I've played the XBox 360

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-20 08:23pm

I have played an XBox 360. They're playable at some Wal-Marts.

Okay, people will call me a fanboy for even saying this, I think, but I'm really not making this up. It crashed. Really.

It has a bunch of videos, and three game demos on it. Kameo, Call of Duty 2, and King Kong. King Kong would not let me play without an internet connection for some reason (it demanded I hook up the network port each time I tried to run it). Call of Duty 2 froze on the loading screen every time, and the sales rep told me its been doing that all day. Thus, Kameo was the only one playable, and the graphics weren't that impressive (Kameo was originally going to be a GameCube game that kept getting pushed back).

Kameo had an impressive amount of characters on screen and viewing distance, but the actual graphics felt like an XBox game + shaders. Granted, it was better than any XBox could do, but it didn't feel...next-gen.

Anyone have better luck with a fully functioning unit? I've heard the CoD2 demo has good graphics, but mine keeps crashing.

A list of Wal-Mart locations it is available at:

Unofficial confirmed Wal-Mart Stores with the playable X360 there

Huntsville, AL
Naugatuck, CT
Ames, IA
Dubuque, IA
Addison, IL
DeKalb, IL
Indianapolis, IN
Kendallville, IN
Terre Haute, IN
Ypsilanti, MI
Fridley, MN
St. Anthony, MN
Lincoln, NE
Phillipsburg, NJ
Kennewick, WA
Sun Prairie, WI
Lansing, MI
Hastings, MN
Harrisonville, MO
Lacey, WA
Hermantown, MN
Spokane, WA (northpoint store)
Eau Claire, WI (they say they're currently hooking their unit up)
Layton, UT (received but not set up yet)
Ogden, UT
Eldersburg, MD
Owings Mills, MD (recieved but waiting for it to be setup)
Tullahoma (setting it up)
Tunersville, NJ (comes in on Friday)
Lawrence, KS (still waiting on Microsoft to set it up)
Kingsport, TN (waiting on Microsoft to set it up)
Palatine, IL (waiting on Microsoft to set it up)
Bakersfield, CA
Elk Grove, CA (pending setup)
Highlands Ranch, CO
Addison, IL
DeKalb, IL
Secaucus, NJ (by Friday)
Tunersville, NJ (by Friday)
Stillwater, OK
Colonial Heights, VA
Hudson, WI

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2005-10-20 08:40pm

It's hardly surprising that they are crashing. The Xbox 1's also crashed in their display cases because the idiots that designed the cases didn't account for proper ventilation. Naturally everyone assumed that it was some problem with the Xbox itself which turned out to be totally unfounded. Obviously the same is the case here, Microsoft wouldn't send out the units if they weren't stable.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-20 09:02pm

Additionally there is the fact that the dashboard says its a Wal-Mart edition demo unit. It could just be that the Wal-Mart edition sucks. GameStop will get demo units in the twenty-somethingeth of October, so hopefully they'll work better.

The controller felt like a Wavebird with triggers. My only complaint is that its way too easy to accidentally press the XBox 360 button when pausing.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-10-20 09:16pm

The Kernel wrote:It's hardly surprising that they are crashing. The Xbox 1's also crashed in their display cases because the idiots that designed the cases didn't account for proper ventilation. Naturally everyone assumed that it was some problem with the Xbox itself which turned out to be totally unfounded. Obviously the same is the case here, Microsoft wouldn't send out the units if they weren't stable.

Windows 3.1

But between it being Walmart and the likelihood of some minor screwup, you're probably right. But no occasion of Microsoft shipping out a product which is either nonfunctional or outright destructive should go without mentioning that crappile.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2005-10-20 09:27pm

SirNitram wrote:
Windows 3.1

But between it being Walmart and the likelihood of some minor screwup, you're probably right. But no occasion of Microsoft shipping out a product which is either nonfunctional or outright destructive should go without mentioning that crappile.

You hardly need to convince me that Microsoft has shipped software of questionable stability. However, none of that has any bearing on their consoles. There is no way they would release a console with any sort of stability problems. An OS that needs to support thousands of third party applications? Sure. But a game console? No way.

SirNitram · Post by **SirNitram** » 2005-10-20 09:31pm

The Kernel wrote:
SirNitram wrote:
Windows 3.1

But between it being Walmart and the likelihood of some minor screwup, you're probably right. But no occasion of Microsoft shipping out a product which is either nonfunctional or outright destructive should go without mentioning that crappile.
You hardly need to convince me that Microsoft has shipped software of questionable stability. However, none of that has any bearing on their consoles. There is no way they would release a console with any sort of stability problems. An OS that needs to support thousands of third party applications? Sure. But a game console? No way.

Just to bring you up on what I mean by referencing 3.1: It was not a stability issue. Windows 3.1 was quickly, entirely replaced by Windows 3.1.1 because a small bug caused it to rewrite hard drive allocation so that it would be, oh, a few bits long, as it would take the first instance of 'FAT' to be the sign to end the File Allocation Table.

This was understandably catastrophic. Now, given that a bug which will literally leave the computer unusable has escaped into the world before, it's important to remember this company is far more fallible than 'Oh, some stability issues'.

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2005-10-20 09:33pm

XBox game + shaders?

Are you implying XLax wasn't capable of shaders? That makes as much sense as a loaf of candy meat.

I've seen 720p videos of Kameo. The game looks better than that.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-20 10:14pm

I mean fancy shaders, like the ones you see in the Unreal 3 engine.

And you're right. The videos I've seen of Kameo look MUCH better than that. I'm hoping its just the first level, OR perhaps the bad TV screen Wal-mart uses (despite the HDTV label on it, it was not widescreen and it did NOT look HD; it looked SD, and not even progressive).

The stage in question was this one (but in SD, not HD like in the shot). You can see what I mean about the great viewing distance and number of characters.
http://xboxmedia.gamespy.com/xbox/image ... 423848.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/ima ... 123940.jpg

It didn't look bad, but not as good as the screenshots do.

Dorenn Stark · Post by **Dorenn Stark** » 2005-10-21 12:57am

I am jealous!! My local shops don't have an X360 out to sample yet. I'll be very interested to examine one when the time comes.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-21 02:36am

I wish the Call of Duty 2 demo was working so I could see the kind of graphics it's really capable of. Kameo is better than current gen, but falls short of looking truly next gen. I want to play one of the games made ground-up for the 360.

Maybe I'll try again in a few days at Wal-Mart and see if they got this unit working again.

Oh yeah, the menu is very pretty.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » 2005-10-22 04:35am

Remarkably, there were XBox 360s down here in Tasmania, of all places, which I find slightly amazing. Someone gloated about it to me today, the bastard.

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2005-10-22 06:40am

My brother lives in DeKalb. I'll have to arrange a visit with him so I can check out the Wal-Mart there.

Ypoknons · Post by **Ypoknons** » 2005-10-22 05:39pm

Ford Prefect wrote:Remarkably, there were XBox 360s down here in Tasmania, of all places, which I find slightly amazing. Someone gloated about it to me today, the bastard.

When I haven't played one in NYC. Goodness!

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-10-22 05:58pm

I'll be damned to travel a couple of hours to Ames or Dubuque just to play a few minutes of a damn video game demo.

Hell, I'll be damned to go to Ames or Dubuque in the first place...

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-22 09:03pm

I've got reports from two guys on another board to prove I'm not crazy

I played the 360 tonight... King kong worked fine, and kameo, but CoD2 locked up while loading.
I only got to play about 5 minutes, not enough to really tell if it was all I expected.

Ok here it is I went to Walmart and guess what, they had one. It was awesome looking, it is the most beautiful console ever. One problem is, it was already out of order.

My guess is that the CoD2 demo was locking it up and I noticed there is no reset button on the out side so that would require some one to open it up every time some one tried the CoD2 demo and this being Claremont they are to lazy here to reset the console every time. The sign said "at the order of the manager this system must remain off due to technical difficulties."

...

I am thinking this has more to do with the CoD2 Demo than the Xbox360. I've had demos on demo disks that can crash the regular Xbox and one that can erase the HD, I get an Xbox Demo disk every month with my subscription to Official Xbox Magazine.

Unfortunately it seems mine is the only one that won't run King Kong properly either. It takes me to a network test screen and won't run until I plug it into an ethernet line (which I obviously can't).

But it seems more than one are having trouble with CoD2.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-10-22 09:07pm

What's CoD2?

Mantic · Post by **Mantic** » 2005-10-22 09:32pm

Call of Duty 2

Cej4096 · Post by **Cej4096** » 2005-10-24 12:47pm

My local Wal-Mart had one set up, and I managed to spend a bit of time playing. I only tried King Kong, but I saw other people playing Call of Duty 2 and Kameo, so I know they were working. King Kong looked good, if maybe not as good as I was hoping. At one point the T-Rex I was fighting suddenly turned all black, and then all blue.

That only lasted a few seconds though.

Unfortunately it seems the system is currently no longer working. They're contacting Microsoft about fixing it.

Cej4096 · Post by **Cej4096** » 2005-10-24 03:09pm

It seems Wal-Marts might be having trouble with it screwing up some of their equipment.

Link

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2005-10-24 03:13pm

Hopefully its a problem with the Wal-Mart edition demo units or the CoD2 demo rather than a general XBox 360 problem.