I was wondering if anyone knows a lot about the new Xbox, and if I'll be able to play Halo/Fable/GTA on it. Once I get a 360, if I can still play old games, I might as well get some; they'll be $20 then.

Alas, less money for credits!

And has anyone heard an official release date?

Grr. Damn Microsoft and their 360.

I wouldn't buy the XBox, I won't buy the 360!


Who am I kidding? 'cours I will.

And, yea, I'm pretty sure you can play all of your old games. Like, 98% sure. And then throw in the fact that it would be bad business practice otherwise, and we're around 100%.

It'll be most likely that you can play all the old games. Worst-case scenario, you'll only be able to play specific games (best sellers). Also, those three games you mentioned are about $20 already.

Also, they're selling two versions, in case you really want to save that $100 for credits. The cheaper one isn't worth it, though.

Why is the cheaper version not worth it? I've looked at both, and what's so special about the more expensive one?

The more expensive one is the only one to come with a hard drive and certain other add ons.

Whoopee...?

Supposedly it's coming out in November.

The harddrive is necessary for a lot of their expected upcoming games.

Hrm, well, I have one reserved right now, I wonder if I reserved a cool one or a lame one... They didn't specify which ones they'd be getting.

If I understand right, you need the more expensive one to play current xbox games. Maybe you just need the hard drive, but that's $100 on its own.

The cheaper one is basically the very minimum required to play games. Wired controller and no hard drive.

However, if you look at the history of console gaming, hard drives have pretty much become necessary. Hell, I don't know how they'll save much data without one, but I'm sure there's a very limited way.

Anyway, like mav said, the hard drive alone is at least $100. Then, add on the costs of everything that does come with the more expensive version (I believe it's $400, as compared to $300), and you're basically sacrificing a lot of peripherals for $100 less. I guess if you're not planning on playing it a lot, the cheaper one is worth it.

My guess is that the xbox 360 will cost.. 360$

how the XBOX 360 is going to play old games hasn't been established yet, but it's believed it will be via software emulation meaning you will need a harddrive and it will probably be for only popular games, so the games you listed are fine.

EDIT: and you might need to download the emulators, dunno about that one XBOX live I guess.

I heard something about downloading emulators, however that was for the Revolution. Should be interesting, if its true, having a system launch with several thousand titles.

Nintendo is supposedly releasing a lot their back catalog of old games for play on the revolution (wheee!)

so yeah, I want that. the revs controller gets unveiled next week too.

Majora's mask.

Great game.

From what I've heard, the xbox 360 will play SOME of the current xbox games, such as the Halos, Splinter Cell, and various other popular games. Things like Azurik and Nightcaster you won't be able to play. The problem with playing old games on the new system is that you'd have to either sacrifice power on the new console, or make emulators for all the games, neither of which is a really good idea.

I'm not sure of the exact release date, but for some reason mid November is sticking in my mind, although it could be pushed back a couple weeks yet.

Also worth noting that there will be two versions of xbox live, one of which is free, and the other of which is the equivalent of the current service. I forget exactly what does what, as I'll be having the pay one, but I think you'd be able to download stuff on the free one, but won't be able to play multiplayer games online unless you pay for the full service. There are a few other differences too.

I've heard that there will be two xbox packages, one for $300, the other for $400, as has already been said. The $400 comes with a 20gb hard drive and an extra controller (wireless, with rechargeable batteries, yay). Later, you will be able to buy a 40 gb hard drive (early next year) if you wanted, but you'd probably have to download a ton to fill up 20 gb, as I haven't even made a dent in my current xbox memory.

Sorry for any inaccuracies in what I posted, this is all from memory

This is a large part of why the Playstation 2 was so dominant.

Really though, sacrificing a bit of power for backward compatibility, I'd take the compatibility every time. Games seem to be more and more about graphics and less about gameplay. Graphics are nice, but they're not everything. What I want are innovative game designs, better AI, larger and more complex game worlds, and if I get all of that, make it prettier.

I'm going to have to say that games are increasing in both innovation -and- technology at the same time. Faster processing and better graphics helps with making better games.

And you can get an old Xbox for $50 now, I'd imagine they're going to drop in price again once the 360 comes out.