How can Xbox360's still be so powerful?

If the whole Cloud gaming thing takes off, it could see an end to consoles altogether. I think at some point in the future (no idea when, 10 years... 30 years... who knows), physical discs will be a thing of the past. Perhaps hard to imagine that now, but it would seem to be the logical evolution of things, if technology continues to progress at the rate it has done over the past decade.
 
I agree that cloud gaming (such as OnLive) is a very interesting idea I am yet to be convinced that it will be as good as having the gaming hardware locally. Things like latency, large internet bandwidth requirements and requirement for rock-solid internet connection make me doubt it will supplant gaming as we know it. However, I would love to be proven wrong - it is always nice to see some disruptive technology turn up and give all the established players a kicking.

As for disk-less gaming, I for one find it rather easy to imagine - I haven't had an optical drive connected for months. There really isn't much point when you get all your games from Steam and D2D and video from iplayer, itunes and the like.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I agree that cloud gaming (such as OnLive) is a very interesting idea I am yet to be convinced that it will be as good as having the gaming hardware locally. Things like latency, large internet bandwidth requirements and requirement for rock-solid internet connection make me doubt it will supplant gaming as we know it. However, I would love to be proven wrong - it is always nice to see some disruptive technology turn up and give all the established players a kicking.
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I agree, at the moment it's not a serious threat, but when you consider something like this would have seemed more like sci-fi than something real 10 years ago, it makes you wonder where we'll be in the next 10 years.
 
The 'need to upgrade a pc every year' thing is getting old.

I'm running a 3+ year old graphics card (8800GTX) paired with budget hardware (2.2ghz X2, budget mobo, 2GB ram) and the card still plays pretty much every new console port/multiformat game (bioshock, resi 5, MW2, Fallout 3, AvP3 etc) at 2.5x the resolution of the xbox 360 at max detail. Only game it's had an issue with is Crysis.

Card cost £160 about a year ago. Admittedly it was very expensive back in 2006, but then again, so were the consoles at launch.
 
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Paracelsus said:
The 'need to upgrade a pc every year' thing is getting old.

I'm running a 3+ year old graphics card (8800GTX) paired with budget hardware (2.2ghz X2, budget mobo, 2GB ram) and the card still plays pretty much every new console port/multiformat game (bioshock, resi 5, MW2, Fallout 3, AvP3 etc) at 2.5x the resolution of the xbox 360 at max detail. Only game it's had an issue with is Crysis.

Card cost £160 about a year ago. Admittedly it was very expensive back in 2006, but then again, so were the consoles at launch.
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Go and play GTA 4 then
 
Take it that's a pretty stressful game. Wouldn't dream of playing GTA on a PC as I have no gamepad, but I'll give it a download and see how it runs.

Even if there're problems at 1920x1200 I doubt there will be at xbox 360 res of 1280x720. Used to play Crysis on High at 1440x900 smoothly.
 
mame said:
Go and play GTA 4 then
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Terrible engine coding doesn't make the cpu/gpu any slower.
Poor excuse to spend 400-500extra just to play one game that someone ******* up.

Just my personal opinion.

And for all that extra cash you could just as well buy the console ; ).
 
Was thinking that. In some areas of Mass Effect my card can't do smooth framerates @ full - yet it doesn't look good enough to warrant the slowdown.
 
Inferior in what respect? You can't judge a game purely on graphics or frame rate! There's more to it than that. And plenty of games, as I mentioned, don't even make it to the PC that are fantastic to look at on the PS3 or Xbox 360. And as I say, there's the whole social aspect to console gameplay which adds another whole new element to it. I wouldn't exactly go using the word 'inferior' around someone who has a load of their mates around every weekend for some epic FIFA tournaments on their Xbox 360 in front of a 50" plasma... compared to someone who is sat home alone playing the same game on a screen half the size, and revelling in the fact that they're getting 150 FPS from their shiny new £400 graphics card. Please, let's get real!
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Consoles are inferior in every way, from the cpu's that drive them, to the control pads you are forced to use. Also some of us enjoy having 100+ fps because our monitors refresh that high; something consoles couldnt do....again. Social aspect? Multiplay is much larger community than the community of drunk students who play FIFA on a 50" Plasma screen.

You can be part of the mainstream if you like, but PC is where the cool kids play at the end of the day.
 
Funny thread,
I play xbox on my hd projector and I love it, game play, ease of use, lack of hassle and online gaming community is all good for that blast after work.

I used to be a big pc gamer and yep the graphics are better but the game play certainly isnt with more cheaters and hackers and everyones at different hardware levels so it all seems kinda unfair, xbox seems to throw away a lot of the technical tweak shizzle and just lets the player get on with the game and not worry about fps or console tweaking
+ all that money youve saved on new gcards, ram ect ect means it pays for itsself

a major + to me is that work is on my pc and games are on the xbox, its nice having a bit of seperation
 
seldNofSparta said:
Consoles are inferior in every way, from the cpu's that drive them, to the control pads you are forced to use. Also some of us enjoy having 100+ fps because our monitors refresh that high; something consoles couldnt do....again. Social aspect? Multiplay is much larger community than the community of drunk students who play FIFA on a 50" Plasma screen.

You can be part of the mainstream if you like, but PC is where the cool kids play at the end of the day.
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Multiplay on the CONSOLES is a much larger community! Not multiplay on PC! You're proving my point. And to say the social aspect of console use is limited to drunken students is simply ignorant. And you're still insisting on harping on about the technical side of things. IT DOESN'T MATTER! Average Joe DOES NOT CARE! My god, it's like talking to a brick wall! The fact you used the phrase "cool kids" pretty much destroys any credibilty you have by the way.
 
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I meant multiplay.co.uk. But anyway, your comparing a community of casual gamers to the PC gaming community, which is far more developed. All you need to look at is the pro gaming community to see that the PC community is much much stronger. Prize money, tournaments and competition over a bunch of 12 year olds who just got their first games consoles for christmas.

Even fifa 10 has a stronger community on PC than it does xbox.

But I guess you are an average joe, so you wouldn't know much about that.
 
The social aspect of Xbox360 is 4 players with 4 Xbox's and 4 game boxes paying for 4 xbox live subscriptions communicating over a headphone.
Doesn't seem different from PC gameplay, except that you can't do as much.

I wonder how soon consoles will just be pre-selected regular PC components sold for a fixed price. All the benefits with none of the drawbacks, and as an added advantage you could plug in a regular mouse and keyboard and use it to run a PC-oriented OS. It's like selling a pre-made PC except on an extremely large scale.

Either way, I don't get why people care about simplicity. To date I've spent more time tweaking my hardware, overclocking, modifying my setup or reading up on new components than I have actually playing games.

A common scenario for me is to install a game, play it for 5 minutes, then spend 30-60 minutes tweaking the graphics to find a perfect balance between playability and looks (nowadays I don't have to worry about fps anymore though), then play for 5 further minutes, and uninstall the game. Messing around with settings can be fun than playing the games themselves.
 
seldNofSparta said:
I meant multiplay.co.uk. But anyway, your comparing a community of casual gamers to the PC gaming community, which is far more developed. All you need to look at is the pro gaming community to see that the PC community is much much stronger. Prize money, tournaments and competition over a bunch of 12 year olds who just got their first games consoles for christmas.

Even fifa 10 has a stronger community on PC than it does xbox.

But I guess you are an average joe, so you wouldn't know much about that.
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Whats with the Mightier than thou attitude?? :confused:

You do realise you're coming off with a "I prefer the PC more than my Console, there for I'm superior" sort of attitude. Which to be fair, is quite funny.

I prefer gaming on a PS3, PS2, XBox, Xbox 360. With all game types, other than RTS and some FPS games.

You need to do some research also. As there are MANY Xbox 360 tournaments
 
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seldNofSparta said:
I meant multiplay.co.uk. But anyway, your comparing a community of casual gamers to the PC gaming community, which is far more developed. All you need to look at is the pro gaming community to see that the PC community is much much stronger. Prize money, tournaments and competition over a bunch of 12 year olds who just got their first games consoles for christmas.

Even fifa 10 has a stronger community on PC than it does xbox.

But I guess you are an average joe, so you wouldn't know much about that.
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Where are you getting your information from?! Sales for FIFA 10 across the PS3 and Xbox 360 accounted for 94% of the market share (i checked this, it's been widely reported). With other formats (PC, Wii etc) making up the remaining 6%. So to say that FIFA 10 then has a stronger community across whatever portion of that 6% it sold on the PC is just ridiculous!

Ofcourse the PC community is strong, no-one is suggesting otherwise. But there are 10 MILLION console owners in this country. Don't be so absurd as to suggest that there are more than 10 million PC enthusiasts competing in tournaments or pro gaming events in the UK! Seriously, you need to get your facts straight because you're making yourself look silly.

And for the record, I consider myself a PC enthusiast. I have always built my PCs, and enjoy the whole process... as do most on this forum (hence us being here). I am just looking at the bigger picture and the industry as a whole, and the facts speak for themselves.
 
Bigger picture is not what I was talking about, I was talking about the strength of each community relative to 1) community 2) competition 3) tournaments and prize money.

I haven't even started talking about sponsorships, or leagues outside of the UK (which has frankly one of the worst e-sport communities).

There may be 10 million console owners, but I still think there_are_more dedicated, hardcore gamers on PC than there are on console, even in the UK.

But I'm not really a casual gamer, so thats probably why my replies are such.

You need to do some research also. As there are MANY Xbox 360 tournaments
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I know my stuff.

But hey, I don't want to start a flamewar or anything. So ciao! :-)
 
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