Got my 360S on saturday - £10 off in ASDA! It's black, shiny, small and silent. Having a 250GB drive is nice for someone as ADD about which game I'm playing at any one time as I am. I had no problem with my relatively quiet old 360 but with this one I've found myself turning off my gaming PC in the same room as that's now too loud.
Oh and HDMI is almost too sharp! I kind of miss the smoother land of VGA, right now...
Apparently, as part of the Fall Update, Microsoft is going to be changing the audio codec used for voice communications over Live.
I've never had any real issues with vox comms, but hey, I ain't going to complain.
Also apparently in the Fall Update, redesigned Avatars.
In other news, Kinect beta kits are starting to show up in peoples' mailboxes, so we should be seeing some actual final hardware experience shortly.
Heh. Well, it's shit isn't it, at the moment?
It's of a quality comparable to Roger Wilco, which we all stopped using on the PC in 2001, in favour of Battlecom, which was bettter quality. Then there was Teamspeak that was better again, and now you have Mumble and Ventrillo, which are (in theory) another slight step up.
It was shit quality in 2005 and it's frankly embarassing quality now. It's bearable if nobody has an accent and everyone speaks clearly but we deserve better.
Today I was at the State Fair, and lo and behold they had a Kinect demonstration booth set up. I got in line, signed something for Microsoft (so that should go well), and got a scannable badge on a lanyard. After a moment, they slid the patio doors open and let me into the booth. A poorly-paid serf in a polo shirt did all the controlling, so I didn't get to mess with the menus and navigation. They also kept us moving along, so there wasn't much Q&A time.
I ran hurdles against the polo-serf; she explained that the unit senses where your knees are, and getting your knees higher means running faster. I also figured out, after running into the first two of three hurdles, that when they turn green, as you're approaching, that's when you need to stop running in place and just jump. For a system that's meant to be so intuitive you don't need a controller, that's... not that intuitive. I had expected some kind of jump that was integrated into the running, like you do.
On the way out, my badge was scanned, so I can visit www.kinect.me, enter the code, and see my video. I think I'm relieved that it appears to be fucked -- I'm not there. It was noon, and sunny, and the scanner wasn't working well. Maybe as I was asking the Cameron Question, the other serf got tired of my shenanigans.
(She was not knowledgable about the technology, but again, poorly-paid temp labor, I'm pretty sure)
-- Erik H.
New (and, of course, a bit overpriced) 360 controller on the way with a D-pad that converts from a disc to a plus-shaped pad. It'll be available on November 9th, only with the new Play & Charge Kit, and it'll go for $64.99.
And they've cleverly made all the controller buttons grey, thus making them far less intuitive for anyone who remembered them by colour.
Eoin
I'm amazed they didn't at least include a toggle switch for illuminating the buttons with colored LEDs; that would have been slick.
-- Erik H.
I'm not sure what the point of the grey buttons is. Eurogamer had a video of a microsoft man explaining why they made the changes they did and he started to explain it, but skipped over the bit where he actually gave a reason.
Eoin
I think the gray buttons are purely a style thing. I don't mind much since I've pretty much have the xbox button color scheme in my muscle memory now, but it does seem kind of stupid.
I've read numerous people who have them associated with colours. I'm sure it helps non-Gamers too. I know that I suck at QTE events on the PS3 partly because I can never remember which one is x or square or circle. The grey seems to be style of intuitiveness, which seems a mistake given how complex modern controllers are.
Eoin
Major Nelson tweeted that the grey buttons are just a one off for this pad, not a permanent change.
Indeed. But they make this pad just a little bit stupider.
Actually, considering the dozens of batteries I've replaced since starting BC2, I might be in the market for a recharging stand and a nice-looking controller... but the all-gray buttons thing is a slight turn-off.
-- Erik H.