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Review: Microsoft Xbox Video Game System
I have said it before and I will say it again. The Xbox is the SUV of video games.
I just got back from taking my Xbox over to BBQ's place over in Seattle and in retrospect it wasn't a 100% enjoyable experience but now he knows what Crazy Taxi 3 is like. They system is damn heavy and bulky. It is about the size of a medium PC turned on it size and you should make sure that you have the space to put the Xbox on your TV stand before you get one.
A lot of people think that the Xbox is the first American video game system in a long time that actually has a shot at main stream popularity. While the Xbox is getting quite popular in the US and Europe it has no chance to defeat the Playstation2 or wiping out the Nintendo Gamecube.
The Xbox has a Nvidia graphic processor that was designed and built in Taiwan, a Intel CPU that was probably designed by engineers from India and it was made some where in Asia, and is assembled in China and Mexico but the money and name is from Redmond Washington so people still think of the Xbox as an American product. I don't really think of Microsoft as an "American company" but as a multinational conglomerate or a Zaibatsu but I digress.
I am trying to judge the system for what it is regardless of who made it.
Technical info via Planet Xbox.com
The Xbox actually has more in common with PC architecture than the PS2 or Gamecube. It is a bit strange that Microsoft went with an CISC based Intel CPU rather than RISC chips that have been in every 16-bit + game system. I features a custom Intel CPU that runs at 733 MHz.
But where the real heart of the Xbox is a 233Mhz custom-designed chip, developed by Microsoft and Nvidia that Nvidia later went on to base the GeForce 3 on. I really should be called the MS/Nvidia Xbox rather than just giving all the credit to Redmond.
This allows the Xbox to pull off anything that the PS2 and Gamecube can do as well as some super slick lighting and texturing effects effortlessly using Direct X and Nvidia shaders. My only complaint with the Xbox graphics is that there is no VGA adapter like there is for the Sega Dreamcast. PC gamers would be rearing to buy the Xbox if they could hook it up to their PC monitors.
The Xbox also has 64 Megs of memory that can be accessed at over twice the speed of the PS2. And an industry first of an 8gig Hard Drive. This is a damn big deal and I will bet you one million dollars that both future systems from Nintendo and Sony will have internal hard drives after seeing how the Xbox uses it. The hard drive is used to store and cache data from the DVD ROM and the Xbox can move around a hell of a lot of information very very quickly. This can also be used for updates that can be downloaded and installed. The Xbox Exhibition Demo disk contained new and even more revealing clothes for the girls of Dead or Alive 3. Also you can copy CD music tracks to the Xbox hard drive to be used in certain games like Sega GT 2002 and Halo. This is a very cool feature and I wish that more game developers put this into their Xbox games. The HD can be used in the future to have fully downloaded games, demos and additional content. Not to mention almost unlimited space for custom characters and user created content. I hope that Microsoft finds new and innovative ways of using the hard drive with the Xbox live network.
A note about the custom music. You can only use legal store bought CDs. CD-Rs that were custom made will not work in the Xbox and if the CD is scratched it can not be copied to the hard disk. Marvel VS Capcom 2 needs this custom music option in the worst possible way. (Gonna Take you for a ride!!)
The system is so damn powerful that they are probably taking over a hundred dollar hit on every system made to be made up from profits from game sales.
Also the Xbox has a built in Ethernet port and can be used in LAN games, direct connections and the Xbox Live network. LAN games on a console cool!
The Xbox Live Network is so damn exciting that it is seriously making me consider getting a cable modem to take advantage of it but I am waiting for some more games to come out for the network first.
The systems original US controller sucked but luckily they brought out the Japanese controller. I have yet to meet anyone who likes the original US Xbox controller better than the Japanese style type S controller.
But if tech specs were all that mattered we would be all using Beta Max VCRs instead of VHS!
The problems facing the Xbox are not hard ware related but software and political based. There is simply a lot more quality games on the Playstation2 and major Japanese game developers are not putting their strongest games on the Xbox. This is probably with the exception of Sega who in my mind is the best damn Xbox game developer out there. Capcom is starting to make quality ports to the Xbox. Microsoft has actually been paying companies to port their games to the Xbox. Such as Sega's Shenmue2 and Namco's Dead to Rights. There are some quality games finally hitting the market but the first batch of Xbox games contained some really big stinky duds. There is to many damn sports games on it if you ask me. Halo and DOA3 were the only launch titles that were not laughable.
The Xbox also sufferers from a syndrome that the MS executives have called "God damn it the Xbox is not a PC and it shouldn't do PC things!" syndrome. There is no keyboard, internet web browser or email program for the Xbox. There was a Herculean hacker effort to try and get Linux to run on the Xbox but it takes a degree in computer science and electrical engineering, a Linux PC and some illegal chips from Hong Kong to get it to work BUT IT IS TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE just really forking hard!
Also if you could web surf on the Xbox it could be used as a great porn collecting tool. One day I am going to finish my article on the fear of user generated content in video games.
Also it is god damn greedy of Microsoft to charge 30 bucks for a remote control so I can play DVDs on the Xbox. I mean the DVD drive and software players are built in they system but it will not play DVD movies unless you pay them the extra bling bling. It would be interesting to see how the Xbox works with the Windows Media Edition PCs and I wouldn't be surprised to see collaborations between the two TV boxes from Microsoft.
The system is not doing so well in Japan and the rest of Asia but it really doesn't need to at this point. The Xbox is powered by very large pocket books in Redmond who are willing to take massive losses to make future profits possible but Microsoft is not likely to break even on the Xbox for half a decade since it was first shipped. But it is not really unlimited and if the Microsoft executives think that there is no chance that the Xbox division can get out of it's start up debts they would have no problem 86ing the project and writing it off as a bad tax loss.
I would recommend the Xbox to people who are more into PC games and do not have a recent history with console games. Also people who all ready have a PS2 will need to take a look at the existing Xbox only games and decide if it is worth it for the system. It is basically the Sega games that made me get the Xbox. I am actually pleasantly surprised by the joys of owning an Xbox and I hope that I will have the chance to play some quality games on it.
Now if you will excuse me I am going to go play Sega GT 2002.
Update:Final Fantasy X1 Online needs the PS2 Hard Drive. Sony US will not really commit to bringing it to the US market so until they commit to it the only version of Final Fantasy 11 that we might see is the PC version. The Xbox is just so made to handle online RPGs and Phantasy Star Online with Xbox Live will be a real killer app and looks lot more fun to play than the scaled down version of Everquest that Sony is making for the PS2. But I am not really into Everquest. The size of the HD really is not a factor since it is used mostly for caching data.
Basically there is about a 90% failure rate on video game upgrades. The Nes Disk Drive, The Super Nintendo CD Rom, The Sega CD and Modem, The Sega 32X, The Turbo Grafx CD. (BBQ will argue with me that it worked but it never got main stream popularity. I would love to get a Turbo Duo.) The Sega Saturn Ram Cart and the N64 Bulky Drive DD.
The only time that a video game upgrade actually worked was the high memory pack for the Nintendo 64 and the Sony PS2 Network adapter.
The thing is that Xbox CAN technically do VGA I think but for some reason Microsoft is damn set in wanting it in peoples living room not in their computer room.
Jake at January 5, 2003 
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Comments
I'm still waiting for Sony to release the long-awaited 40gig hard drive..their official statement is 'No games need it'.
Posted by: l33t k1w1 at January 5, 2003 11:26 AM
It seems to me that the XBOX is the most powerful and innovative system out there. It is really too bad that the politics and strategy in marketing games shuts Microsloth out and allows the best number of titles to be put out there for PS2 and gamecube. I would buy one if there were a monitor hookup which was rumored but never came to pass.
Posted by: PETER PETER THE METER READER at January 5, 2003 12:16 PM
Found an interesting picture hack I made using an early Xbox promo pic (with The Rock). I put the Managing Director of another company I was in (along with their product) and almost used it in their annual report. :p
Posted by: l33t k1w1 at January 5, 2003 1:35 PM
I think the reason that most console add-ons fail is that they're so goddamn expensive; the Network Adapter and the N64 memory pack only cost about as much as a game, but the failed CD add-ons all ran around $100-$200. (Although the SNES CD-ROM drive ended up doing quite well, once its name was changed to "PlayStation.") Probably the reason Sony's holding off on the PS2 hard drive is because they're trying to figure out how to make it cheap without losing tons of money.
In the meantime, though, a third party has come out with what is possibly the coolest PS2 add-on yet:
Posted by: Evilninja at January 5, 2003 4:53 PM
God that is a horrible web page. It is all done in Photoshop and then it is cut up into images. But any way that sounds like a really hard to use Dvix and MP3 player for PS2 that requires al ot of computer hardware to pull off. I doesn't really ooze convenience. But then again My Asus DVD player can play MP3 and JPGs that have been burned to a CD and my Dreamcast can play DVIX movies if I had some using some open source programs.
The Sony and Nintendo "Playstation" project was not much more than an upgrade and a CD rom to the Super Nintendo and didn't feature the CD chips of the Playstation One. It was probably a good thing for video game kind that things worked out the way they did. But bad for nintendo they were idiotic to piss off Sony.
If they bundeled the PS2 Harddrive with Final Fantasy 11 it could work I guess.
Posted by: Jake at January 5, 2003 7:28 PM
I actually wrote an article about the history of PlayStation (could do with some rewriting). It was to be published, but was turned down because 'they didn't get it'.
Some good work there - when I get my PC back, I'll upload it.
Posted by: l33t k1w1 at January 5, 2003 7:35 PM
Eh. Well, for me it sounds pretty convenient, because I've already got all the hardware and wiring in place, with the PS2 hooked into my LAN and everything. And it'll theoretically let me watch those piles of MST 3K mpeg-4s without hunching over my computer.
I've ordered a copy, anyway, so I'll let you know how it runs when I get it.
Posted by: Evilninja at January 5, 2003 10:45 PM
Man Mike an I thought I was a nerd... Just knocking ya ;)
Posted by: Jake at January 5, 2003 11:03 PM
(insert mental image of horribly obese teenager with massive overbite, Eisenhower haircut and horn-rimmed glasses laughing a horrible snorting laugh as milk dribbles down his chin, staining his bowtie and the collar of his unwashed plaid shirt)
Posted by: Evilninja at January 6, 2003 2:31 AM
No need to imagine things look at the first image of the article.
Posted by: Jake at January 6, 2003 8:38 AM
in a cheat for grand theft auto 3 a chaet says: Black, Black, Left Trigger, Black, L, D, R, U, L, D, R, U. What does U mean??
Posted by: Bob at January 19, 2004 9:04 PM
It means pressing "up" on the control pad.
Posted by: Jake at January 20, 2004 10:06 AM
