DoctorGonzo's very late and not very coherent X-Box review
Well, I managed to get an X-Box for Christmas, and I thought I might as well document the experience for the benefit or detriment of all.
First off.....the OBE (Out Of Box Experience)
Opened the box at the wrong end (it was Christmas morning, I was excited
) and pulled out the Styrofoam "bookend". Slid out the X-Box, which was wrapped very thoroughly in ant-static plastic.
There seemed to be a never ending stream of components behind it. I would assess what I had, realize there was something missing, and then I would frantically dig around and find something hidden behind the other bookend.
It was a very well-packed system. Everything is well wrapped and padded. Comes with a composite AV cable. No coaxial for you! (Though, one is available, if you must use one)
Onto the setup...........
Plugged in the power cable.....it sucks. Doesn't feel quite right. Think about the way the USB cable feels on an Iomega 100MB Zip drive. Yeah...that. Very loose. It isn't abundantly clear how it should go. Just sort of sits there.
Plugged in the controller.....snapped in soundly. Just like you would want it to. Makes a very firm connection.
Plugged in the video cable (3rd party S-Video/Composite).....snapped in soundly. It's not going anywhere. The only trouble I had was figuring out which end of the S-Video cable was "up" even after I found the notch. This always happens to me, so it really isn't an X-Box issue, per sae.
Started it up......nifty flare effect and the X-Box logo appears, followed by a few questions. ?What language do you speak?? "What time zone are you in?", "Do you observe daylight savings?", "What day is it?" "What time is it?". This information is saved and updated even when the power cable is removed.
You are presented with a menu. "Memory", "Music" and "Settings". Memory is for removing saved games and the like, "Music" is for ripping CDs and creating your own game soundtracks. And Settings is for obscure stuff like if you want the machine to turn itself off after 6 hours of inactivity. Not much there, really.
CD ripping is fast, and if you have Project Gotham Racing it proves to be invaluable. It didn't like my Imation-brand CDRs. I'll have to look up which ones it will cooperate with. Typing in the names of the songs is tedious with the controller, but it?s worth it, IMO.
Popped in a game (Project Gotham) and marveled at the graphics. It really is stunning. The in-store displays on crappy TVs with bad connections don?t really do it justice.
General Observations???.
Load times for all games are short. Very short. No dropped framerates except in a few Halo cut scenes. Blame this on lack of optimization due to time constraints. Actual gameplay never slows down and after using it for a while it becomes obvious that the X-Box can handle very demanding games. Some battles in Halo are simply massive, with huge, sprawling environments. (Think Saving Private Ryan )
Don?t base performance on in-store demos.
The on weak spot with the X-Box graphics-wise has nothing to do with the machine itself. Anything less than an S-Video connection does the machine a disservice. Composite is OK, but much of the finer details don?t show up. Don?t make judgments until you?ve seen it through a real connection.
The controller fits my hands like a glove. Somewhat smaller controllers are available, and the ultra-small Japanese controller should be available soon. They have two expansion slots and two independent, built in rumble mechanisms ? one on either side. The one really nifty feature is the auto-breakaway cables. If you put too much tension on the controller cable, it will snap in two, the game will pause and you will be prompted to reattach the two halves and press Start. I had forgotten about this until I tried to pull the cable just a little bit too far. I?ve seen many a system crash to the floor, or come close to destroying the controller cables thanks to mishaps. This a very welcome feature, indeed.
The system UI is excellent. You won?t believe this is a Microsoft UI. Seriously. It is simple, straightforward and works perfectly. Let?s just pretend it?s from someone else, and move right along.
DVD playback is a breeze. I only had one problem with one DVD and that was pixelation in the concert footage on the U2 Elevation 2001 DVD. ?The Making Of? featurette and every other DVD I threw at it played crystal clear. The DVD remote is remarkably light compared to my parent?s dedicated DVD player. Takes two AAA batteries and is laid out very well for the average adult male hand. The dongle (which contains the receiver and DVD license) plugs into any port and has excellent reception. It fits snugly against the case and sits soundly in the port.
The Games
Halo ? What can I say about Halo? It is annoying as hell for the first 20 minutes thanks to the controls, then it becomes the best game you?ve played all year. The controls take a while to get used to, but after you play for a while it?s as easy and straightforward as a keyboard and mouse. The game is long, and it is beautiful. Expansive outdoor environments rival anything I?ve seen on a PC. You can have a beautiful beach, with 15 NPCs running around shooting weapons with no slow-downs whatsoever. Flare effects galore, and the best physics engine I?ve ever seen. It is not a normal FPS. The AI is superb, the NPCs are actually useful and don?t get in your way, while the enemies are horrifically smart and could easily pass off as humans if you didn?t know better.
The 10 levels are subdivided into smaller missions, which can take literally hours and hours and hours to complete.
The game looks short in the beginning, then once you reach the 3rd hour, you begin to understand that you will lose many days worth of sleep in your quest to figure out the mysteries of Halo. There are just so many good things to say, it?s hard to know where to begin. Ask me if you want to know more
Rating 10/10
Project Gotham Racing ? Wow, wow, wow, wow??????this is not GT3, so don?t even go there. It doesn?t try to be GT3. It is a different type of game. Speed is not the main objective. There is no car tweaking. It?s judges you on how well you drive, not on how fast (most of the time, there is quite a bit of racing for speed, but it?s not the main objective). The graphics are beautiful, the reflections are great and the damage model is a welcome addition. The use of real radio station DJs and playlists from the different cities is quite nice. The ability to use your own ripped music with the radio DJs is simply awesome. The concept of striving for style works very well. It adds a new dimension that really adds to the longativity.
Rating 10/10
Air Force Delta Storm ? Utter shite. Don?t waste your time on this one.
Rating 0.5/10
Dead Or Alive 3 ? Absolutely stunnig graphics. Beats anything on any console, hands down. Single player action gets a bit tedious after a while. Simply great party game.
Rating 7.8/10
Coming Soon??.review of Max Payne.
Overall
Likes-
-\tGreat graphics.
-\tCan handle some heavy loads?. some of the things in Halo couldn?t be done on many modern desktops without a serious slowdown. The X-Box jut shrugs it off and cranks out the action. All slowdowns in games are the result of lack of optimizations. This is obvious when you see what does and does not slow down the console. Run-of-the-mill cut-scene?. slowdown? Massive battle the likes of which never seen before?smooth as buttah.
-\tExcellent DVD playback
-\tController is great for adult hands
-\tThe UI is wonderful
-\tThe console is rock-solid-stable. No crashes.
-\tBreakaway controller cable is just one of those ?why didn?t someone think of that before!? kinda things.
-\tAbility to create your own soundtracks is marvelous
-\tEthernet port is a welcome addition
-\tHard drive is another one of those ?why didn?t someone think of that before? things?.
-\tLaunch lineup is strong
Dislikes-
-\tThe case is totally unremarkable
-\tIt is heavy, and feels delicate
-\tAttracts dust
-\tA bit expensive
First off.....the OBE (Out Of Box Experience)
Opened the box at the wrong end (it was Christmas morning, I was excited
) and pulled out the Styrofoam "bookend". Slid out the X-Box, which was wrapped very thoroughly in ant-static plastic.There seemed to be a never ending stream of components behind it. I would assess what I had, realize there was something missing, and then I would frantically dig around and find something hidden behind the other bookend.
It was a very well-packed system. Everything is well wrapped and padded. Comes with a composite AV cable. No coaxial for you! (Though, one is available, if you must use one)
Onto the setup...........
Plugged in the power cable.....it sucks. Doesn't feel quite right. Think about the way the USB cable feels on an Iomega 100MB Zip drive. Yeah...that. Very loose. It isn't abundantly clear how it should go. Just sort of sits there.
Plugged in the controller.....snapped in soundly. Just like you would want it to. Makes a very firm connection.
Plugged in the video cable (3rd party S-Video/Composite).....snapped in soundly. It's not going anywhere. The only trouble I had was figuring out which end of the S-Video cable was "up" even after I found the notch. This always happens to me, so it really isn't an X-Box issue, per sae.
Started it up......nifty flare effect and the X-Box logo appears, followed by a few questions. ?What language do you speak?? "What time zone are you in?", "Do you observe daylight savings?", "What day is it?" "What time is it?". This information is saved and updated even when the power cable is removed.
You are presented with a menu. "Memory", "Music" and "Settings". Memory is for removing saved games and the like, "Music" is for ripping CDs and creating your own game soundtracks. And Settings is for obscure stuff like if you want the machine to turn itself off after 6 hours of inactivity. Not much there, really.
CD ripping is fast, and if you have Project Gotham Racing it proves to be invaluable. It didn't like my Imation-brand CDRs. I'll have to look up which ones it will cooperate with. Typing in the names of the songs is tedious with the controller, but it?s worth it, IMO.
Popped in a game (Project Gotham) and marveled at the graphics. It really is stunning. The in-store displays on crappy TVs with bad connections don?t really do it justice.
General Observations???.
Load times for all games are short. Very short. No dropped framerates except in a few Halo cut scenes. Blame this on lack of optimization due to time constraints. Actual gameplay never slows down and after using it for a while it becomes obvious that the X-Box can handle very demanding games. Some battles in Halo are simply massive, with huge, sprawling environments. (Think Saving Private Ryan )
Don?t base performance on in-store demos.
The on weak spot with the X-Box graphics-wise has nothing to do with the machine itself. Anything less than an S-Video connection does the machine a disservice. Composite is OK, but much of the finer details don?t show up. Don?t make judgments until you?ve seen it through a real connection.
The controller fits my hands like a glove. Somewhat smaller controllers are available, and the ultra-small Japanese controller should be available soon. They have two expansion slots and two independent, built in rumble mechanisms ? one on either side. The one really nifty feature is the auto-breakaway cables. If you put too much tension on the controller cable, it will snap in two, the game will pause and you will be prompted to reattach the two halves and press Start. I had forgotten about this until I tried to pull the cable just a little bit too far. I?ve seen many a system crash to the floor, or come close to destroying the controller cables thanks to mishaps. This a very welcome feature, indeed.
The system UI is excellent. You won?t believe this is a Microsoft UI. Seriously. It is simple, straightforward and works perfectly. Let?s just pretend it?s from someone else, and move right along.
DVD playback is a breeze. I only had one problem with one DVD and that was pixelation in the concert footage on the U2 Elevation 2001 DVD. ?The Making Of? featurette and every other DVD I threw at it played crystal clear. The DVD remote is remarkably light compared to my parent?s dedicated DVD player. Takes two AAA batteries and is laid out very well for the average adult male hand. The dongle (which contains the receiver and DVD license) plugs into any port and has excellent reception. It fits snugly against the case and sits soundly in the port.
The Games
Halo ? What can I say about Halo? It is annoying as hell for the first 20 minutes thanks to the controls, then it becomes the best game you?ve played all year. The controls take a while to get used to, but after you play for a while it?s as easy and straightforward as a keyboard and mouse. The game is long, and it is beautiful. Expansive outdoor environments rival anything I?ve seen on a PC. You can have a beautiful beach, with 15 NPCs running around shooting weapons with no slow-downs whatsoever. Flare effects galore, and the best physics engine I?ve ever seen. It is not a normal FPS. The AI is superb, the NPCs are actually useful and don?t get in your way, while the enemies are horrifically smart and could easily pass off as humans if you didn?t know better.
The 10 levels are subdivided into smaller missions, which can take literally hours and hours and hours to complete.
The game looks short in the beginning, then once you reach the 3rd hour, you begin to understand that you will lose many days worth of sleep in your quest to figure out the mysteries of Halo. There are just so many good things to say, it?s hard to know where to begin. Ask me if you want to know more
Rating 10/10
Project Gotham Racing ? Wow, wow, wow, wow??????this is not GT3, so don?t even go there. It doesn?t try to be GT3. It is a different type of game. Speed is not the main objective. There is no car tweaking. It?s judges you on how well you drive, not on how fast (most of the time, there is quite a bit of racing for speed, but it?s not the main objective). The graphics are beautiful, the reflections are great and the damage model is a welcome addition. The use of real radio station DJs and playlists from the different cities is quite nice. The ability to use your own ripped music with the radio DJs is simply awesome. The concept of striving for style works very well. It adds a new dimension that really adds to the longativity.
Rating 10/10
Air Force Delta Storm ? Utter shite. Don?t waste your time on this one.
Rating 0.5/10
Dead Or Alive 3 ? Absolutely stunnig graphics. Beats anything on any console, hands down. Single player action gets a bit tedious after a while. Simply great party game.
Rating 7.8/10
Coming Soon??.review of Max Payne.
Overall
Likes-
-\tGreat graphics.
-\tCan handle some heavy loads?. some of the things in Halo couldn?t be done on many modern desktops without a serious slowdown. The X-Box jut shrugs it off and cranks out the action. All slowdowns in games are the result of lack of optimizations. This is obvious when you see what does and does not slow down the console. Run-of-the-mill cut-scene?. slowdown? Massive battle the likes of which never seen before?smooth as buttah.
-\tExcellent DVD playback
-\tController is great for adult hands
-\tThe UI is wonderful
-\tThe console is rock-solid-stable. No crashes.
-\tBreakaway controller cable is just one of those ?why didn?t someone think of that before!? kinda things.
-\tAbility to create your own soundtracks is marvelous
-\tEthernet port is a welcome addition
-\tHard drive is another one of those ?why didn?t someone think of that before? things?.
-\tLaunch lineup is strong
Dislikes-
-\tThe case is totally unremarkable
-\tIt is heavy, and feels delicate
-\tAttracts dust
-\tA bit expensive
Comments
Max payne is a great game, I have it on PC, although the PC version is buggy as all hell and freezes alot, I'm sure the X-box version(and the mac version at that) will be much better in terms of playabilty, but the bullet-time is just sooo much fun, and the game is really challenging and engaging. I enjoyed max payne on the PC.
sounds like the x-box isn't as bad as I've experienced,but as I said before, I'm perfectly happy with my gamecube(except that I've already beaten all the games I have for it..got it the day it came out and just coudln't stop playing)
[quote]One question: Why does Air Force Delta suck so much?<hr></blockquote>
The camera is locked like 5 feet off the tail of the plane, the graphics are grainy, the ground textures look like the building textures from Tomb Raider 2 set horizontally, and the gameplay goes something like this:
*missle warning*
*waiting for missle to hit*
*5 days later, still waiting for missle to hit*
*point plane at target*
*hit trigger*
*tiny explosion*
*repeat*
There it is, that's the game.
The ground attack part consists of the same thing.
It is the most boring and utterly unfufilling game I've played in a long time. And the sountrack - which consists of a constant stream of 80's guitar riffs - makes you want to pop in Halo just to hear the stunning music, as opposed to the Maraiah Carey-quality crap this thing includes (without an option to turn off, I might add)
[ 01-05-2002: Message edited by: DoctorGonzo ]</p>
I just got back from my friends house...he has XBox and a ton of games. He had AFD and Project Gotham, but we had so much fun 2 player in Halo we never got to the other games. Your comment about the music in Halo is dead on...I absolutely love it...ever since I first heard it at MWNY 99 I've never forgotten it. It sounds eerie and mysterious, dark and ominious. Very cool.
The vehicles in Halo are not as well done as I would have liked. They are very hard to control, much harder than say, 4x4 EVO or Driver. And while I got used to the gamepad, I couldn't shake the feeling that if I had my trusty keyboard and mouse combo I could nail every alien with one shot due to my well trained Q3 trigger impulses.
Halo on it's own is just amazing. The fact that it is held back by traditional console annoyances will be fixed soon I hope by the imminent release of PC and Mac versions...sometime in 2003.
<strong>hmmm, I like My gamecube, I'm perfectly happy with it.
Max payne is a great game, I have it on PC, although the PC version is buggy as all hell and freezes alot, I'm sure the X-box version(and the mac version at that) will be much better in terms of playabilty, but the bullet-time is just sooo much fun, and the game is really challenging and engaging. I enjoyed max payne on the PC.
I am happy with my Gamecube too.
sounds like the x-box isn't as bad as I've experienced,but as I said before, I'm perfectly happy with my gamecube(except that I've already beaten all the games I have for it..got it the day it came out and just coudln't stop playing)</strong><hr></blockquote>
[ 01-06-2002: Message edited by: Eugene ]</p>