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"X-box: - my first impressions (after split second judgement)..."

Finally 3 weeks before the release of the evil incarnate, X-branded, oversized radiator, Microsoft have unleashed demo units in several Electronics Boutique stores, supposedly showing off what the "X-box" (or box with x carved into it) is actually capable of, and to that end it would seem it is capable of not a lot.

Firstly, I thought it looked big in pictures inside magazines but when I saw one in the flesh (or plastic rather) I thought to myself "oh my god it's the size of nearly 3 Dreamcasts!" well, more to the point I thought it looked like a poorly designed radiator but the fact remains that it is a huge hunk of crud with an X carved into it nonetheless.

Secondly, The controller, hmmm where do I start? I picked it up and I was utterly confused it was a very poor fusion of a dreamcast, Ps2 and gamecube controller all rolled into an oversized plastic shell, it has to be the worst controller for a console ever designed (even the Atari Jaguars controller looks comfortable compared to it!) it seems to live by the it's own philosophy of "so many buttons yet so little functions", in many of the control layouts in the games about half of the buttons seemed to perform the same action making the whole prospect of pushing a button to find out what it does completley lifeless and uninspiring.

Right! thats the basic moaning about the system over and done with (apart from the crippling price that is) now onto the games, firstly the demo disc boasted about 12 demo's half of which were only 30 second trailers, much to my bemusement Halo was not playable! yes Halo the game that Microsoft and everyone who's played it on Import has been hyping to the extreme for the past couple of months or so was nothing more than a Non-interactive trailer! So I thought to my self right, Halo's not playable so nothing else is going to be even playable, and guess what? I was right (well mostly).

out of all the games on the disc only one was half decent in my opinion, the utterly rubbish games on display were Fusion Frenzy which basically had you "juming over sticks" which I found highly dull and uninteresting, Project Gotham racing, in which the cars handled like ice-cream trucks! and Blood wake, which was original if original means that it is also totaly lifeless!

The one decent game which stood out from the rest was Amped, the snowboarding game which was highly reminicent of 1080% and was suprisingly just as good and had me coming back earlier today to play it again for about 40 minutes! (which even I was quite suprised about!) so even though the X-box has about two good things going for it (Halo and Amped) I would have to say that overall it is all overhyped and overated cack, a harsh comment you say? i really don't think so, anyway roll on May 3rd then we will see "who's the daddy of the consoles!"

Thanks for reading!
slik ~_~

DrDragon wrote:
"Grix, if you want to play Halo, got to HMV Oxford street (if you live in London)."

Hmmm... no, not quite London...

"Otherwise, fing a friend who's getting it/ has got it."

Hey, I'm a good friend, but I'm not going THAT far just to play Halo.

Oh... ring. Right...

No, nobody around here is actually getting one.

Entombed wrote:
> i was going to buy a GC when i saw Zelda and the new star wars game. But when i
> saw pictures of zelda in Games Master..it was cell shaded..what the hell were
> they doing. They take a graphically superior game and turn it into a snes game.
> Why? hows that going to impress people to look at Halo and MGS2 then look at
> that.

Let me get this straight... You're not getting a GC, a brilliant, fun system, purely because one of the games has gone cel shaded? If that is the case you are crazy.

DrDragon wrote:
> Grix, if you want to play Halo, got to HMV Oxford street (if you live in
> London). They have the full game there. I played it, and it was good. Otherwise,
> fing a friend who's getting it/ has got it.

Damn! I live in Cornwall! trust Microsoft not to give Cornwall a second thought Grrr! is there anyone else who lives in Cornwall who is slightly annoyed about this?... *deadly silence* no? double damn! i'm in a minority part of britain and I'm a minority within a minority! oh well...
slik ~_~

i was going to buy a GC when i saw Zelda and the new star wars game. But when i saw pictures of zelda in Games Master..it was cell shaded..what the hell were they doing. They take a graphically superior game and turn it into a snes game. Why? hows that going to impress people to look at Halo and MGS2 then look at that.

Grix, if you want to play Halo, got to HMV Oxford street (if you live in London). They have the full game there. I played it, and it was good. Otherwise, fing a friend who's getting it/ has got it.

anyone else care to comment on the oversized plastic X?
slik ~_~

Halo really, really does sound excellent. I'd love to play it, but I refuse to pay £330 just for it. And really, that's all I'd want to play on the X-Box... perhaps Project Gotham and JSR, but... meh. Project Gotham is racing again, and I'm never usually pleased with that type of genre, but JSR:Future should rock.

Alright, the rest of the games I AM partly judging on franchaise and label, but they aren't original anyway, so I feel I'm right to. Unless you make a special effort with a game, to make yourself known... you go all out and make something that hasn't been done before, you will be judged harshly.

Bleeders wrote:
> ...Then there's Jet Set Radio Future.

Microsoft have been able to launch
> with a AAA title, something Nintendo have failed to do this time round.

Not really. I'd rank JSTF in a similar way to Smash Brothers Melee.
They're both updates from previous console editions but improved a smoothened out.
They aren't quite original (as they're updates), but the only game like them is the inferior previous version.

Although Smash Brothers Melee wasn't quite your cup of tea, I expect that a lot of people don't like JSTF in a similar way.

That's
> not to say that the GameCube launch is dire, far from it, but it isn't
> ground-breaking either.

It's not THAT far behind Microsoft's though.
I've yet to see a really original Xbox game.
Most are older styles with polished graphics.
Some like Halo have a fair few innovations but nothing special or original enough to put it WAY above the GC's launch...

$lik wrote:
> well said DR Dragon :)
slik ~_~

Thanks, and very good original post. :-)

well said DR Dragon :)
slik ~_~