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X360 Oblivion benefits from HDD News
Xbox 360 News by Tom Bramwell
However much Microsoft says about the way Xbox 360 works, there always seems to be some lingering confusion - such is life as consoles become more complex pieces of kit, we suppose. Fortunately, some developers are keen to keep their fans up to speed, and one such dev is Bethesda Softworks, whose exec producer on Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion revealed this week that the game won't require a hard disk, but may benefit from the addition of one to the X360 Core System.
"We've known since day one that there would be versions of the 360 without a hard drive, so Oblivion will still work on every 360," he confirmed. "That being said, Oblivion takes full advantage of the hard drive and uses it extensively, so we'd certainly recommend that everyone gets one."
As announced earlier this week, Xbox 360 will be made available in two flavours - the main version, featuring various peripherals including the 20GB hard disk, will cost £279.99 / EUR399.99 at launch, while a Core System package without the hard disk and just a wired controller for company will cost £209.99 / EUR299.99.
Whether or not Oblivion buyers have a hard disk, one thing they will benefit from is the voice acting talent of Lynda Carter - best known for her TV role as Wonder Woman. Earlier this week, Bethesda announced her involvement. She's honoured to participate, apparently, as it "represents another major step forward in the evolution of videogames". Patrick Stewart is already on the voice-acting cast as the game's Emperor.
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Poster
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its only fair. get the harddrive and stop complaining. i want no more complaints like in the other 300+ post rant - o - thons. if you are an early adopter and a gamer you know what to do. if you a dole blodger and cant afford it dont complain or get the max package out of your mams catalogue at an inflated price over 40 weeks.
i hope to see some of you who think the x360 is a bargain on GR3. baadooomm
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 19/08/05 @ 15:14
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If devcos are creating software knowing that a hard disk is not to be taken for granted from console inception - and not a HD introduced sometime later in a console cycle - then surely this won't lead to the same situation as PS2.
Accomodation can be made which would give HD users a 'better' ride - (quicker load times/game saves/added DL & user content etc.) without denying non HD users the same game. Granted, new concepts that would make radical uses of the HD may flounder but I didn't see much use of this for xbox this gen. Cross-platform development probably accounted for much of that - lets see if Sony supply a HD as standard... I've seen a lot of talk on this 'has it got one or hasn't it?' conundrum but have yet to hear much in the way of a coherent explanation from either developers or Microsoft itself. |
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grrrrrr we went through this yesterday..........
things will switch on in a game when the HDD is detected like caching, soundtracks and shit and the manufacturing ratio is 80/20 to 279/209. and frankly you have to be a fuckwhit to buy the 209 x360 or your the type of gamer who will only play on it 1 hour a week.
Edited 4 times,
most recently on 19/08/05 @ 15:25
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I have know from day one I would pick up a xbox 360 with a hard drive. For me it´s one of the reasons the xbox is better than the ps2. I love the custom playlists, not having to use many memory cards. And on the plus side I will finally have a "42 Plasma HTDV TV when the Xbox 360 launches so I can enjoy the HDTV goodness :)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 19/08/05 @ 15:26
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PearOfAnguish
19/08/05 @ 14:36
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Microsoft is making life difficult for both consumers and developers. Devs must take into account users who may not have a hard disk which could mean features are missing because they don't want to alienate potential buyers. Or they just decide that it's easier to use the hard disk, forcing everyone to buy it anyway. Not to mention the fact that you'll need a hard drive for the 360 to be backwards compatible.
Screw MS. Buy a modded Xbox and use it as an emulation machine. |
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What we gonna talk about then? :)
What would avoid this whole situation is if there wasnt the apparent stipulation by MS that games had to work on both versions. Its not like if you buy the cheap one you cant upgrade. Just accept that out of the box you may not be able to play EVERY offline game. Would avoid confusion on the part of the devs. |
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This is how every game should be made. Both for PS3 and Xbox 360. Luvverly jubbly HDD functionallity if you splash out on HDD. Less functionallity (but it still works fine) if you don't.
As long as no functionallity doesn't = utter shit, everyone's happy, and the HDD becomes a much publicised and gradually more desirable bit of kit, and not just a mysteriously forgotten about peripheral like the PS2's. |
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I understand where your coming from furbs and I do wish they could have included it. I just dont see that it will cause a massive problem. I suspect that many devs will simply ignore the HDD possibilities if it means extra work which is a shame but as long as it doesnt affect the games overall I will be happy.
Just to stir things up a notch did you know that the included remote in the premium pack is actually a mini remote and not the full one? |
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You're right lennon, either way the games will be good, I've no doubt about it. I guess I'm bored of seeing a game written with one spec in mind being ported over to the Xbox with no apparent improvement or optimisation. If it happens with the HDD, its not going to put me off wanting one, it wont make me scream and shout, and to be honest, I wont give a shit if the games are good. Would just be nice if they could be even better :)
Yeah I noticed that about the remote though. From what I can see, the only differences are its missing the numeric keypad. Given that on my Xbox remote and my (Sony!!) DVD player I've used the number keys about twice, I'm not too bothered if thats the only difference. From reading whats available on the remotes, it certainly doesnt seem you lose any major functionality. |
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yeh i noticed the "mini" in a couple descriptions. as long as it allows me to turn on/off and basic dvd controls i am ok with this. i dont really use the other options on a DVD or XBMC.
Take a look at this site http://www.gogames.co.uk/product.php?cat2=8 they have some early release dates. do they know something? |
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Backwards compatabitly doesn't work without the harddisk either. Cheapo package is crap.
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PearOfAnguish
19/08/05 @ 16:36
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Lots more info here:
http://www.planetxbox360.com/?view=article&article=83 |
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So HOW exactly does it take full advantage of the HDD? Does it increase the speed? Do the graphics look nicer? Is the game speed higher? Simply using it to load and save savegames isnt using it to full advantage. It would be nice ie if you could copy a nice gamesoundtrack to the HDD and listen to it whenever you want (or somthing).
Hey! I know some other consoles that dont have a HDD! So if your ranting about this, does that mean that you consider them to be absolutely lame too? I really dont get it. First ppl are ranting about how lame a console WITH a HDD is. Then ppl are ranting about how lame a console WITHOUT a HDD is. It almost seems that ppl are ranting for the sake of ranting. |
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Seek times are greatly decreased (doh), several things can be read at once cheaply, the bandwidth is greater.
Yep, much faster to use a hard drive and in such a large game as Oblivion (if Morrowind is any indication) is even larger and has more textures, more characters, more animations, more of everything and it all has to be loaded to fill that 512 megs of memory where before there was just 64. A harddrive is good.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 19/08/05 @ 17:52
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Xavier_B_OXford
19/08/05 @ 19:09
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HAH! Let this wondrous news silence all those $ony masturbators and Quimtendo gimps who were so smug about the Xbox 360 HDD being a 'pointless accessory'.
This console is going to beat all the others over their pitiful heads with a rusty crowbar when it hits. It's gonna be the DADDY! The BS3 won't even have a hard drive, and as for the Plebolution, fuck, I'll be amazed if they can get that Fisher Price bollocks to even do more than say "Hi, I'm Barbie, will you be my friend?". Xbox 360 will run full circles around the so-called 'competition' and leave them crying into the dirt, with the fanboys desperately drinking their tears. |
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velocity_girl
19/08/05 @ 19:40
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I think I am right in that it is possible to stream content from a pc running media center on a 360 - could you also save games and stuff on the pc through the wireless connection? as this would mean you wouldnt necessarily need an hd with 360..
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Re XerX3s:
It would be nice ie if you could copy a nice gamesoundtrack to the HDD and listen to it whenever you want (or somthing). That is one of the things that the HD does, custom sountracks are hardcoded into the console and work with every game, the developers don't even have a say in this, it's standard feature, well if you have a HD ofcourse.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 19/08/05 @ 22:00
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The interesting thing would be if Sony suddenly announced that the PS3 would come with a hard disk:
The Xbox fanboys, who have now suddenly realized that hard disks are not all that important, the Sony fanboys who would suddenly have to realize that it's actually impossible to play a game without hard disk, their favourite game would certainly not run without. It will be like the opposite world from last generation, guaranteed fun to be had. I remember some guy on an Xbox Shenmue board who was sure that (lol, omg) Shenmue 2 would never be able to run on a PS2, since the savegames would each take up 40 PS2 memory cards (like totally, (I'm forgetting he was American here)), completely neglecting the fact that the game was designed for the Dreamcast with its 1mb vmu's. |
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