Xbox 360 Xdtv: How to Play Your Xbox 360 in Hd Must Have Launch Titles Madden Nfl 06 the Ultimate Xbox 360 Checklist: Don’T Leave the Store Without These
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FREE MONEY TAKE ONE SAVING COUPONS INSIDE THETHE XFACTORXFACTOR ININ TO A Z ABOUT XBOX 360 XDTV: HOW TO PLAY YOUR XBOX 360 IN HD MUST HAVE LAUNCH TITLES THE ULTIMATE XBOX 360 CHECKLIST: DON’T LEAVE THE STORE WITHOUT THESE MADDEN NFL 06 KING KONG CALL OF DUTY 2 Best Buy is a trademark of Best Buy Enterprise Services, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS EDITOR’S LETTER By now, you’ve probably heard the buzz about Microsoft’s plans to jump-start the next-generation with the Xbox 360. When it arrives in North America, Japan and Europe this November, the console will become the most powerful game system on the planet. Hardcore early adopters and newer players will unite, all sharing an eagerness to experience gaming in a new way, imagined by different minds. Not by Nintendo, Inside Sega, or Sony–but by Microsoft. The company that Bill Gates built is redefi ning THE XBOX 360 LAUNCH GUIDE innovation and creativity with a fl exible hardware system that features online functionality, multimedia capabilities, music and social community aspects–all XBOX 360: THE SYSTEM 3 built into its core. You’ll be able to play 720p games in widescreen with Dolby 5.1 XBOX LIVE 7 surround sound and experience more polygons on screen, the richest texture work, XFACTOR: 10 MUST HAVE CHECKLIST FOR YOUR 360 and the biggest environments you’ve ever seen. THE MUST HAVE LAUNCH TITLES What’s more, the launch line-up of more than 25 games led by Microsoft’s own PERFECT DARK ZERO 14 Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power, is MADDEN NFL 06 NEED FOR SPEED MOST WANTED 15 only just a glimpse of what’s in store. Seriously. If you’re impressed by this line-up, QUAKE 4 16 you ain’t seen nothing yet. So, sit back, relax and read, because it’s all in here. Allow us to introduce you to the Xbox 360 hardware, its online possibilities, the THE TITLES TO ROCK YOUR BOX launch line-up, the editors’ hot picks, and several other major guides that will help, GUN 17 instruct, and ensure that this holiday season it’s all about innovative, fun, and NBA 2K6 18 PETER JACKSON’S KING KONG 19 incredible 360 madness. TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 06 20 RIDGE RACER 6 21 Douglass C. Perry COUPONS 22 Editor-in-Chief, IGN Xbox, Xbox 360 XDTV 24 OK TO PLAY? Parents—Take the time to check the ratings to determine if computer and video games are “OK To Play? EVERYONE EVERYONE 10+ Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that Titles rated E 10+ (Everyone 10+) have content The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings are designed to may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles this category may contain minimal cartoon, in this category may contain minimal cartoon, provide information about video and computer game content, so you can fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of make informed purchase decisions. ESRB ratings have two parts: rating use of mild language. mild language. symbols suggest age appropriateness for the game, and content descrip- tors indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern. To take full advantage of the ESRB rating system, it’s important to check both the rating symbol (on the front of the game box) and the content descriptors (on the back of the game box). TEEN MATURE Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may For a complete description of the ratings, go to the ESRB website be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. this category may contain violence, sugges- Titles in this category may contain intense vio- at www.esrb.com for additional information. tive themes, crude humor, minimal blood lence, blood and gore, sexual content, and/or and/or infrequent use of strong language. strong language. © 2005 Best Buy XBOX 360 LAUNCH GUIDE 02 BEST BUY, the BEST BUY LOGO and its TAG DESIGN, THOUSANDS OF POSSIBILITIES. GET YOURS., GEEK SQUAD and GEEKMOBILE are trademarks ofBest Buy Enterprise Services, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or trade names are properties of their respective owners. THE SYSTEM XBOX 360: The System On May 12th 2005, an MTV Special offi cially unveiled the name, look, and Xbox 360 was designed with incredible fl exibility in mind. Anyone who owns controller of the Xbox 360, and offered gamers a few teasers of game-play a Media Center PC will have some serious fun with the two systems. Connect footage. A follow-up at the Microsoft’s E3 press conference on May 16th the two together, and you can stream high defi nition TV and movies to the offered fans a second chance for their fi rst look at the highly anticipated Xbox 360. You can also talk to friends across the country through the Xbox system. Live headset while you watch TV. So after two sneak peeks, the burning question remains: Will the Xbox 360 A parental control system allows parents to set the console to the appropri- be able to play original Xbox games? At the 2005 E3, Microsoft announced ate rating (everyone, teen, mature, etc.) so that their kids won’t be allowed that the Xbox 360 would be backwards compatible with many of the fi rst to play games that aren’t appropriate for their age group. Similar functions console’s “top selling games.” Backwards compatibility will require the use of will also be set up to block online chat rooms and for blocking out unsuitable a hard drive to store emulation code. The hard drive will be used to emulate content for DVD movies, if parents feel the need to do so. the Xbox hardware, and many Xbox games will require tweaks to the emula- tor code. The premium, or “Xbox 360” package ($399.99), is designed for the hard- core, HD-ready gamer, while the Xbox 360 Core System ($299.99) is a more As one emulator does not simply allow the playback of every original Xbox basic set-up. game, Microsoft is then forced to choose which titles to spend time on. It is almost guaranteed that the Halo games will run from the start with an The premium package includes an Xbox 360, a detachable 20-GB hard-drive, emulator preloaded onto the hard drive. So the answer is yes, there will be a wireless controller, faceplate, headset, a component HD AV cable, an Ether- backwards compatibility with the original Xbox, but since the Xbox 360 does net cable, and for a limited time, a remote controller. not have the Xbox chipset (in order to keep the price down), some games will not work on the Xbox 360 – at fi rst. Microsoft is working to use this emula- The Core 360 System is stripped down in comparison. It includes an Xbox tion style process to allow gamers to play not only the most popular games 360, one standard wired controller, a faceplate, and a standard AV cable. from the original Xbox, but also some of the best games. The $399 package is designed for the high-defi nition gaming era; the other is designed for a no-frills, current-generation set-up. Either way, Microsoft is giv- The reason that you won’t fi nd any controller ports on the actual Xbox 360 ing gamers a choice between a loaded up system for hardcore gamers and a itself is because the Xbox 360’s preferred controller type is wireless, and it basic one for gamers who just want the basics without a lot of the extras they supports up to four wireless players on one console. The system has three won’t need or use, but with the option to upgrade later. USB ports, two behind the door on the right/bottom of the system and one in the back, for hooking up wired controllers. You can also use a recharge kit to plug in a wireless controller to one of the USB ports to power rechargeable batteries. XBOX 360 LAUNCH GUIDE 3 THE SYSTEM Xbox 360 will have three processor cores, each running at 3.2 GHz. Long story short, by embedding the framebuffer RAM directly onto On top of that, each processor is capable of running two threads a the graphics chip, Xbox 360 will be able to perform post-processing piece, meaning that the console will be able to handle six instruc- features much more quickly, like anti-aliasing and motion blur. tions simultaneously. IBM is supplying the main processors while The Xbox 360 has 10MB of embedded DRAM. ATI will supply the graphics chip, which is based on ATI’s next-gen- eration graphics chip, putting it at least one generation beyond its 720p and 1080i are both supported out of the box and are the current X850 card for PCs. Basically, it’s fast as all hell. preferred gaming resolutions, though 480p and 480i will obviously be supported as well. The system will have 512MB of GDDR3 unifi ed system memory and 10MB of embedded DRAM for the framebuffer. The Xbox 360 Microsoft has mandated that every game support at least 720p makes use of a shared memory architecture. That means that with 1080i as an optionally supported resolution.