- by Ken "Chaobo" Serra
- Posted on April 2, 2012 @ 12:00 PST
It turns out Microsoft has been confirming information to specific partners regarding their next-gen Xbox console, “Durango”. The console has been confirmed for a Holiday 2013 release as predicted by many fans. However, in contraire to popular belief, the next console will indeed have a blu-ray player. Love it! That just means the PS4 will beam data from our brains right?
Anyways, Durango is set to have four to six processor cores as well as two-independent GPUs about as powerful as an AMD 7000. Independent, meaning they aren’t in SLI or Crossfire which means they draw separate items simultaneously. On top of the hardware enhancement, the console will ship with built-in Kinect. The dawn of motion gaming is upon us! *cough* Ahem, well, I guess that’s cool since that implies increased Kinect usage in video games as well as more possibilities in digital socializing… hopefully all in PG.
The primary issue I have with the console at the moment is the requirement to “always” be connected to the internet. This is something they wish to do to prevent piracy, even though I’m sure pirates will find a way like they always do, so let’s be a little bit more creative, Microsoft. But does this mean I can’t play my beloved Xbox when the internet is blown to bits by acts of God? That’s silly… I live and breathe Xbox… if it’s off, who knows what will happen to me!
Anyways, with a release date set for well over a year from now, all of this IS subject to change with technology growing every day. This info is all confirmed though and Microsoft is not likely to stray too far from this path. I think the hardware change is enough, since console coding produces better games every year with the same hardware, but until we see what kind of price range we're looking at here, we won’t know if it’s truly worth it. But since I'm an avid console gamer, unfortunately, the only answer for me is:
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Honestly, I am at the point where any interruption in internet service throws my entire world askew - computers and consoles feel "disabled" when they have no internet to converse with. So having a console system that requires internet access wouldn't really be a game changer for me. Besides, Im usually too busy fretting about why my access is down to enjoy a game at that point.
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You said it was an AMD 7000, but which model would you compare it two? I sure hope it's a 7970...
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Well, an AMD 7000 can be compared to a.... GTS 250 maybe. An older end card for sure. But consoles are optimized specifically for gaming. More power would be nice but it should suffice. I'm still thinking is Microsoft will still go down that path come next year though.
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I see... I thought the PS4 was going for something around the power of a 6770, which sounds a bit more attractive... But I suppose Microsoft know what they're doing a lot more than I.
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Well, consoles have always and probably always will have hardware limitations. However, a lower end piece of tech on a console optimized for gaming will play, look, and feel like a good computer on the PC. Things are sacrificed on console, commonly graphics but new engines are ways around this. Halo 4 looks a-ma-za-zing, a lot better than any of its predecessors and it's on a console that has been around for 7 years.
As an avid console gamer, any decent upgrade will equate to a big down the road, so count me in. Can't wait to see what's gonna go down.
