatible... but 75% is reasonable, right? or whatever we have now + Psychonauts)

Re:

[Rico_Suave]

They released a big BC update less than a month ago. These things don't happen automagically.

Re:

[abandonment]

if the system was designed properly it would. xbox does NOT have backwards compatibility whatsoever. Backwards compatibility is me taking that windows 98 program that i've used for 10 years (to use an example) and running it on Xp or Vista without problems. Ie the exact same executable file.

Xbox backwards compatibility is the equivalent of using a big stick to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Re:

[c_forq]

In the case of the X-Box it is more like compatiblilty between 64-bit XP and 32-bit XP, or PowerPC Apple and Intel Apple. You have to remember that the 360 is a new arcutecture, so there has to be a software layer for emulation. Just like how almost every driver has to be rewritten for XP64, the software has to be tweaked for each X-Box game.

BC will become less and less important ...

[jchenx]

I imagine backwards-compatibility is going to become less and less important as time goes on. IMHO, BC has always been one of those bullet point features for systems, that's rarely utilized by most gamers. Obviously, it's most important when the console first launches, when you've got a number of slightly-older titles that you still want to check out. But as time goes on, many of those slightly-older titles will end up being ones on the next-gen system anyway. And it's rather rare to want to play a REALLY o

Marvel Universe

[LotsOfPhil]

The MMOG sounds pretty neat. I will never play it (nothing like enough time) but it sounds like it has the potential to do quite well.

Re:

[Durrok]

... or you can play City of Heroes [cityofheroes.com]

Re:

[Babbster]

Amen. I think I'll go out and pick up an Xbox 360 with City of Heroes right now! Or, is that game still only available for Windows PCs?

Re:

[R.D.Olivaw]

I'm curious to how this will work. I mean the choice of heroes in Comics albeit big is limited. Add to that the fact that most player will want to play the top guns and you will end up with a world of Spideys and Wolverines.

Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!

[The Mad Debugger]

Halo the toilet paper, Halo the lunchbox, Halo the flamethrower! (The kids love this one).

Good thing the game industry is such a source original thought and creativity.

Franchises are big business no matter the industry

[jchenx]

Halo the toilet paper, Halo the lunchbox, Halo the flamethrower! (The kids love this one).

Good thing the game industry is such a source original thought and creativity.

Every industry, be in TV or movies or games, takes advantage of good franchises. The most obvious examples (especially for us geeks) are Star Wars and Star Trek. Numerous TV shows have had spinoffs, some made into movies, and vice versa.

The games industry is definately no stranger to this. Nintendo is arguably the first to do this (or at leas

Re:

[C0rinthian]

Don't knock the TOZT

Re:

[I(rispee_I(reme]

Translation: "I have never heard of Ringworld or Larry Niven."

Re:

[Blakey Rat]

The Halo universe is entirely different than Niven's. Almost completely. Utterly. Have you read the novels? (Don't read the novelization of the game; it stinks. Read the other two.) The Covenant are nothing like the Kzin (if that is the comparison you were going to draw).

The only thing they have in common whatsoever is that an ancient race build ringworlds in both works. Other than that, I can't think of any similarities at all. If anything, the Covenant "race" is a rip-off of the later Rendevous wi

Re:

[Blakey Rat]

Just to add a note: If you want to see a rip-off of Niven's work in a video game, try the Wing Commander series.

What's that I hear?

[Lovedumplingx]

I think I just heard Sony slit their wrists.

Really though...these are some big announcements and I haven't heard Sony coming with anything to match them yet.

Re:

[hollismb]

That's probably because X06 is a Microsoft event only, if I'm not mistaken.

Over what?

[SuperKendall]

Sony is ending it all over what exactly?

You mean having a competitor who included HD playback as an add-on that brings up the full price of the 360 to above the cost of the base PS3?

Or perhaps you think the expansion of the Halo empire into RTS is reason enough for hari-kari. Or perhaps Bioshock releasing on the 360 whole months before poor PS3 owners ever see it!

Yes, I'm sure all those things send shivers down Sony spines. Or perhaps not.

Re:

[EGSonikku]

If by "more" you mean "the same"

And it's not forced on you. If you don't want HD-DVD movies you still get a next-gen console that as far as most developers are concerned, is on equal grounding with the PS3 as far as graphical ability. And unlike Sony who is promising downloadable content, and promising online play, the 360 is already delivering on both, and quite well.

Re:

[maddskillz]

The value of those things is definetly not $200. I already have a harmony remote which does a great job, and the thought of watching King Kong again caused a rather unplesant reaction

Re:

[justchris]

Wow, that was totally not where I was expecting you to go with that. I know I, for one, wouldn't pay $200 for the souls of the damned. Guess we all have to stick to our budgets.

Re:

[IpalindromeI]

Why would anyone be upset that the PS3 is powered by the souls of the damned? I could see being upset if it was powered by the souls of the innocent, and you think they don't deserve that punishment. Or maybe you think powering the PS3 is too good for the souls of the damned? They don't deserve a vacation like that.

Playstation 3 draws its power
During the witching hour
Everyone's grapes turn sour
Burma Shave

Misread

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else read that title and think: "Sweet. Steve Jackson [sjgames.com] is going to make a Halo game!"

Re:

[Shipwack]

Steve Jackson Games making the next Halo game sounds all well and good, up until the point where the Feds come in and bust him for making a murder simulator trainer...

Re:

[curecollector]

What I really misread, however, was that the HD-DVD itself would cost $200 (as opposed to the HD-DVD unit). But that can be attributed to sloppy wording.

Halogen

[63N1U5]

What we all suspected when Microsoft issued a cease and desist to the modders behind Halogen (the Halo themed Command and Conquer mod) has turned out to be a reality. You have to give props to MS for responding to all of the interest for a Halo RTS by creating their own (albeit based on the Age of Empires engine). The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com [halowars.com].

Re:

[Ford Prefect]

The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com./ [www.halowars.com]

More importantly, is that Craig Mullins' [goodbrush.com] artwork?

Talk about Bungie connections [bungie.org] - at the very least, it's attempting a similar style...

We'll be Back and legal, soon!

[Fatalist]

I didn't see the original article about the Halogen shutdown on Slashdot until just now, but it doesn't look like anyone pointed out the fact that the sentence "We'll be Back and legal, soon!" appears twice on the page when you highlight the text.

Re:

[Zangief]

This kind of games are always shut down. Look at Chrono Resurrection, for example.

Re:

[MMaestro]

Actually, Microsoft is 'justified' in shutting down Halogen because they ARE making a RTS Halo game.

On the other hand, SquareEnix hasn't made any announcements or even hinted at a Chrono Trigger 2 (or 3 if you count Chrono Cross).

Re:

[Zangief]

They are in their right to do so. It is their IP after all, and neither Halogen or Chrono Resurrection was protected under fair use.

I always wonder why those people don't do something original. It is pretty obvious that they have the talent to do so, but yet they prefer to waste efforts in project that are doomed to receive a Cease and Desist sooner than later.

Doom, still going to cost you.a bit.

[kinglink]

Doom costs 800 points.. that's 10 dollars for those of us who don't remember the conversion.

Seriously XBLA used to be a place to get cheap legacy games, and interesting unique games, now with every game coming out at 800 points it's sad. I'm probably going to end up buying doom at some point, but while it was a impulse buy at 400 (1.25 per episode, 4 episodes) I'm going to have to consider it now.

Any game that's older than 10 years needs to either have significantly new gameplay (not just co-op, time pilot, but you were 400 points so I love you more) for a 10 dollar investment.

Re:

[PaganRitual]

I want to punch everyone that purchases Doom on XBL. It's the original twitch deathmatch shooter, and on a console it's just wrong. Plain, fucking, wrong. It's dirt cheap in the Collector's Edition pack, and there are plenty of mods online that make it look better and run on Windows and give true mouselook etc etc.

Meanwhile, all these losers will mess around on XBL with it thinking they are playing a part of history, awkwardly strafing around and hopelessly trying to quickly flick and shoot, when they ar

Re:

[kinglink]

I actually got it recently for 20, and the reason I got it was no matter what I wanted doom and doom 2. But even paying the extra 3 bucks (difference) for the collectors edition meant doom 1 cost me 1.5 dollars. 10 dollars seems extreme to me for a 10 year old game. Granted it's the god father of the fps genre, but the fact that I can get in numerous other forms for 1-5 bucks if not free makes me feel someone is trying to cash in on their license.

Of course all that being said I'll end up buying it. This

Re:

[kinglink]

There's actually a lot of 10 buck games.

Astrop Pop, Feeding Frenzy, Wik, Zuma, cloning clyde, bejeweled, and texas hold'em. Hell Bankshot billards was 15 bucks.

Anything more complex then a simple arcade game (sf2 being the obviosu exception) is 10 bucks. Funny. except for bejeweled everything I bought on Live was 5 bucks. Even stuff like Geometry wars.

First level 60 superhero

[cubicledrone]

Spider-man.. Spider-man.. does whatever a Spider can...

THREE UNDEAD ROGUES APPEAR

Cheap shot! Cheap shot! Ambush crit!

"OH NOES SPIDEY USE YOUR WEBZ!"

"HE CAN'T! HE WAS BLINDED/KIDNEY SHOTTED/GOUGED/VANISHED/CHEAP SHOTTED FIFTEEN TIMES!!"

"EEEEERRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZ!!" /laugh /spit /dance /violin /vanish /vanish /vanish

Can't wait.

Re:

[Keith Russell]

Spiderman will be the Task Force contact in Times Square.

All those Sentinels are gray to me. No XP.

What about a 360 MMORPG?!?

[elrous0]

Forget about yet another Windows MMORPG (yet another "WoW Killer" no doubt), what about a Xbox 360 MMORPG?!?! Every since Live came online for the original xbox, we've been waiting fore this and so far, zilch. It's the perfect plaform for it to, the built-in speech capabilities would make raiding and teaming-up easy (and no need to find additional software or pay for a teamspeak server, either)

And, don't give me that "FFXI" bullshit, either. That was just a poor port of the PC version ("Wait, I need a USB keyboard to talk, WTF?!?!?!"). If I wanted to return to the year 2000, I'd buy it. But I want a modern, *REAL* MMORPG.

-Eric

Re:

[Saige]

The Slashdot summary forgot to mention that Marvel Universe Online is PC and 360 both.

Here's a 1up article about it [1up.com].

Re:

[justchris]

Wrong and wrong. I suspect Marvel Universe Online is targetted more at the City of Heroes/Villains crowd than the WoW crowd.

And if you've ever played FFXI for PC, you would know that it was specifically designed around console controls. So much so that it was painful to play up until the 2nd expansion that allowed you to reassign movement controls.

Re:

[elrous0]

Yeah, with a "USB Keyboard and Mouse." What's the point? They already have a console with a mouse and keyboard that can play a wide selection of MMORPGS. It's called a "PC".

Seriously, when are developers going to realize that you don't need a keyboard for chat channels when you can have ACTUAL CHAT. When you're chatting around the water cooler with your friends at work do you need a fucking keyboard?!?! The 360 has built in voice chat--USE IT!!!

-Eric

Re:What about a 360 MMORPG?!?

[saboola]

When you're chatting around the water cooler with your friends at work do you need a fucking keyboard?!?!

"Yes"

-Stephen Hawking

Mod parent up

[elrous0]

Very funny, wish I had mod points for you.

-Eric

Re:

[CaseM]

Somehow I just can't imagine being in Ironforge when every player's voice is being blasted through my speakers. Actually, I could, but my therapist costs far too much to subject myself to that on a daily basis.

Re:

[hitmark]

the issue isnt as much about chat as it is about hotkeys.
i have seen screenshots of people that have 5+ hotbars, each with 10 or so icons.
basicly, playing a setup like that is like playing a piano.

and a rts is similar. the realy skillfull play fast series of hotkey commands.
in that way the blizzard games are genius as they stack each into a 3x4 grid so that you use the area closest to the tab key to play out commands.

your avarage console controller just dont have the keys.
i can think of two console mmorpgs,

Re:

[grumbel]

Seriously, when are developers going to realize that you don't need a keyboard for chat channels when you can have ACTUAL CHAT. When you're chatting around the water cooler with your friends at work do you need a fucking keyboard?!?! The 360 has built in voice chat--USE IT!!!

What I am waiting for is a game that combines speech recognition with voice synthesis and thus giving you a voice that actually fits the character and setting. While voice chat alone is already a nice addition, it simply can spoil th

Re:

[elrous0]

You think you have enough bandwidth for 50+ incoming voices plus the game?

There are very simple ways to deal with that. Limit the number of voices heard (outside of one-on-one coversations and team chat) to the nearest 10 or 20 people (I know Xbox can support that, because I've been in plenty of Battlefront II battles where there were at least that many people talking at once). Combine that with private channels for one-on-one and team conversations and it would be little different than it is now, only

Re:

[badboy_tw2002]

The Xbox live pricing policies allow for a silver membership (i.e. free to go online, download stuff, etc) to play MMORPGs online for their individual subscription fee. You don't need gold membership to do so.

1.1

[l3prador]

Did anyone else listen to the ilovebees story? A game featuring Janissary James and the other 1.1s could be amazing. Especially if Durga was involved.

That explains the recent Cease & Desist

[shoptroll]

This completely explains the cease & desist that was sent to that Halo RTS mod team earlier this month...

GTA IV Episodes? That also explains why Sony got their act together finally with the online stuff. It'd be a shame for them to completely lose that exclusive.

Re:

[aetherspoon]

Halo was originally a RTS, actually.

Re:

[le0p]

Why do you seem so shocked about the possibility for a HALO RTS when you don't know what the game is about? It's like saying "I've got no idea what this game is about, how could they make it into an RTS??? Preposterous!"

As for Peter Jackson, see: Petr Jackson talks the Halo Movie [slashdot.org]

Re:

[63N1U5]

The original concept for Halo was an RTS along the same lines as an earlier Bungie title - Myth. It wasn't until Microsoft bought Bungie Studios that Halo became a FPS and the Xbox launch title. There is more than just a plot to Halo, there is volumes of backstory and history in the super-secret Halo bible that is locked in the Bungie Studios vault. Google the Halo Library - that site has compiled just about all that is known about the Halo universe based on the games, novels, and other information. It

Re:

[PhatBhuda]

The original concept for Halo was an RTS along the same lines as an earlier Bungie title - Myth. It wasn't until Microsoft bought Bungie Studios that Halo became a FPS and the Xbox launch title.

Now, it may be that Halo was originally a RTS game, but it was definitely demoed as an FPS before the Microsoft buyout. It was originally demoed at the 1999 Macworld Expo in NYC.

It was a sad day when Microsoft bought Bungie in preparation for the Xbox release and postponed the Mac OS and Windows releases of Halo ti

Re:

[mdarksbane]

According to their press releases at the time, the idea was a team-oriented combat game. Most people compared it to Tribes (and Bungie admitted to being heavily influenced by tribes during the development process).

The switch to xbox made single player a higher priority. Although they obviously kept quite a bit of multiplayer, the scale and teamwork aspect of the levels was scaled down quite a bit from what they were originally talking about.

Of course, in some of the first interviews they were still consider

There is actually a story to Halo

[jchenx]

There is actually quite a bit of story in Halo and Halo 2, and certainly more than your typical FPS. There's enough in the "Halo universe" to spawn a few books as well, not to mention the Halo movie that Peter Jackson is working on.

I'm not a Bungie cultist myself (although I have a friend that works there), but I think there is definately enough to like in the Halo universe, if you're a general sci-fi fan like I am. And if you don't, there's nothing wrong with avoiding what you don't like.

As for people yelling at MS to be more original, and to stop milking the franchise for all it's worth, you can easily say the same for Nintendo's games. How many Zelda, Metroid, and Mario games have there been? And how many of them have been good? Plenty. Franchises != the suck.

Re:

[hollismb]

I think the answer you're looking for can be found in the trailer [halowars.com]. Troops, aliens, weapons, vehicles, spacecraft, battles.. all accounted for.

Please, try Wikipedia

[SanityInAnarchy]

Most popular fiction has a plot summary on Wikipedia. Go look it up. No, I won't give you a link, you lazy bastard.

Re:

[AbRASiON]

The plot is quite piss poor to be honest, any time someone raves about the plot it's a bungie-fan who has read the books.

In my opinion, having to read a book to find the good story in the GAME doesn't make much sense to me.

I played and completed Halo 1 and enjoyed it, not bad 7/10 maybe - but honestly it's by far the most over-rated game of all time, period -full stop, this is the one -good lord is it over-rated.
(I started Halo 2, got about 4 hours in and quit, it was not that good at all)

Now the MP and C

Re:

[Fallingcow]

Not for the PC? Are they insane?

If they manage to make an RTS for a console that doesn't suck, it'll be the first time that that's happened. EVER.

Re:

[Saige]

Well, Ensemble has been researching a console control system for RTS games for a while. Apparently, with a ported version of Age of Empires, they had it to the point that console players were beating PC keyboard/mouse players regularly.

Re:

[Fallingcow]

I'm betting that the PC players were casual players like me. I usually learn maybe two or three of the keyboard shortcuts, if that, and rely on the mouse to get me through.

Even the sort-of-good players use most of the keyboard shortcuts, and can destroy a player like me. I doubt that the console players can beat someone like that, and those kinds of people constitute the a large portion of the online player base (I mostly play single player, I'm a wuss at RTS :) )

They also probably limited the field of vi

Re:

[twistedsymphony]

well all Xbox 360 games support at very least 1280x720, and at this point it could support as high as 1920x1080... I would imagine with a wider screen comes an improved FOV... Not to mention most HDTV have fairly large screens, I myself play on an HD projector... Somehow I don't think I'll have any problems seeing what's going on from my couch. Also since the 360 supports a VGA adapter an a number of alternative resolutions many people who own the console and don't have an HDTV have it set next to their PC

Re:

[Fallingcow]

I'd love to know what they've done that's so great.

How'd they get around analog sticks being horribly innaccurate as pointing devices? Every game I've seen either left the player to live with twitchy, poor controls, or slowed down the cursor motion a bunch to help aleviate the problem, but neither approach resulted in games that were fun to play.

That and the screen real-estate issue were always the worst parts of playing RTS on a console. I don't think that the former problem can be solved (it's not a mat

Re:That's It?

[chrismcdirty]

Halo RTS was left to the homebrew crowd until about 3 weeks ago, when they were sent a C&D letter from Microsoft. [slashdot.org]

Re:

[Thansal]

heh, I will step up.

I happen to love both WoW and CoH/V.

My keys points on WoW?
HUGE Community, not that hard to find good poeple to play with, though I admit I am no where near up to raid levels (level 33 priest atm).
The game is beautiful, nuff said.
There is high end content.
The grind is not THAT bad if you are only going for levels. However if you want to actualy be viable you NEED to grind for gear/whatever. That is my first complaint.
My second one is travel time, I hate WoW travel time. All classes sho

Re:

[snuf23]

If you think COH/COV is a grind fest try out a Korean designed MMO sometime. Seriously checkout Hero Online [netgame.com], it's free and holy cow is it a grind.

COH was my first MMO, played it for about a year, got my level 50 and then moved to WoW. Played WoW for about a year then bought CoV.
I have a love/hate relationship with CoH/CoV, I totally understand what you mean about it being a grind. The game really has almost nothing to it but combat. I think the combat is pretty entertaining but doing mission after mission c

Re:

[Sage Gaspar]

At this point I'm just waiting for something new. I don't have any desire to go back to WoW. I think MMO developers are waiting on releases because of the Burning Crusade.

EQ2 has its third expansion coming out in a month. The store box version actually includes the base game and the first two expansions, so it's a nice entry point. It's a pretty fun game that's been attracting a decent amount of new players lately, might be worth giving it a try if you're looking for something, hehe. Free trial version of

Re:

[justchris]

CoX is more grindy than WoW, but it is nothing for grind. You never played Everquest, DAoC, or Lineage, did you? Actually, any of the Korean developed MMO's are lousy grindfests, but that's because that's what their target market (Korean players) enjoy.

I personally prefer CoX to WoW, WoW got boring quick, whereas CoX didn't get boring until around level 45. But even then, it had compensation in the major task forces and Archvillain hunting in the later levels. Nothing gives you more of a sense of acco

Re:

[Sage Gaspar]

CoX is actually a pretty quick grind, I just found it missing ... I dunno, something, in the way of substance. I love the idea, I love the character creation, gameplay's not bad, the lore even is pretty good, I just found it hard to get into. Soloing is so accessible that you get the two-edged sword that actual people are hard to interact with sometimes at lower levels. And because of sidekicking and exemping, unless you manage to get into a community, once you break out of the Hollows (newbie grind zone th

Re:And Sony is too expensive?

[Control Group]

Don't think of it as being about Blu-Ray, necessarily. It's not. Really, it's about the price. $600 (or $580, if you count the 20% of production that will be priced at $500) is, to many people too much money. It's really that simple.

Blu-Ray is something that many people aren't excited about that also drives the price up and the production quantity down - this makes it the obvious target for people who don't want/aren't willing/can't afford to shell out $580 for a game console before purchasing even a single game (much less any of the usual hardware accessories).

Had the DS been sold at $500, with the only obvious thing that might account for its far-above-the-competition price the second screen, then yes, you would have heard similar complaints about it. If the Wii was priced at $500 because of problems with the Wiimote, then you'd be hearing similar complaints about that.

Say what you want about how great Blu-Ray is, or how it's actually for games, not for pushing Sony's pet format, or whatever else you want to say about it. But what it comes down to is that, for (seemingly) a lot of people, $580 is just too damn much money. And it doesn't matter how cool Blu-Ray is if the price is more than people are willing to pay.

Re:

[Control Group]

Which is still missing the point.

Let's say I agree that the PS3 is a fantastic value, it does things the 360 can't even dream of doing, and does it at a price that is less than I would have to spend to bring a 360 into the same performance ballpark.

It doesn't matter.

As an analogy, let's say I'm shopping for a car, because I need to get to work every day. Let's also say someone offers to sell me a new Viper for $40,000. That's a great value, there's no doubt about it. But if I don't care whether my car can g

Re:

[clontzman]

I've got to ask... what can the PS3 do that the 360 "can't dream of doing"? Real-time weapon change?

Re:

[Control Group]

Play games on high-capacity discs.

Which, as far as I'm concerned, is at best overrated, and at worst completely useless. So, from my point of view, the answer to your question is "nothing." That's why I've got a 360, and I don't plan on getting a PS3.

My point, though, was that even if your typical Sony fanboi is right that the PS3 is somehow a "better value" than the 360, it really dosn't matter if the price is still too high. Which it is.

Re:

[clontzman]

Y'know, it's funny. I completely misread the gist of your comment the first time. I actually thought you were arguing for the benefits of commuting to work in a Viper. Reading, as they say, is truly fundamental.

Sorry if I came off like a tool.

Re:

[MikeBabcock]

I've been thinking the same thing ever since they announced HD-DVD as a future add-on. Also consider that the XBox360 is still really noisy. Have you read the releases about the PS3? Its quiet. Very quiet. Quiet, compact, and without a big power brick. Sweet.

Not to mention BD movies, great games and backward compatibility.

My PS2 DVD drive is finally giving out after 3 years of brutal use and I'm trying to convince my wife that a PS3 would be a better investment than a new DVD drive since it would play

Re:

[powerlord]

The noisy-ness and size of the XBox360 are the main things that kept me from getting it originally (along with my general happiness with the PS2 I got a few years before the XBox's launch).

I'm thinking of biting the bullet and upgrading to HD-TV this year (between the drop in HD-TV prices and TiVo's new HD unit), and the PS3 is starting to look like the perfect option to handle the "GameConsole/DVD/NextGenMedia" portion and round out my new TV stack. Going for the PS3 is an easier choice than a stand-alone

power supply is internal on PS3

[YesIAmAScript]

It's external on 360.

360 + 360 power supply is a lot larger than PS3.

360 + 360 power supply + HD-DVD drive is about double the size of the PS3. And a lot louder.

it's quiet

[YesIAmAScript]

The current test units are quiet. Not 'quiet', but quiet. The units have the final design. They're built just like production units, in fact they're basically just the first production units off the line with a different ROM. And additionally, reviewer tests of production units will be available in a few week, significantly before release. So we'll know for certain production units are quiet a while before they hit customers hands.

Also:
"Also Adding the HD-DVD drive to your size comparison doesn't make sense

Re:

[StocDred]

Judging from sequel- and spinoff- sales, I think most of the world disagrees with you.

And as long as the games as good, I think most gamers would disagree with you.

Re:

[ultramk]

Yeah! Spinoffs suck!! Like, say, Starcraft, World of Warcraft (what a blunder!!!), the whole Mario franchise (Donkey Kong spinoff), those are just to name a few of the most egregious "brand dilutions." What morons, eh?

m-

Sorry, No RC3

[Petersko]

EA bought Dice, and Microsoft Game Studios owns the RC series. If there's another RC in the future, it won't be made by Dice.

I find this particularly sad because I, too, loved the second iteration.

Re:

[justchris]

Better than Archon? I fail to see how any racing game, no matter its qualities, can be better than Archon. Most strategy games aren't better than Archon.

Re:

[Babbster]

The price of the HD-DVD add-on is a) "awesome" for people who already have an Xbox 360 and want to play high-definition movies (the ones currently available, of course) and b) "okay" to "not as good" for people looking at buying the whole package ($400+200 HD-DVD 360 = $600 "high-end" PS3 or $500 "low-end" PS3 and a game or two).

For me, if I was going to buy into either of the HD formats right now, I'd go HD-DVD. There are more movies currently available and more movies with firm releae dates. If I was

You fail it.

[DoctaWatson]

Because not only can objects be wet by liquids other than water, Microsoft can and does make software for non-Windows platforms. [microsoft.com]

Dude.