I (like most Mac users) am not a big M$ fan, and I think the only M$ apps I still use are Word, and occaisionally WMP. But I would buy an XBox over say, a PS2, for one reason: Halo. Well, 2 reasons, Halo, and Halo 2, which will be out this winter sometime I think, which would put it ahead of Halo for Mac by some estimates, I have a few friends with Xboxes, and that will do me for now, but I may have to buy one this summer, since I won't be around any of them (being away from school). Anyway, my 2¢
Again, *yawn* It's been a "future title" for how many years now? The fact that Macsoft is publishing it doesn't make me the least bit more excited. I've gott agree with what others are saying here: too little too late \
the xBox has a 750 celeron and a custom chip from nVidia that is sligtly below the FX range in terms of functions... perhaps a bit ahead of it in terms of speed due to the custom hardware.
I am not going to buy a games console that is slower than my PC. I too have played Halo on the xBox, and as I said before I think it will rock with a mouse and a keyboard, but at the mo, trying to aim with the joypad is a pain in the ass... I think it actually takes away some of the playability.
the xBox has a 750 celeron and a custom chip from nVidia that is sligtly below the FX range in terms of functions... perhaps a bit ahead of it in terms of speed due to the custom hardware.
Make that a 700 Mhz PIII chip, and a custom Geforce 3, then you are right!
And the 'sligtly below the FX range' is just plain out bullshit...
No actually the XBox's CPU is a 733 MHz Pentium III not a Celery. And the graphics is a custom-made version of the nVidia GeForce 3 with 64 MB of VRAM - it's in no way related to the GeForce FX... in fact the FX would smoke the GeForce 3, it's much faster.
But I don't think CPU speed and raw graphics power have so much to do with game performance as the software or maybe some other factors. For example, the PS2 has only 4 MB of video RAM, yet it has graphics almost as good as the XBox which has 64 MB.
I've never experienced the "random freezes" and I have no idea about the "rock-bottom-quality" DVD drive, although I don't like how it requires you to buy a $30 remote + IR sensor just to watch DVDs.
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh. People have been asking Apple for quite a while now to sell a low-cost model at a loss merely for the investment of marketshare it would get them. They'd lose some money in the short run, but if they added 3% market share, it would really help in the long run. MS, in the gaming world, is like Apple but not as nice. Except they don't just have low market share, they're also brand new to the game. Do you think a new business coming up in a tough industry can get by making a huge profit all the time? No, they have to build up, maybe losing money at first, but that's just an investment for the future.
Finally, regarding Halo/Halo 2... I really want Halo 2 to come out but I think it'll be significantly more than a year before it happens. Definitely not this winter, more like NEXT winter, or next summer at the earliest. Halo for PC/Mac... probably by the end of 2003. Yeah, it's been way too long, and Bungie really dropped the ball. One person I talked to said that Bungie should have made Halo's code open-source just before MS bought them. That would have been funny, although I suppose MS wouldn't have bought them if they had done that.
Anyway, as I see it, it's just a game. I think it's still fun even though I've beaten every level on every difficulty setting... the multiplayer is great, very versatile, and the levels are so big that there's always something new to try or explore. And I actually haven't finished every level on every difficulty setting by myself so maybe I should work on that, should be much more difficult.
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh.
yea sony sells at a loss too, i think its hard not to in the console world now. cept nintendo is selling at a verry small loss. In the past before the GC they made money on every console sold.
Quote:
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno MS, in the gaming world, is like Apple but not as nice. Except they don't just have low market share, they're also brand new to the game.[/B]
I see your point but i would say nintendo is more like apple: strong fanatical user base for good reason, original, been around since the begining, etc.. And sony(ps2) is more like the MS of the computer world: inferior product but sill manages to out sell everyone cuz of huge software library and name recognition etc..
Quote:
Originally posted by Gargoyle am not going to buy a games console that is slower than my PC.
Doesnt work like that, they are two completely different animals.
I've never experienced the "random freezes" and I have no idea about the "rock-bottom-quality" DVD drive, although I don't like how it requires you to buy a $30 remote + IR sensor just to watch DVDs.
Oh, my roommate has never tried watching DVDs on it. He's got a real player for that. The XBox's drive is not at all tolerant of dirt or scratches, as he's found out the hard way (that's where some of the random freezes came from, although I've seen a goodly number of good old fashioned Windows errors and random behavior.)
Quote:
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh.
Yup. That's par for the course in the console industry: Sell the consoles at a loss, make money off games.
And that's where the XBox has run into trouble. MS was losing $200 a console at the outset, and they had, um, Halo. And Gotham City Racing. And, um...
Nintendo and Sony, on the other hand, have immense game libraries to profit from. Sony, in particular, was clever enough to make their console backward compatible, so they can still profit off their back catalog. MS, of course, doesn't have a back catalog.
Comments
SH
Originally posted by Defiant
Jack:
Again, *yawn*
I am not going to buy a games console that is slower than my PC. I too have played Halo on the xBox, and as I said before I think it will rock with a mouse and a keyboard, but at the mo, trying to aim with the joypad is a pain in the ass... I think it actually takes away some of the playability.
Originally posted by Gargoyle
the xBox has a 750 celeron and a custom chip from nVidia that is sligtly below the FX range in terms of functions... perhaps a bit ahead of it in terms of speed due to the custom hardware.
Make that a 700 Mhz PIII chip, and a custom Geforce 3, then you are right!
And the 'sligtly below the FX range' is just plain out bullshit...
But I don't think CPU speed and raw graphics power have so much to do with game performance as the software or maybe some other factors. For example, the PS2 has only 4 MB of video RAM, yet it has graphics almost as good as the XBox which has 64 MB.
I've never experienced the "random freezes" and I have no idea about the "rock-bottom-quality" DVD drive, although I don't like how it requires you to buy a $30 remote + IR sensor just to watch DVDs.
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh. People have been asking Apple for quite a while now to sell a low-cost model at a loss merely for the investment of marketshare it would get them. They'd lose some money in the short run, but if they added 3% market share, it would really help in the long run. MS, in the gaming world, is like Apple but not as nice. Except they don't just have low market share, they're also brand new to the game. Do you think a new business coming up in a tough industry can get by making a huge profit all the time? No, they have to build up, maybe losing money at first, but that's just an investment for the future.
Finally, regarding Halo/Halo 2... I really want Halo 2 to come out but I think it'll be significantly more than a year before it happens. Definitely not this winter, more like NEXT winter, or next summer at the earliest. Halo for PC/Mac... probably by the end of 2003. Yeah, it's been way too long, and Bungie really dropped the ball. One person I talked to said that Bungie should have made Halo's code open-source just before MS bought them. That would have been funny, although I suppose MS wouldn't have bought them if they had done that.
Anyway, as I see it, it's just a game. I think it's still fun even though I've beaten every level on every difficulty setting... the multiplayer is great, very versatile, and the levels are so big that there's always something new to try or explore. And I actually haven't finished every level on every difficulty setting by myself so maybe I should work on that, should be much more difficult.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh.
yea sony sells at a loss too, i think its hard not to in the console world now. cept nintendo is selling at a verry small loss. In the past before the GC they made money on every console sold.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno MS, in the gaming world, is like Apple but not as nice. Except they don't just have low market share, they're also brand new to the game.[/B]
I see your point but i would say nintendo is more like apple: strong fanatical user base for good reason, original, been around since the begining, etc.. And sony(ps2) is more like the MS of the computer world: inferior product but sill manages to out sell everyone cuz of huge software library and name recognition etc..
Originally posted by Gargoyle am not going to buy a games console that is slower than my PC.
Doesnt work like that, they are two completely different animals.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
I've never experienced the "random freezes" and I have no idea about the "rock-bottom-quality" DVD drive, although I don't like how it requires you to buy a $30 remote + IR sensor just to watch DVDs.
Oh, my roommate has never tried watching DVDs on it. He's got a real player for that. The XBox's drive is not at all tolerant of dirt or scratches, as he's found out the hard way (that's where some of the random freezes came from, although I've seen a goodly number of good old fashioned Windows errors and random behavior.)
As far as MS selling them at a loss to increase penetration into the console market... well duh.
Yup. That's par for the course in the console industry: Sell the consoles at a loss, make money off games.
And that's where the XBox has run into trouble. MS was losing $200 a console at the outset, and they had, um, Halo. And Gotham City Racing. And, um...
Nintendo and Sony, on the other hand, have immense game libraries to profit from. Sony, in particular, was clever enough to make their console backward compatible, so they can still profit off their back catalog. MS, of course, doesn't have a back catalog.
-alcimedes