Slashdot Mirror
XBox Released
Gallowglass writes: "Salon has written a review of the Xbox which damns with extremely faint praise." There was a big hoopla in Times Square last night, but apparently no one pied Bill Gates. So, for all you poor souls who lined up to give money to the borg: does it work? Any blue-screens yet? :) Update: 11/15 15:23 GMT by M : Okay, I'm sorry. That's green screen of death, not blue screen.
I own a PS2 and am quite happy with it. However, I plan on keeping an open mind about the Xbox and the GameCube. Anyone else remember the damning the SNES got when it first came out? And how popular did it get?
"All mankind is at the mercy of a handful of neurotics". - Norman Douglas
the register is also carrying a story about this. it talks about the uk release date as well as containing links to sites with more info on where to buy it and where you can test them out.
...take a look at C|Net's review of Microsoft's strategies with the Xbox. Bottom line of their article is that Microsoft has had to put on a completely different face to court developers for their game console, switching from monopolistic tyrant to play-nice we-want-to-help-you-succeed hardware investor. According to the quotes cited, it's worked, too. So far.
But if you like FUD, let it flow...
Kindly get your facts straight.
There is a _major_ difference - the PS2 won't/can't do any resolutions above the NTSC standard 480i. That looks like crap on anything bigger than a 32" tube TV, and pales in comparison to the HD quality games that you can play on a PC. XBOX games are 480p (non-interlaced) at least, and the developers have the option of making them 16:9 - not by letterboxing, but by having more horizontal resolution. This is the #1 reason I've been waiting for the XBOX, as NTSC stuff just looks poor on my 120" FPTV.
Think outside the... Hey, where'd the friggin' box go?
an ethernet connection on a console isn't some gaming messiah. there are currently no games which i could see benefitting from this on any console, nor any in the future.
I share your opinion with PC good for some games, console for others (although, I'll add sports games to the console). Now you mentioned "Gran Turisimo" and I mention "sports" for console. Once you play a game for, say, a month, you understand the AI and what to expect. The only way you get replayability is by playing the unpredictable human opponents. Especially for Racing and Sports games. Ethernet is a messiah for consoles, because I can play my football games over and over again, and still lose, cause there's always a better human opponent out on the net (and the computer isn't a challenge anymore).
Just my opinion.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Some of the higher quality TVs now will de-interlace incoming NTSC signals, and smooth out the picture by interpolating between the lines.
The result is that the picture looks like it has a higher resolution than it actually posseses.
So having NTSC input isn't as bad as it used to be.
Here's a few links to other and may be more objective reviews
Zdnet
Gamespy
Gamespot
FiringSquad
TeamXBox
Yahoo 2 3
--
"Can I run a linux cluster of those?"
!
^_^
From what I understand you have to buy an extra DVD remote control to unlock the DVD feature. I think all the firmware is built into the base unit, but it needs the IR dongle to be plugged into a controler port to make it function. I guess the Remote is only $30 so its not that bad. Kinda crappy to make you buy one thought (admittedly the DVD on the PS2 is better with a remote.. no wires hanging around. But at least you can use it without one)
I believe the XBox will only boot off of media they have crytographically signed. Thus, you won't be creating and MP3 box or a PVR or any kind of convergence device without their permission (you sure won't be booting Linux) .
I had a look at the Xbox at a Future Shop. They are charging $600Cdn($377US). One of the store clerks was trying to set up a demo machine but it was too big to fit in the kiosk case they had for it. I asked him about playing DVDs on it and he said you could but you had to spend another $50 for the DVD controler and $25 for the cable to connect it to the TV. It comes with one game controler and to add extras would be another $50 each. So now I'm looking at shelling out $825 + $120 in taxes. I said no thanks and walked on which is what I suspect is most Canadians will say.
Today's vices may be tomorrow's virtues.
Mod the man up. I just pointed out the mistake to Michael (the poster of the story) now.
That's an XDK tossing up an error several months ago. And it's not a crash: it's looking for the media.