You could do what I did - I was waiting for a price-dorp, and then in November, I saw a deal at a store that offered a $100 rebate on a 360 - just as good as a price drop to me.

I'm sure there will be similar rebates in the months to come.

I'm pretty certain the reports were that the CPU die size won't be shrinking.

The original reports of 1st quarter 2007 have been changed to "mid-2007".

You were talking about the Elite providing a means to decrease 90 nm stock, right? However, the Elite is confirmed to keep the CPU at 90 nm and not decrease to 65 nm as we all hoped.

There has been nothing announced about switching to 65 nm chips in the near future. I'm sure it will happen as soon as they can, however, since it will save them a good deal of money (more chips per wafer) and should help some of the heat issues.

I noticed a pretty big difference going from Xbox to 360 (especially with a title like Gears). Be aware though that some titles (like Dead Rising) were designed with HD in mind so on an SD set the text is virtually unreadable.

Personally i recommend snagging a computer monitor and a VGA cable (i'm playing mine on a 17" computer monitor i inherited from someone who bought a larger one) and it looks incredible. It is an enormous leap imo in graphics because now i'm essentially seeing it in HD. I also have the monitor and my small TV side by side on my stand so my wife can watch a show and if i'm willing to game without sound (because the TV is using the HTS) then i can play a game on the computer monitor right beside it.

I literally just got in the door from purchasing my Xbox 360. This is the first Microsoft console I've owned. I've been getting a lot of play out of the Wii, but wanted some more sophisticated games and online play. I purchased the one with the 20 gig hard drive and bought the wireless adapter. Picked up Call of Duty 2 and Burnout Revenge for starters mainly because of the price.

I'll be running it on a 36" Hitatchi 4X3 HDTV. Any tips or hints that I need to be aware of? I'm excited about seeing how it interacts with Media Center on my primary machine running Windows Vista.

That is indeed what i am using. There are people on here who know far more than i about HD stuff who could confirm or deny whether it is true "HD" but from what i can tell it is indeed. It looks bloody incredible and completely transformed a few games for me. Dead Rising was suddenly legible. My fav story though was the first night i got it i was in a game of CoD2 and everyone kept laughing at me because i was yelling about what all the little icons looked like. On a standard TV they looked smudgy in parts but on the computer monitor i could suddenly see exactly what the icon was. It was a damn dramatic shift.

I also went from a 32" standard TV to a 17" monitor via VGA cable and i would never ever ever go back (even dealing with a much smaller screen).

If you have a broadband connection get Live Gold. Best 50$ you will ever spend.

Streaming video files and having streamed custom soundtracks in the games is heavenly... and in the case of the crappy music in Burnout it is needed.

It is a shame though that Burnout online is absolutely horrible. It is like EA personally hates you and wants to actively work to ruin your online experience.

I like Burnout's music :(

Agreed. Burnout's online performance was a special flavor of suck. It's a real shame since the game is a ton of fun in the rare instance when everyone can actually make it into an online game.

Another question, will I be able to game online with the wireless adapter? I know a wired connection would be best, but the location I plan on putting the 360, it would almost be impossible to get a connection to. Provided that the wireless adapter has a strong signal strength will I be ok? (I know more goes into this, like latency, etc with my broadband connection, but we can assume those are good since I've been playing PC games online for years).

I did the same thing, and I completely agree. I went from playing on a 27" standard TV to playing on a 19" monitor, and I could never go back to SD.

And yes playing on a PC monitor is HD resolution. 720p is merely HDTV lingo for 1280x720 which is a supported resolution on almost every monitor. Most newer monitors will go up to 1920x1080 which is 1080p in HDTV lingo. That is why PC fanboys always say HD gaming is nothing new since PC games have been HD for years and years.

I don't really have a problem playing with the wireless adapter. I get about 3 out of 4 bars as far as my connection quality, and haven't really experienced any lag or odd game issues for the most part.

A few times when I was playing Burnout online, the cars would "jump" around, but I chalk that up to someone having a worse connection than me.

No, not even close - you gotta get an HDTV.

Here are two examples below, the first showing the (rather sizable) leap from one of the best looking last generation PS1 games (Tekken 3) compared to a launch PS2 game (Tekken Tag). Followed by the (not so huge) leap from one of the best looking last generation Xbox games (DOA 2 remix) to a launch 360 game (DOA 4), both in HD:



PSX
http://psxmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/tek3.5.jpg
PS2
http://ps2media.ign.com/media/news/i...rnament_18.jpg


Xbox
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/...1042543639.jpg

360
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/...2111724904.jpg


The DOA difference is not nearly as drastic as the Tekken difference, is it?

I argued for this before, but I still say that with an HDTV the difference can be just as big to me between PS1 -> PS2 and PS2 -> 360, depending on the game.

With just a standard definition TV, I doubt it.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/capcom/gall...mix-252222.php

I didn't realize this was on tap to come out. It looks "stretched" to me though.

That is my dream online game for Live arcade. I will absolutely flip out if that thing is released.

Anyone have a good price/site on a vga cable?

My 360 was delivered to the repair center in Texas today, so hopefully I'll get a repaired one sometime late next week.

The difference is far more dramatic when you are looking at them on a big-screen HDTV.

I don't think DOA2 is the even close to the best looking Xbox game. Ninja Gaiden, KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory all look much better IMO.

Lost Planet is no longer Xbox360 exlcusive.

Lost Planet coming to the PC.

The article says that it will support DirectX10 and Shader Model 3 for even better graphics than the 360 version.

Heres a better example of a good xbox game to a good looking 360 game


Ninja Gaiden: Xbox

http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/...5035629632.jpg

Halo 2:
http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/...7100503081.jpg




Xbox 360

Gears of War
http://gaming-age.com/reviews/xbox360/gearsofwar/3.jpg
http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/...4024932572.jpg