XBox 360 New Features in Games

[Vandenh]

Gamasutra has a very interesting article (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050831/carless_01.shtml) about the new features of the 360 and how developers should include them in their games.
As well as these more general options, one of the most interesting elements of the Xbox 360 player profile is its title-specific data, which is created and managed by an individual game, and includes achievements, in which the game decides what in-game elements are worth rewarding, as well as points allocated for completing each achievement. These achievements will be viewable on the player's own machine, but also over Xbox Live and on the Web, and those playing will be able to compare achievements with their friends.
Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the next version of the XBox "dashboard" and Live features. I am impressed. Sony has a lot of catching up to do.

[MrMeatshake]

Yes! finally! so my lefty (as in handed, not as in politics) housemate will finally be able to play a splinter cell game with the rest of us!

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's what i'm talkin' about! :) dunno y they didn't do this on the old xbox, TBH, but glad to see they've not left out one of the most useful features of a coherent profile.

[Murtaug]

Obviously a lot of thought has gone into the next version of the XBox "dashboard" and Live features. I am impressed. Sony has a lot of catching up to do.

Well obviously Sony has a lot of catching up to do from last generation; but have they said anything about the backend of their system? Anything about a dashboard of their own?

I would have to assume that Sony learned a little from Microsoft this last round, the Xbox has a great thing with the dashboard and the 360 is certainly sounding like it is going to expand that in every direction I could have hoped for and then some. I am on the fence with the coming generation; I own both a PS2 and an Xbox, love them both, each for different reasons. The dual sku thing has me annoyed though, and I am not ready to pony up four hundred bucks for a system when I've only had my Xbox for a year now. Little enough is known about the PS3 to make the choice as well. If Sony can come out with a good online service, great launch titles I could be swayed. But then the 360 will have had a year to put out some great stuff as well. Oblivion alone might sway me enough to break out the pocket book.

I figure I will pick up both again this generation; just which one first is my question. 360 more then likely.

[Frogleg Special]

But these features would lose their meaning if Ninja Gaiden 2 is in the PS3. Games are the stuff, not cool stats tracking.

This generation I'll pick the 360 and hope the games will be varied enough against Vista gaming. K/m games I play in Vista - you hear that Sony?

[doubtingthomas]

But these features would lose their meaning if Ninja Gaiden 2 is in the PS3. Games are the stuff, not cool stats tracking.



OBVIOUSLY. No one ever disputes that games are the most important thing. But when a topic come up about features outside gameplay, hardware, etc., that topic is not irrelevant. Why do people post in threads saying the topic isn't important? If it's not important, why post?

[Xerxes]

Ok I doubt highly that Ninja Gaiden 3 will show up on ps3...

[Morratut]

I am very pleased with all these features. It is going to be a gaming Nirvana.

I can imagine all the people that say 'Bitch','Fag' or 'eat this muthafucka' are going to be playing a lot of people like themselves :D

LOL you could even have matches later on with people who only have 1 star (evil) vs people with 5 stars (good). :D

1 star player - 'I'm gonna fuck your puppy with this shotgun!!'
5 star player - 'mmm i don't have a puppy.back the game,you have to worry cos i have a bunch of 5* teamplayers with me!!'

/1 star players team gets destroyed in a hail of co operation and 5* teamwork :)

[UnderHero5]

Yes! finally! so my lefty (as in handed, not as in politics) housemate will finally be able to play a splinter cell game with the rest of us!



that's what i'm talkin' about! :) dunno y they didn't do this on the old xbox, TBH, but glad to see they've not left out one of the most useful features of a coherent profile.

Myself being a Left handed FPS player, almost got excited when I read what you typed... then I read the quote.
It doesn't say inverting the two analogue sticks... it say's inverting the Y axis. Which is looking up and down. Which every game already lets everyone do... but only maybe 30% of the FPS's on console give the option to invert the two sticks (or Southpaw, as it's known).
It's very frustrating being a left handed Xbox owner... seeing as a good percentage of the good games on Xbox are FPS, and FPS's are my favorite genre.

There is a way to invert the sticks manually if you have a modchip though... I've tried it and it works to some degree... games like Conker get kinda messed up though, since you switch beteen first and third person.

*shurg*

I don't know why it's so difficuly for devs to just let us fully customize out controls in the first place. That would eliminate any problems.

Guess that's part of the reason I've moved away from console gaming in the past couple years. I use my Xbox more as a media center than I do for actually playing games.

[trip1eX]

Yeah I can't wait to see my 'achievements.' <rolls eyes> This is stuff for 12 yr olds.

The last thing I'm going to do is look at other players' stats and oooh and awe cause they have 50 hrs on their hands to finish so and so video game. Oooh I got 2 achievements for beating the 2nd boss in go-feck-yourself II. Look at me!!!

[TheKeck]

Yeah I can't wait to see my 'achievements.' <rolls eyes> This is stuff for 12 yr olds.

The last thing I'm going to do is look at other players' stats and oooh and awe cause they have 50 hrs on their hands to finish so and so video game. Oooh I got 2 achievements for beating the 2nd boss in go-feck-yourself II. Look at me!!!

I think this can depend on how exactly it is implemented. I think of the Battlefield 2 reward system, which (I believe) is pretty cool. It's not like I get all giddy whenever I get a ribbon or a medal or whatever, but it's just interesting to receive feedback on your achievements at a granular level. It just becomes part of the immersion of the game for me. Anyway, it's also something that's very easily ignored if you're not interested in it, I suppose.

[Wonka]

What excites me about this new dashboard is the DESIGN of the overall X360 front end system rather than the actual features. This design will be improved upon feature-wise in the future. But by divorcing the common UI elements from the game development studios, MS has made a brilliant move here. The gamers win because we get a more common UI experience. The developers win because they have less monkey coding to do for each title that gets made (more stuff is already written for them). Microsoft wins because their standards get applied to each and every game in a consitent manner with less bitching about TCRs.

By divorcing the interface like this, MS can in the future increase the number of LIVE! features without putting a huge new load onto the development studios. This is the 1st glimpse into the kinds of advantages that MS will have in the console war as a real software company.

You could try to argue that this isn't related gameplay, but you would be completely WRONG. This adds real features to all games on the MS platform. Having more convenient guaranteed features in all games is especially nice for online games. One gripe about LIVE! as it exists today is that every game arranges all of the online jazz in some completely different and foreign way every time. This will go a long way towards cleaning up that mess, and allowing online games to add NEW features without getting tangled up in all the old standard crap. Sony has a TON of catching up to do in this area. I will be surprised if they have anything comparable to LIVE! on the X360. It's going to be tough for them to just switch to having some kind of committed service without even bothering to play catch up in the interface and standards departments. Then there are all the ways that people cook up to cheat... Time will tell I guess.

[Dragos]

Yeah I can't wait to see my 'achievements.' <rolls eyes> This is stuff for 12 yr olds.

The last thing I'm going to do is look at other players' stats and oooh and awe cause they have 50 hrs on their hands to finish so and so video game. Oooh I got 2 achievements for beating the 2nd boss in go-feck-yourself II. Look at me!!!

I think you missed the point, it helps you choose who you want to play with, like some games may(Hopefully) let you choose to only play with hardcore gamers with 4 star reputation and the like, that would be badass.

[carneconcarne]

yo, where is all this crap stored on a non-live xbox with no hard drive? memory stick, I'm guessing?

[*Legion*]

Myself being a Left handed FPS player, almost got excited when I read what you typed... then I read the quote.
It doesn't say inverting the two analogue sticks... it say's inverting the Y axis. Which is looking up and down.

And it's just an EXAMPLE. One of the MANY settings that will be saved and used universally. Not an exclusive list.

I wouldn't bet against "Southpaw" being included.

[trip1eX]

I think you missed the point, it helps you choose who you want to play with, like some games may(Hopefully) let you choose to only play with hardcore gamers with 4 star reputation and the like, that would be badass.

YOu know I didn't miss the pt. I think you're talking about something else called reputation. I'm talking about achievements. From what I've read they've got both tho I admit I'm not exactly up on this stuff.

I don't mind rankings in a game tho every ranking I've ever seen has been exploited by every goon online. Achievements tho is MS' attempt to tell developers they have to make killing the one eyed snake monster at the Golden Tree of Love worth 1 achievement point. (Every developer must have at least 5 achievement pts in their game.) Then later the gamer can brag to his friends about it and his friends can look at his profile and see that yes he's an online badass who has slayed the one-eyed snake monster. Does anyone care about that sht except the nerdiest of the gaming nerds?

I don't know I guess I'm just asking. Maybe everyone but me cares.

Reputation is different. It's like Ebay feedback. ASshats will generally garner more negative feedback in the long run. And if that let's me put an asshat filter on then I'm all for it.

Anyway I know I won't even look at 'achievement' points. The whole thing sounds so feckin' corny to me.

[DaXIthR]

This is another marginal innovation that can really grow into something special. Very exciting.

On the Southpaw issue, let it be known that I'm a lefty - but have been trained to use my right-hand for a lot of acitivities just because I've been around righties. I shoot a basketball right-handed and bat and throw right-handed. This is the case with most lefties I know. I don't think I've ever struggled with a control scheme as a result of my left-hand bias.

The achievements Honour Roll is something I am looking forward to, even though I don't expect to be among those with a lot Awards and recognition. It's just that as a video gamer I can respect and appreciate those who have the time and motivation to carry out speed runs and and pull off other crazy stunts. I think there's a skill and beauty in it.

You don't believe me, look up some videos of people playing Super Monkey Ball.