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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.
Is this my imagination, or does slashdot take its anti-microsoft bias into everything they do?
I mean really, linking the xbox release with one totally negative article, while other sites have given it a much better outlook.
Please try to be fair here slashdot.
If it's a PS2 with different games already, consider what it'll be like once developers get up to speed. Think about when the PS2 first came out -- many people said it was simply a Dreamcast with different games; only now are the differences in power and capabilities beginning to show...
is the hardware itself..
:)
:)
The launch titles suck.. Rehashed fighting/racing/whatever games.. extreme sports, extreme driving, extreme first person shooters with a console controller..blech..
But what we've got is a pc.. Fast as hell nvidia chipset, hardrive, network card, dvd drive..
Tell me someone isn't going to turn that into some cool as hell hardware.. slap a bigger hardrive into, make an mp3 box.. slap an even bigger hardrive into it, turn it into a pvr..
Take it even further.. turn it into the convergence device people have been talking about for the past 10 years.. Except instead of paying 999.99 for it, buy it for 299 (or less when the price drops)..
I think as a piece of hardware its got great potential...
As a console.. well its motsos.. (More of the same old s..t)
lastly.. for your truly rabid anti-ms people..
The XBOX represents the only true way you can DIRECTLY damage microsoft through buying things.. Every unit they sell is sold at a loss.. Buy one.. Hack the hardware.. make it do stuff its not supposed to do.. And don't buy any software for it
Okay maybe the logic's a little spurious.. But it sounds good on paper
did it ever occur to you that they would want their developers to succeed? successful developers make good games, which sells systems. not to mention that gamers get to play fun stuff, so everyone wins. is this some sort of evil plot, or just smart economics?
forma3
There is no 'getting up to speed'. It is all Direct X , Direct 3D and other standard Microsoft technologies. That was supposed to be the beauty of the XBox, no learning curve like with the PS2.
being a big cross-breed between RTS and FPS.. but MS required bungie to orient it more toward the X-Box. :P yet another possibly great thing MS managed to stomp into the ground.
oh well
I'm not convinced. Fanboys deified Bungie and Halo years before anyone had ever seen the game. I think this is just yet another case of too much hype and people willingly buying into it. (And everyone ignoring that it is much, much easier for a game developer to *claim* they will do something than to actually deliver.)
Halo has been used a rallying cry by various factions, and those factions have changed dramatically over the course of its development. At first the Mac owners were screaming about Halo, because Bungie started as a Mac company. Then Windows users were using it as an example of game that you needed a PC for, that just couldn't be done on a console. Then Xbox fans were using it as a way of putting down the PS2. Of course none of these groups ever played the game, and in the end it turned out to be much less than everyone had built it up to be.
you can build a better PC for the cost you're talking about. bigger harddrive will be $100, so for $400 you can build a better machine than the X-Box.
...dave
Think different? I'd be happy if most people would just think...
Salon is overlooking something very critical. They run down the list of X-Box titles and call them boring and pedestrian, then detail FUTURE Sony titles that will be innovative...
But they don't mention any future X-Box titles which will innovate, other than a dismissive mention of the 2002 lineup which claims to have 'nothing ambitious'.
Are they forgetting that Sega has close ties with Microsoft? Jet Set Radio Future, the first franchise to effectively work cel shading into the game's stylistic approach, is due out for X-Box. In addition, Shenmue, the series which redefined how adventure games and peristent worlds work on Dreamcast, will be an X-box franchise from now on. US gamers will be getting Shenmue 2 on X-box alone.
If you're going to hold one console above another, at least consider all aspects of both, rather than forgetting a key area. That's just good journalism, whatever your preference for gaming platforms or your like/dislike of Microsoft may be.
oh, yes... Microsoft makes operating systems. did it ever occur to you that they would want their devlopers to succeed? successful devopers make good games, which sells their OS, not to mention that consumers get good products, so everyone wins.
Microsoft is in this to make money. They will. Patience... The grim reaper will visit...
Um, why has an unqualified picture of an XBox Development Kit* message box been promoted to front page news? All we can glean from this is that the "oct" in the URL implies that it was posted to HardOCP in October. There's no evidence that this is from a unit sold to a consumer. Nor is there evidence that this is from a crashing in-store demo kiosk.**
Michael, this is neither funny nor professional. You're doing more to reinforce Slashdot's reputation as a childish, "M$ sux0rs linux 0wnz j00" site than any hundred Anonymous Cowards.
I've almost never agreed with Jon Katz's editorials. But I've always felt that squelching his opinion by banning him from my front page was wrong. You, Michael, have crossed that line. I'm banning you from my front page. I know that will cut my story count in half, but at least I can read the front page with the resonable expectation that I won't have my intelligence insulted.
*: That's the XDK in "XDK Launcher".
**: Sorry 'bout the annoying pop-unders, but that's the only crashing demo reference I could find through HardOCP on short notice.
This sig intentionally left blank.
This is simply an error message, and the problem is clearly handled. Would it be better if they did not inform the user that something is wrong at all and have it actually crash because of a bad executable?
Well of course the Xbox is a PC in dressup! That is what will be so great about it. Writing a game for a PC that has fixed hardware allows for so much more latitude than what is available today.
All these people bashing Xbox simply because it is MS might be in for a big surprise. If I remeber correctly, at launch, the PS2 was nothing but hype. The games didn't even look as good as Dreamcast. But things change as a platform matures. I'll reserve judgement until then...
Chris
I have always liked the editors at Salon and this time is no exception.
What Xbox has going for it...
1 - PS2 is known as a more adult gaming platform. I just bought a PS2 and finding games for my 9 year old daughter is interesting. Maby MS can capitalize it if they are smart.
2 - Should be easy to port PC games to it. Something lacking in PS2/Nintindo worlds.
What Xbox has going against it....
1 - Sony rules the console market right now. Hands down. Nintendo has some a good new platform and more kiddy friendly games. Xbox has to compete with this
2 - Microsoft is used to being able to do what they want because they have a Monopoly. How will management react to situations when they are the small guy. It's like General Moters starting to offer blenders. They are not experts and the people the people who have been making them know a lot more about it and actually listen to there customers.
3 - Lack of vision. Ties into #2. Where's the killer app? Do you really think Gates and Balmer can envision great new games.
4 - Game makers won't produce for a console that hasn't got a proven track record. Why spend millions developing a game for a potential 50 people when I can do it for tens of millions across the world (PS2).
5 - Blue/Green screen of death will put off gamers. I bought a PS2 so I could get away from computer gaming and costant error messages and rebooting. When has anyone ever seen an error message on a Playstation or a Nintendo? I want drop in a game and play it never seeing an error message. PC users are use to getting them and can live with it. Console games don't and won't tolerate it. I gave up PC gaming because I got sick of upgrading video cards, getting more hard drive space, better processors. I just want to drop that disc in and play the game.
6 - The goofy Balmer/Monkey/music crap that the Salon article talked about. If you have to dance around on stage and talk like a motivational speaker your not selling stuff in the console market. When Grand Theft III is released or the next version of Final Fantasy they don't even need to air a commercial. They could send it to the stores and put it on the shelf without a word and it will sell out. Microsoft ain't cool. Sony is, Nintendo is some what.
I could go on and on. I can't see Xbox being anything but a niche market. Microsoft bit off more than they can chew with this one.
While we're at it, it would be nice if it would let me browse the web, or perhaps run some online games that are playable at some distance from a relatively large, low-resolution (640x480) screen (though I have an HD-ready high-resolution set, most don't). And you know, all these entertainment devices with their complex controls, some of which have a video output for interactive menus are getting a pain to control. Why can't they provide a web server interface to a device with a browser and appropriate plugins, and just be hubbed into the local room 'net?
The ability to run local entertainment software (i.e. games), networked or not, is a feature that comes for free if we're going to have enough "oomph" to do MPEG2 decoding. While you might want to use it for non-entertainment duties (i.e. checking one's bank acount, or ordering a pizza on-line), work isn't it's primary purpose.
THAT is what the XBox could be. Architecture should be open, so third parties can develop apps/add on hardware for it. Still, it should be useful enough on it's own to justify it's price. Whether the hard disk (if present) and or CD/DVD-ROM is integrated, or outboard (firewire?) is more of a stylistic issue -- today we have A/V receivers as well as separates.
In my search I have come across some neat tech by Sigma Designs (http://www.sigmadesigns.com, http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/netstream_con sole.htm (watch the damn inserted space), and particularly the iDVD3036). So decent convergence products are coming (say 2002).
But, if PC history tells us anything, the ones that succeed will be more open than the one's that don't. Unless Microsoft opens the XBox up architecturally and makes it easy for third party hacker developers, they will be among the convergence also-rans.
You could've hired me.
Let's say I'm developing Spankman III: Out of Tissue and I've got some cross-promotional stuff going on with Kleenex and I have to ship by December 12th. It's November 15 and I'm not done.
Without a hard drive, I have to wait to ship until I'm done.
With a hard drive I can ship, even if the thing is still in beta because I can ask you - the player - to download patches later.
The Xbox means one thing to me: PC developers' bad habits can now follow them over to the console environment.
Bad idea.
"The CPU is from intel, the GPU from nVidia, and the console from Microsoft. Support the U.S.!"
The Intel CPU is manufactured in Asia, the console was farmed to Flextronics and is being built in Mexico.
And to add another argument, is it really patriotic to buy poorly made products in your own country so you can reward people who can't do the job as well as people in other countries? The argument didn't wash with cars in the 80's.
Just to check if I understand:
You say that Sony who do several times the revenue of Microsoft worldwide can be crushed by Microsoft like a tiny startup founded by a handful of people that Netscape was?
You really think that?
Really?
Come on. The comment was a joke.
Here...I'll explain it for you though. Every Windows owner has probably seen the BSoD. Windows is made by a little company called Microsoft. Microsoft has also started selling home game consoles. Therefore, it would be a good joke to relate the BSoD from Windows to this new console. That might be funny, huh? Don't just rant about this joke being MS-bashing. Laugh a little.
Apparently, the guy who wrote this doesn't remember the PS2 launch. Other than SSX and Madden, there weren't any incredible games either. In fact, for the first few months I had mine, I kept wondering when the good games were going to show up. Of course, now they are showing up -- GTA3, TH3, Half-Life, MSG2 -- and more, but it took a year. I think it would be better to look a year from now and see what kind of games are around for both consoles, and then judge.
-- Hobbits suck!
actually, the entire executable must rest on the DVD. The HDD is nothing more than a data cache and memory unit (for savegames, mp3s etc.)
Even Microsoft knows that you must first get the rope around their neck, before pulling the noose tight.
Edith Keeler Must Die