Except when you add in the price of memory cards, an extra controller, an online adaptor, and a game to those consoles, they start getting close to the price of the Xbox 360 bundle. Or you're free to buy the Xbox 360 core for $300.

Xbox 360 launches here in Australia in 11 days.

I guess the upside is that Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a launch title.

You speak with such confidence Bronze yet 11 days is more thn enough time for them to delay it again.

If they delay again, I'll... well... there's really not a hell of a lot I can do about it, is there? I guess I could cancel my pre-order, but then how am I going to play Oblivion? :P

Actually, it'd totally be worth it just for the fanboy explosion on the Official Xbox Australia Forums. ;D

That is a pretty good deal. You save upwards to 40 bucks with the package.

Does the Xbox 360 look alright on standard definition TVs?

I was thinking of picking one up to play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter earlier than the PC release but I just have a (large) SD-tv in my room.

Yes, Xbox 360 looks great on SDTVs. I played some of the games on HDTVs, and I really can't see any difference. Sure, that might just be me, but I'd say that your TV is the last thing you should worry about. I'm pretty sure that GRAW looks great on a normal TV.

Gamespot have a fantastic article here where they capture screenshots from Xbox games at 480p and compare them to their Xbox 360 counterparts also running at 480p.

On some games the difference is huge, and on others it's barely noticeable at all.

That's good because I went out and bought one while you were all typing responses.

I have been playing at my friends house on his SD, I play on a computer monitor- the biggest thing I noticed is the text, it is clearer with HD. We were playing splitscreen but I noticed somewhat of a visual difference- the picture, like the text is just over all cleaner and sharper. I think with GRAW the difference isn't that big, but with Perfect Dark it really is. Then again I play on a 17 inch, I think my friends tv is like 30 inches: when he dropped out of a round of PDZ and I got the whole screen back it was like 'whoa' that's big.

This is rather pointless considering they are comparing xbox games their 360 counterpart. They are not comparing the 360 sd to 360 hd.

Regardless, SDTVs rock with the 360. Graphics are insane still.

Some of them, at least. Stuff like PGR3 looks rad on SD but NFS:MW looks pretty much exactly like it's regular Xbox counterpart. Sure, you have a little bit of a texture overhaul, and some slightly spiffier lighting effects, but unless you're looking for them or have a great eye for detail you won't miss 'em. And if you're like a few others who apparently can't see the difference between SD and HD, then shit, I woudln't worry about it at all.

That's only really an issue with the ports though.

There's another article floating around that does pretty much what you just said (comparing HD to SD) but I can't track it down. Thought it might have been from 1up but the only one I found was another Xbox vs 360 graphics comparison. Oh well.

10 more days to go before the 360 launches here. Apparently Australia, New Zealand, and South-East Asia aren't a part of the known world, according to Microsoft's 'Worldwide Launch' strategy.

Its called buying a good pack for a dolla. Not hard. I mean it's not like you change them over and over. So you just buy a 5 pic oblivion set and bang you are set for years.

http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/8CE...repack1002.jpg http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/F5E...repack1004.jpg http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/319...ksday64001.jpg

Oh hell yeah, these are definitely worth $1.

Supposedly when the official camera thingy comes out, you'll be able to take pictures and use them as your avatar. Probably won't end up happening though because of too many wang pictures. As it stands now, all the default avatars suck just as bad as the ones you can buy. I honestly would pay a one-time scam fee of $1 if I knew I was getting one that wasn't shitty so I didn't have to change it later.

399.99 dollar paperweight
 

Apologies if this isn't the proper place to be asking.

My roommate's 360 is about a week and a half old. He currently has no games for it, he's waiting for Oblivion. In the meantime, he's been using it for dvds, the arcade, and to a minimal amount, xbox games. I wouldn't say the amount of use has been excessive, but it has been frequent. Tonight, the system stopped playing xbox games (compatible ones, Halo 2, Half-Life 2) and dvds skip like mad. All the disks are in perfectly fine condition. As far as he's aware, nothing's happened directly to the system itself.

Is his system dead or what? What's the proper procedure here, go to where he bought it (Best Buy) or to invoke the warranty on it? Does it sound like the system would still play 360 games on it? Being so close to that anticipated release, he might hold off on the repair if he can still actually play Oblivion but doesn't want the added wait or disappointment of finding out it's not going to work. Any helpful information is appreciated. Thanks.

He could try renting out a 360 game for it to test if the games still work.

Xbox 360 launches here on Thursday.

Not long to go...

A friend of mine just bought a core system, and its already shot after only 4 hours of gameplay. He turned it off, and it wouldnt turn back on. Hes pissed because he might miss Oblivions launch.

Very untrue. Ghost Recon, PGR3, and a couple other games, yeah. But most on 360 are just underwhelming and not much better than Xbox 1.

And really, if you need an HD TV for the graphics to be great (compared to last gen), they're not. Ghost Recon is proof that a game can look amazing on a normal TV.

Microsoft's little "HD generation" is a bit of an exaggeration. Nintendo's got the right idea, although HD is nice.

Except they're not worth the money and you shouldn't have to pay for a pack of tiny jpgs. It's ridiculous.

They'll be free eventually I think.

Hmm, it seems like that the recent surge of faulty 360s is not due to faulty hardware, but a crappy update which actually harms the 360. I'll see if I can dig the link up, but it's pretty serious...

I'm just glad I haven't used my 360 the last week or so..

Each update is supposed to go through rigorous testing at MS. Of course this is awful.

It exploded right in my face;_;

The story if anyone would read about the faulty Xboxs. Also read the comments. Aparently, there's quite some users with problems...

I don't think this machine's problem is any update. No freezing, no red lights, it just won't read any discs. I guess, after many calls to support, Microsoft is sending him a box for him to send back with his system for it to be repaired.

In any case though, wow, that's fucked.