Alkaiser's Full Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Core System White Console
Ugh...I come strolling by reviews to checkout which has the most hits. Lo and behold, it's my XBox review...and it's got new comments. Apparently, some people, validity of their arguments notwithstanding feel that my review is a bit harsh.
Well, that's the way it's supposed to be. I was thoroughly unimpressed. But I suppose the review needs to be updated, and so update I shall, and probably condense, too because my last one was pretty long.
First off, I'd like to state that my review of the XBox may be considered incomplete in light of the fact that I do not own one. However, I fail to see how this makes any difference, seeing as how I've probably learned more about the system than say 75-80% of the people that do actually have one. In addition, they're all over EbWorlds, Targets, etc. It's not like my owning means I haven't touched the system.
Second, I'm a cynic by nature, and I don't forget past wrongdoings. I leave them around for reference in case the same pattern emerges. That's why I'm so harsh on the GameCube, it's why I laugh at most of Sony's first party offerings, and it adds a bit of why I dislike the XBox.
So, let's take a look, shall we, at the XBox.
First off this is the biggest game system on the market. Not by console sales, not by game sales, but in terms of sheer dimensions. I don't like the controller, it's too large for my hands, but I guess a smaller one would look strange in proportion to the system itself.
Asthetics aside, the XBox is supposed to have the most powerful graphics processing ability in a console to date. Ok. Big deal. As I said in my PS2 review, we've pretty much hit the limit of what our eye can process. If you're looking for a huge jump graphical quality and such from the DC and PS2 to the XBox and you simply won't find it.
There is a difference in how much is on the screen, and there's a mild anti-aliasing edge over the PS2, but when it all comes down to it, it's isn't really the anti-aliasing the graphics that make a Final Fantasy Tactics better than say, King's Field II or Beyond the Beyond.
What makes a game system able to compete are the games, and therein lies of crux of this, and what would be any competent review. Microsoft and Nintendo find themselves in the uncomfortable situation of not really having much at launch, and having nothing in the pipeline for a good long time.
This same problem befell the Dreamcast and Nintendo 64, and if Microsoft and Nintendo can't find a mega hit, a la Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear Solid 2, or even an SSX that is exclusive to their systems, then you might as well bring down the curtain, and start writing obituaries.
Microsoft had a better launch than the GameCube did, which I didn't think would happen initally, but I guess I should have considering Nintendo was lobbing kids titles out there for their customers again.
However, and this is where my cycnicism comes in, all of the A-Class title Microsoft's got out right now have all been squireled away from other consoles and platforms.
Halo was announced by Bungie as a PC title first, at the same E3 as Oni. Later, Microsoft buys Bungie and says, "No, Halo will NOT be on the PC." What could have been the PC game to become what Tribes 2 should have been is now reduced to a controller based FPS, which I will never be able to get into.
The intense multiplayer support that would have come standard with the PC, is now reduced to 4-player split screen. This displeased me, and I pretty much wrote off the game.
Munch's, Dead or Alive 3 and Shenmue are other similar examples. These games are sequels with ongoing storylines/persistent universes that have been taken away from one console to another. Instead of just paying for the price of the games to finish the story, the fan is now forced between 2 fairly unpleasant choices:
1) Never finish the story.
or
2) Plunk down another $300 + price of game to continue the story.
What does this all have to do with the success of the system?
Everything.
First off, there's no better way to get a group of game fans mad then to tell them the price of their entertainment has just gotten $300 larger. Mad people = opposition supporters. (The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all that.)
Secondly, with nothing high quality coming from first party developers, the question now becomes, how much longer, if at all will the system continue to have something to offer gamers?
This isn't really the system's fault. However, the system's success and/or failure rides upon it. Without games, there's no reason to buy the system, and if a company can't come up with any of its own decent titles, reliance on 3rd party work is key. And in the heat of commercial "battle", it's always your lynchpin that gets bought away.
So the future of the XBox remains uncertain. I don't have high hopes for it. I don't think it'll doom Microsoft, and I don't think it'll die off after version 1. I never did, and I never said it did.
Enough with the gloom, time for some positive things to say. I am impressed by the fact that the XBox comes with a progressive scan DVD player. Nice touch. If it was region free, I would stop writing this article right here, and go out and buy one and tell you all to do the same.
The system also comes with a broadband adapter built in (although no real gaming network as of yet, I don't think there are any games that take advantage of it.) and a hard drive. I can't shake the feeling that this is pretty much "just" a computer. Add to this the fact that they XBox games at E3 were being powered by PCs according to independent accounts, and that lends a bit of credence to it as well.
However, the hard drive allows the XBox to do something that the other machines haven't really been able to do effectively, and that is cache information. This will leads to shorter load times, and eliminate the need for a memory card, something that's always bothered me when it came to consoles. (I pay $64 for 512MB of RAM, and $20 for 32K? Excuse me?)
That's all good with me. It's a solution that's been a long time proposed, and Microsoft is the first console to incorporate a hard drive straight out of the box.
But, feature full consoles are like feature full cars. They look good on paper, but they've got to have a way to win the support of the people. Whether or not Microsoft can do so determines its fate. I'm not spending $300 hoping it'll pan out, and I don't think anyone else in their right mind should do so either.
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