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Xbox...decent games...bad system...

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AlexMax:
Well, I just want to tell the forum about my experiences with Xbox.  Yes, I was part of the Xbox badmouthing crowd and mocked it because of it's huge controller size and 'lack of quality games' and also the reports of it crashing every other second.

Well I have gotten the oppertunity to play an Xbox personally for extended periods of time, and from a gamers standpoint, here is what I found.

Graphically, it looks like PC graphics.  You know what I'm talking about.  It looks like someone slapped Direct3D onto a console.  Not a bad thing initially, mind you, but games played on an Xbox had that 'PC' feel.  You know what I'm talking about.  As opposed to the GC and the PS2 which have engines designed for consoles that ultimately yield...different graphics.  Not necisarily better...just different.

As for the controller...to be quite honest playing on the twin sticks was a dream for me.  However, when it came time for me to press buttons, I would often press the incorrect one due to the boneheaded way they were laid out on the somewhat oversized (but still usable to me) controller.  I can see where complaints would come from.

The built in Hard Drive was handy for storing games without a memory card.  Brings back the good ol' days of the N64 where only a few games needed a memory card.

As for the games, I have played both Perfect Dark and Halo to the end.  In fact, I was so used to PD style controls that I switched to legacy controls in Halo so it would function more like an N64 would (c buttons would be the right stick)

All in all, I am qutie pleased with Halo as a game.  The storyline was nothing new, but it was engaging, and the vehicles are just plain cool and somehow they got it down pat.  The second half of the games lagged behind in terms of interest (you went through places you already been before, with weather changes and more enemies) and some levels (the library) were uninspired to say the least.  I was also disappointed that multiplayer did not support bots.  However, other than that the game is very well done.  The melee fighting works a lot better than one would expect it to, and the ability to throw grenades at will and jump made me miss those abilities enough for me to notice when playing Perfect Dark the other day.

Due to problems with the Xbox, however, it would occationally freeze up for ten seconds at a time on one playthrough at random intervals.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I know of no other game on any other system that does that, and the problem corrected itself after a reboot.

On to Dead or Alive 3.  The game was a standard fare beat em' up, immediatly accessable yet very in depth if you practiced, similar to how VF4 is.  However, I noted that the music durring the select a charactor phase would skip after a while.  The owner of the Xbox attributed it to the upgrade that he got in the official Xbox magazine that added more charactors to DOA3.  Something that NEVER should have happened...

Upgrading video games?  What next?

Either way, I was quite surprised by the Xbox.  Enough for me to buy one?  No, because I have no intention of giving money to an orginization that invades my privacy and that I know would not give a flying fuck about their customers anymore if they ended up dominating that market.  Also, the problems with the Xbox were just enough to remind me who the Xbox was made by.  It was a shame that such good games had to come out on such an awfully designed system.

On another note, I have heard a lot of flak from the Xbox junkies and even some of the Nintendo fatefuls that were bashing the new 'Celda' or Zelda GCN game because of it's look, and giving vague information about why they think it sucks otherwise.  I personally am looking forward to it...

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: AlexMax ]

cloudstrife:

quote:Originally posted by AlexMax:

On another note, I have heard a lot of flak from the Xbox junkies and even some of the Nintendo fatefuls that were bashing the new 'Celda' or Zelda GCN game because of it's look, and giving vague information about why they think it sucks otherwise.  I personally am looking forward to it...

[ July 22, 2002: Message edited by: AlexMax ]
--- End quote ---



so am i!!!

tratan:
My little brother recently visited a friend who owns an Xbox.  They started up some snowboarding game, and my brother is impressed for about 5 minutes (he has never used a Playstation).  Then in the middle of a complicated jump, everything freezes.  My brother asks his friend, "What happened?"  The reply: "Oh, it does that sometimes.  You just hit this button here."

My brother isn't stupid.  He's switching to Linux with my help.

badkarma:
The xbox controllers are definatly too large for my hands. The games exclusively available for the xbox don't want to make me buy one (well ... maybe except for panzer dragoon, but I never buy a console for one game). Like you said... the graphics have a "pc look" to them, seeing my pc is a athlon 1400 w/a geforce 3 it's a lot better at rendering graphics (and handling game ai and logic) then an xbox.

People slagging off zelda wouldn't know great gameplay if it bit them in the ass *and* smack them in the face with a large trout. In general though, these are the same peole that thinks that a good game at least contains one of the following:

blood, sex, a (insert weapon of destruction here) to shoot the bad guys

choasforages:
yeah, and i have never had it crash on me, even for 14hour halo games/*you can actally beat it in about that time one easy, now on heroice skill.....*/ then agian my xbox is not crammed in some cabinet with the fan blocked, its in the open, sitting on top. as for graphics, the xbox is the lowest commen denomitar, so they can optimize the hell out of things, unlike say someones 400mhz k6-III or such. a 700PIII is the slowest thing an xbox games will run on, /*and proubably the fastest too*/

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