over the last 2 days i have been to 3 different walmarts all with the 360 kiosk. they were all different and only shows how much the calibration makes the difference.
the first one that deftech and i saw yesterday was great at the time but horrible compared to the two i saw today.
on the first kiosk:
i was able to see what some people here were talking about when it came to the jaggies. in king kong especially the jaggies were huge and made the character models look like they were constructed out of lego blocks. of the three games, CoD2 suffered the least amount of jaggies and still impressed. kameo looked like it had great art style and i could see how minus the jaggies it could almost live up to pixars movies. other then the jaggies, we also noticed that the games were letter boxed and the brightness/contrast/sharpness was cranked real high which didnt seem right. walking away i was still impressed but also puzzled. did any of you people complaining or worried actually think that MS would let software release looking that bad?? and wasnt it totally obvious that there was NO AA being used at all, and that all the vids in the demo were atleast 2 months old meaning that the build from the game were probably also that old?? seconds after seeing the first game i knew that AA wasnt in effect and that the game would look 10 times better then what was being shown.
on the second kiosk that i saw this morning:
i didnt even expect to see a 360 at this walmart as it wasnt there wednesday but i was surprised. i of course gave it a try and noticed many things instantly. the games werent letter boxed, the brightness/sharpness/contrast was toned down (though still too high IMO) and the jaggies were almost non-existant. all 3 of the games looked gorgeous and i was really impressed with king kong in particular. yes its a cross-generation game but the environments and the t rex made my jaw drop. kameo was like i expected and looked great, nice colors, great animation, and an attention to detail that was a pleasure to look at. CoD2 was nice and sharp looking (you should see the detail that they cram in every little object), can not wait to get my hands on this game now. the game ran so smooth and never even hiccuped once. the difference between the first kiosk and this one was the difference between a game on the ps2 and a game on xbox (in other words monumental).
after school work today i found the third kiosk:
i was happy to find that the game was true wide screen and not letterboxed. however there were jaggies far more apparent then the second kiosk (not nearly as bad as the first though). the sharpness/contrast/brightness was again high and it only showed how much the calibration of the monitor made a difference of how the game looked.
i played for a good time at all 3 walmarts and have seen the good and the bad and honestly im not worried at all. the games looked gorgeous when displayed right and even without AA the jaggies were almost void. the funny thing is no matter what walmart i played at while playing it drew a crowd on the graphics alone and i was happy to see people all around me googling over the graphics when they dont even know how much better its going to look. ive been called a fanboy among other things but my observation isnt biased or influenced at all. this only puts to rest the issues about the jaggies. and to those who were complaining, again realize what is and isnt being done and take that into consideration. though i do agree that MS should be more careful when marketing their machine and games, when displayed right you can see the vision that im sure they intened.
