JP vs US 360 - help/advice wanted!

[Johnny]

Right so I never thought I'd get to this stage as someone who saw nothing special about the original Xbox and the initial 360 hype, but I'm slowly but surely thinking about getting a 360.

I know for sure I'll be getting a PS3 and Wii, hopefully at launch but if not soon after and I want to figure out whether this is just pre-next gen excitement or whether I would genuinely enjoy the console and it's games.

I'm mainly looking for exclusives as anything multi-format I will get for the PS3. The other thing, of course, is whether to go down the Japanese or American console route.

To lay things out, here are the games I would be interested in:

BULLET WITCH - Looks fairly good despite some poor previews/reviews. I could probably wait for the US version.

DEAD OR ALIVE 4 - Not a huge fan of the series but I reckon I'd enjoy this one.

DEAD RISING - Looks absolutely fantastic. Any news if this will be appearing on PS3 or is it a 360 exclusive? Most likely to get the US version as long as it's uncut.

N3 - Another one that got average reviews but I like the look of this and enjoy other similar games.

RIDGE RACER 6 - The daddy. I'm a HUGE Ridge Racer fan so this would be a must buy. Even with RR 7 on the PS3, I would want this too. Possibly the game that will sell the 360 to me.

SAINTS ROW - I could just wait for GTA 4 but that's way next year.

SENKO no RONDE REV X - Another one that will potentially sell the system to me. I would love this and this is one title that makes me favout a JPN console over a US one.

SHUTOUKO BATTLE X - Seems like a fairly decent racer. I'm a fan of drift racers like this too. Could probably hold off for a US release.

TENCHU SENRAN - Big Tenchu fan so this is very appealing. If it's like the others in the series, this will takes ages to get to the US/PAL so another one making me want a JP console.

And there you have it. I'm generally not a fan of FPS' and the type of action titles that appeared quite a bit on the Xbox, so I'm mainly after JP exclusives and 360 exclusives in general.
I'm not in the market to buy until next month or so when my job comes up so that's whay I mentioned the PS3 and Wii - do you reckon the 360 would end up gathering dust or would there be enough exclusive titles to warrant me buying one?

Thanks for any help guys!

[EvilBoris]

I think most people will say go for an asian system as they will play asian titles (which are dirt cheap and sometimes in english) AS WELL as Japanese 360 games.

I guess it comes down to whether or not you don't mind playing games in japanese, all of those games are announced for US/UK release also (apart from Senko which will most likely come out too)

[fahrenheit]

Based on the weighting of your games preferences towards Japanese titles, the asian 360 is the one for you.

The Asian console also has a local powersupply and component video cable (as opposed to the Jap D-Terminal cable), so it makes it the better choice.

[themanwithapc]

Just to throw a spanner into the mix, there are some Japanese games that won't work with an Asian console. On the other hand, all Asian games work with a Japanese console.

[fahrenheit]

I can't see how that is possible unless the asian console has a different region code designation on the disc and eeprom. I think its just bad reporting and haven't seen any reputable reports of this being the case.

[Geezer]

It is possible. Look at Play-Asia's listing for Shin Sangoku Musou 4 Special :

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-br-49-en-15-shin%2Bsangoku-70-11z8.html

It is possible to lock JPN games so that they won't work on asian consoles. All asian games will work on JPN 360s though.

It appears that there are 2 NTSC/J region codes:

NTSC/J Japan only (afaik only 1 Japanese game has this code)
NTSC/J Asia and Japan (nearly all Japanese games have this code)
*This is my own deduction, so don't take it as gospel*

A JPN machine is more expensive once you factor in a video cable and stepdown or PSU, but it was worth the extra to me for the peace of mind.
At any rate, I didn't need to buy any extra bits, it just shares stuff with my PAL machine.

[fahrenheit]

Interesting. So Japanese 360 consoles are dual region (or triple if you include region zero)?

Are there more examples of this? Could Play-asia just have it wrong?

[EvilBoris]

Interesting. So Japanese 360 consoles are dual region (or triple if you include region zero)?

Are there more examples of this? Could Play-asia just have it wrong?

I think play-asia are most likely to be wrong, the original xbox had 3 region flags, EU,US,JPN and all regions fell into one of these

[Geezer]

I think play-asia are most likely to be wrong, the original xbox had 3 region flags, EU,US,JPN and all regions fell into one of these

I doubt it, PA probably sold a few copies to customers with asian machines who moaned about it and proceeded to test it for themselves on an asian machine.

Was it possible to lock a game to just 2 regions on the original Xbox? Or was it just either one region or completely region free.

[fahrenheit]

Yes it was possible on the original Xbox (Doom 3 and Fable for example).

But the real question is if the 360 hardware is designated a different region code from the Japanese hardware. The modding scene would have been all over it by now if this was the case. That is the number 1 reason I am dubious of these claims.

[Geezer]

Why would the modding community be interested in it?

[tom-nook]

Was it possible to lock a game to just 2 regions on the original Xbox? Or was it just either one region or completely region free.

I think it was possible.

My Asian version of Ninja Gaiden works on both a Japanese & US Xbox but not on a PAL machine. Pretty sure it was the same deal with the US version.

[fahrenheit]

Why would the modding community be interested in it?

That is what makes that community tick. Understanding how the internal hardware functions is necessary inorder to make the console run unsigned code.

[trev1976]

i have a question , if i was to buy a jap or US console would i be able to use live ?

[John Beaulieu]

yes - i am using Live with my asian 360