At gamespy, they have a nice article today titled “Do Gamers Really Need HDTV?”. Readers of this blog know the answer — YES ! — but many others are still debating the benefits of moving up to HD gaming:
The Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 both output an HD signal, and while the Wii isn’t HD, it does output a progressive scan signal which is cleaner and slightly sharper than a regular TV signal (you’ll need an enhanced definition television, EDTV, or an HDTV to use this mode though). But is the extra cost of an HD set worth it? And how much of a difference is there for games?
Adam Carpenter from Vivendi Games believes that HD is definitely needed for the upcoming generation of gaming. He says, “I think the HD element of games now is very important. It’s going to take over the gaming industry. Everything is going to be HD. It’s essential that you upgrade to that eventually. Especially with the PlayStation 3 coming out, big titles like Metal Gear Solid 4… you gotta have HD to take advantage of the technology and experience the full potential of the software.”
You can read the full article here
May 14th, 2006
according to pixelgamers.com, we can expect an update to Xbox Live dashboard within the next 2 weeks. Updates will include:
- a download manager for 6 parallel downloads in the background
- ability to download while playing a game or a demo
These two features alone will be a major upgrade, and will solve one of the biggest gripes gamers have right now — the single download that basically puts your xbox360 on hold until the download is done.
May 14th, 2006
As we reported back in April, this is now official:
This new accessory will connect to the Xbox 360 console with a USB cable, enabling it to harness the power of the Xbox 360 console for the HD video outputs and digital surround sound. As an accessory, it becomes another shining example of the flexibility of Xbox 360 designed into the console in order to grow and add new features. It’s also just one of several new accessories being announced at E3.
“There aren’t any Blu-ray players available to test, but if you compare the requirements on paper it’s going to be a wash in terms of video quality,” said Albert Penello, Director of Global Marketing at Xbox. “At Microsoft, we’ve known that for some time. But the major difference is going to be price, and all the leading indicators point to HD DVD winning.”
Let’s hope the footprint of this external drive isn’t too significant. You can read the full Microsoft announcement here
Technorati Tags: xbox360, hd-dvd
May 8th, 2006