The Xbox "Xenon" news thread...

[NetRyder]

Re: Xbox "Xenon" specs revealed!

No probs, ~bk.
Damn, the news just seems to be flowing in!

Microsoft Game Studios Chooses Unreal Engine 3 For Next-Gen Xbox

Epic Games, developers of Unreal Engine, have announced that its Unreal Engine 3 technology and tools will be used in games developed by and published by Microsoft Game Studios.

Earlier this year, Epic became an official licensed tool and middleware provider for the next generation Xbox platform, and its partnership with Microsoft Game Studios further demonstrates its commitment to meet the challenges of developing for next generation hardware.

In using Unreal Engine 3, the Microsoft Game Studios team will be able to truly exploit the unique hardware features of the next-generation Xbox platform and harness the enormous power that its team has at its disposal.

"We only work with the best partners and utilize the best technologies, and Epic and the Unreal Engine 3 hit the mark on both those fronts," said Shane Kim, General Manager, Microsoft Game Studios. "Our teams are creating incredible games and content for the next generation Xbox platform, and by integrating Unreal Engine 3 into our development infrastructure we are able to really maximize our teams’ performance and deliver the quality content and creativity that the market has come to expect from us."

Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games agrees, "We are hugely excited that Microsoft Game Studios have selected Unreal Engine 3 for its next generation Xbox platform games. It’s an opportunity for us to show the industry the true capabilities of our tools and technologies and is a testament to the incredible amount of hard work by our teams here to deliver tools and technologies that are 100% tuned into the needs of next generation development. It further demonstrates our ability to deliver the most flexible, most productive tools and technology in the market today."

Source

 

[vern]

It seems pretty stupid to be comparing an Xbox to a PC. The components used for any console are there to crunch numbers, not to be different. Forget all the rhetoric and the theory of which processor is faster ... fact is games that go multi-platform on all three consoles ... if they aren't all the same, the Xbox version is better ... NEVER worse. I don't think some people understand the point of a console. It was never meant to compete with a PC. Believe it or not, gaming on a PC is secondary for most. I think the best thing about getting standard PC components is that you can swap it out. I have a 200gig HD in my Xbox to load all my games and put my movies, emulators, and homebrew apps in ... which run on the Xbox. The Xbox competes and often times excels over the PS2 and the GC. The only reason I would trade my Xbox in for a PS2 or a GC are for their first-party games. But then again, the Xbox has first-party games of it's own as well as developers who not only develop solely for the Xbox ... but if they do develop multi-platfrom ... it comes out on the Xbox first. The same is true for the PS2 of course, but hardly ever true for the GC. Did I mention Xbox Live?

 

[Grandmaster]

I was about to post the screenshots as well.

Kunal: Not to mention the fact that the graphics card will be a generation ahead of the X800 (not upto graphics card, but I understand the X800 is the latest and greatest from ATI at the moment?), therefore a PC won't be able to compete.

And vern has a good point, you can't really compare power between PCs and Consoles. PC's aren't dedicated machines used just for gaming.

 

[ElementalDragon]

Netryder, i wasn't talking about Halo 2 or Live not being able to be run on Xbox. on a side note since you just had to mention it, Halo 2 wasn't THAT much of an improvement over the last. many people i've talked to said they loved Halo 2, but the maps could have been made a lot more different from the first Halo's. I played the PC version of Halo. the maps in Halo 2 look almost identical to those in Halo. And Live isn't really a game, so that don't even count for something that can't really be run good on it. i'm talking more along the lines of, referring to one game that i played and kinda liked, Fable. Was playin that one day, when all of a sudden i was walking around in a textureless field because the Xbox didn't quite catch up with it yet.

About the part where you said that many games on Xbox can't be run on PC. There are quite a few games on Xbox that CAN be run on PC's nowaday. Fable probably could. Halo 2 probably could, though not quite as greatly as it could on Xbox, but as Grandmaster said, Consoles serve only one purpose, to play the games that are meant for it. Burnout 3 probably could be played on a PC..... DOA3 probably too. just about the only games i've played so far for Xbox.

And how can you say that me saying it's like a featureless PC is not true? To me, if it's running on all the hardware that a normal computer runs on, and is only there to play games, it's a waste of hardware. Hell, take the stuff outta the Xbox case and build me a computer with it. probably could. People have ran Linux on Xbox's, using certain hacks or whatnot. If it has to have something done to it in order to operate like a PC would, without having to change any hardware that's in it.... then ya, it is basically a featureless desktop PC.

 

[vern]

So it uses standard PC hardware ... does that in any way take from the fact that it is a capable gaming machine ... which it was intended to do? Surely no one is buying an Xbox in place for a desktop PC. It is a hacked down PC that plays games ... what else does it have to do? The fact that it can be hacked to run Linux is a perk, not something you can use against it. The Xbox is a platform, not a simple hacked down PC. If people could gather parts and build their own Xbox ... they would ... but they can't.

 

[~bk]

Any news on whether this will feature backward compatibility?

 

[Xie]

[sorry if I'm a troll .. but I live under a bridge you insensitive clod!]

I think the fact that we can have a debate over the Xbox (and Sony is guilty of this also) is or is not a PC just goes to show the whole point has been lost. It's not about the games. It's not about the gamers. It's about the HYPE. It's about who can ship more units even if they have crap for games. If they get some good games as a biproduct of the hype they are happy but the main goal is to win the HYPE game. It's all about having the highest specs and less and less about gaming. I think it's just a shame that gaming has taken a 2nd seat (almost just after thought) of todays game console market. You shouldn't have to have 100 useless features, or box that does it all .. and oh yeah plays games also just to compete in the console market. The console market is dead IMO. We have entered the age of PC/all-in-one-box console clones. </rant> :disappointed:

 

[NetRyder]

Surely there are still plenty of good games still available for each console.

Take the Halo 2 example I mentioned above. *Huge* number of copies sold! If it was crap, that never would have happened, would it? I'm not really a gamer myself, but I've seen people around here playing on the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube (yes, I have friends who each own all three of them ;P), and they seem to be having a good time. That just goes to show that there still are good games available for each console. Obviously, not all of us are going to enjoy the same games though.

 

[Grandmaster]

There are definitely still some great games, and since this thread was about specs, we have kept the main talking to the hardware.

We don't know what games are coming ou on next-gen consoles because there haven't been any announced yet...as far as I know.

And the console business is alive and well, with plenty of great games on all consoles. You may just not like any of them Xie, but that's your view on things

 

[ElementalDragon]

Consoles do have good games, and most of those good games will be kept on consoles or ported over to PC while still being on consoles. Truthfully, i think Nintendo leads the way in what to expect from their games. The games they make, most have been around for ages. some may say "who wants to play old games that make you go through the same stuff over and over?". I say "who wants to take the chance of paying for a game that you have no clue about?". Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart, Metroid.... among others, are extremely fun games to play on Gamecube..... well.... maybe for the exception of Mario's Gamecube installment..... that kinda sucked. I know that if i buy one of them, i will more than likely love to play it. I've rented/bought a few games for X-Box that seemed quite fun. Half of the games that i bough..... i traded in at EB Games to pay for another game. Take the recently released Mercenaries for example. Watching the trailers on TV, you kinda think "wow, that looks like fun. kinda reminds you of something like Vigilante 8", cause they kept saying "blow something up..... blow the living crap out of it..... blow the living crap out of it some more, and the fact that it's called Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. After playing the game, you notice that it's all straight-through mission play, and during those missions you usually get to blow ONE thing up. that ruined the game for me in an instant. Consoles should have more demo's than they do, or just an easier way to get them. How do you get demo's for X-Box and possibly PS2? going to a store and buying a $10-$15 magazine, or subscribing to one? Why not ship a registration card along with the consoles when they're sent to retailers/e-tailers so that when you buy it, you get it home, fill out the card, send it in, and recieve demo discs free in the mail. Would that be so hard? ............ i rant a lot, don't i?

 

[Xie]

And the console business is alive and well, with plenty of great games on all consoles. You may just not like any of them Xie, but that's your view on things

Didn't say nobody was making good games or console business wasn't doing well. I said they are selling HYPE and #'s, and games 2nd.

 

[Henyman]

i think free demo disks would certainly be worth it for EB Games etc

 

[chastity]

Well the specs are interesting, though I wonder if the PS3 or Nintendo's next console are going to have better or worse specs then this. I did have a Xbox but got almost no use outta of it as it didn't have any games of interest to me and still doesn't. If a game is on all of the consoles they always make one version have extra goodies just so a person buys it. The big thing in my book as far as "Xenon" goes even though I don't own one is will it play XBox's games as weather or not you like it that was one major selling point for the PS2 was the fact you could play PS1 games on it. Look forward to more info on this and the other consoles

 

[Xie]

i think free demo disks would certainly be worth it for EB Games etc

They have for Gamecube in the past I believe. :x

 

[mlakrid]

Hey NetRyder... dont you love it when you waste your time having to type posts, only to have people who don't understand about not making posts, agravate people with the same type of posts you just ask them NOT to post??

Hehehe...

I almost confused myself...

Reps for posting the posts you shouldnt have had too....

 

[NetRyder]

Hey NetRyder... dont you love it when you waste your time having to type posts, only to have people who don't understand about not making posts, agravate people with the same type of posts you just ask them NOT to post??

Hehehe...

I almost confused myself...

True, true.

Thanks for the reps, man.

 

[lancer]

in truth, the ps3 will have a far more powerful processor, something like 4.5mhz,

below is an interesting article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4201391.stm

 

[~bk]

4.5MHz is nothing, or do you mean GHz?

 

[ElementalDragon]

i'd HOPE he meant Ghz. 4.5Mhz christ... my Cell phone would probably be able to play better games than that.

 

[NetRyder]

C'mon now...it was obviously a typo guys.