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Major Nelson asks what's best for gaming? 720p, 1080i or 1080p
On this edition of Major Nelson's weekly podcast he has a special guest, Tyler the HDTV expert. Among the things they discussed were what HD means, a few of the reasons Microsoft chose HD-DVD to support, why the Olympic broadcast isn't the best it could be, and the many different formats of HD. It's a pretty long conversation that I'll try to summarize here, but I suggest you give it a listen to get all the details on why 720p may be better for gaming than 1080i or even 1080p (which the PS3 will apparently have and the Xbox 360 doesn't).We will leave the breakdown of spatial and temporal resolution to Tyler, but there are several elements here to consider.
Kong Demo and other goodies up on XBLM
Every time we hear about something new on the XBLM, it's like a small dose of Christmas. Just a little bit. Mostly when it's free stuff. Today, the Major announced a glut of new Marketplace content, including: a King Kong demo, Fight Night Round 3 picture packs and themes, new sounds and graphic packs for Crystal Quest, and Hexic and Bejeweled 2 theme packs. Wowza! As usual, the varied bonus packs are gonna cost ya, but the demo's what we're really interested in, right? If you haven't tried Kong yet, you're missing a really polished and elegant game, if a little short. If the easy 1000 gamerscore points hasn't lured you in already, maybe the demo will. See also: Joystiq Review: Peter Jackson's King Kong (Xbox 360)
Even more Marketplace content
We just can't get enough of that downloadable goodness, so we thought it only fair to let you know that -- hot on the heels of the Condemned demo -- even more Marketplace content is now available. According to Live stalwart Major Nelson, a whole barrage of picture packs and themes are now waiting for your hard-earned points.If the idea of the Here, Kitty Kitty! Picture Pack doesn't float your boat, you'll probably be more interested in the Quake 4 demo that's also available. Since demos for upcoming titles seem few and far between, it's a wonder what they'll manage to fit on game magazine cover discs with all the content now freely available online.
A new demographic for Xbox Live Arcade
As you may have noticed, we at Xbox 360 Fanboy are fans of Xbox's own Major Nelson, and so we were naturally quite sad to hear he was ill over the Christmas period. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and Major's brief convalescence has brought with it an interesting lesson in demographics.Major blogs that "I pretty much spent a majority of my conscious time with the Xbox Live Arcade Games, since they were easy to jump in and out of as I nodded off under my prescriptive based consciousness." -- it seems that the quick-fix nature of the Live Arcade games is perfect for those feeling under the weather. Also, although most Live Arcade games do require some brainpower, they don't require full-on all-cylinders-firing citrus-sharp cognition, and are a lot easier to get to grips with if you're in a medication-induced stupor.So, next time your significant other, child or pet is ill, why not try distracting them with Live Arcade titles rather than daytime television?
