Xbox 360 UK launch review

High definition gaming

One of the major selling points of the Xbox 360 is that it supports and encourages High Definition gaming: all Xbox 360 games are at least 720p (that's a PC resolution of 1280x720 in 16:9 widescreen). Rather than the traditional TV 'blur', high definition games look as sharp and crisp as your PC display.

To test out the differences between standard definition (480p, 640x480 resolution) and high definition, we played around with the Xbox video settings, to see if this really is a new era of visual quality.

The standard cable included in the Premium bundle supports composite output and component output. You can switch between the two using the toggle on the side of the cable. Composite allows you to connect to standard definition TVs, and there is also an adaptor in the box to allow you to hook up the composite to a SCART connector.

We hooked up via composite to a standard definition 20" LCD TV, a standard definition 30" CRT and a high definition 26" widescreen LCD panel. Frankly, the 360 looked atrocious with the composite. Colours bled everywhere, games were upscaled horrendously... the whole visual experience was frankly no better than the first Xbox. We'd go so far as to say that if you are limited to hooking up your 360 via SCART or composite in standard definition (eg with a 'normal' TV), don't even bother buying it. It looks bad.

Next, we tried component. This yielded far better results. On the standard definition TV, we had a much clearer picture and games looked much sharper. The results still weren't mindblowing, but you could see the visual performance increases, and you could also really appreciate the beauty of the Guide.


On High Definition TV, it was clear that this was where it's at. Hooking up to high-def via component allows you to access another bunch of setup options, which allow you to set the specific resolution you want your TV to operate at - there are variations such as 1280x720, 1280x768 and 1360x768. The picture was beautifully clear, with the blades of the Guide radiating colour and the text crisp as it is on a PC monitor.

Playing games, we almost gasped when we saw Kameo. If there is one game that benefits most from high-def, it's this. With amazing parallax mapping and some fantastic lighting effects, we spent an hour just playing through, stopping to gawp at textures and "Oooooo" over the character models.

If you've ever gamed on a large display via a PC, you'll know how great and crisp graphics can look when rendered at a high resolution. The Xbox 360 makes this kind of experience ridiculously easy to set up. It looks simply incredible.

We also tried hooking up to our LCD TV using the 360 VGA cable (DVI isn't available). This looked ever-so-slightly better than component, leaving us with a very large grin on our faces.

That said, it's very disappointing that the increase in visual quality that the Xbox 360 provides won't be appreciated by a vast number of people - on a normal CRT TV, via SCART or composite, the increase in quality over the original Xbox isn't easily perceptible, in our opinion.