Bits and bytes mean next to nothing when it comes to understanding the next generation of video game consoles.
The technological leap from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, the console Microsoft Corp. will release later this year, is so vast that processor speeds, polygon counts and other technical terms are meaningless.
For instance, the Xbox is powered by a 733-megahertz central processor. The central processing unit in Xbox 360 has three 3.2-gigahertz processors. Each processor is four times faster than the original Xbox–but what matters is the way designers translate that power into games.
“One thing you will see is much more sophisticated artificial intelligence,” said David Zucker, the CEO of Chicago-based Midway Games. “The artificial intelligence, it’s the way in which the world works. When you walk up to an individual in the world, he reacts one way if you punch him. If you say hello to him, he does something else. It’s how objects work when acted upon.”
The Xbox 360 makes these possibilities available en masse.
In Microsoft’s new fantasy game Kameo, players can ride a horse into an army of 3,500 ogres. Amazingly, each ogre has its own intelligence and reacts to the player independent of the thousands of ogres around it.
Along with opening other doors, Xbox 360’s bump in power creates new possibilities in graphics. The art in video games is created using flat polygons laced together like tiles in a mosaic. In the past, computer graphics companies have touted the number of polygons their processors can generate per second as a metric for measuring speed and power–the theory being the more polygons artists have, the better their art will look.
With new shading and texturing technologies, polygon counts are fairly meaningless. Xbox 360 generates 500 million polygons per second, four times more polygons per second than the original Xbox–but that does not mean that the 360’s graphics processing is four times more powerful.
Rather, Xbox 360 has five times the pixel-fill rate of Xbox and 12 times the shader performance, meaning that it not only generates more polygons per second, but it also handles lighting, shading and textures better.
Microsoft has also worked to create a more social environment for the 360. Like the original Xbox, the new machine comes Internet-ready out of the box. And like its predecessor, the Xbox 360 supports broadband connectivity and makes no allowances for dial-up support.
The Xbox Live service that Microsoft offers for its current console is fee-based. More than 1.8 million people have signed up for the service, but Microsoft wants all Xbox owners to go online.
Xbox 360 will come with two levels of Internet service–Silver and Gold. The more basic Silver service will be free. Gold service, which will include player matching and more communication options, will be fee-based.
Yet with these communication tools comes another problem: security.
“So much of what makes the Xbox 360 experience so great is the community aspect of it,” says Jeff Henshaw, executive producer for Xbox digital entertainment. “We’ve poured a lot of our energy into making it easier for people to get hooked up with other people online.
“As soon as you create an entertainment device that goes beyond the classic games and movie content and allows the community to interact with each other in real time, you have to innovate to make sure that the experience remains safe and fun for children as well.”
To facilitate this, the Xbox 360 enables parents to build specific accounts for their children on the Xbox Live service. Parents will be able not only to set levels for game ratings and movie content, but also to limit accessibility for online communications.
Microsoft has set four levels of online communications that parents can control: no online gaming whatsoever, game play only, limiting chat to people on an established friends list, and all access.
Yet despite all these improvements in speed, power and safety, the gaming experience still boils down to the quality of the games.
The games that have been shown in previews highlight the Xbox 360’s power and present fun challenges. There are 160 games under development.
But there is one notable exception: Microsoft will not have a new Halo game when it launches the 360.
Halo, the ultrapopular first-person shooter that follows the adventures of a futuristic soldier battling armies of aliens, remains the single best-selling game for the system.
“There are no plans to have a Halo at launch,” said Peter Moore, vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing.
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Some games produced for Xbox 360
CONDEMNED
Publisher: Sega of America
Sega touts “Condemned” as a first-person action adventure as opposed to a first-person shooter of the “Halo”/”Doom”/”Half-Life” variety. In this game, players use knives and sticks more than guns. “Condemned” also uses eerie visions to unravel its mysteries.
While its violent combat offers a grim and unique experience, it’s the settings that stand out.
“With `Condemned,’ we actually sent a location scout from the film business to go out and shoot locations,” says Scott Steinberg, Sega’s vice president of entertainment marketing. “We took gigs and gigs of those digital images and mapped them into the game.”Some games produced for Xbox 360
NBA 2K6
Publisher: Take Two Interactive
Microsoft did not show a completed version of “NBA 2K6,” but it demonstrated a single player shooting baskets. That virtual player is a remarkable image.
The highlight of this new virtual athlete is the lifelike face and the way the fabric in the jersey moves. These may sound like small details, but those are what help people suspend their disbelief.
In the past, video athletes have had stiff, lifeless faces. They have generally been about as accurate and lifelike as the faces on wax museum mannequins. The faces on the basketball stars in “NBA 2K6” are more lifelike and almost completely accurate.
The people who created this game also used the Xbox 360’s processing power to create a free-flowing jersey that bounces and moves with the player’s body.
KAMEO
Publisher: Microsoft
“Kameo” is a fantasy adventure where players control a fairy who transforms herself into a variety of creatures.
Created by Rare Studios, the English firm that created “Donkey Kong Country” and “GoldenEye 007” for Nintendo, “Kameo” highlights many of the Xbox 360’s technological strengths.
Tapping into the machine’s graphic and data-processing power, “Kameo” is able to handle objects in massive proportions. Whether it is showing hills covered with 3,500 ogres or pastures carpeted with tens of thousands of individual blades of tall grass, everything in this game is vivid and highly detailed.
GEARS OF WAR
Publisher: Microsoft Corp.
Developed by Epic, the company that creates the “Unreal” series of games, “Gears of War” is a dark adventure set for release early in 2006.
“Gears of War” uses the “Unreal 3” game engine, a graphics technique known for dramatic lighting effects and superior use of textures. These technologies translate into big, mean monsters and horrific settings. In short, “Gears of War” takes the game play found in titles like “Resident Evil 4” and makes it bigger, with a more realistic look.
Other Xbox 360 games demonstrated by Microsoft from its publishing partners:
– “Full Auto,” a combat driving game, from Sega.
– “Call of Duty 2,” a first-person shooter set in North Africa during World War II, from Activision.
– Tom Clancy’s “Ghost Recon 3,” a strategic squad-based shooter.
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The next generation: Changes from Xbox’s predecessor
– 20-gigabyte detachable, upgradable hard drive. The original: 8 gb non-removable hard drive.
– Three dual-core processors running at 3.2 gigahertz each. The original: one 733 mHz processor.
– 512 megabytes of memory. The original: 64 mb.
– Three USB ports that can connect with digital cameras and portable music players. The original did not have USB ports.
– Two ports for 64-megabyte memory cards that can be used to save games, making customized content portable so it can be played on a friend’s console. The original did not support memory cards.
– Can stand on one end or lie flat. The original could only lie flat.
– Subscribers to the online gaming service can buy custom game characters, cars, weapons, “skins” that let them change the color or texture of their screen, or new game trailers. With the original box, gamers could buy extras occasionally, but only with certain games.
– Built-in extender for Windows XP Media Center, a version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system. The original couldn’t connect with Windows.
– Doubles as a DVD player. The current version can play DVDs only if you buy a special attachment.
– Small video camera (to be sold separately) can be used for video chats.
– Up to four wireless game controllers. The original: Controllers have to be plugged into the console.
— Associated Press
