Xbox 360 News

An Associated Press tech writer gives his impressions of the new 360 titles out.

If you've scored an Xbox 360, some actual games are going to be the next logical purchase — unless you auctioned it off for thousands of dollars on eBay.

We've worn our fingers to the bone the past few weeks (just for you) playing through the 18 titles available when the system launched. While the offering is diverse, many of the games are merely visually tweaked versions from the older consoles. Worse, Xbox 360 games can cost a whopping $60 — roughly $10 more than games for older systems.

Here's our take, from best to worst.

After fighting your way through mile-long lines to get an Xbox 360 system, you arrive home to finally crack open the box and start participating in the next-gen gaming experience. You peek behind your HDTV and discover an ocean of free video input connectors. You think to yourself, "Heck, I've got an open RF connector, I'll just plug the 360 in there and daisy chain it with my NES. What’s the worst that could happen?" Wrong! Even though you have an HDTV, connecting the Xbox 360 to an RF jack could constitute criminal behavior. This finely tuned gaming machine generates graphics at glorious resolutions of up to 720p. In comparison, RF verges on the quality of a Flintstones camera.

Mad Catz graciously sent us its entire Xbox 360 cable lineup for our image quality testing. We're going to show you the visual difference between all these cables on our TVs and monitors, as well as explore the different settings that some displays offer. We used the Sony 60XBR800 HDTV as our test display, along with a Dell P1130 Trinitron monitor. We took sample pictures of NBA 2K6 using a tripod-mounted Canon S400 digital camera. The final images were resized, but the majority of the image quality differences are still noticeable. Hopefully, we’ll demonstrate the benefits of using the right cables--and in some cases, the right settings--for the job.

Once you’ve loaded the site, seek out the Madden thumbnail and click that for the video.

Here’s the list, in order that the games appear.

1. Kameo, Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios)
2. Quake 4, (id Software)
3. Test Drive Unlimited (Atari)
4. Call of Duty 2 (Activision)
5. The Darkness (Majesco Entertainment)
6. Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts)
7. Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft Game Studios)
8. Gears of War (Microsoft Game Studios)
9. NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts)
10. Frame City Killer (Namco)

North American retailer Electronics Boutique, which expects Microsoft to ship the Xbox 360 as early as November 2, 2005 for an MSRP of $299.99, has comprised a complete, albeit questionable, list of X360 games for the console launch, IGN learned today from several EB outlets.

The list IGN acquired from EB retailers today, features 21 launch titles, including three first-party games from Microsoft Game Studios -- Perfect Dark LE (i.e. Limited Edition), Kameo: Elements of Power, and Project Gotham Racing 3, approximate pricing, and sku numbers for every game.