[ort888]

I've heard some reports. This always happens with a console launch. We'll have to wait and see if it is a real problem or just standard launch issues.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by Insurgent

Anyone tried Halo 2 on it yet?

Yep, works fine. Even online.

[Eug Wanker]

I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but do the crashes look like hardware crashes or software related? The pix over at Xbox Scene make it look like the GPU or GPU memory is unstable or something.

If they're only software crashes that's not that big of a deal, since you can always just download patches (assuming you have the storage for it).

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by Eug Wanker

I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but do the crashes look like hardware crashes or software related? The pix over at Slashdot make it look like the GPU or GPU memory is unstable or something.

If they're only software crashes that's not that big of a deal, since you can always just download patches (assuming you have the storage for it).

Mine just freezes with no error. To be fare it was running for 10 hours yesterday. Anyway, no rush to exchange it right now.

[Eug Wanker]

Orange light of death:

"I play Kameo (interesting game) for about 30 minutes and the 360 crashes!!! Ugh.... Power adaptor goes from solid green to a flashing orange.... What next? Well, shoot off an email to MS, get one back not too long ago, find out that the flashing orange means that Xbox has overheated!"

EDIT:

MS loses $126 on every Xbox 360.

(Not surprised they're losing money on the consoles, but that a little more than I expected.)

[Dark Helmet]

I moved around my power supply and checked all the cables. See how things go today.

For the record my Nintendo GC crashed quite a bit in the earlier games.

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by Link

Big Lots or bust!!

Methinks no new consoles for me until next year at the earliest!

Me too. no rush to get a gaming console until all 3 are out and all "issues" resolved. Not to mention the library available...im thinking November/December 2006. Next on my list is a G5 and an iPod video v.2

Cheers

[Dark Helmet]

Ok I moved things around for better ventilation. No crashes after 6 hours.

EXCEPT, PDZ crashed at the exact same place for the second time between levels. I assume this is a disk problem.

The Xbox charges my ipods when the unit is OFF!
This is good as sometimes I hate to have the computer on just to charge it!

[SShoot3r]

So far, im having no troubles with my xbox.

[Dark Helmet]

Whoops, take it back. 2 crashes in Kameo today. Looks like the old girl is going back for an exchange as soon as I can.

[SShoot3r]

whew i'm lukyyy

[Gee4orce]

Isn't selling products at a loss in order to dominate a market anti-competetive ? I'm sure there's laws against that kind of thing.

Anyway, sounds like MS won't be able to GIVE these things away before long. Ooops. My XBox has never crashed, and only had a disk error once. My PS2 is also rock solid.

Good old Microsoft. I knew they wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. Roll on the PS3

[Myriad]

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

Isn't selling products at a loss in order to dominate a market anti-competetive ? I'm sure there's laws against that kind of thing.

Just about every console is sold at a loss when they first come out. The original XBox still is. The companies make their money from selling licenses to game manufacturers, so it's the games that make money for the console manufacturers. There are restrictions against selling products at a loss like you describe, or dumping, but I'm no trade lawyer, so I don't know what the deal is with console manufacturers.

Maybe there's a certain point that you have to get below to go from simply selling at a loss to being anti-competetive.

[jcadam]

Originally Posted by goMac

Really? I'm a CS major, I've done assembly programming, I've written my own game engines in OpenGL.

Although if you know better please enlighten me.

You are 19. Meaning you are at most a Sophomore. I don't know about your school's CS program, but my first 2 years were mostly programming/algorithm design. Didn't get any REAL learnin' on computer architecture, Operating Systems design, etc. until my Junior/Senior year. I can tell you that CPU performance matters a lot more than you think it does.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by jcadam

You are 19. Meaning you are at most a Sophomore. I don't know about your school's CS program, but my first 2 years were mostly programming/algorithm design. Didn't get any REAL learnin' on computer architecture, Operating Systems design, etc. until my Junior/Senior year. I can tell you that CPU performance matters a lot more than you think it does.

Actually I would be a Junior. I took some college programming courses in high school so I already had credit to put myself ahead when I came in.

You really don't need a multiple gigahertz processor to do collision detection (if you do it properly). A properly done AI doesn't take an extreme amount of power either. And as physics moves to the dedicated physics processor that leaves a lot more room on the CPU for these things. I would say that physics probably takes half the CPU's power right now.

Edit: Just was thinking about it, and with the physics processor, I don't think collision detection would even be handled anymore on the CPU...

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by Gee4orce

Isn't selling products at a loss in order to dominate a market anti-competetive ? I'm sure there's laws against that kind of thing.

Anyway, sounds like MS won't be able to GIVE these things away before long. Ooops. My XBox has never crashed, and only had a disk error once. My PS2 is also rock solid.

Good old Microsoft. I knew they wouldn't be able to keep this up for long. Roll on the PS3

Many companies like printers and razor blades do it. Just about every game system does at first.

[goMac]

Sounds like somewhere they probably have bad memory, whether it's on the GPU or the RAM. It would explain why it only happens after a period of time (you have to hit the bad block), why they wouldn't notice during production (they're not going to be running any RAM intensive tests), and why it wasn't noticed during prototyping (they probably had good RAM then). I wouldn't think it was the GPU chip itself.

Wouldn't be too hard for MS to fix, and it would only affect first run XBox's.

Note that XB1 also had first run crashing issues.

[starman]

Originally Posted by goMac

Actually I would be a Junior. I took some college programming courses in high school so I already had credit to put myself ahead when I came in.

You really don't need a multiple gigahertz processor to do collision detection (if you do it properly). A properly done AI doesn't take an extreme amount of power either. And as physics moves to the dedicated physics processor that leaves a lot more room on the CPU for these things. I would say that physics probably takes half the CPU's power right now.

Edit: Just was thinking about it, and with the physics processor, I don't think collision detection would even be handled anymore on the CPU...

You are in for such a shock when you get into the real world.

[Eug Wanker]

Anybody try the old arcade games? PGR and stuff like that looks great, but I like those old arcade games too.

[ort888]

OK, so now that I have had a chance to play Call of Duty 2 for a few hours I can now say in all confidence that this thing is no Xbox 1.5. This game is amazing to watch in action and definitely a giant leap in graphics.

If this is what can be done with a rushed launch title I can't wait to see what they can do a year or two from now.

And just for the record, I my 360 is working fine and has no problems.I think people like to focus on the problems, but for every person with a problem there are hundreds without.

I love the Live Arcade. That has a lot of potential for greatness. Being able to watch movie trailers in high-def is also great. Overall, I think the dashboard is a much bigger deal then people have been making it out to be. It's really cool to be able to do all this stuff. The music visualizer is amazing and the iPod support is seamless.

Besides the fact that Half Life 2 doesn't seem to work as advertised, I'm very satisfied. This is a generational leap. I can see it now.

[Dark Helmet]

Just got off the phone with XBox support.

For starters I would like to point out that Xbox support is the worst I have ever dealt with. It is some baaaad voip connection with mumbly people with southern drawls.

At any rate, I went through the usual troubleshooting. At the end he said that since original Xbox games and DVD's weren't crashing then the problem must be the three 360 games I had. He said he had at least 3 calls with the same problems today.

He said his GUESS was the first batch of the games are defective and to exchange it at the store.

I ask if there was an official stance or if anyone had contacted the game manufacturer to find out if they had re-pressed any disks, he said no.

I ask if there is anyway to identify second run disks, he said no.

I said I don't want to return one bad disk for another. He said if on the second retry if it doesn't work they will send me new disks.

If THAT doesn't work I have to send in my xbox which could take 3 weeks to repair.

[Daveecee]

I'll be joining Nintendo's Revolution ;P

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by Daveecee

I'll be joining Nintendo's Revolution ;P

[exca1ibur]

Some guy saved up with a bunch of buddies to be the first in line to buy an XB 360... A bit extreme there.

Download - 14.5MB

[starman]

Mine's still good.

[Cadaver]

I'll probably buy a 360, but not until after the first of the year & when they've fixed the hardware glitch(es).
For now, I'll play COD2 on my PC.

[just a poster]

It's a Microsoft product which means I'll buy it when hell freezes over.

If it weren't for the Office and Windows monopoly (how flawed are those products?), Microsoft wouldn't have time or resources to enter new markets to "compete" in and thereby lower their standard of quality.

Of course, Microsoft has always been about making money first. And at $4 billion in losses from sales and licensing revenue of the first generation xbox, I don't believe there's much room for error with this new xbox 360 before Microsoft pulls the plug on the whole division.

[mad_nasty_nizzle]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur

Some guy saved up with a bunch of buddies to be the first in line to buy an XB 360... A bit extreme there.

Download - 14.5MB

Isn't it funny how after they smash the 360 to pieces one guy starts asking "Can I have your controller, at least?"

[goMac]

Originally Posted by starman

You are in for such a shock when you get into the real world.

Huh? As far as I'm aware, physiscs processors aren't real world stuff yet. Yeah, the CPU is important now, but that's not what we're talking about at all. You have to admit there is going to be an extremely significant drop in CPU power needed once all the physics and collision detection is exported to the physics processor. You don't have to be that smart to see that.

[Drakino]

If it weren't for the Office and Windows monopoly (how flawed are those products?), Microsoft wouldn't have time or resources to enter new markets to "compete" in and thereby lower their standard of quality.

Lower the standards of quality in the console market? Honestly, Microsoft does deserve credit for making the best online system for a console with XBox Live. It works, and it works well. And the 360 is a great evolution of it. Meanwhile, Sony is stating they have no huge plans and will leave it up to developers to do. Thus, no unified system for having a friends list on the console to be able to play with a friend if they sign on. No single solution, meaning varying degrees of quality.

Nintendo, who knows what they are doing with the online space, so I'll wait to judge them.

But MS does deserve praise for the work they have done on the Live component of the console. If anything, it has forced the other two to be judged in a harsher light since MS is doing it so well.

[starman]

From HardOCP:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODk3

[MORT A POTTY]

I've got PD Zero and PGR3.

I've plowed through PGR3 getting a ton of achievements already

steel medalist
bronze medalist
silver medalist
ferrari owners club
lamborghini owners club
exotic car owners club
photographer
track builder
Arcade player
Rank 10
Rank 5

I've also got several PD Zero and Hexic achievements. Hexic is freakin' awesome. it's crack! PDZero and PGR3 are both stellar. MAN this is some good good stuff.

but yeah, that power adapter gets hot, you GOTTA have some decent air circulation around that.

[Macpilot]

Originally Posted by starman

From HardOCP:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=ODk3

That was a very informative article. Seems MS really hit this one out of the ballpark. I am impressed.

I am so tempted to get one, but really want to wait till PS3 and Revolution before investing in another system with $50 to $60 games.

Right now I am leaning towards Revolution with its new controller, which really looks fun. Heck, if anything, that controller will get me off my ass!

[Dark Helmet]

Kameo is one of my all time fav games. I love it, I could just look at it all day as it is so beautiful.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by Daveecee

I'll be joining Nintendo's Revolution ;P

What does that involve? A pack of gamers running around on the streets enlightening everyone on waving a remote around in the air.

[Kevin]

Game Console gang wars.

AAAAAAAAHhahahahaha

[jcadam]

Originally Posted by goMac

Huh? As far as I'm aware, physiscs processors aren't real world stuff yet. Yeah, the CPU is important now, but that's not what we're talking about at all. You have to admit there is going to be an extremely significant drop in CPU power needed once all the physics and collision detection is exported to the physics processor. You don't have to be that smart to see that.

Make it stop

[Hawkeye_a]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Game Console gang wars.

AAAAAAAAHhahahahaha

Nice sig dude.

[driven]

Originally Posted by Hawkeye_a

Nice sig dude.

Reference to Disturbed? ("Down with the sickness"?)

[driven]

Originally Posted by exca1ibur

Some guy saved up with a bunch of buddies to be the first in line to buy an XB 360... A bit extreme there.

Download - 14.5MB

I saw these same morons when they decided to smash an iPod in the middle of an Apple store.
(The funny thing was that the iPod didn't actually break, they had to leave and smash it in a parking lot with a lot more work!)

... but why? Were they abused as children? Are they mentally defective? Are they just attention whores? I feel sorry for them. Especially if they think that their "work" is even mildly entertaining.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by jcadam

Make it stop

Uhhhhh... Let's see here. Physics are done on physics processor. Less work done by CPU. Does that make it simple enough for you? If the physics processor isn't reducing the CPU work, why would anyone add a physics processor in the first place? This is quite simple, sir.

[exca1ibur]

Originally Posted by driven

I saw these same morons when they decided to smash an iPod in the middle of an Apple store.
(The funny thing was that the iPod didn't actually break, they had to leave and smash it in a parking lot with a lot more work!)

... but why? Were they abused as children? Are they mentally defective? Are they just attention whores? I feel sorry for them. Especially if they think that their "work" is even mildly entertaining.

Yeah, I can think of better ways to blow $400. That sure as hell isn't one way for me. LOL Besides the system is pretty nice. If it wasn't for XBox Live, hell I'd even consider it. (IT... being buy one, not smash one)

[zelig2]

Anyone gotten their Plug-n-Play charger pack to allow Mac users to have a USB gamepad? I've got Gamepad Companion 2.3 on my system but it doesn't even notice the controller while it's plugged in. It's such a nice controller I'd sure like to have it as an option to play games with on my mac. Even though I'm going to only be playing games on my xbox360.

Xbox Live Arcade on the 360 is friggin great. I've been dying to do Co-Op gauntlet over Live since arcade was released for the original xbox. I hope they come out with more titles for Arcade as it's my favorite part so far. PDZ is fun but I'm definately enjoying Arcade the most.

[lenox]

I was wondering why all these mac-using folks were so pro-microsoft when it came to the xbox...then it hit me when I decided that I would like to build a Wintendo, for the games and games alone. I thought to myself, "ah, but wait...that still means I'd have to use windows a little bit whenever I wanted to play a game..."

Well, with the xbox, problem solved! I'll probably still build a PC for the same price, though...

[ort888]

I've gotten over my hatred of Microsoft. Hating them is so 2001.

I just want to play fun games.

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by zelig2

Anyone gotten their Plug-n-Play charger pack to allow Mac users to have a USB gamepad? I've got Gamepad Companion 2.3 on my system but it doesn't even notice the controller while it's plugged in. It's such a nice controller I'd sure like to have it as an option to play games with on my mac. Even though I'm going to only be playing games on my xbox360.

Even when the wireless controller is plugged in doesn't still use wireless as communication?

If I plug my controller into my mac to charge it, it still communicates to the Xbox.

[itai195]

I've had mine since launch day. It has crashed a couple times in PDZ but not in other games, so I assume it's a software issue. I do have the power supply up off of the carpet though just in case. Otherwise, I've enjoyed it. The dashboard is definitely well done, the integration of Xbox Live throughout is great, the Xbox Arcade is a wonderful addition (mostly playing Zuma and Geometry Wars for now), and Call of Duty 2 is definitely impressive. I'm just happy to play it since I don't have a gaming PC. Microsoft has done a nice job with the console and I think they're positioned to be much more competitive this time around.

[dozx]

Just looks like another game console to me......... I mean to be honest with you other than the graphics being slightly better than the first Xbox it really isn't all that much better. I can see people (kids mostly) wanting this thing just because it is new and per the hype so much more advanced. It is a consumer product for consumers that want and need to have the latest and greatest. Not worth the money. It plays video games....... wow what revolutionary product...

[Dark Helmet]

Originally Posted by dozx

Just looks like another game console to me......... I mean to be honest with you other than the graphics being slightly better than the first Xbox it really isn't all that much better. I can see people (kids mostly) wanting this thing just because it is new and per the hype so much more advanced. It is a consumer product for consumers that want and need to have the latest and greatest. Not worth the money. It plays video games....... wow what revolutionary product...

You obviously do now own an HDTV. The difference is quality is astounding if you do.

Set an computer game to 640 x 480 (like every other game system)

Then switch it to 1280×720 and tell me there is no dif.

[dozx]

I do have hd tv's and I do understand about resolution and the difference in quality, however this Xbox does nothing different from the first Xbox...... it plays games. Like I said every thing looks a little nicer but it is still the same old, same old game console. I'm not complaining about the quality of the graphics I'm just saying that my Atari 2600 played games to so how is this so revolutionary. I play games with this the same way I played games 15 years ago. I want some thing that really offers some thing new to gaming and this just doesn't have it.