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[PhatSaqs]

The guide stuff sounds really slick and well thought out.

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050831/carless_01.shtml

Vrignaud was keen to point out that, by having the Xbox 360 Guide, a Microsoft-created application, available at all times, a great deal of work is cut out for potential Xbox 360 developers. In contrast, he noted, on the Xbox development teams had to code a notable amount of Xbox Live-specific work, for example with regard to the friends list, as well as deal with common problems to all Xbox games such as memory card access phraseology and checking for controllers being removed. In all, Vrignaud explained, these changes have reduced TCRs by about two-thirds for the Xbox 360.

Later in the lecture, it was also pointed out that the Guide screen can be graphically themed when playing a specific game and having the player switch to a Guide. As well as a 'skin' to make it appear less graphically jarring, there's also the ability for the game to set a banner (effectively similar to a website banner ad) that appears on the Guide screen, and can promote a certain piece of content such as downloadable Marketplace content or tournament promotions. When the player selects the banner, he can either click on it or select other options using left and right movement, meaning that careful banner design can include multiple different eventualities.

Finally, Vrignaud explained the broad, optional settings attached to a gamer profile which all games will monitor. These include difficulty levels, Y-axis inversion setting, preferred car transmission type (automatic or manual), and a handful of other extremely common game settings. There is then a requirement that game, on its first boot, checks those optional settings, so if the player always uses FPSes with inverted controls, he will never have to reset it in individual game cases - a welcome innovation for many.

each game can have one or two game-specific 'verbs', which are inserted into the list of actions you can do a particular friend, and help with custom actions when you're playing that game. These 'verbs' are only available when playing that game, are set by that game, appear within the Guide, and could encompass options such as 'invite to clan' for MMO titles.

It was explained that an Xbox 360 game can determine the total number of content items. You see just that game's marketplace if you enter it from that particular game - so there won't be a mass of extraneous things to buy unrelated to the title you're currently playing. But if you enter the Marketplace from the Xbox 360 Dashboard, you can see demos, trailers, downloadable Arcade titles, and the full gamut of shops with digital content to purchase.

Touching on Xbox 360 storage, it was pointed out that the storage medium is abstracted, so games will need to chose between multiple resources, but it shouldn't necessarily presume what that resource is. Nestled in here was perhaps a hint that Microsoft may eventually have a network-resident Xbox Live storage unit to store Xbox 360-related data, but all that is currently being said is that the system "automatically handles future devices".

 

[Sinatar]

Finally, Vrignaud explained the broad, optional settings attached to a gamer profile which all games will monitor. These include difficulty levels, Y-axis inversion setting, preferred car transmission type (automatic or manual), and a handful of other extremely common game settings. There is then a requirement that game, on its first boot, checks those optional settings, so if the player always uses FPSes with inverted controls, he will never have to reset it in individual game cases - a welcome innovation for many.

That is beatiful.

 

[KingJ2002]

I agree... a universal preference between games is something that is a nice piece of innovation.


but banner ads... fuck that!

 

[raYne]

Finally, Vrignaud explained the broad, optional settings attached to a gamer profile which all games will monitor. These include difficulty levels, Y-axis inversion setting, preferred car transmission type (automatic or manual), and a handful of other extremely common game settings. There is then a requirement that game, on its first boot, checks those optional settings, so if the player always uses FPSes with inverted controls, he will never have to reset it in individual game cases - a welcome innovation for many.

Hawt...

 

[dorio]

Wow, they certainly put alot work into the dashboard etc.

 

[Mrbob]

I love Xbox 360.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

MS may still be doing alot of things wrong...but they're doing some really great things also.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

I love Xbox 360.

Or at least J Allard. When's the honeymoon?

:lol

MS may still be doing alot of things wrong...but they're doing some really great things also.

Yeah, the storing of the preferences is tops.

 

[monchi-kun]

i want a feature that stores your "asshole factor"

if you are an ass online future games will prevent you from going on Xbox Live


HAWT!!!!!

 

[nubbe]

i want a feature that stores your "asshole factor"

if you are an ass online future games will prevent you from going on Xbox Live


HAWT!!!!!

Na, you should get a free 12 month gold subscription

 

[DopeyFish]

i want a feature that stores your "asshole factor"

if you are an ass online future games will prevent you from going on Xbox Live


HAWT!!!!!

every game is now matchmade

if you're an asshole, and people leave badfeedback for you being an asshole... your rating will go down. Then you'll be matched against other assholes.

Let the scum play with other scum.

 

[monchi-kun]

...or better yet, a 12 month subscription to Sony's online service for PS3

 

[Guy LeDouche]

Damn, I hope PS3 has as many of those features as possible, mostly because they are so amazingly commonsense that it'd be rediculous to not support stuff like universal settings.

 

[PhoncipleBone]

That universal settings thing sounds like the most damn smartest idea for a system in a LONG time.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

That universal settings thing sounds like the most damn smartest idea for a system in a LONG time.

IAWTP

 

[Eggo]

The universal settings is a great feature for the gamer, but it is going to be a nightmare to QA all the different configs and what happens when you modify them in the dashboard and in-game.

 

[Mr. Lemming]

Now now we missed the most important part:

He also noted a minimum 15 frames per second requirement at all times, partly in order for Microsoft-authored features such as the Guide to function properly.

The Dashboard/Guide are the things I'm most excited for with the 360. There is a ton of really neat stuff in it, and I hope its all taken advantage of.

 

[Kleegamefan]

MS may still be doing alot of things wrong...but they're doing some really great things also.

IMO, the great designers of the hardware/software are being let down by the marketing types @ MS...

 

[GhaleonEB]

IMO, the great designers of the hardware/software are being let down by the marketing types @ MS...

Yup. Part of MS wants me to love the system, and the other part - marketing - is doing a good job of letting me down at every opportunity.

 

[Ironclad]

A user's settings being taken from game to game is a great idea. Microsoft has done a brilliant job with the interface. Wish I could say the same for their marketing.

 

[raYne]

Quick! Someone else say the same thing!

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

The universal settings is a great feature for the gamer, but it is going to be a nightmare to QA all the different configs and what happens when you modify them in the dashboard and in-game.

It should work this way: if you change a setting in the dashboard, it will affect every game in wich you didn't change from the "default dashboard settings". If you change it in a specific game, it won't be affected by dashboard changes unless you select some "revert to default settings" comman.

However, I too agree that MS ha done a great, great job with thw System Guide. They really leveraged their great experience as a software and services company.

 

[Suite Pee]

A user's settings taken from game to game is a great thing!

 

[----]

This could be really cool...

Touching on Xbox 360 storage, it was pointed out that the storage medium is abstracted, so games will need to chose between multiple resources, but it shouldn't necessarily presume what that resource is. Nestled in here was perhaps a hint that Microsoft may eventually have a network-resident Xbox Live storage unit to store Xbox 360-related data, but all that is currently being said is that the system "automatically handles future devices".

This opens the possibility that if you buy a Core system you may not necessarily need to buy a memory card afterall. This could mean a lot of things though, LAN storage, internet storage, USB device storage, etc.. Who knows?

 

[Azure Dream]

The tech/design side of the 360 really sounds fantastic, I like a lot of the ideas and developer requirements and options outlined here. I just wish the marketing side wasn't trying to bend the gamer over backwards with high pricing and a horrific launch date, not to mention nerfing the HD's potential by making the Core pack a possibility developers have to worry about, but that's been argued about in other threads.

The only thing bothering me is that a lot of the features are Live-oriented, or at least assume broadband's hooked up to the console. That really sucks for those of us still stuck in dial-up land (where it's not an option of spending the money to get it, just that there's no physical service offered to the area). But the Guide and all that sound like excellent additions, and relatively easy for even ports to implement and tie in to their games.

 

[DopeyFish]

The tech/design side of the 360 really sounds fantastic, I like a lot of the ideas and developer requirements and options outlined here. I just wish the marketing side wasn't trying to bend the gamer over backwards with high pricing and a horrific launch date, not to mention nerfing the HD's potential by making the Core pack a possibility developers have to worry about, but that's been argued about in other threads.

The only thing bothering me is that a lot of the features are Live-oriented, or at least assume broadband's hooked up to the console. That really sucks for those of us still stuck in dial-up land (where it's not an option of spending the money to get it, just that there's no physical service offered to the area). But the Guide and all that sound like excellent additions, and relatively easy for even ports to implement and tie in to their games.

mind you live doesn't require broadband. To connect anyways.

In gameplay the bandwidth is too much for 56kers. But what about trailers? demos? DLC? voice messaging? All those menial tasks should work on 56k and luckily... xboxlive silver which is free has all those features

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

This opens the possibility that if you buy a Core system you may not necessarily need to buy a memory card afterall. This could mean a lot of things though, LAN storage, internet storage, USB device storage, etc.. Who knows?

This is my hope. I'll buy the 399 version, but being able to transfer my gamesaves on my USB memory dongle to bring them around instead of buying a memcard, would be really useful. But I'm skeptical on this... I think they won't allow this simply for maximizing profit on official and licensed memcards.