Microsoft launches the XBox 360

The launch of the XBox 360 must have felt as good as launching a second version of the Titanic after knowing the fate of the first, and getting a chance to redesign. Don't get me wrong - I'm a huge XBox fan - the console rocks. The new console essentially enhances every feature on the console.

The expectation however, from a new version of a gaming console - one supposed to herald the next generation of gaming - is a lot more than new wine in a spruced up PC-style bottle. The launch of the XBox 360 on Thursday over MTV, while demonstrating a cool, fast, spiffy device, was not quite next-gen, IMHO. This is more the fault of the launch than the console. The true power under the hood of the new console barely showed in the few glimpses we got in the launch party.

The new XBox 360 HD's key new feature is native high-resolution display - it can display up to 16:9 1080i resolution. It comes with cable-free controllers and in-built wifi. It can also play multiple media formats, and has a 20 GB drive, along with USB ports. The hard drive will be upgradable. It will execute a trillion FLOPs a second, uses a customized IBM PowerPC processor (Apple iPodBox anyone?) and is apparently water-coholed. According to Tom's Hardware Guide's excellent and detailed insider review of the XBox 360 HD, there are three 3.2 GHz cores, which can run two threads each. The graphics processor is a custom ATI chip that can display upto 500 million triangles per second. This is beyond current high-end gaming PCs, which are $3000+. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft will package this into a consumer-friendly <$500 price. Perhaps this will induce a decline in gaming PC prices (I hope)

Other consumer-oriented features include swappable faceplates, a remote control and a webcam. It comes with multi-channel digital audio, as is expected.The video is very clear, almost indistinguishable from live-action cinema, and the games demonstrated, which ranged from Project Gotham Racing 3, Quake IV, & Perfect Dark 0, looked really good. Neither Blu-Ray nor HD-DVD will be supported, interestingly. This is perhaps to conform to currently available hardware and one of the risks of launching a new generation too soon. There is Windows Media Center integration, but not TiVO style features. XBox Live "Silver" will be provided free with the console, enabling content download. Gaming Publishers have promised a bunch of new titles for the system in sync with the launch, making it more attractive. Halo 3 - here I come!

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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