Wanna play Xbox 360? Head over to Wal-mart!

[MegaDrive20XX]

I got a phone call from a friend that Xbox 360 is now playable at the display units. He said he got to play "Kameo" and I was surprised he was pleased with the controller.

[Jumpman Jr.]

As far as I know, all major retailers in North America have playable demo's and video's of upcoming games. Although I haven't actually seen any of them, I did write a news topic on the fact that they were going to appear in stores this week.

[njiska]

As far as I know, all major retailers in North America have playable demo's and video's of upcoming games. Although I haven't actually seen any of them, I did write a news topic on the fact that they were going to appear in stores this week.

No not quite. While all major retailers are going to get display units, apparently Wal-mart will be getting them first. That's according to a post on JoyStiq ("http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000753064065/).

[randyt7801]

Gamestop is then next retailer to get the kiosk

[AMG]

I'll be heading over to Walmart to try this bad boy out in the next couple of days, hopefully.

[studvicious]

I've been to a few and haven't seen one yet..

[Dangerboy]

EB Games are getting their's this weekend. My store had ours delivered last night. Here's what I can remember:

1. The controllers are gorgeous. So comfortable it defies logic. Only complaint is that your right thumb can whack the right analog stick when you go to hit the start button.

2. The tray is molded like an ultra thin Samsung drive tray. No big lip jutting out to scratch the discs.

3. Playable demos:
Kameo:
Looks good, but you can tell it was originally an XBox 1 title. This is the the demo that shows off the high number of objects the system can display. Very odd control configuration though.

King Kong
Torn here. The textures look PHENOMINAL, but it has that 'too crisp' look like many original PS2 games did. I.E. It doesn't seem like there's anti-aliasing. Slap that on, and the game shines. You can pay either as King Kong Vs T-Rex, or as the human running form T-Rex. Not too bad, shows promise.

Call of Duty 2
The game that will sell a thousand Xboxes. The opening, real-time cinema takes a tad too long to let you get into the game, but it does show you what the special effects department will be doing. Gorgeous smoke effects, insanely clear graphics and details, great control minus an odd choice for the binocular buttons, and really neat fighting.

There's videos of all of the above, plus Project Gotham 3, and about 6 other games. I only skimmed those since I was doing all this after close...if I can remember I'll update this with a real list tonight.

[Anthony1]

I was able to play the 360 tonite at a Wal-Mart not to far from me for about 1 and 15 minutes.


Here is my review:


First things first..... I walk up towards the electronics area, not sure if they have a demo unit, and then I see the controller from a distance, and I see the Samsung 23 inch LCD HDTV. At this point, I'm very excited, because nobody is using it, and I didn't know if this Wal-Mart would actually have one or not. I just decided to stop by for the hell of it.


Well, I grab the controller, and let me tell you....The Controller feels great in your hands. Man, I just wish that I could rip it away from the stand, because you can't truly appreciate it, when it's attatched to that thing. But you can still feel the controller and feel that it feels absolutely perfect in your hands.


The 23 inch Samsung 16:9 LCD HDTV is pretty sweet, but the setup at Wal-Mart has the screen way, way above your head, and at a crazy angle, making it damn near impossible to enjoy the experience. The only way that you can really enjoy demoing the unit is if you were 10 feet tall, and you had 6 foot long arms to reach way down to the controller. I'm going to need to see a freaking chiropractor after my 360 session.


The coolest thing about the system is the blades in the menu. When you first turn on the 360, it shows these various blades. Like Media, Games, Live, etc, etc. It's very cool to bounce back and forth between them. Very stylish and up to date. It's a nice touch for the interface that you interact with every time you turn on your 360.


Ok, you are allowed to actually play 3 games, like discussed above. Kameo, Call of Duty 2 and King Kong.



Kameo : To me, this game was pretty freaking amazing. This is basically the launch equivalent of Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64. It's that freaking good. This game had me smiling like crazy while playing it. The textures are totally amazing, and the level of detail in everything is off the charts. This could be a real deal contender for Game of the Year 2005 honors (for any system). The only negative thing I can say about this game is that I don't think the AA effect has been turned on in this game yet, or it's just looking at it on a LCD screen isn't the most flattering display to see it on. There is some very, very minor issues with "jaggies". You can see it if you look at the outlines of the characters and stuff. But I'm talking extremely minor, and again, might be due to the LCD screen. The other issue with this game is the controls. Very hard to get used to using the correct controls and the camera is kinda quircky. Of course, if I had more time to play it, and read the instructions and wasn't looking at the screen from the worst possible angle, then maybe this games controls won't be a significant issue at all when I play the final version.


Kameo bottom line :

If you are getting a 360, this is pretty much an absolutely mandatory game to have in your lineup. It's a game of the year canidate and will clearly be one the 5 best 360 games this year. If you absolutely can't stand action/adventure and platforming type games, then maybe you can avoid this game, but if you even have the slightest appreciation for this genre you will fall in love with this game.


King Kong : I'm not sure why they would put King Kong on here. King Kong is a port of a XBOX 1 and PS2 game. When you fire this game up, some of the things you see in the game seem very current generation and not at all impressive. But, then there are these little details and nuances of the game that make you say, "WOW". From a graphical standpoint, this game had the worst case of jaggies. This game needs the AA to be running really bad. If the final game has no jaggies at all, then it will be quite impressive. The environment that the game is played in, is pretty damn cool. The demo has two sections, you can either play as the human guy or as King Kong himself. Playing as Kong is pretty freaking amazing. When you are swinging around on stuff and running around, it's pretty damn bad ass. Fighting a T-Rex one on one is pretty damn cool. Speaking of the T-Rex, the T-Rex is interesting because sometimes it looks absolutely stunning, and sometimes it looks really wack. Again, alot of jaggies going on here. The girl that is in the movie, is animated pretty amazingly. She runs around and hides and stuff after you put her down to fight the T-Rex. This game is pretty interesting, because I think it's going to have some unique play mechanics and it might really be a better than average playing game, but will the graphics really be that much superior to the XBOX and PS2 versions?


King Kong Bottom Line : The jaggies in this game is definitely unacceptable, but the word is that the AA hasn't been turned on yet, so it should dissapear before the final release. This might be one of the most overlooked 360 games, because of it's status as a "port". But there is a definite chance that this game could be one of the better games of the year and the 360 version is likely to be the most impressive version out there. This could be a sleeper.




Call of Duty 2 : Right now, it's still up in the air as to whether or not Perfect Dark Zero will actually be available on day 1. If not, then COD2 becomes the big FPS for the system. Call of Duty 2 is a mixed bag as far as I'm concerned graphically. There are certain things, that when you see them up close they look amazing, and then there are certain things that when you see them up close they look really lackluster. Overall, I would say the graphics are impressive, but there are little things here and there that make you think..."Hmmm, this doesn't look as next gen as I thought it would". The other thing about this game is that the controls take an awful long time to come to grips with. It seems very difficult to target enemies that are far away with any accuracy at all. But once you get more of a feel for the controls the game plays alot better. At first, I thought the game was impossibly hard, but then I found out that it's just that it's hard to get used to the controls at first. When you are running around in the demo area, it is pretty amazing when you see the buildings and stuff. The visuals are pretty nice. The smoke effects are really nice. There is alot going on in the game. The only negative things I can say about the game is that the controls are maybe a little overly complex, with some of the button mappings possibly ill-advised. From a graphical standpoint, the game has it's high and lows. Some things look jaw droppingly gorgeous, and some things look kinda lame.


Call of Duty 2 bottom Line: The bottom line with this game is that if you are a fan of FPS and you are getting a 360 at launch, then you pretty much have to take this game home. It looks like it's going to be a very deep and involved game, and even though the controls are difficult to come to grips with, and there are some graphical things that are somewhat lackluster, overall this game provides a very significant audio/visual impact, with some solid gameplay. This is going to be a game that you can spend some serious time with.




My overall impressions after playing the 360 for the very first time: The first thing that pops into my head after playing around with the thing for over an hour, is that November 22nd can't come any faster. Man, I really want this thing in my house. I want it hooked up to my HDTV and to my audio system. Playing it on that Kiosk is not the ideal way to play it. I love the dashboard for the system, the interface or whatever you call it. Very cool and very stylish and very logical. The controller is a dream. Better than any PS2 or XBOX 1 controller. Feels absolutely wonderfull. The system itself is a thing of beauty. Very nice design. Seeing it inside that glass case, it looks really, really pimp. The three games are a mixed bag, showing both the weaknessess and the strengths of the early software. Kameo is definitely a can't miss game. If you even remotely like action/adventure type games, then you should be all over this game. It also looks to be a graphical and audio tour de force. The purchase of Rare will finally start paying some dividends with this game. You can see a little bit of Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie and Zelda in this game. Good company to be associated with. Call of Duty 2 appears to be a very solid FPS game to launch the system with. It isn't mindblowing by any stretch, but it looks to be a deep, solid launch game. King Kong is a port of a current gen game, but it does show promise, and if the jaggies are eliminated, then it should definitely be the definitive version to have. Definitely a must rent.


I can say that I'll definitely spend some more time with a 360 Kiosk in the near future, and that these are just my first initial impressions of everything.

[Anthony1]

x_x

[Anthony1]

:eek 2:

[Anthony1]

x_x

[alm0stfinished]

Man, my wal-mart didn't have shit.
The employee's wernt very helpful either.
I did get a box of easy-mac for pretty cheap though...
I think i'll go back tomorrow night.

[MarkMan]

Went to my local Wal-Mart and tried Kameo and King Kong... they look way better than they did when I saw them at E3.... Kameo did at least...

I'll probably go back tomorrow to try Call of Duty II...

[Gamereviewgod]

No Wal-Mart should have them running right now.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6136388.html

Issues with them to say the least. Mine didn't even get them yet.

[Crush Crawfish]

I don't plan to get a 360 anytime soon, but from the sound of it I really need to find one of those kiosks and give Kameo a shot. I'm a sucker for a good platformer, and who knows? It could possibly sell the system for me....maybe. ;)

[swlovinist]

I just got done playing and watching others play the 36O at Walmart. Overall I have to say that...it looks like an Xbox 1.5. I do like the controller, although I can see it being less durable than the original. The system looks nice, and the interface was nice and easy to surf, although it was too easy to scroll left and right through the "blades by accident". Here are my opinions of the three playable games that I saw. I think it was a poor choice to have a port as one of the playable demos. Peter Jacksons King Kong is an amazing game, it just does not impress me as it will be on three other systems. Kameo did not look good to me. Jaggies are unacceptable and overall the game did not feel polished. Also, I must of not been hitting the right buttons, because I was not able to cut through the cutscenes....lame. Call of Duty to me looked the best, although again a poor choice in my opinion to show off the 360. The framerate was nice. The detail was nice. The gameplay was fast(as in King Kong). To me, I just dont really see the big deal when there are 25-40 FPS war sims on the Xbox. Perfect Dark as a playable would have been alot better. Kameo was nice in the fact of being an original title, it just was not that fun to control. After playing the demo, I feel justified about waiting and will probably get one when the price drops after a year or so.

[VG_Maniac]

I went to Wal-Mart earlier today and they didn't have it. I'm not to excited about the 360...but I still would like to give it a whirl.

[Anthony1]

Kameo did not look good to me. Jaggies are unacceptable and overall the game did not feel polished.



Kameo did not look good? That game looks freaking fantastic. I don't see how anybody could look at that game and think that it actually looks bad. When the level first starts, the camera sweeps accross a large castle, and you see the Orcs climbing up one of the walls, it looks really amazing. The world that they have created is alive and breathing. Pretty damn spectacular if you ask me. When you hit one of the barrels with the fire and knock it over, the fire actually spreads to the ground and then ends up burning out. It's a very nice effect. The textures on the bricks of the walls are just gorgeous. Jaggies do exist in the game, but they are much, much more minor than Call of Duty 2 or King Kong. Also, the AA hasn't been applied to it yet, it hasn't been completely finalized yet, so all jaggies should be completely gone from that game in the release version.

[googlefest1]

Man do i realy hope those controlers are rapid prototype throw togethers. Holy crap was i disapointed with that controler -- looking at the pics in the mags i thought the Xbox 360 was going to have the best controler ever and now ive changed my mind

i didnt like the feel of the plastic in my hands, it felt like SLA stuff and looked like a SLA model

i realy, realy hope that the controler was just a pre- production model they sent out to all the koisks.

GAMES
i only had time to check out the kameo game - but the kiosk seemd like it had 6-8 tittles you could check out

My impression of Kameo - i thought that was also an early version of programing - the aliasing looked worse then on xbox games, also the game did not look in any way mind blowing. While playing it i felt the xbox could handle this.

Don't get me wrong - it looked very nice and impressive - i just thought it looked like it wasn't that much better than some of the pretty games on the xbox. It did have some small details that i think would have been slightly toned down if ported to the xbox but in all it looked like an impressive xbox game.

also -- wasn't Kameo originaly designed for the xbox? So, if that is true then i don't think Kameo is a good tool to use in judgeing what the 360 can do.

Also, i have a feeling that many of the first games will look like they could be handled by the xbox. Weren't the early development kits based on the xbox because there was no 360 hardware? I thought i read an article like that some months ago.

At least im looking forward to an xbox system that wont have games that look like they belong on a ps2 - i was slightly disapointed that many of the games didn't use all the xbox power available.

so my first impression of the 360 isn't that great - the controler disapointed me most of all - like i said i realy hope that was just a pre-production model using some kind of SLA material. BUT I am one of the few fans of the original (large) xbox controler, so i think some of my disapointments come from that. One more thing i think im going to miss the extra buttons (white and black)

[Leo_A]

"i realy, realy hope that the controler was just a pre- production model they sent out to all the koisks."

The controller is finished and in production. You can buy it at many stores even (The identical PC USB version).

[googlefest1]

it has a real cheap feel

[Cmosfm]

Kameo was the only game I played before I walked away in disgust.

I can't see how they can dare call this a next gen game, it looks JUST like a current gen game. I could see no difference, graphic wise, in playing this and playing the latest Jak game.

*Just my opinion, if you like it then enjoy it.

[Anthony1]

googlefest1: I feel bad for you, cause that's the final controller. Personally, I think that controller is awesome. I just wish I could hold the whole thing in my hands without it being connected to that thing. It's definitely on the smaller side, so for people with really big hands, it might suck to a degree. I actually have pretty large hands and I found it very comfortable. I love the feel of it.

As for your take on Kameo, you must really hate Microsoft or something, cause that game is game of the freaking year material. More jaggies than XBOX games? Are you crazy? The AA hasn't even been implemented yet, so there won't be any jaggies in the final version, and right now there aren't that many jaggies in it. You have to look for them. Alot of it is the LCD HDTV too. Playing it from that distance isn't the distance that people play games. As for it not being mind blowing....Well, it doesn't totally blow you away, but the details all over that game are stunning to me. No freaking way they could do all those things on XBOX 1. Not with those textures. Did you see the textures on the back of the thing that rolls up into a ball ala Metroid Prime? Those textures are freaking ridiculous. If they tried to put that game on the XBOX, it would be so ridiculously watered down that it wouldn't resemble it much at all.



Cmosfm: You walked away from Kameo in disgust? You've got to be kidding me. You walked away from the game of the year for 2005 in disgust?

[swlovinist]

Anthony, people can have an opposite opinion of you and not be wrong, that is why it is called an opinion. Opinions are not right or wrong, they are just opinions. Dont take it personal. You can like the 360, that for sure is obvious. You think the 360 is great. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, just like people who dont like the 360 are entitled to have their opinion. It is not worth getting upset or finger pointing on who is right and who is wrong. Having an opinion either way on what you think about a game or system does not make you wrong. The only thing that is wrong is getting upset with someone who has a different opinion.

[googlefest1]

googlefest1: I feel bad for you, cause that's the final controller. Personally, I think that controller is awesome. I just wish I could hold the whole thing in my hands without it being connected to that thing. It's definitely on the smaller side, so for people with really big hands, it might suck to a degree. I actually have pretty large hands and I found it very comfortable. I love the feel of it.

As for your take on Kameo, you must really hate Microsoft or something, cause that game is game of the freaking year material. More jaggies than XBOX games? Are you crazy? The AA hasn't even been implemented yet, so there won't be any jaggies in the final version, and right now there aren't that many jaggies in it. You have to look for them. Alot of it is the LCD HDTV too. Playing it from that distance isn't the distance that people play games. As for it not being mind blowing....Well, it doesn't totally blow you away, but the details all over that game are stunning to me. No freaking way they could do all those things on XBOX 1. Not with those textures. Did you see the textures on the back of the thing that rolls up into a ball ala Metroid Prime? Those textures are freaking ridiculous. If they tried to put that game on the XBOX, it would be so ridiculously watered down that it wouldn't resemble it much at all.



Cmosfm: You walked away from Kameo in disgust? You've got to be kidding me. You walked away from the game of the year for 2005 in disgust?


no sir - i was saying that with an unbiased opinion my favorite curent gen system is the xbox and out of all the curent gen systems it has gotten the most play - i know the specs of the system and ive spent many hours looking at xbox games so i have a good idea of what i think the xbox can handle.

while playing kameo - i compared it to sudeki, kakuto chojin and a few others that i consider to look real nice on the xbox -- and yes i thought that the aliasing looked worse than other xbox games i have played -- i read and remebered your comments about the AA not being implemented yet - but i was not baseing my opinon on your comments, they were based on my observations and i wasnt prepared to boast a comment about something not being implemented with out any proof. It also seems im not alone in some of my observations.

you aparently took my comments to be anti microsoft - they weren't - in fairness to me i dont think you took in all of what i wrote - instead i think you were blinded when you hit a point where you strongly disagreed with me and focused on that alone.

re-reading what i said didnt resemble in any way anti xbox 360 to me.

leo_ames - i know the controlers are in production - that doesnt mean that the kiosks have the final version -- Microsoft could have made many pre- production models and to save some money they used them in the kiosks
which is what im hopeing (which is something the company i work for does). As soon as the system is available in the retail market i will take a closer look.

but my worry is they decided to cut some corners this time on the controlers. I regard the xbox 1 controlers to be high quality

Oh i have a question about the controler -- is the controler suposed to be gray? the one on the kiosk that i played was white - mabey it was unpainted and thats why it felt the way it did in my hands. oh yea it was also very light - not like a current gen xbox controler.

[Ed Oscuro]

No Wal-Mart should have them running right now.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6136388.html

Issues with them to say the least. Mine didn't even get them yet.
Hell. I've got a 2.4GHz router in my house...hope this doesn't cause a problem.

[Cmosfm]

Yes, I walked away from Kameo in disgust that they were passing this off as a new next gen game when it looks just like a current gen game.

[Anthony1]

Anthony, people can have an opposite opinion of you and not be wrong, that is why it is called an opinion. Opinions are not right or wrong, they are just opinions. Dont take it personal. You can like the 360, that for sure is obvious. You think the 360 is great. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, just like people who dont like the 360 are entitled to have their opinion. It is not worth getting upset or finger pointing on who is right and who is wrong. Having an opinion either way on what you think about a game or system does not make you wrong. The only thing that is wrong is getting upset with someone who has a different opinion.


I'm not taking it personal. I just have a very hard time understanding how somebody could play Kameo for any length of time and walk away dissapointed. That's like somebody playing Super Mario 64 before the N64 came out, and saying that they thought it sucked. I guess anybody can have that opinion, but opinions can be....shall we say... misguided?


Certainly, my opinion isn't solid Gold, and I don't expect people to agree with my take on everything. But it's my personal opinion that if you spend any legitimate time with Kameo and you come away thinking it sucks, then you must absolutely hate 3D action/adventure platform type games. It's the only way I could explain somebody thinking that Super Mario 64 sucked back in 1996.

[Cmosfm]

Anthony, people can have an opposite opinion of you and not be wrong, that is why it is called an opinion. Opinions are not right or wrong, they are just opinions. Dont take it personal. You can like the 360, that for sure is obvious. You think the 360 is great. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it, just like people who dont like the 360 are entitled to have their opinion. It is not worth getting upset or finger pointing on who is right and who is wrong. Having an opinion either way on what you think about a game or system does not make you wrong. The only thing that is wrong is getting upset with someone who has a different opinion.


I'm not taking it personal. I just have a very hard time understanding how somebody could play Kameo for any length of time and walk away dissapointed. That's like somebody playing Super Mario 64 before the N64 came out, and saying that they thought it sucked. I guess anybody can have that opinion, but opinions can be....shall we say... misguided?


Certainly, my opinion isn't solid Gold, and I don't expect people to agree with my take on everything. But it's my personal opinion that if you spend any legitimate time with Kameo and you come away thinking it sucks, then you must absolutely hate 3D action/adventure platform type games. It's the only way I could explain somebody thinking that Super Mario 64 sucked back in 1996.

I said I was dissapointed in the graphics, not the gameplay, for all I know it may be a great game.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, if you believe The Inquirer (hint: don't trust them TOO much), you've got 6x the power available in the 360 as what these games are tapping. Yeah, I know the story's been around.

[NE146]

There's an Xbox 360 just down the elevator here from my work. I've played it every lunch period for the past couple of days. I aint all that impressed so far.

As people say, it shouldn't be called the Xbox 360. It should be called the Xbox 1.5 and I agree LOL

That being said, I'll take one. :roll:

"I'll take an Xbox 1.5 to go please" :)

[kainemaxwell]

EB at my mall got their kiosk in, we got ours delivered today.

[Arkaign]

Well if Microsoft figured that these demos would be impressive, they figured wrong. Before the kiosk died, checked out COD2 and Kameo .. it's kind of disconcerting. There are nice details here and there, but there are a lot of rough spots as well, making it look sort of between generations. Here's hoping the launch titles greatly exceed this rabble, or I think a lot of people will just wait till Halo 3.

I hate Halo, so I'll probably wait until I can pick up a used one for $50. I only kept my Xbox for about 2 weeks.

[evil_genius]

In the midst of another eventful Friday evening I go to Wal Mart and head over to the 360 display. I walk over to the controller tilt my head back 45 degrees to see a blank screen. Excuse me I say to the clerk and ask why is this not working. Well the 2.4ghz frequency was messing up some of our equipment and it isnt working sorry. My night i ruined.

[Anthony1]

In the midst of another eventful Friday evening I go to Wal Mart and head over to the 360 display. I walk over to the controller tilt my head back 45 degrees to see a blank screen. Excuse me I say to the clerk and ask why is this not working. Well the 2.4ghz frequency was messing up some of our equipment and it isnt working sorry. My night i ruined.



That sucks. Keep searching my friend. Maybe a Best Buy or GameStop has it.

[Falcon]

Well you guys have to look at it from Microsoft's point of view as well. The system isnt even out yet! Do you remember when the PS2 came out? The graphics weren't too great, Midnight Club was terrible, but still sold over a million to get a Greatest Hits label.

Give it some time, The Xbox and PS2 are at their peak of graphics meanwhile the 360 is evolving and has yet to reach out to us.

[Diatribal Deity]

I saw a brand new pink Ferrari the other day. I didn't like the color and that damn wing is too high...it must suck! :roll:

[pacmanhat]

I can't believe people are saying Kameo (or any of the other games) don't "look" next-gen. Much of the graphical effects in Kameo (as well as the AI and other programming things) aren't even possible on current systems. The current Xbox couldn't look that good, period.

That said, I was floored when I checked this out at Best Buy this week. My expectations were very high, and they were still exceeded.

[Apossum]

. That's like somebody playing Super Mario 64 before the N64 came out, and saying that they thought it sucked. I guess anybody can have that opinion, but opinions can be....shall we say... misguided?


Certainly, my opinion isn't solid Gold, and I don't expect people to agree with my take on everything. But it's my personal opinion that if you spend any legitimate time with Kameo and you come away thinking it sucks, then you must absolutely hate 3D action/adventure platform type games. It's the only way I could explain somebody thinking that Super Mario 64 sucked back in 1996.

umm...heh....count me in as that guy who doesn't like Mario 64 all that much. I don't find it to be half as fun as the 2D marios. Same with Zelda. I don't consider that to be a very misguided opinion at all, since I'm making it from a solid foundation of experience, ya know?

It was the graphics, camera and single analog control that got me. The games also felt very, very sparse to me.

Like all gens though, the graphics got tighter as they went along. Kinda strange how everyone forgets that launch game graphics are usually a bit under par compared to the rest of the gen. I mean....just look at a launch PS2 game and then look at Soul Calibur 3. It looks like 2 different systems.

Anyway, Kameo blew my mind. Sure, everything was nice and shiny, but it's the gameplay that got me. It's like Sonic, Beyond Good and Evil, Mario, Conker and Metroid had a baby together.

[Arkaign]

I think the demo titles look a bit better than Xbox1 stuff, but current PC games are more impressive (with decent hardware of course) .. it's all a matter of what you're used to. It's certainly not any kind of massive leap like SNES to N64...

[Trebuken]

My Walmart had a video playing (I think through the 360), but it was not interactive. I was disappointed a bit (I'm still gonna' buy it though). The games did look superior to any console games, but I was still seeing to many polygons in Call of Duty 2, and some of the faces in Kameo. I also believe that these games are consistent with developement. The hardware can do better but the developers have to gradually scale up their production abilities to use it.

The HD was sweet,; the colors astounded me. I think this is due to some additional hardware tricks. Call of Duty 2 will probably look identical on the PC which is consistent for developers who program for multiple platforms. They fail to utilize some of the consoles hardware abilities when they do this. It looked like a great game, but it won't sell systems. Project Gotham Racing had some awesome graphics, though some of the textures on the cars were too smooth and shiny.

Kameo was surely the only game the kiosk showed off of value...

Good enough for me....I liked how the headset plugs into the controller...

Trebuken

[scooterb23]

Played Call of Duty 2 a bit today, I thought it looked pretty amazing myself. Can't wait to see a few games that would interest me more in action.

[Xizer]

Wal-Mart sucks. GameStop has 360 units that work, though.

[Six Switch]

i played the 360 yesterday at walmart.i played kameo and call of duty 2.kameo was actually better than i thought.sure it didn't look amazing,but it still looked good and man,it was pretty fun.a good solid adventure game.call of duty 2 was alright too,but i have never been a fan of the series.

i might get kameo,seeing as i won't be playing need for speed much with my 360.

[jdc]

I guess that this is the danger of expecting too much. You set yourself up for failure. I'm heading over to Walmart today, I'll check out the 360 and find out what one of my fave developers (Rare) has been up to lately.

I'm not expecting to be "OH MY GOD" blown away by the 360. I'm not expecting that the gains made over a few short years will be dumbfounding enough to put anyone at a loss for words. We've lived with 128 bit for a long time. If it's equally as good as my awesome Xbox, which it obviously will be, I'll be satisfied. It's up to the software developers to make the hardware look good, not necessarily the other way around. You all know that by now.

[Overbite]

Xbox360 version
http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/590/xbox4bn.th.jpg (http://img323.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xbox4bn.jpg)

PC version
http://img323.imageshack.us/img323/5033/pc2mw.th.jpg (http://img323.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pc2mw.jpg)

[The Sage of Sega]

I'm saving up all my money for a PC now. I am prepared to pay $1500 for a decent rig, and I have absolutely no need for another current-gen console. I have all three from this generation, and the 360 isn't really impressing me at all. I am a very jaded man. Watching the Call of Duty 2 video I got on my demo disc was just like watching a friggin' PC game that could have been released 4 months ago. The only good thing that will come out of this damned system will be the eventual price drop on all Xbox-related merchandise. It's going to be the first PS1 of the year ahead, and the prices will reflect that, so I'm more than willing to shell out $10 for a really good console-exclusive game from last year. Whatever happened to consoles having a shelf life of 5 years or more? NES, Genesis, SNES... hell, a lot of the stuff that was laid to rest in North America years ago is still being manufactured across the globe. And now, four years seems to be the cutoff time. Sorry guys, I'd rather have to go through all the system requirements with Oblivion and get it working beautifully on my reserved 3.4ghz Pentium 4 than play it on a rushed, inadequate console. Microsoft jumped the gun; hopefully it'll shoot em in the ass.

[josekortez]

I watched some guy playing King Kong and Kameo yesterday in EB on the display rig.

My question to everyone in the store: "I wonder if it looks this good if you don't own an HDTV?"

The store manager who usually talks to me got pissed and then ignored me until I was ready for him to ring me up...

[Retsudo]

I watched some guy playing King Kong and Kameo yesterday in EB on the display rig.

My question to everyone in the store: "I wonder if it looks this good if you don't own an HDTV?"

The store manager who usually talks to me got pissed and then ignored me until I was ready for him to ring me up...

LOL Now thats entertinment.

[Hep038]

Played it, liked it. Did it blow me away? no. But its better than anything I got at home with out blowing 2G's on my PC. I mean it really is what I expected for a demo unit. Improved graphics, new controler ( I liked). I did not plan on getting one at launch anyway.

[josekortez]

Thanks, retsudo. I pride myself on my ability to create chaos in public forums.

[Retsudo]

Thanks, retsudo. I pride myself on my ability to create chaos in public forums.

I just got a kick out of your EB story. I also love to mess with the people at EB. I love to see them get bent out of shape.

[Overbite]

I played it at Gamestop and the controller is too small :(

or maybe my hands are too big x_x

[Arkaign]

It might have been controversial, but I think they should have just stuck with the existing Xbox controllers. They're solid, there are plenty to chose from, and they're not lacking any necessary features.

[esquire]

Oh i have a question about the controler -- is the controler suposed to be gray? the one on the kiosk that i played was white - mabey it was unpainted and thats why it felt the way it did in my hands. oh yea it was also very light - not like a current gen xbox controler.

I played the XBOX 360 tonight at Best Buy and the controller was white too. In fact, I thought I saw sape controllers already in stock on the floor, and they were white too. This begs the question: Due to the color and texture of the controller, I see them getting disgustingly dirty after hours of use. You think if they were going to make it white, they at least use a smooth plastic like with the Dreamcast, and not that texture that is going to trap people's hand cheese.

[johno590]

My wal-mart FINALLY got the xbox 360 in. I got to play the Call of Duty 2 game for a little bit on there, and wow. I don't know if its the lcd tv or the auctual graphics of the system but I was amazed. It really does look awesome.

I would definately buy one but I'm going to wait until the price goes down a good bit.

[Habeeb Hamusta]

I played it. The controller was too small and the graphics didn't impress me at all.

[lendelin]

I have to say, the graphics of the machine are impressive. (played on an LCD screen)

I played Call of Duty and Kameo, and watched the demo of PGR3.

Kameo looks really awesome, and I wouldn't be surprised if it plays as it looks. This will be my first game for the console when I'll buy it in February or March.

The controller is very comfortable. I'm 6'1" and certainly don't have exactly dwarf hands, the controller isn't too small as others complained; actually it fits my hands better than the Xbox controller and feels more comfortable.

[donkeykong1]

They have it at some target stores also. I did not get to play it as some little kids were hogging it up the whole time. You know the kind that don't have a system at home and go to the store just to play the samples.

[Geddon_jt]

I was certianly impressed the most (graphically) by Call of Duty 2. I saw some explosions that left huge smoke clouds, and I was like wow, those smoke clouds look 100% real. Never seen such realistic smoke in a game before.

I thought King Kong looked like a pretty lame game, and it looked a bit choppy to me for some reason. Kameo looks like it may be a really fun title.

[exit]

I played the King Kong demo and I thought it was pretty rad, it kind of had that survive unexpected obsticals feel that HL had. I was just dissapointed that all of the racing games were just videos, it would have been nice if atleast one of them had a playable demo.

[Jibbajaba]

Well I was at 2 seperate game stores yesterday that had the 360 set up. When I tried to play a game demo at each store, the system crashed before the game loaded up (crashed happened in different spots on each system though). The controller is neat, but a bit too small for me. I am 6 feet tall, and the controllers were too low for me to get a good feel though. Maybe if I was holding one in my hand it would feel better. The system sure looks sexy though.

Chris

[Slate]

I got to see it at walmart.... Being set up. After that was done, I got to play it. The graphics aren't that much better than the original, But then, We are not looking at the system's maximum power. Once this baby gets up to 88 miles per hour... We're going to see some serious graphics. ;)