A Taste of the 360
Uh oh. I probably shouldn’t have done that. I got a night’s dose of NCAA on the 360, played on a 50″ Samsung on Sunday. I started a two-player Dynasty with my buddy Dave. I was really anxious to finally see how the game differed from the Xbox version aside from the obvious difference in graphics.
Well, to say that there is a difference between the graphics in the Xbox and 360 versions is like saying there is a difference between The Beatles and Abba. Holy shit. Now, I saw the 360 version at E3 but to play it in a living room rather than in a small cramped area with noise blaring and 20 onlookers standing over your shoulder telling you to, “Throw it deep, dude!” is a tad different.
What a pretty game.
So we started our Dynasty (he took Syracuse and I took Pitt; we always have a rule that we can’t play in the Big10 or take a team rated higher than a B OVR…hey they’re our rules…we make ‘em up. This is how we took teams like TCU, UTEP and Tulane to the promised land back with NCAA 03 and 04.) Anyway, the interface for me, coming from the Xbox took a long time to get used to. It’s very different. I like the nifty 3D map of the States the first time I saw it, but then it just got annoying to use it to change recruitiung target states. I actually like the Xbox’s 2D map a lot better in terms of functionality. Moving around New England is a bitch. Maryland! I want Maryland!
We only got one game (I whipped Dave 24-7 with Wake Forest in a rainstorm) in but it is clear to me that I may have to buy an Xbox 360 sooner than later. The reason isn’t that I was totally blown away by vast gameplay differences. I only played one game and the biggest game difference was art, graphics, and animation. But it’s such a huge difference that not only is it hard to play the Xbox version now (there is apparantly a graphics whore inside me of which I was not aware) but the idea of playing NBA 2K, College Hoops, NHL 2K, and even Madden (a game I am universally lukewarm on) on the XBox seems like an impossibility at this point. I should go back here a bit. There are a few gamneplay devices that are not in the 360 version that I REALLY miss: the match-up stick being the biggie. I used that thing all the time. Wonder why that didn’t make the 360 cut?
Here’s the problem, though. I am still without the needed TV to fully enjoy the 360. This has been the main reason I have remained 360-less all this time. I’m not buying one (even if it is a tax write off) until I can really see it how it was meant to be seen. That is NOT on a 36″ old school Magnavox. I had planned on buying my 61″ Sammy two months ago but the old house is still on the market because this is the worst house market…ever.
I can get the TV I want online for $2000 shipped. I have the funds in savings to buy the 360, a TV stand, and the Samsung. I also have a 2nd round of tard grading, gras sseed to buy and plat for 2 acres of land, and a new house that still needs to be filled with ‘house stuff’. A very tricky situation.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:40 am
Bah, house stuff. Half our furniture just sits there looking pretty (or delapidated, as the case may be). Your TV will be on every night, your 360 almost as much. Take the plunge, man. Do it. Do it now! (You have to here Ahnold’s voice in your head for that last part.)
July 25th, 2006 at 9:40 am
360, TV stand, Sammy….sounds like perfectly legitimate house stuff to me!
July 25th, 2006 at 9:54 am
I am behind the curve and still have older TVs, so I got a 21 inch CRT monitor and use the VGA adapter with my 360. For now, it does the trick. I also use headphones as I have found that the 360 makes a great late night stereo and since I have the wireless adapter, I can access my PC’s hard drive and listen to MP3’s.
Owning a house is more work than it is worth sometimes. I just finished the massive project of painting the exterior myself - I needed to save money that will go for other pressing matters that I can’t do myself or will cost money, like a new roof, a new hot water heater and having a big oak tree taken down the leans precariously over the garage. It’s a never ending cycle.
July 25th, 2006 at 10:21 am
Dude, more your house to southeastern Louisiana. There is still a tremendous housing shortage since Katrina and folks selling/renting houses can pretty much name their price here. Apartments that used to rent for $600/month are now over $1000. Houses that were $150,000 are now $250,000 - $300,000. It’s crazy!
July 25th, 2006 at 1:44 pm
You are doomed. I suggest you get the cheapest 42″ plasma monitor that CostCo has, with the intention of making that puppy the bedroom TV after you get done satifying your wife with a rest-of-the-house full of furniture. It’s a very workable plan and will keep harmony at home. I think a 42″ 16×9 is actually shorter than a 36″ 4×3 so it will look smaller, but at least it will do 720p.
And forget the DLP. Get an SXRD as they will be quite affordable at that time.
July 25th, 2006 at 2:15 pm
Hey bill, I have been trying to email you I think you have me on spam blocker.
- Dan
July 25th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
Everyone should have Dan on spam blocker.
July 25th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Just to recap, that is Dan Spezzano I believe. Not me.
I’m Dan Clarke as you can tell. lol
July 25th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
Why don’t you people listen to me.. lol
This $295 20″ widescreen monitor from NewEgg is absolutely beautiful, plus you can switch between pc and 360 with the press of a button. I would love a 50″ Sony HDTV, but I have seed and blah blah blah to do as well.
Good luck!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014105
July 25th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
My appologies to to Dan Spezzano then
July 25th, 2006 at 7:49 pm
Dan (S), yeah man I am not getting your emails. Are you using my new addy or the old wideopenwest one?
July 25th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Todd, that’s damn tempting and I may have to go that route if I can’t make the money work. I bet the 360 on that monitor does look damn good.
July 25th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
move the right stick up or down right after the snap to turn on the match up stick…i believe up is pass….down is run…pb
July 25th, 2006 at 9:26 pm
Heh it’s ok Craig. Bill the one I have is insight something or the other.
Anyway I wanted to talk to you and see if you’re interested in testing a board game design. So let me know.
July 25th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
That’s not the matchup stick, that’s the commit stick. The Matchup stick is where you could see your matchups of say WR’s vs. DB’s before the snap. Then you could know if your WR should beat the DB on him or not.
July 26th, 2006 at 7:26 am
Bill-
Check your local Costco and/or Sam’s Club.
Many times, they have HDTV’s (all varieties) at prices better than what you might find online.
I bought a HDTV at Sam’s over a year ago (50″ DLP Panasonic) for $1800 at a time when the same set was still retailing for over $3200 and online it was ~$2500 at legit authorized dealers.
While you can get a widescreen LCD HDTV on the small side that would get you buy, I wouldn’t waste your money. It’s not going to have the same big screen effect that you want and it will end up feeling like PC gaming while sitting in an office chair (instead of on the couch with better sound to boot). Plus, most of the smaller/cheaper LCD based HDTV’s have problems with fast moving action (ie. video games) where you’ll see alot of artifacting. If you don’t have an issue with “the rainbow effect” (which, doesn’t seem to be the case if you were fine playing on your buddy’s DLP) then IMO DLP is one of the best technologies for gaming with regards to price/performance/size (and I have a CRT, and LCD HDTV as well, and have played on my inlaw’s plasma. I wouldn’t hook up my 360 on anything but my DLP after trying it out on each one).
Either hold off until you can afford at least a 50″ DLP HDTV (anything smaller and you’ll have to sit very close to it). Or, take advantage of the 12-18month 0% w/ no payment financing deals that most of these stores have available and get your 360 now!!!
July 26th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Where can I find out what all the secret commands for this game are?
“Commit stick”???
I swear I read all 4 pages of the manual, but this my first edition of NCAA so I have no history on what stuff to try or what it might do.
As for TVs, I’m going to assume that you did your due diligence and looked at TVs in a variety of different stores, including making the salesmen switch to SD feeds since a lot of what you watch will still be SD. Make sure you go to way-too-many stores so that you get a variety of different crappy signals. Everybody is different, evidenced by me dis-liking the way DLP looks and Jon Diel thinking it is the only way to go. As I went from store to store, some places every TV would look crappy and other places they looked much better. But through it all I found that I always preferred the Sony LCD picture over the DLP pictures (Sammy and Mitsu both), even when comparing a 720p LCD to the 1080p DLPs…which surprised me. When the SXRD came out I thought that it’s picture still carried all the plusses of the Sony LCDs, but was about a zillion times more betta butta.
So do your research and figure out what you prefer. Pay attention to HD shots that pan up and down, as that was the deal-breaker for me and DLP. I just didn’t like the way it looked compared to the others.
July 26th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Bill,
The 360 looks unreal on my monitor, plus pc gaming never looked better. I would love to have a bigger 50″ Sony SXRD TV, but what can a man with two kids do?
July 26th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
When my son decided not to go to college, I bought a jacuzzi and a 60″ SXRD.
I would prefer that he go to college, but since he isn’t….