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XBox 360: Best Launch Ever? Why or Why Not?

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Alright, I have seen a lot of people on these boards and in the media throw hissy fits whenever MS has claimed that the XBox 360 has the best launch line up ever. Yet often, these people can't point to another launch lineup that was better. So, what launch lineup do you think was the best ever? I personally think XBox 360 may have a good claim on it given the well reviewed and varied titles.
 
It's a solid launch. Nothing drop dead spectacular about it IMO. There seems to be a nice variety (5-6) of solid games available on day one.
I'm checking for more games at launch than I ever have before. The quality of games is there. But the overall detractor, IMO, is the fact that there isnt a game that stands out amongst the rest.

Some people may not look at that as a negative though and I understand that view as well.
 
PSP launch was better.

WipEout, Lumines, TMB, Ridge Racers, MGA..etc

The X360 launch lineup is good though if not great. I guess no game will get over 9.0 at both IGN(!) and Gamespot.
 
dreamcast.jpg
 
To me, for a launch to be considered the absolute best, it isn't about having the most good games on it, it's about having the best games. And in that regard i was really struck by how addicting early Playstation games like Toshinden, Destruction Derby, Wipeout (i don't remember if this was a launch title though) and Loaded were. It was something really new and fresh. Looking back to those games now doesn't to them any favour, but what counts is the experience it was back then.
 
of course i'll be better equipped to judge in a week or two, when i've actually played some of the games. but the 360 launch seems unexceptional to me -- narrow genre coverage, few exclusive games, few if any games that demonstrate the console's power, no clear standout title (unless you like pgr, i suppose...i'm a ridge racer guy). all typical launch symptoms, but i think even the universally derided ps2 launch was stronger in most respects. doa4 and especially oblivion would've helped 360 a lot, i think.
 
This is purely subjective, obviously. If people think it's not the best launch lineup ever, so what?

Personally, by the looks of things sofar, I think a number of launches will eclipse this one, for me. N64, Xbox for starters.
 
I think it is one of the better launches. If not the best. At least 5 titles I'm very interested in, so the launch games alone should last me a while. And then there is XBL Arcade and all of the other new features XBL is bringing on 360.

As far as this last generation I think it is the best. While the Dreamcast ended up being my favorite system ever, I didn't go crazy at launch as I don't really care for SC. Though SA and Powerstone were awesome. 360 definitely blows the PS2 launch out of the water, however.
 
The launch is shitty to me for the following reasons:

No *must have, you'll die without it* titles to help sell the system
Poor allocation numbers which makes finding one a bitch...which makes you really think about why you even want one in the first place since there aren't any *must have* titles.
High cost of entry (console, peripherials etc.)
No real technical leap, just a new coat of paint.
 
All those siting DC launch as the best should reserve judgements of X360 "launch" until August of 2006. Then it would be a fair comparasin.
 
Worst launch ever in my book. Three reasons for that

1- Only 4 years after original Xbox
2- Number of units available. The PS2 was easier to find IMO.
3- CORE and TARD, 'nuff said

You can say that the games lineup is average.
 
No killer games, but it has a wide spectrum to cover a wide variety of tastes.
But one killer game would be much more desired.

I don't really think any of the launch games will be remembered at the end of this consoles life.
 
While the DC was one of my favorite consoles ever, the DC launch was all about Soul Calibur and nothing else IMO. NFL2K was fun until you started playing it seriously. R2R, ditto. X360 launch seems to kill it but this is before playing any games for more than 10 minutes so its a lil premature.

Also, the DC had a HUGE lapse of games released after launch which sucked big time.
 
I dunno, I feel like the fact this thread is being made before launch is inappropriate.

All I've played is nearly final builds, and most of them were incredibly god-awful. For that reason I feel like this launch lineup is absolute horse-shit, but that opinion will likely change greatly once I get my hands on retail software.

I'll just say that it'll have a really hard time beating the line-ups we saw for the Dreamcast and the US PSP launches. Both of those were absolutely excellent, particularly Dreamcast's.
 
drohne said:
of course i'll be better equipped to judge in a week or two, when i've actually played some of the games. but the 360 launch seems unexceptional to me -- narrow genre coverage, few exclusive games, few if any games that demonstrate the console's power, no clear standout title (unless you like pgr, i suppose...i'm a ridge racer guy). all typical launch symptoms, but i think even the universally derided ps2 launch was stronger in most respects. doa4 and especially oblivion would've helped 360 a lot, i think.
Click to expand...

yeah ps2 launch was better.
 
Definitely. First console I went out of my way to have on launch day. The games are solid, there's more variety than ever before, and they're online from day one.
 
No Dreamcast launch games really appealed to me, and only a few post-launch titles. I'm not sure what system I would give it to.
 
Who cares, it's just a corporate statement.

PS2 probably has it over everyone because for a lot of us, it was our first DVD player as well. That's a hard thing to beat.
 
PS2 launch was horrible. I camped out all night in the freezing cold for it, and ended up barely touching it the rest of the year... And when I did it was to play PSX games on it. I also had a dvd player for a long time at that point.
 
The SNES launch gets too little love. Super Mario World, F-Zero andPilot Wings? Good times!

EDIT: Knew I shoulda clicked send earlier! :D
 
Xellotah said:
Now that you mentioned it, the SNES did have an excellent launch.
Click to expand...

SNES had the best overall games. But Dreamcast with the huge wow from the graphics on NFL2k and having one of the best fighters of all time with Soul Calibur 2 and the whole 9/9/99 everything surrounding it was awesome to be a part of.
 
SanjuroTsubaki said:
SNES had the best overall games. But Dreamcast with the huge wow from the graphics on NFL2k and having one of the best fighters of all time with Soul Calibur 2 and the whole 9/9/99 everything surrounding it was awesome to be a part of.
Click to expand...

The dreamcast launch was impressive as well, although my pick for wow factor would have been sonic adventure where sonic was running towards the screen being chased by a whale(?). It's just that for me personally the SNES was and still is the best launch, mainly because of SMW.
 
My problem with alot of Next Gen launches is that they offer alot of good games that have limited/no replay value or short play times. I can remember getting my Playstation, two weeks after I bought it, and being completely bored with all of its games already.


I never bought the DC at launch, because the only game that impressed me was thier football game. So, I'll take people's word for it when they say it was awesome.


-----------

One of the worst launch line-ups of all time was the Sega CD.


Cobra Command
Night Trap
Black Hole Assault
Sewer Shark
Chuck Rock
INXS Make Your Own Music Video
Marky Mark Make Your Own Music Video


I can remember Sewer Shark being mildly fun, but the rest of that lineup sucked ass.
 
gvandale said:
Uh dude, didn't the N64 only launch w/ like 3 games? (mario / pilot wings / wave racer)? Granted, Mario is one of the greatest games ever, still only 3?

no
Click to expand...

To each their own, but my guiding principle is no. of games I really, really want to play ASAP, not no. of available titles that are pretty worthwhile.
 
For the choice of titles and diversity in genres, i guess the 360 and the Dreamcast did pretty well. PS2 in third.

But in pure fun and the launch i've been shocked the most was the N64 with Mario 64.
Almost no games at launch but oh my god Mario 64 was a big one!
 
Not the best, but not the worst.

Overall, we have a decent choice of what to play, and a fair number of quality titles. No games that are absolute garbage, which is rare for a launch with 17 games.
 
JMPovoa said:
To me, for a launch to be considered the absolute best, it isn't about having the most good games on it, it's about having the best games. And in that regard i was really struck by how addicting early Playstation games like Toshinden, Destruction Derby, Wipeout (i don't remember if this was a launch title though) and Loaded were. It was something really new and fresh. Looking back to those games now doesn't to them any favour, but what counts is the experience it was back then.
Click to expand...

Those weren't launch titles, other than Toshinden. Some of those didn't come out for a few months.
 
Are we comparing it to North American launches or the first region a console launched in. Compared to the first region its the best.
 
I think I'm gonna give it to the N64, based solely on the jaw-dropping goodness of Mario 64. I don't think I've ever been as wowed by a game as I was the first time I stepped up to that demo kiosk at TRU.
 
Not the best launch ever or even spectacular, but it has a handful of decent titles.

It lacks a real next-gen 'holy shit' game. PDZ was supposed to carry that title.
 
Matix said:
PSP Launch >>>>> X-Box 360 Launch (IMO)
Click to expand...




Would it surprise anyone to learn that there are not only just as many 360 titles on the shelves but they're rated pretty much the same?
 
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