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I've titled this post "Xbox - an opinion". I was going call it "Xbox - a verdict" but that sounds conceited, and gives the impression that my thoughts are final and correct. That's not the case, so I stress that this is my *opinion*. You may agree, you may not; but don't rant at me about it. I do not care if you agree or disagree, I am simply giving my thoughts in the hope that you find them useful in deciding whether or not to buy one for yourself.
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I was looking at screens and videos of Halo on the Xbox all day yesterday, and got a strong urge to buy one.
So, after I got home from work, I went to my local Tesco's and bought one, together with a second controller, Halo and Project Gotham Racing.
I plugged everything in and powered it up. First thing you're presented with is the settings screen - very similar to the PS2's in what it offers, the main difference being that you can set 60Hz mode here, which is then used for all games - pretty cool. My major dislike about the menus and front-end is that it's all in shades of green, but that's just personal taste.
Other minor things I noticed were that (a) the machine is just as noisy as my PS2 (i.e. not very) and (b) there is a constant clickling sound from within - which I assume is the hard disk - but which you don't notice once a game is playing.
First game loaded up was Project Gotham Racing. This is the game that, according to Xbox magazine (not the official one) "makes GT3 look dump".
I can categorically say that this is not the case. The cars are well realised, but they just don't have the polish (no pun intended) that the cars in GT3 have. They're good, accurate models, but somehow don't have that 'real' look to them; they're more 'very lifelike cartoon' than photorealistic. The colours are bold and strong, rather than the subtleties of GT3.
Tracks are well designed, but the scenery again looks a little bland. There's plenty there, but the textures aren't particularly well detailed, with colour used in 'blocks'.
Replays are good, though again not up to GT3 standards. Reflections in the cars are a little blocky, and tend to move quite jerkily overy the surface of the car. And believe it or not, I did see pop-up in certain areas, and jaggies are just as evident here as in GT3; i.e. they are there, but are not significant. In terms of appearance, it probably falls somewhere between Ridge Racer V and GT3.
In terms of gameplay, it's good enough. The handling isn't anything like GT3, but then it's not supposed to be, as this is more of an arcade racer. It falls somewhere between GT3 and Burnout, I'd say. As with GT3, there are only 5 other cars in the race. Driver AI is also similar to GT3 in that cars will hit you if you're in their way - you can turn into a corner nice and smooth, and cars around you don't really deviate from their pre-determined racing line.
I have also found a fairly major bug! Quite frequently, when re-starting a race and having an automatic gearbox, the car suddenly goes into reverse gear and revs the engine without me touching a thing! Then when the countdown reaches "Go!" the car takes off backwards! I have found that some frantic pressing of the left (brake)and right (accelerate) trigger buttons solves the problem, but it gives the other cars one heck of a head start, and many times I've had to re-start the race again immediately.
Over all though, it's a solid arcade racer, similar to MSR on the Dreamcast. The only area this does have an advantage is the sound, because the music is presented as radio stations you can listen to, as in GT3 - but *real* radio stations, such as Capital FM and XFM. But in all honesty, I don't believe the over-all product is a patch on GT3.
Next up is Halo, the reason I bought the machine. The mother of all FPS games, apparently. And it really is rather good. You know how FPS games play, so I won't go into great details. What takes most getting used to is that you can only carry two weapons at any time, adding a significant strategy element to the game. As far as I have played, this hasn't really been an issue, as I've so far only had pistols and assault rifles in various forms; this may well become more of a factor later in the game.
At certain points you must control vehicles - so far I've only encountered the Warthog, and this is proving fairly difficult to control; you control acceleration with the left analogue stick, and steer by rotating the camera with the right analogue stick. Sounds easy, but wait until you try it... it's not!
While Halo certainly is a very good FPS game, I stand by my earlier claim that Edge magazine got it wrong; it's not 10/10 for me. The enemy AI is good - enemies duck for cover behind structures and shields - but it's not perfect; when they do come out, so far they have tended to run pretty much in straight lines and be fairly easy to kill. The main problem comes from the numbers that can attack at any one time. It is a very good game, but so far I wouldn't say that it is significantly better than Medal of Honour: Allied Assault or a few other PC FPS games. It certainly doesn't acheive anything that the PS2 (and probably Gamecube) couldn't do.
And finally, a few words on the controller. It is a little on the large side, and I find it a little painful after prolonged play. It's okay using the analogue sticks (though it feels very odd with them being offset as they are), but when needing to use the A, B, X or Y buttons, I find I have to re-adjust the grip of my right hand, otherwise it stretches the muscle between my thumb and forefinger, which eventually leads to cramp. I get the feeling that they could have reduced the size of the pad by about a third if they'd done away with that bloody great Xbox logo in the middle.
The A, B, X and Y buttons are also too close together for my liking, and I find myself distracted and having to look down at the pad to make sure I'm pressing the right one. When you consider the size of the pad, this seems quite ridiculous. Still, hopefully I'll get used to it.
The 'rumble effect' built into the pad is also not as good as that of the DualShock 2; it is very weak in comparison, and - for example - does not give the same level of feedback in PGR as the DualShock 2 does in GT3.
So, what about the over-all package?
Well, after my first play of both games, I was left feeling a little flat, not really knowing what to think. It certainly didn't 'wow' me as the PS2 did when I first got it. In fact, after an hour, I turned it off to watch some TV, and at one point contemplated returning it.
But after a few more hours playing time, I've pretty much decided against that, although I don't think I'll be buying any more games for it for a while; I'll just have to see what comes along. It *is* a good machine, but I've not yet seen anything that I don't believe could be done on the other platforms.
Others have mentioned that they plan to sell their PS2 to help fund an Xbox. That's their choice, but I would say don't be too hasty. Get some quality play time on some of the games available first, because you may not be as impressed as you think. I am lucky that I could afford an Xbox without trading in; I can tell you in all honesty now that, had I traded my PS2 for the Xbox, I would be kicking myself and regretting it severely.
This is my honest, unbiased opinion as an owner of both machines. Make of it what you will.
-----
I was looking at screens and videos of Halo on the Xbox all day yesterday, and got a strong urge to buy one.
So, after I got home from work, I went to my local Tesco's and bought one, together with a second controller, Halo and Project Gotham Racing.
I plugged everything in and powered it up. First thing you're presented with is the settings screen - very similar to the PS2's in what it offers, the main difference being that you can set 60Hz mode here, which is then used for all games - pretty cool. My major dislike about the menus and front-end is that it's all in shades of green, but that's just personal taste.
Other minor things I noticed were that (a) the machine is just as noisy as my PS2 (i.e. not very) and (b) there is a constant clickling sound from within - which I assume is the hard disk - but which you don't notice once a game is playing.
First game loaded up was Project Gotham Racing. This is the game that, according to Xbox magazine (not the official one) "makes GT3 look dump".
I can categorically say that this is not the case. The cars are well realised, but they just don't have the polish (no pun intended) that the cars in GT3 have. They're good, accurate models, but somehow don't have that 'real' look to them; they're more 'very lifelike cartoon' than photorealistic. The colours are bold and strong, rather than the subtleties of GT3.
Tracks are well designed, but the scenery again looks a little bland. There's plenty there, but the textures aren't particularly well detailed, with colour used in 'blocks'.
Replays are good, though again not up to GT3 standards. Reflections in the cars are a little blocky, and tend to move quite jerkily overy the surface of the car. And believe it or not, I did see pop-up in certain areas, and jaggies are just as evident here as in GT3; i.e. they are there, but are not significant. In terms of appearance, it probably falls somewhere between Ridge Racer V and GT3.
In terms of gameplay, it's good enough. The handling isn't anything like GT3, but then it's not supposed to be, as this is more of an arcade racer. It falls somewhere between GT3 and Burnout, I'd say. As with GT3, there are only 5 other cars in the race. Driver AI is also similar to GT3 in that cars will hit you if you're in their way - you can turn into a corner nice and smooth, and cars around you don't really deviate from their pre-determined racing line.
I have also found a fairly major bug! Quite frequently, when re-starting a race and having an automatic gearbox, the car suddenly goes into reverse gear and revs the engine without me touching a thing! Then when the countdown reaches "Go!" the car takes off backwards! I have found that some frantic pressing of the left (brake)and right (accelerate) trigger buttons solves the problem, but it gives the other cars one heck of a head start, and many times I've had to re-start the race again immediately.
Over all though, it's a solid arcade racer, similar to MSR on the Dreamcast. The only area this does have an advantage is the sound, because the music is presented as radio stations you can listen to, as in GT3 - but *real* radio stations, such as Capital FM and XFM. But in all honesty, I don't believe the over-all product is a patch on GT3.
Next up is Halo, the reason I bought the machine. The mother of all FPS games, apparently. And it really is rather good. You know how FPS games play, so I won't go into great details. What takes most getting used to is that you can only carry two weapons at any time, adding a significant strategy element to the game. As far as I have played, this hasn't really been an issue, as I've so far only had pistols and assault rifles in various forms; this may well become more of a factor later in the game.
At certain points you must control vehicles - so far I've only encountered the Warthog, and this is proving fairly difficult to control; you control acceleration with the left analogue stick, and steer by rotating the camera with the right analogue stick. Sounds easy, but wait until you try it... it's not!
While Halo certainly is a very good FPS game, I stand by my earlier claim that Edge magazine got it wrong; it's not 10/10 for me. The enemy AI is good - enemies duck for cover behind structures and shields - but it's not perfect; when they do come out, so far they have tended to run pretty much in straight lines and be fairly easy to kill. The main problem comes from the numbers that can attack at any one time. It is a very good game, but so far I wouldn't say that it is significantly better than Medal of Honour: Allied Assault or a few other PC FPS games. It certainly doesn't acheive anything that the PS2 (and probably Gamecube) couldn't do.
And finally, a few words on the controller. It is a little on the large side, and I find it a little painful after prolonged play. It's okay using the analogue sticks (though it feels very odd with them being offset as they are), but when needing to use the A, B, X or Y buttons, I find I have to re-adjust the grip of my right hand, otherwise it stretches the muscle between my thumb and forefinger, which eventually leads to cramp. I get the feeling that they could have reduced the size of the pad by about a third if they'd done away with that bloody great Xbox logo in the middle.
The A, B, X and Y buttons are also too close together for my liking, and I find myself distracted and having to look down at the pad to make sure I'm pressing the right one. When you consider the size of the pad, this seems quite ridiculous. Still, hopefully I'll get used to it.
The 'rumble effect' built into the pad is also not as good as that of the DualShock 2; it is very weak in comparison, and - for example - does not give the same level of feedback in PGR as the DualShock 2 does in GT3.
So, what about the over-all package?
Well, after my first play of both games, I was left feeling a little flat, not really knowing what to think. It certainly didn't 'wow' me as the PS2 did when I first got it. In fact, after an hour, I turned it off to watch some TV, and at one point contemplated returning it.
But after a few more hours playing time, I've pretty much decided against that, although I don't think I'll be buying any more games for it for a while; I'll just have to see what comes along. It *is* a good machine, but I've not yet seen anything that I don't believe could be done on the other platforms.
Others have mentioned that they plan to sell their PS2 to help fund an Xbox. That's their choice, but I would say don't be too hasty. Get some quality play time on some of the games available first, because you may not be as impressed as you think. I am lucky that I could afford an Xbox without trading in; I can tell you in all honesty now that, had I traded my PS2 for the Xbox, I would be kicking myself and regretting it severely.
This is my honest, unbiased opinion as an owner of both machines. Make of it what you will.
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Halo - the game everyone wants to play. Put it in a pod, three things can happen:
a) People decide they've played it and decide they have no reason to buy an Xbox
b) People realise it's hyped up trash and not worth the money (possibly)
c) People think "Wow, I must play this more" and buy an Xbox.
The thing is, if Halo is the only reason to buy an Xbox (which I'm not saying it is), then once people have played it the sales can only be damaged.
And that, my friends, is why you'll find it hard to locate a Halo pod.
a) People decide they've played it and decide they have no reason to buy an Xbox
b) People realise it's hyped up trash and not worth the money (possibly)
c) People think "Wow, I must play this more" and buy an Xbox.
The thing is, if Halo is the only reason to buy an Xbox (which I'm not saying it is), then once people have played it the sales can only be damaged.
And that, my friends, is why you'll find it hard to locate a Halo pod.
Or†ega wrote:
> ah, no wonder....That 12 midday or midnight?
Midnight.
> ah, no wonder....That 12 midday or midnight?
Midnight.
One good thin about the Xbox I forgot to mention is the Hard Disk. This lets Halos big levels load up on the fly. Also anything that is killed stays where it is, items stay in the place they fell, blood stains all over the place and bullet holes stay.
These dont disappear if you move to another part of a level, they stay. Its really good not to see enemies just disappear, or you go to another part of the level and come back and everything is perfect again.
These dont disappear if you move to another part of a level, they stay. Its really good not to see enemies just disappear, or you go to another part of the level and come back and everything is perfect again.
grow up Semajal
Care to share these points without coming up with 3 paragraphs of complete toss ? It'd be interesting to hear about what makes the X-Box "crap" without stupid little comments.
All this "it can't fit through my bedroom door tee hee hee" crud just shows the bitterness of people that are worried about their personal favourite having competition.
Personally I welcome Microsoft and their ideas for taking console gaming forward. With Sega gone it looked like innovative hardware ideas had died with it. Fortunatly it looks as though Microsoft are going to take this torch now and with the finances this company has behind it, things are looking very promising.
You might be happy with remake after remake of Mario and Zelda games, but there are plenty of players that want more than this. Sega fouled up with things like the Saturn and Mega CD, but at least they had the guts to be adventurous.
With the X-Box's hard drive, its not just a big memory card for game saves, Microsoft are urging companies to really use it as well as looking into things themselves that can be done with the console they've made. Players that like RPG's will be able to play a game where your actions from the start of the game will affect things much later on. Cut a young mans face with a blade, he could grow a few years with a scar clearly visible from what you did.
Broadband might not be widespread but at least you can get onto an online game without having to worry about slowdown as soon 4 players are in one match. Microsoft are looking into a headset so that players can communicate during online games rather than having to type all the time which can be very annoying in a frantic FPS game. Apparently, they're even looking into the idea of being able to change the sound of your voice through the headset too.
There are so many sad people hell bent on slagging off the X-Box, but at least Microsoft are trying things out to give players new experiences.
Nintendo might come up with clever ideas like Pokemon and a new shiny power up for Mario, but theres only so many times they can do that before it becomes old. Nintendo might offer online gaming sometime, but not until another company has had the guts to do it first.
Nintendo can make a game, theres no arguement about that, but they're pretty spineless when it comes to taking a risk.
All this "it can't fit through my bedroom door tee hee hee" crud just shows the bitterness of people that are worried about their personal favourite having competition.
Personally I welcome Microsoft and their ideas for taking console gaming forward. With Sega gone it looked like innovative hardware ideas had died with it. Fortunatly it looks as though Microsoft are going to take this torch now and with the finances this company has behind it, things are looking very promising.
You might be happy with remake after remake of Mario and Zelda games, but there are plenty of players that want more than this. Sega fouled up with things like the Saturn and Mega CD, but at least they had the guts to be adventurous.
With the X-Box's hard drive, its not just a big memory card for game saves, Microsoft are urging companies to really use it as well as looking into things themselves that can be done with the console they've made. Players that like RPG's will be able to play a game where your actions from the start of the game will affect things much later on. Cut a young mans face with a blade, he could grow a few years with a scar clearly visible from what you did.
Broadband might not be widespread but at least you can get onto an online game without having to worry about slowdown as soon 4 players are in one match. Microsoft are looking into a headset so that players can communicate during online games rather than having to type all the time which can be very annoying in a frantic FPS game. Apparently, they're even looking into the idea of being able to change the sound of your voice through the headset too.
There are so many sad people hell bent on slagging off the X-Box, but at least Microsoft are trying things out to give players new experiences.
Nintendo might come up with clever ideas like Pokemon and a new shiny power up for Mario, but theres only so many times they can do that before it becomes old. Nintendo might offer online gaming sometime, but not until another company has had the guts to do it first.
Nintendo can make a game, theres no arguement about that, but they're pretty spineless when it comes to taking a risk.
Nice points Wookiee.
I own a PS2 and Xbox and must say that if somebody said too me which one would you give away I dont know which too chose.
Xbox has amazing games, PGR looks good, maybe even better than GT3, but I havent played GT3 for ages so I couldnt compare them at the moment. But game play wise it has alot of depth and is very addictive.
DOA3 looks amazing, I had my mouth open with amazement at some of the backdrops and action. Best looking beat em up on any system, and one of the best looking games on any system.
Halo is completely amazing. I have just spent 7 hours playing it link up with 2 mates on 2 Xboxes. The graphics are stunning, gameplay is amazing. Everything about this game is good.
I would say Xbox is a serious contender in the console race. PS2 is also good with games like MGS2, but I have completed that only once and dont really want to go back to it, because I have my Xbox.
Hopefully I will get JSRF on monday if SR deliver it. And then i'll have 4 launch games with my Xbox. I only had 3 launch games with both my PS2 and DC. I am also considering getting Amped, as my mate has that and I quite like it.
I own a PS2 and Xbox and must say that if somebody said too me which one would you give away I dont know which too chose.
Xbox has amazing games, PGR looks good, maybe even better than GT3, but I havent played GT3 for ages so I couldnt compare them at the moment. But game play wise it has alot of depth and is very addictive.
DOA3 looks amazing, I had my mouth open with amazement at some of the backdrops and action. Best looking beat em up on any system, and one of the best looking games on any system.
Halo is completely amazing. I have just spent 7 hours playing it link up with 2 mates on 2 Xboxes. The graphics are stunning, gameplay is amazing. Everything about this game is good.
I would say Xbox is a serious contender in the console race. PS2 is also good with games like MGS2, but I have completed that only once and dont really want to go back to it, because I have my Xbox.
Hopefully I will get JSRF on monday if SR deliver it. And then i'll have 4 launch games with my Xbox. I only had 3 launch games with both my PS2 and DC. I am also considering getting Amped, as my mate has that and I quite like it.
like ive always said xbox is crap.
yes it has good points but for a next gen console it has waaaaay to many flaws
yes it has good points but for a next gen console it has waaaaay to many flaws
WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> Make sure you get a proper SCART lead for it - the
> picture through the composite lead it fairly dark.
IS fairly dark, even!
> Make sure you get a proper SCART lead for it - the
> picture through the composite lead it fairly dark.
IS fairly dark, even!
Ok, cheers.
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