I read in the paper today that the Blue Ray player could cost as much as $1800 compared to $800-$400 for the HD-DVD player.  If that's the case then I'll definitely be picking up a PS3!.  It makes a $500 console seem like a bargain.

I think you'd be better off by going out and grabbing a copy of Halflife. Did it ever come out for the Xbox?  Or just the PS2?

Pretty darn sure this add-on will only be used for viewing movies.  I doubt MS will ever allow game media to be shipped on it.

This may be a stupid question, but why would MS never allow game media to be shipped on HD-DVD's??

I liked Chrono Chross because  I didn't have to fight random battles-I could actually see the monsters coming after me.

And yet, the world is still rotating on its axis  :roll:

I think a better question would be, who is on this forum posting on New Years Eve?? What does that say about you guys!  I'm in Japan and New Years is over.  That's my excuse

Pfffffft!!  Who cares about ATI when you got the Emotion Engine?  Or was that the last kooky name for the PS2?  Is it the Cell thingy now?

I didn't really get this series either but what the hell.  Everyone needs a vacation sometime.

The problem that I have with MG twin snakes is that for some reason it doesnt have Mei Ling in that version!  She was such a cutie! (I have a girlfriend, honest.)

Oh Nos!  The Xbox360 hasn't even been out a month in japan and it's selling horribly!  It's DOOMED!!!!!!

Excuse me, but was anybody (including MS) really expecting a fast adoption of this console over there?  If it succeeds at all, it will be a very slow burn as Japanese devs start coming out with their offerings.  It will be a year or more before any measure of success or failure will mean shit.

But hey, please, carry on with the hand-wringing....

I keep saying that the games don't matter here but obviously nobody is listening.  When I ask people why they don't buy the xbox they don't say "because I don't like Xbox games" or "because it doesn't have enough Japanese games" they say "BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE XBOX."  These people will wait 3 years for the PS3 to come out if it takes that long and they'll pay 50,000 yen for it too (compared to Xbox's 31,000 yen)

So all the otaku (geeks) have bought the Xbox 360 on release day and that's just about it.  The PS3 will probably be out by 2007.  It will probably take a good 4 months for any decent Japanese games to start dribbling out.  Any self-respecting Japanese person will wait that extra 8 months and get themselves a PS3.

nice idea, wrong forum...

Well the main thing idea was what videogame stuff did you get.

Chocolate, some cologne, a Toronto Maple Leaf toque and a PSP (which I bought) which I'm about to try and return because it came with 2.50 drivers preinstalled.

It doesn't matter what games it's going to get.  People are not going to buy it.  Trust me.  I live here.  I've been asking around.
"Are you going to get an Xbox?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't like Xbox"


It has nothing to do with the games-it's just something that's ingrained into their souls

You gotta go into the next room, fight some baddies and then go up high and drop some sort of laser gun in front of the door which you can then used to blast open.  There was no secret-just go into the next room (opposite direction from the door you are trying to get into)

Canuck, you just reminded me what a lucky, lucky man you are, living in Japan.

Are you talking about the Xbox's or the highschool girls in tiny skirts?

I suppose I could be considered lucky for either one

We've got tons available!! All you need to do is come to Japan and pick one up.  Considering the prices that they're going for on Ebay, it might not actually be such a bad deal when you throw in the cost of the plane ticket.
I was on the hunt for PSP's yesterday so I went into Ikebukero to the local BicCamera to check out some prices.  On the floor they had this little island of 360's and another tiny cart full of Xbox games and one more tiny section of Xboxes and games and controllers.  And they were all drawing as much interest as this display is.  In this particular store, there were thousands of Japanese people checking out PSP's, PS2's, Gamecubes and DS's (this is an hyperbole) and exactly no one checking out any of the 360 areas (this is not a hyperbole.)  I'm convinced that in Japan, the 360 will do no better than the Xbox did.  This is not Microsoft's fault (mostly,) Japanese people are just biased against any console systems that are not Japanese.

Hetz you really do see the Xbox world through rose coloured lenses don't you?  Of course it sold out.  Tokyo is a city of 12 million people after all and just how many Xbox's did they have available for sale anyways?  Probably a hell of a lot less than what they had for the US.

I wonder how it's going to do.  I've neither seen or heard any hype whatsoever although I'll admit I haven't been looking very hard.  MS has set up an Xbox 360 cafe in Tokyo where you can walk in and play the games.  They had a full page article in the paper today about it.

I'm so mad that you haven't been clicking my ad at the top of my blog! I was

That's a dead giveaway right there.  I seriously doubt the real Madonna would be upset because you weren't clicking on her shitty little Goooogle ad

Apparently a lot of people are complaining about scratched disks.  Seems to be a reoccuring problem.

Wow I remember the good ol' days when people used to preorder so that they could get a console-not so that they could make a fortune off it.  Although people have gotten so crazy that it makes good sense to do it.  I'd like to see a limit of 1 person per preorder.  I mean, it's not exactly like stores will have trouble selling all they have in stock anyways.

pre-emptive, shock'n'awe-filled first strike, deploying fewer units than expected, followed by major nelson declaring 'mission accomplished' (from the deck of an ipod)...

i'm not sure, but i think i know what happens next...

Insurgent nerds targeting local EB lineups?

Everyone knows EGM is a piece of garbage magazine.  I wouldn't read one even if someone gave it to me.

Just out of curiousity, I was wondering what will happen now that the Xbox360 is out.  Will it basically die like the N64 as all the developers shift to the Xbox 360?  Or will it keep getting new games like the original Playstation did?  Have any game companies commented about this?

27 second reload??  How dare they claim to have more powerful hardware than computers.  I can tell you one thing, if it took me 27 seconds to quickload a game everytime I died I sure wouldn't be playing it for long.

Anyone else think the first screen looks like something out of Nightmare before Christmas??

You don't get a dvd with it though.  And it isnt all glossy like the US version.

You can get ICO extremely cheap-even the brand new copies and it's a brilliant game-better than Prince of Persia in my opinion (I'm sure lots of people would disagree with me though.)

Anyways! Back to my original question.  Has anyone here ever imported Japanese movies?  Do they ever have english subtitles?  I've looked on the back but I can't see (or understand) anything that looks remotely like english.

...comes out in 3 days over here.
It costs approximately $45 US though-a little pricey for a 100 minute movie in my opinion.  Still I might pick it up.  Does anybody know if the Japanese version has english subtitles?  Or is that asking too much?

I don't understand using a KB and Mouse for a console at this point when I would have to have a desk/TV Tray to use it at my TV.

It's called your lap.  And if you have an optical mouse then the couch will work just fine

Commentary in ALL sports games IS terrible.  Why? because once you play it enough you realize that they always say the exact same thing.  Do I want to listen to a broken record?  Nope not really.  

All commentary I've witnessed often: falls behind in the play, misses important events, puts the wrong emotion into a given situation (ie normal commentary when they should be excited, or excited commentary when nothng it really happening,) and often just boils down to saying the the players name. "Roberts, Linden, Sakic)

All it does is remind me that I'm playing a video game instead of making me feel that I'm playing a real game or at least watching a real game.

Do yourself a favour and turn off the commentary and listen to the swish of skates and bodies slamming into the boards instead.

Very Big Evil Grin ---->  :twisted:

My soon-to-be-ex-wife is taking it as soon as the X360 comes out (which is why I'm getting one on release date). So it's become the exbox. (and THAT is a double entendre )

Who gets the games?  Or is it an every other weekend kind of thing?

You have to remember that the average age on those sites is about 14 years old.  Would you enjoy hanging around with a 14 year old in real life?  No?  Well it's best not to do it on a forum either.  I go to Gamefaqs when I need a FAQ and that's about it.

I seriously doubt they'll make you buy their own keyboard and mouse.  A USB port is a USB port.  Sony doesn't make you buy Dual Shock controllers do they?  How about memory cards?  Or remote controls even for that matter.

As for having your friends over, nobody said you HAVE to use a keyboard or mouse-just use your controller then for god sakes! lol
And yes a keyboard is a little bit awkward on a couch.  I'm wondering if maybe you could do a controller/mouse set up.  You could use the controller in one hand for WASD and jump/crouch and you could use the mouse for looking and firing.  I'm sure most of us have optical mouses (mice?) these days and you can pretty much use those things anywhere with a high degree of precision.

Don't most people have coffee tables in your living rooms?  As long as the wife doesn't mind- you could always use that for the keyboard I suppose.

Anyways I cannot possibly see this as a bad thing.  FPS games just were not meant to be played with a controller.  I don't buy the argument that 'yes the control really sucks but as long as it sucks equally for everyone then it's fun.'

*edit*  I'm also not sure why we're comparing Splinter Cell to a first person shooter.  There really is no need for analogue movement.  Have you played HL2 lately?  Not exactly a lot of reason to creep along.  If you want to do that you can always just duck/move

I already used it to describe Hetz

I think it's perfectly acceptable but if you go to forums like Gamefaqs then you'll see it so overused that it means absolutely nothing anymore.  You probably don't see it here so much because most people own more than one console and therefore aren't really fanboys.

How exactly will it unbalance online play?  Everyone will have equal opportunity to get themselves a keyboard and mouse-I'm sure they could probably just rip them out of their PC while they play.  If you choose to play with a controller when you could play with a mouse/keyboard then that's your problem.

The only possible unbalancing problems I could see is if Xbox owners and PS3 oweners could play on the same server.

I think this is great news.  For one thing rather than having to upgrade my computer every time a new FPS is released, I can just play it on the console instead.  I've always wanted this but the terrible controllers always made it not worth it.

Another big winner will be games like RPG maker where you're doing a lot of typing.

If you guys go more than 2 games with the "commentary" still audible, I will be amazed.

LD

WHy would anyone??  Commentary in all sports games is retarded.

Well technically it came before Disgaea so Disgaea was actually a step forwards.

OH MY GOD!

I won one of the drawings at the everytenminutes.com site!!!! I knew that drinking Mountain Dew would pay off eventually!

This is what I won!

Sponsor will ship to each verified sweepstakes winner the following: one (1) Xbox 360 system, one (1) game (title to be selected at time of registration for Promotion), and one (1) "Party In A Box" prize consisting of a five (5) Xbox 360/Dew branded hats and T-shirts, two (2) manufacturer's coupons redeemable for free 12-pack Mountain Dew products. Total estimated retail value of sweepstakes prize package is $580.00. Limit one (1) Xbox 360 prize per person and/or Account and/or household.

Plus, I get it on the Saturday BEFORE LAUNCH!!!!

I got Madden 06 as my free game.

       

Time to cancel my preorder and save myself $450!!!

Congrats.  It couldn't have happened to a better fanboy