Official Xbox 360 Thread

[Revoltor]

That pad better come out here. I'm sure enough people will make a big stink about it enough for MS to notice.

[Error]

Dyne I've had my 360 hooked up with VGA and Component, both looked awesome.

[Dyne]

Oh, and this. Reports are also in that the new 60 giggers have double capacity ram chips (which means half as many) and are all mounted on top of the motherboards (current design had half mounted top, half underside). Might reduce heat even more.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/20/so...b-299-elite-3/


It appears that two of the Xbox 360 SKUs will receive a $50 price drop by the week of Sept. 7, making the 60GB model $299 and the Elite $399 -- we've yet to hear any change on the $279 Arcade meanwhile, the Arcade will drop $80 to $199. A few of our retail contacts, some of whom have given us good intel in the past -- and who all work for separate corporations -- have sent us identical information regarding a price drop. Evidence of the Elite and Arcade price cut can be found in the gallery below featuring images sent us from the Sept. 7 Radio Shack flyer.

Update: Oh mercy, it's been a long day. The Arcade is marked as $199 in the flyer as well (under the TV, to the left). Thanks, Strike Man.

[Rumpy]

Price drop long overdue.

[Mikhal]

My warranty was running out earlier this month and my disc drive was giving me problems, so I went online and got a box sent to me. Got a refurb with a Lite-On disc drive (and possibly the Opus motherboard) sent really quickly after my system got to their warehouse. They extended my warranty to November also, so that's good.

[BlackFlame]

Good, now I can finally use those 20 gig hard drives I picked up for $15 bucks at Sears a couple of years ago. Arcade pack, here I come!

[Space Pirate Roberts]

From 1up:

Tales of Vesperia DLC Will Let You Buy Levels, Gold, and Skills
For a few Microsoft points, players can opt out of the usual grinding.
By Jonathan Fincher, 08/22/2008



Some RPGs allow you to get a leg up by doling out some extra cash for special weapons and items. For Tales of Vesperia, though, Namco Bandai has just decided to cut through all that and just let players outright buy levels for their character (via Kotaku).

That's right, at least in Japan it appears from screenshots that Tales of Vesperia is getting DLC that will offer players the chance to exchange their Microsoft points for level boosts, as well as gold and skills. "Items" available for purchase will include:

* LV Up +10 (1) 300 Microsoft Points
* LV Up +5 (1) 200 Microsoft Points
* 300,000 Gold (1) 300 Microsoft Points
* Skill sets 80 Microsoft Points
* HP Recovery Cuisine Recipe Set 100 Microsoft Points

I could kind of understand this sort of thing for an MMO where you're pitted against other players who may spend a whole lot more time on a game than you, but for an offline RPG? Of course, Tales of Vesperia has also been driving a huge rise in Xbox 360 sales in Japan, so Namco Bandai is probably still going to make oodles of cash off of this.

Ugh. I'm glad I wasn't gonna buy that game anyway. This is one trend that needs to be nipped in the bud.

[bbobb]

Why? You don't have to buy that, it's only if you're lazy as fuck all. I think it's brilliant of Namco actually.

[Space Pirate Roberts]

Because if we give them an inch, they'll take a mile - before you know it, games will be designed around the expectation that the typical player do this. Want the next cool move for Dante? Fork over or grind fifteen missions.

[bVork]

What do you expect from Namco? They're the ones who tried to sell Beautiful Katamari levels on XBLM that were already included on the disc, remember.