Planet Xbox 360 has a list of games that won’t play on the Xbox 360, and it looks quite long. Joystiq points out that it has some inaccuracies, but it’s still a pretty good indication nonetheless. What they did is take the list of all Xbox games, subtract the compatible ones, and got this list of incompatible ones. Of course Microsoft will be working to shorten this list, but it gives you an idea about what you’ll be missing out on with the Xbox 360.

Planet Xbox 360 - The Xbox Games You Won’t Be Playing On The 360

Ha, just yesterday I was mentioning multithreaded/multicore stuff, and here Microsoft comes out of the closet.

It looks like all of the Xbox 360’s first generation of games are single threaded. That means that they cannot directly take advantage of the Xbox 360’s multicore design. (And I say “directly” because though the game might not be multithreaded, the Xbox 360’s OS most assuredly is. So it’ll be able to use multiple cores.)

Now we’ve heard this before. I’m trying to remember where I heard it, let me think.

… ( this is me thinking )

Ah yes. It was me!

Sometimes I amaze even myself.

So what if all the first generation of next generation games are single threaded? Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal. Once developers get the hang of it, we’ll see even better games coming down the pike.

the Inquirer - XBox 360 games single threaded, says Vole

Our friends over at Aelon have a nice op-ed about the face of the Xbox 360. Will there be a title character you think of then you think of the Xbox 360? Plagiarize thinks Kameo has a lot of potential.

That title is the one I preordered. That title is Kameo.

Lets not get anything confused here. The X-Box has lacked a title like Kameo. It never got an original, quality, platform title. It either had ports, remakes or exclusives that were on the shitty side like Blinx.

Maybe you think the X-Box doesn’t need a character platformer… and maybe you’d be right, but you have to remember that Microsoft isn’t aiming the 360 at the X-Box market. They’re going for the PlayStation 2 market, and they aren’t going to take it without at least one game that can nestle amongst the Jak and Daxters and the Ratchet and Clanks and the Sly Coopers. Those are all high quality platformers that have seen the PS2 the place to go for platforming goodness. Of this generation, I only know of two high quality platform titles that didn’t make it onto the PS2. Mario Sunshine and the Conker remake.

The op-ed is actually more than just that. So go check it out.

Aelon.net - Face of the 360?

At a pre-TGS press briefing, Microsoft announced that the Xbox 360 will support both region-locked DVDs (of course) and region-locked games (doh!). So if you want to import games from Japan, or any region not your own, you’ll be out of luck unless you do something as dastardly as mod your Xbox 360. My guess is that one of the very first mods for the 360 will be to get around region locking.

I don’t see any reason for region-locking games, except to annoy consumers. But then Microsoft has always been very good at that. (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

the INQUIRER - Xbox 360 games, DVDs will be regionally locked

Eurogamer had a chance to talke to Chris Satchell, general manager of Microsoft’s Game Developer Group. And they’ve dug up a lot of Xbox 360 details I’ve not seen already. There are literally 35 points of interest listed, but I’ll only touch on a few.

“The console can be switched on and off wirelessly using the Media Remote control or the wireless game controller.”

Hey, now that’s cool. If I have a game I play a lot, I can just keep it in my machine, and turn the machine on and off with the controller. Nice touch.

“The System blade offers greater control over your individual settings. You can specify, for example, that you prefer to invert the right analogue stick camera control and this will then be picked up on in any game you play.”

Nice! I hate having to invert the camera control in every game.

“The “ring of light” around the power button highlights which wireless controller is being used, highlighting player one’s activity in the top-left quadrant. When the console is laid on its side, it senses this and starts using the top-left quadrant as you see it with the console laid flat. What’s more, the ring of light motif is spread throughout the Xbox 360 interface, so you can see which player pulled up the “Guide” page as you’re watching a film or playing a game and, in the words of Satchell, “slap him”.”

Just a nifty little thing that’ll make the Xbox 360 experience consistent.

“DVDs can be played even if you don’t have the remote control, unlike Xbox 1.”

Good!

“iPods are detected by default, as are PSPs, and by our watch it took about 2 or 3 seconds for the Xbox 360 to notice they were there. With an iPod plugged in you can play music direct through the Dashboard software, with visualisations, or you can play a slideshow of photographs.”

Cool stuff. I wish I had an iPod or PSP…

Eurogamer - Xbox 360: Lots And Lots Of Questions Answered

team XBOX had a chance to interview Mark Rein, Vice President of Epic Games, to talk about the Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) and the Core Xbox 360.

To sum up, there are few worries. If you don’t have a HDD, UE3 can still stream levels from the DVD to allow seamless world support.

team XBOX - Unreal Engine 3 and the Xbox 360 Hard Drive

Gates has previously crowed that when the PS3 is released, consumers will “walk right into Halo 3″. Kind of implying that Halo 3 will take the steam out of the PS3 launch (like any one software title could do that).

Not so fast Billy-boy!

Now it looks like Halo 3 will be walking down the aisle with the Halo movie, and they’re both due in 2007. At least so says JoBlo.com.

JoBlo.com - Halo ready for ‘07

The video game I’m most looking forward to on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is Project Gotham Racing 3 by Bizarre Creations. So anytime a new screenshot or video is released, I immediately check it out to see if there’s anything new to it or if it’s just plain cool.

Well C&VG were lucky enough to secure an interview with Bizarre about the game.

They’re shooting for 80 cars in the game. They figure that’s enough variety to satisfy everyone, and it’s not so much that you won’t get lost in the plethora of options. They noticed how most gamers enjoyed playing supercars and put some emphasis there, but still have five classes of cars. Personally, I could do without the sport utility class, as I never liked racing those potatos on wheels. It was interesting to note that each car takes months for the video game artist (or artists?) to create.

Track-wise, there will be fewer cities to careen about in with reckless abandon. (I love video games!) But they have a great new feature that allows you to create your own path through a city, and save it off as a track.

They’ve also revamped the kudos system a bit so that the computer analyzes your moves to determine how great they really were. The crowd will then react accordingly. Personally, I don’t care much about kudos since they eviscerated them in multiplayer PGR2. Hopefully they’ll make them accessible to multiplayer gamers again.

Unfortunately, as soon as talk came to multiplayer, they immediately started off on Xbox Live. I don’t play the game Xbox Live. I play it at Todd’s place with a few of our friends. Gotham TV will show the best Xbox Live PGR3 players competing in events and more. It looks like tournaments will be a big feature of the game.

Obviously, Bizarre thinks highly of HD gaming, and of course PGR3 will be an HD game. I really look forward to playing it.

C&VG (free subcription) - INTERVIEW: PROJECT GOTHAM RACING 3

Gears of War was unquestionably one of the most impressive games shown off for the Xbox 360 at E3 this year.

Now you can get a full 720p version of the Gears of War trailer, at the small cost of 102MB in disc space. It’s in WMV-HD format, and doesn’t play very well on my 2.53MHz Pentium 4 with 512MB of RAM. So much for minimum requirements, I guess.

Gears of War is a third-person shooter, basically. Humanity has to fight against these bug-like aliens for their very survival! “You strap on the combat boots of Marcus Fenix, a disgraced former war hero seeking personal redemption as he leads his fire team against an onslaught of merciless enemies.”

Link: C&VG - SUPER-MASSIVE HI-RES GEARS OF WAR TRAILER!
Link: Xbox 360 IGN - Gears of War High-Quality Trailer

I’ve never owned a standard. I’ve always been more of an automatic kind of guy. My first car was an ‘83 Buick Regal. I found it quite convenient to put my arm around my girlfriend while driving (the Regal had a middle seatbelt up front) and I liked it.

But recently I’ve had the urge to drive standard. I’m really enjoying driving my car more and more, and think that a standard would do me pretty well. I’m a family guy so we have a sedan and a minivan. But our sedan (a Malibu) is starting to get old so I’m fantasizing about what I could replace it with. The Mazda3 GT is looking mighty fine. Standard. 2.3L engine. Ooooh. One reviewer said that the stickshift was so nice, that’s how BMW would do it if they sold a car at this price. Nice complement.

What the? Maybe not. I can’t afford a new car right now. But I can look at the new PGR3 video shown in Japan recently. And it looks nice!

Link: team XBOX - Project Gotham Racing 3: Tokyo WMVHD Trailer
Link: Xbox 360 IGN - Xbox Summit 2005: Project Gotham Racing 3 Update

Oh, and if anybody can find me a good deal on a charcoal Mazda3 GT, drop me a line. I’m in Ottawa.

Much of the Xbox 360 software announced at the Xbox Summit 2005 won’t wander onto the shelves until mid 2006. the INQUIRER says:

Interestingly enough an awful lot of these Japanese games won’t be launch titles for the Xbox 360 but are expected sometime around “Summer 2006″ which is, entirely coincidentally, we don’t doubt, around the same time as the launch of the PlayStation 3.

But I have a different idea. Not all these games were announced as exclusives. For example, I haven’t seen anything yet about Ridge Racer 6 being a 360 exclusive. So maybe these games are just coming out in the summer because the Japanese publishers plan on releasing them for both the PS3 and 360 at the same time. Simple idea, but I think there may be some truth to it. I find it hard to believe that so many Japanese developers would ditch the beloved Playstation for the foreign Xbox. It just doesn’t jive.

Link: the INQUIRER - Xbox 360 summit held in Japan