Want to buy a
Wii, XBOX 360 or
PS3 Video Game
Console?
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guide VIDEO
GAME
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Wii, XBOX 360 or
PS3 Video Game
Console?
Read the top
guide VIDEO
GAME
CONSOLES and
FIND WHAT
YOU'RE
LOOKING
FOR!
Page 5
translation to the 360, with every low-res
texture and graphical glitch painfully apparent
on the unforgiving high-def screen. Want to
buy an XBOX360, PS3, PSP or PS2 game
system? The backward compatibility on the
Xbox 360 has its benefits and drawbacks.
Microsoft claims that it’s pumping up the
resolutions and adding antialiasing effects to
the older games, and both tweaks seemed in
evidence while playing Halo 2. Also, playing
anon line-enabled Xbox1 game (such as Halo)
lets you seamlessly interact with other Xbox
Live players still using the old console. On the
other hand, some games such as Fable: The
Lost Chapters have brought along new
graphical glitches and none of theXbox1
custom soundtrack-enabled games (for
example, the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy) will
recognize the songs imported onto your 360.
Finally, there is no way to transfer your Xbox1
saves to the 360, so you'll have to reconfigure
your workout regimen in Yourself Fitness.
Xbox Live is much more integrated
throughout the 360 than it was in the old
Xbox. At any time, you can punch the Home
button on your controller to bring up the live
message center. In theory, you can be playing
an offline, single-player game of, say,
Condemned: Criminal Origins, get an invite
from a friend (think instant messaging), and
quit out back to the Dashboard while you
swap over to Burnout Revenge. Want to buy
an XBOX 360, Wii, PS3, PSP or PS2 game
system? The in-game Xbox Live experience
hasn't changed drastically, but then again, the
service was already near-impeccable on the
Xbox1. By virtue of the system's processing
power, games should be able to support more
players online. Perfect Dark Zero, for example
can handle 32players, more than all but a few
Xbox1games. Some games, however, offer up
paltry multiplayer options, such as Quake 4's
eight-player deathwatches, while others, most
notably Dead or Alive 4, have some problems
with lag. As developers learn the ins and outs
of the 360's hardware, expect to see more
players and less lag. On the media front, the
360 worked as advertised. We were able to
pull photos from several digital cameras, as
well as a camera phone Memory Stick Duo
plugged into a stock Lexar USB card reader.
We were also able to stream music from our
SamsungYP-U1X flash MP3 player. And true to
its word, Microsoft is playing nice with its
competitors; we were able to streamMP3s
from the 20GB Apple iPod and the Sony PSP.
Unfortunately, you don’t get access to the
bipod’s play lists, and you can't play back copy-
protected songs purchased from the tunes
Music Store--the result of Apple's
intransigence, not Microsoft's. Digital media
streamed just as easily from XPPCs on our
local network, but those with Media Center
PCs will find the best experience: the 360 is a
full-fledged extender, giving you access to
the Media Center's look and feel, as well as
access to its recorded videos, music, and
photos. Of course, the 360 is a capable/DVD
player as well. You can't copy music files from
connected or networked devices, but you can
rip CDs straight to the 360's hard drive, then
use those songs as soundtracks for pretty
much any native Xbox 360game. On the DVD
front, the 360 finally plays movie discs in 480
progressive scan and without the need for an
additional remote the Xbox1. But 480p is so
2002, especially for a box that touts its HD
street cred. This is where the lack of HDMI or
DVI output hurts because those connections
would offer the possibility of upscaling DVDs
to 720p or 1080i resolutions. Moreover, DVDs
represent the pinnacle of the 360's optical
disc capabilities, meaning these next-gem
games will need to be squeezed into just 8.5
GB of space unless they’re supplemented by
downloadable content or made into a
multidisc game. By comparison, the
PlayStation 3 will use the next-generation Blu-
ray format, which holds at least 25GB per disc--
the potential for significantly more high-def
graphics, gameplay, and so forth. The Xbox
360 won't work with Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs in
a game-playing capacity, although movie fans
can look forward to the 360'sforthcoming
external HD-DVD drive, which will be out
before the end of2006. No price was
specified, though Peter Moore claimed at E3
2006 it would be better bargain than anything
else in this new entertainment format which
leads us to believe it’ll be less than the $500
Toshiba HD-A1.The bigger mystery remains in
regard to the HD-DVD player's output--no
HDMI or DVI cable was announced for it,
leading many to believe that Microsoft may be
hoping that studios don’t use image
constraint to clampdown on component-
enabled next-gem video. Want to buy an XBOX
360, PS3,PSP or Wii? Since it was announced,
the knock on the Xbox 360 has been that it's
really more of a 1.5, rather than a 2.0, version
of the Xbox and that Microsoft was pushing it
out the door so quickly to get the jump on
Sony's PlayStation3. The truth is probably less
dramatic. The fact is, the original Xbox is still
great gaming machine, with a massive library
of fantastic titles and formidable processing
power. The old Xbox is alike a comfortable old
shoe for software developers; even cutting-
edge PC games such asHalf-Life 2 can be
ported over to the four-year-old console with
admirable results. The exact opposite is true
for the Xbox 360--most of the first wave of
games hadn't tapped into its full power some
games, such as Madden NFL sacrificed game
play features to ensure a graphically powerful
game at launch. With titles such as
GhostRecon: Advanced Warfighter and Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion available now, though, it's
obvious developers have become more
accustomed to the challenge of programming
for the 360, and we'll see much more
impressive titles as a result. Once those
games begin to comprise the majority of the
new releases, the Xbox 360 will be ready to
strut its stuff and hit its stride just in time to
go up against the freshman lineups for Sony’s
PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. This top
guide was written and developed by David C.,
J. Falcone, and David R. Edited by: David K.
Want to buy an XBOX 360, Wii or PS3 game
system?
See all of our top guides and New Products !
Related guides and related products:
Laptop - PDA more
Return to PMBBAY.COM
translation to the 360, with every low-res
texture and graphical glitch painfully apparent
on the unforgiving high-def screen. Want to
buy an XBOX360, PS3, PSP or PS2 game
system? The backward compatibility on the
Xbox 360 has its benefits and drawbacks.
Microsoft claims that it’s pumping up the
resolutions and adding antialiasing effects to
the older games, and both tweaks seemed in
evidence while playing Halo 2. Also, playing
anon line-enabled Xbox1 game (such as Halo)
lets you seamlessly interact with other Xbox
Live players still using the old console. On the
other hand, some games such as Fable: The
Lost Chapters have brought along new
graphical glitches and none of theXbox1
custom soundtrack-enabled games (for
example, the Grand Theft Auto Trilogy) will
recognize the songs imported onto your 360.
Finally, there is no way to transfer your Xbox1
saves to the 360, so you'll have to reconfigure
your workout regimen in Yourself Fitness.
Xbox Live is much more integrated
throughout the 360 than it was in the old
Xbox. At any time, you can punch the Home
button on your controller to bring up the live
message center. In theory, you can be playing
an offline, single-player game of, say,
Condemned: Criminal Origins, get an invite
from a friend (think instant messaging), and
quit out back to the Dashboard while you
swap over to Burnout Revenge. Want to buy
an XBOX 360, Wii, PS3, PSP or PS2 game
system? The in-game Xbox Live experience
hasn't changed drastically, but then again, the
service was already near-impeccable on the
Xbox1. By virtue of the system's processing
power, games should be able to support more
players online. Perfect Dark Zero, for example
can handle 32players, more than all but a few
Xbox1games. Some games, however, offer up
paltry multiplayer options, such as Quake 4's
eight-player deathwatches, while others, most
notably Dead or Alive 4, have some problems
with lag. As developers learn the ins and outs
of the 360's hardware, expect to see more
players and less lag. On the media front, the
360 worked as advertised. We were able to
pull photos from several digital cameras, as
well as a camera phone Memory Stick Duo
plugged into a stock Lexar USB card reader.
We were also able to stream music from our
SamsungYP-U1X flash MP3 player. And true to
its word, Microsoft is playing nice with its
competitors; we were able to streamMP3s
from the 20GB Apple iPod and the Sony PSP.
Unfortunately, you don’t get access to the
bipod’s play lists, and you can't play back copy-
protected songs purchased from the tunes
Music Store--the result of Apple's
intransigence, not Microsoft's. Digital media
streamed just as easily from XPPCs on our
local network, but those with Media Center
PCs will find the best experience: the 360 is a
full-fledged extender, giving you access to
the Media Center's look and feel, as well as
access to its recorded videos, music, and
photos. Of course, the 360 is a capable/DVD
player as well. You can't copy music files from
connected or networked devices, but you can
rip CDs straight to the 360's hard drive, then
use those songs as soundtracks for pretty
much any native Xbox 360game. On the DVD
front, the 360 finally plays movie discs in 480
progressive scan and without the need for an
additional remote the Xbox1. But 480p is so
2002, especially for a box that touts its HD
street cred. This is where the lack of HDMI or
DVI output hurts because those connections
would offer the possibility of upscaling DVDs
to 720p or 1080i resolutions. Moreover, DVDs
represent the pinnacle of the 360's optical
disc capabilities, meaning these next-gem
games will need to be squeezed into just 8.5
GB of space unless they’re supplemented by
downloadable content or made into a
multidisc game. By comparison, the
PlayStation 3 will use the next-generation Blu-
ray format, which holds at least 25GB per disc--
the potential for significantly more high-def
graphics, gameplay, and so forth. The Xbox
360 won't work with Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs in
a game-playing capacity, although movie fans
can look forward to the 360'sforthcoming
external HD-DVD drive, which will be out
before the end of2006. No price was
specified, though Peter Moore claimed at E3
2006 it would be better bargain than anything
else in this new entertainment format which
leads us to believe it’ll be less than the $500
Toshiba HD-A1.The bigger mystery remains in
regard to the HD-DVD player's output--no
HDMI or DVI cable was announced for it,
leading many to believe that Microsoft may be
hoping that studios don’t use image
constraint to clampdown on component-
enabled next-gem video. Want to buy an XBOX
360, PS3,PSP or Wii? Since it was announced,
the knock on the Xbox 360 has been that it's
really more of a 1.5, rather than a 2.0, version
of the Xbox and that Microsoft was pushing it
out the door so quickly to get the jump on
Sony's PlayStation3. The truth is probably less
dramatic. The fact is, the original Xbox is still
great gaming machine, with a massive library
of fantastic titles and formidable processing
power. The old Xbox is alike a comfortable old
shoe for software developers; even cutting-
edge PC games such asHalf-Life 2 can be
ported over to the four-year-old console with
admirable results. The exact opposite is true
for the Xbox 360--most of the first wave of
games hadn't tapped into its full power some
games, such as Madden NFL sacrificed game
play features to ensure a graphically powerful
game at launch. With titles such as
GhostRecon: Advanced Warfighter and Elder
Scrolls IV: Oblivion available now, though, it's
obvious developers have become more
accustomed to the challenge of programming
for the 360, and we'll see much more
impressive titles as a result. Once those
games begin to comprise the majority of the
new releases, the Xbox 360 will be ready to
strut its stuff and hit its stride just in time to
go up against the freshman lineups for Sony’s
PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii. This top
guide was written and developed by David C.,
J. Falcone, and David R. Edited by: David K.
Want to buy an XBOX 360, Wii or PS3 game
system?
See all of our top guides and New Products !
Related guides and related products:
Laptop - PDA more
Return to PMBBAY.COM
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Site is updated
hourly.
Visit us daily to
get the best deals!