Tendo City

And it is good. :D

Just got back from Walmart where I played the Xbox 360 for the first time.

Kameo: Beautiful game. Only played it for a little while. You can be a boxing plant.

Call of Duty 2: Very beautiful game. Fun but nazi machine gunners kept killing me.

King Kong: Nice graphics. Kept getting owned by T-Rex's.

The system itself is very nice looking. The controller is very comfortable. It really is a better version of the Xbox's Controller-S.

While the graphics are definitely a step up from what we're used to on consoles they didn't really wow me the way a new system's graphics used to. I think it has less to do with diminishing returns and more to do with how good some PC games look.

After playing around with it I definitely want one but I won't be running out an buying it day one.

I know exactly what you mean when you speak of just not being all that impressed by the next generation. Yes, a big part of it is that, now more than before, even after the new systems are released, they will STILL be way behind PCs. For most of the console history, the pattern is that consoles beat PCs for a while but PCs catch up and overtake the consoles. Now, PCs actually caught up to the likes of the Gamecube and so on within a matter of months and surpassed it quickly after that. At this point the upgrades that the consoles are offering aren't even a match for where PCs are right now. They can no longer even keep up, much less wow us for the moment.

I think the future will see consoles and PCs more or less merge into some sort of "standardized" platform experience. Something cheap and not very modular that exists more as a spec standard than a specific company's system. Movies and music will play on any company's players so long as they use the current standard. It won't be long before that is being demanded of gaming consoles...

I don't know, I haven't seen anything on the PC yet that looks as good as Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4.

Great Rumbler Wrote:I don't know, I haven't seen anything on the PC yet that looks as good as Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid 4.

But neither of those are coming out till next year. By then there may be games on the PC that are as impressive looking.

Maybe.

PCs always catch up, and in recent times they've been doing so faster than ever... :)

People have been announcing the imminent death of the PC as a gaming platform for years, but it's no more true now than it ever has been. Now, I will admit that on PC genres have solidified -- you used to find more experimental, or 'unique', or limited-market titles on PC, but now it's mostly just the big stuff. But even so, PC isn't going anywhere. And neither are consoles. I don't see any kind of PC/Console "convergence" happening anytime soon... they have different functions, and that's not going to change.

Quote:The system itself is very nice looking. The controller is very comfortable. It really is a better version of the Xbox's Controller-S.

I can't forgive Microsoft for taking a good idea, messing it up, and deciding that instead of fixing it they should ditch the idea alltogether... (that is, the button layout of course. What should have been a simple Sidewinder-style six button layout was made stupid with the black and white buttons tiny, then really bad with them lower down in that bizarre position... so instead of just fixing things the reasonable way and putting them in the normal ABC/XYZ layout, they make them into shoulder buttons? ... huh? How exactly are you supposed to use both shoulder buttons and triggers... I've tried 'middle finger triggers' (with the index finger on the shoulder button above) before (Gravix Xterminator Gamepad, for instance...). It just doesn't feel natural.

Quote:Maybe.

I wouldn't say that PC game graphics are that far behind...

If the placement is corrent, then the middle finger on the shoulder buttons will feel fine after you get used to it.

Yeah though, it's a little odd considering just how confy the old Sidewinder is.

At the very least, there's finally a decent PC controller since that one, one that isn't SUPER GLUED together with analog stick dead zones. Yes, that's right, they use the dead zone itself as the glue.

Quote:If the placement is corrent, then the middle finger on the shoulder buttons will feel fine after you get used to it.

Oh, you get used to it, but it never feels as natural as a real trigger button does...

Quote:Yeah though, it's a little odd considering just how confy the old Sidewinder is.

Exactly my point.

Quote:At the very least, there's finally a decent PC controller since that one, one that isn't SUPER GLUED together with analog stick dead zones. Yes, that's right, they use the dead zone itself as the glue.

I like my Saitek p880, but it does have the flaw that the analog sticks are very loose (psx-style I guess, I don't know) and, annoyingly, are in square wells with the points on the diagonals... oh well, it's still the best dual-analog PC gamepad I've seen. This one is pretty good though... but the (rumbleless, but most PC games don't really support rumble anyway...) p880 is $20, and this is like $40. A bit overpriced as far as PC gamepads go... I've bought several and don't think any cost that much... joysticks, yes... but gamepads?

I have something called the ReCoil. It's the nicest one I've seen personally. Still, it has a few flaws. The inside is super glued together, as I mentioned. The control sticks, while in nice circles (and they still have full square shaped range according to the calibrator), have a dead zone near the center, too large but it's about what I am used to from these things. The biggest flaw is the feature it's name advertises. The controller's cord recoils back into the controller on a spring mounted rotatery drum inside it. Nice, it actually works, except that the connection is lost by the slightest breeze, and opening it up, I can see that the actual recoil feature itself is to blame. I really don't mind wrapping up my cords, but I VERY much mind the controller suddenly disconnecting at pivotal moments in my games.

So yeah, I think I may just pick up a PC XBox controller. Now I'm just waiting for Nintendo to NOT release it's awesome Revolution controller on the computer, but rather for some 3rd party to make one that is up to PC controller standards... sigh...

Maybe the fact that I think this gamepad is the best dual-analog PC gamepad says something bad about PC gamepads, given its flaws (the low-resistance, square-edge analog sticks, the odd button numbering, the fact that buttons 5 and 6 (the top two on the face) are a bit offset and smaller (though as you can see nothing like the Xbox)... but it is overall pretty good. It's got a nice dpad, decent construction, it works well...

For digital-only I'd probably still say that the original MS Sidewinder is as good as it gets, but for dual-analog games that's not enough, and the Saitek is cheap enough, and good enough, that I found it a good purchase.