kjell1979's Full Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Core System White Console
Update 12-15-05
This is just an update from my initial Xbox review. I have spent almost a year and a half playing Xbox games and I wanted to re-examine whether what I said a year ago is still just as relevant today.
Intro
So I finally did it. I bit the bullet and got an Xbox. I had been teasing my wife for months over it. Ever since I got my GameCube the inside jokes have been going back and forth when I will inevitably get the Xbox. Of course they were jokes and just that. I had no intention of really putting the strain on our family with another baby due soon and my daughter getting into the stages of her wanting attention all the time.
The final straw came with the latest round of football games. I had noticed that many sports gamers in my demographic were playing their sports games on the Xbox. The gameplay videos looked spectacular. Outside of NCAA Football 2005 there were little to no frame rate issues. Everything looked smooth and wonderfully rendered. While playing the ESPN NFL 2K5 I began running into some framerate issues that really made me wish I had an Xbox. Besides, with the money stacked up in my Epinions account I have more than enough for an Xbox right? Besides Xbox Live, what additional accessories to I need? It has a hard drive so it's like a one time only purchase. Initially released in late 2001, it's been almost 3 years since the console launched that I jumped on board. So it's decided. I got one. God help us all.
The Hardware
The driving motivation behind the Xbox was to make it more powerful than any other competing game console short of a gaming PC. In a word, they succeeded, big time. The Xbox is outfitted with an Intel 733 MHz processor with 64 MB of RAM. It has a 233 MHz Nvidia graphics card that's capable of a maximum resolution of 1920x1080. It's equipped with an 8 GB internal hard drive as well as a 10/100 Ethernet card. It's sound system supports of to 256 channels as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound capability. It takes media DVD media that can contain roughly 8 GB of data as well as being able to play video DVDs and audio CDs.
Not all Xboxes have the same hardware. Early versions of the Xbox contained a Thompson DVD drive, which is now beginning to break down and display errors that it can't read the disc. More modern Xboxes contain the more reliable Samsung drive and a few models manufactured last year contain a Phillips drive. If you are in the market for an Xbox, you might want to consider buying it new as there is a greater possibility that you'll have the newer and more reliable Phillips or Samsung drives installed. Besides the DVD drives, roughly half of all the newer Xboxes contain a larger 10 GB Seagate hard drive instead of the 8 GB Western Digital. While I'm not familiar with hard drive reliability by brand these days, I would say the extra 20% more storage space is a plus even if you never use it.
The Xbox is also notorious for being big, bulky, and heavy like a PC tower crammed full of hardware goodies. The case is black with a green dot on top of the middle. Across the front is the power switch as well as four controller ports. The backside has the Ethernet plug, the AC adapter plug, as well as the port for the video cables. It's a very simple design.
Accessories
One of the best aspects of the Xbox is that it doesn't have many accessories that are necessary for a positive gaming experience. The biggest drain on cash for the other consoles is the memory card, allowing you to save your progress in your game. The Xbox has a hard drive that eliminates the need for a memory card. The sheer size of the hard drive allows companies to send out patches for their games if something is broken. While I'm not too fond of companies rushing buggy games out the door just so they can fill up your hard drive with patches later, this generally isn't an issue and most patches are limited to gameplay issues that directly affect online play.
There is one accessory that is somewhat necessary. If you wish to play DVDs on your Xbox, you need a remote. The PS2 allows you to play the DVDs using your controller, but most people like the ability to use a remote control. It's a great accessory that doesn't cost too much and you can get some mileage out of it as well.
If you wish to play games online as well as receive patches, you must register for Xbox Live. The Xbox Live starter kit comes with a headset, and a 3 or 12-month subscription card. You can purchase the subscription cards separately instead of paying the $6/month fee afterwards. The good part is that the subscriptions cards tend to cost less than the $6/month fee. When you register your gamer tag, even though your account might be paid up for months, you must provide a credit card. This is so they can continue to charge you should you forget to cancel after your free period is up. I don't really like the Xbox live system as you're continually paying for the right to play games online. However, given how much you save by not having to buy tons of memory cards, it is somewhat worth it. Also the yearly cost is that of one extra game, so it's not that bad.
The most important "accessory" is the controller. The now standard Xbox S Controller follows your basic "C" shape you see in the Playstation controllers, way back to the old Genesis and Super Nintendo controllers. There are two analog sticks and one Dpad in a layout similar to the GameCube. The left analog stick is above the Dpad on the left side of the controller. The right analog stick is below the 4 primary face buttons on the right side of the controller. The face buttons are marked "A" "B" "X" and "Y" and are arranged in a diamond pattern. Above the Y and B buttons on the top right side are two white and black buttons respectively. In between the Dpad and the right analog stick in middle bottom of the controller are the start and back buttons. They are like the start and select buttons on the old Nintendo controller. There's also one left and right trigger buttons on the front side of the controller. The "S" controller has a slightly different layout. Instead of the white and black buttons above the Y and B buttons, now they lie below the A and B buttons respectively. Also the Dpad and right analog stick are pushed closer together, where the back and start buttons are moved in a vertical arrangement to the left of the Dpad and left analog stick. There are older "classic" Xbox controllers which are much larger and have the black and white buttons placed above the 4 colored face buttons.
I feel that the controller has a couple flaws. First the non-S version comes off as too big and troublesome to use for smaller kids. The numerous face buttons on the right half of the controller are good for fighting games, but they can be cumbersome at times. The biggest flaw is that by only having two trigger buttons (as opposed to the Playstation's 4), you can only have two buttons easily reached when using the two analog sticks. The latter of my two complaints is clearly the biggest issue as it can really affect the control schemes of some sports games and many shooters.
Gaming Library
The gaming library reminds me a lot of the library for the old Genesis where you replace the action games with first person shooters and more graphically intensive games. The biggest reason why I say this is because for sports gamers, this is your haven. Not only do you get all the EA and Sega Sports titles, you also get the Microsoft XSN titles as well. While they generally aren't as spectacular as EA or Sega, they are much better than 989 as a whole. And since 989 is only developing baseball games for the time being, that's a huge advantage for the Xbox. Besides the typically array of football, basketball, hockey and baseball titles, there's the vastly underrated Top Spin tennis title. There's also all the hard hitting Midway games like MLB Slugfest and NHL Hitz in addition to extreme sports titles like Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series and Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX. Even the urban sports games like NFL Street and NBA Ballers are available on the Xbox. It's a very strong lineup.
The Xbox also has a strong lineup of First Person Shooters or FPSes. First and foremost is Halo and Halo 2 which are far and away the best shooters you'll find on a console. Beyond Halo there's also the Chronicles of Riddick, Unreal Championship, Brothers in Arms, Call of Duty, and the Tom Clancy series of games, which include some strong first person shooter titles, mixed with a lot of stealth.
The Xbox also has some other very strong titles. It has both Grand Theft Auto games, titles which helped to sell tons of PS2s. It also has exclusive titles like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, Forza Motorsport, Project Gotham Racing, and the latest Ninja Gaiden. Other titles that stand out on the Xbox when compared to their console counterparts are Soul Caliber II, the Burnout series, and Prince of Persia The Sands of Time.
The Xbox has many weak links to its library. For one it doesn't have a strong RPG lineup. The only standout titles are Baldur's Gate, The Elder Scrolls III, Fable, and two Xmen Legends games. All of which hardly hold a candle to the titles SquareEnix rolls out. In addition to a weak set of RPGs, there are very few adventure games that can stand up to the likes of the Legend of Zelda series on the GameCube. The Xbox isn't a good platform if you wish to play puzzle games either. For a diverse gamer, you can really be left wanting more despite all the strong titles.
One final note about the library is that now that the Xbox 360 is out, only a handful of games are backwards compatible:
Also given that the Xbox 360 is out there likely won't be very many new Xbox games between now and next Christmas. The library you see now will likely be what you get from now on. It's a strong library, but if you've already played many of these games before, don't look towards getting very many great new titles because they'll come out for the Xbox 360 instead.
PS2 vs. Xbox
The PS2 is very similar to the Xbox in many respects. While it depends on what you're looking for in features and what type of games you like, either machine might come out on top.
The game situation is one of the PS2's strengths in some aspects but not in others. The PS2 has a much larger library of games than the Xbox, and that doesn't count the counless great PS1 titles as well. The Xbox doesn't have backwards compatibility, as there was no predecessor to it. Between the two systems there aren't many games exclusive, and the titles that are exclusive tend to have a similar counterpart. They share just about all the same sports titles with the exception of Sony's sports franchise and Microsoft's XSN franchise. The PS2 has all but a few of the recent Square Enix games, where as the Xbox doesn't have any. However, there are some great titles like Halo 1 and 2, Fable, Ninja Gaiden, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic that are stellar hits exclusively for the Xbox. Also the Xbox has some great 3rd party support because of their superior hardware. The quality of games is slightly higher on the Xbox becase of its hardware. When I see a title for both PS2 and Xbox, I tend to get the Xbox version because it looks slightly better and I have more room to save my games on the hard drive.
Speaking of hardware, it's no contest that the Xbox is better. All the way around from the processor, to the memory, to the graphics card, to the sound card, to double the PS2's media capacity, the Xbox is just a superior machine. In addition, the Xbox comes with a built in hard drive, whereas the PS2's hard drive is an optional accessory which is under-utilized by its library of games. This means that the peripheral is essentially useless and you'll need to purchase memory cards to save your data. The Xbox also has 4 controller ports to the PS2's 2. I prefer the PS2's controller to the Xbox's. The Xbox one is big and clunky, and doesn't have the symmetry of the 4 shoulder buttons the PS2's has. However the Xbox has 6 face buttons, which is optimal for fighting games. The PS2 can play DVDs right out of the box with the controller plugged in, whereas the Xbox needs a DVD kit that comes with a remote. This is kind of a wash if you really desire a remote to watch DVDs.
The online capability is slightly to the advantage of the Xbox with one major drawback. Both systems have online capability. The PS2 leaves it up to the game publishers to determine how to get online, whereas the Xbox requires all online games to go through its online service "Xbox Live". The biggest difference here is that most online PS2 games are free to play online, whereas you have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $6/month to play on Xbox Live. The good part is that your subscription fee counts for all of Xbox's games, but the bad part is that you're essentially shelling out money after you bought your games if you wish to play online. This adds up to $120/year unless you buy a prepaid 3 or 12 month subscription card which can run from $20-$60 for unlimited online play. However, the advantage goes to the Xbox here not because of Xbox Live, but because they have the much better library and diversity of online games. In addition, the creation of a central paid user account goes a long way in preventing cheating online. While there will still be hackers and cheaters online, there are sigificantly less cheaters than on PS2 online games because of the threat to ban their Xbox Live account, something they might have already paid for.
There are some great reasons to choose an Xbox over the PS2. While the units cost the same amount new, you'll have a tough choice. Most adults, now that Grand Theft Auto is available on both systems, will see more value in the Xbox. Whereas role-playing game fans will probably side with the PS2. One final note about the Xbox is that the library won't be supported very well now that the Xbox 360 is out. So if you're looking to get an Xbox right now, the library of games might not increase very much between now and next Christmas. However, there are still tons of games out there which are worth playing. Since the Xbox 360 only has limited backwards compatibility, many of these games can be bought at a lower price.
Xbox vs. GameCube
When comparing the GameCube to the Xbox, your results depend on what kind of a gamer you are.
The hardware on the Xbox is superior to the GameCube. As far as the processor speed, RAM, video and sound card goes, the GameCube is far behind the Xbox. Both units have 4 controller ports built in it. However, the GameCube doesn't have any kind of DVD support, whereas the Xbox has the ability to play DVDs with the purchase of an additional accessory. The GameCube's media can hold a little more than 1/8 as much as the Xbox’s discs, and it relies on small memory cards instead of a built in hard drive. I prefer the GameCube's controller to the XBox's because it isn't as big and bulky. If you want to play games online, you're out of luck with the GameCube for now. While it has an online adapter, there are hardly any online games out there for the GameCube. However, with the Xbox you have a great amount of online games, but you have to pay a subscription fee to play. The Xbox offers no backwards compatibility whatsoever, whereas the GameCube has the Gameboy Advance Player accessory that allows you to play any Gameboy game on the system. It costs an additional $50, which is roughly $10 to $20 less than having a portable Gameboy Advance unit.
As far as the games go, the Xbox is beginning to pull away. While neither console has a massive game library, the Xbox has more games due to a signficantly greater number 3rd party developers in its camp. In addition they have much stronger online titles and sports titles. The hardware for the Xbox is so advanced that it's raising the ceiling for game development and gaming possibilities. The GameCube is beginning to lose 3rd party publishers like Sega due to slumping game sales. That doesn't mean that the GameCube is completely sunk when it comes to its games. Their exclusive titles are individually much better than the majority of the Xbox titles. But in time that may change. If you have young kids, the GameCube has a smallest percentage of rated M games compared to any other console including the Xbox. These games also have great graphics and finely tuned gameplay so even adults and experienced gamers appreciate their worth.
With the Xbox priced at $150, you certainly get your money's worth for the extra $50. However its worth compared to the GameCube is relative to the kinds of games you like to play. If you like sports and online games, then the Xbox is the way to go. If you like great gameplay and don't mind a smaller less controversial gaming library, then the GameCube is the better value.
Conclusion
When considering the Xbox, you also have to think about its future value. While Microsoft has ironed out many of the hardware issues that existed on its earlier consoles, you have to wonder what they didn't catch. I remain confident that my Xbox will last for a long time and will be a good value since I got it so late. Another consideration is the lack of future development for the console as well as the limited backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360. Sony has insisted all along that the next Playstation will be backwards compatible with all the old Playstation and Playstation 2 games; it also has a history of this. The Xbox has a setup where you can cut ties with it and move on to a bigger and better system easily. Your Xbox Live account can be cancelled once your free months are gone, and the library of games doesn't have very many titles of lasting value like RPGs. Many sports titles are traded in each year for the latest ones. With the exception being that exclusive licensing might cause you to want to keep your old copies of MVP Baseball 2005 and ESPN NFL 2K5. And while FPSes can remain in the limelight for a long time, newer ones can easily replace them as long as they are good. Just look at how Quake replaced Doom, but it wasn't until Unreal Tournament where people left Quake. For Xbox 360 owners and people still on the fence about buying one, Halo 3 will likely make people forget about Halo 2. Given the nature of the Xbox and how easy it is to cut ties once a newer version comes out, one huge drawback is its projected value in the next few years.
The Xbox isn't for everyone, but after examining my gaming climate, I determined it was for me. I love sports, and I love to play video game sports as well. I never used to play recently released games, but now that I am the Xbox is clearly more desirable. The machine is big, clunky, but also powerful and has surprisingly strong lineup of games despite gaping holes in many genres. However, the next year or two should be interesting to see what happens with the library of the Xbox. And I want to be there to watch it unfold first hand.
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