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.

Comments

why so negative towards xbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

Almost every article on the Xbox I see on Slashdot is slanted against them. The Gamecube gets much more coverage and not the nasty slashdot commentary along with the story.

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.

Re:why so negative towards xbox?

[Ryan Amos]

The gaming community as a whole pretty much looks down upon the XBox. Why? Because the XBox has nothing you can't get elsewhere. Sony has already sold umpteen million PS2s, and with games like Metal Gear Solid 2 (finished it yesterday.. Bar none one of the best games I've ever played) there's no real compelling reason to buy an XBox.

Yes, I know MGS2 is supposed to make it to XBox, but that's exactly my point. I'm not going to buy the same game twice. Every major title on XBox is available elsewhere, with the exception of Halo, which I wasn't really impressed with. It's just another FPS (and it felt like a Tribes ripoff) added to the fact that FPS games really don't play well on consoles. I'm not saying the XBox is bad/evil because it's made by Microsoft, I'm saying that I see no real reason to buy one. Most of my "non hardcore" gamer friends feel the same. Their attitude is "I already have a PS2, I don't need another one." The hardcore gamers hate the thing because it's Microsoft. I have a feeling this will be a failed experiment for Bill and Steve.

The true potential for the XBOX

[Lord_Pall]

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 :)

Re:The true potential for the XBOX

[Ella the Cat]

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 :)

Your logic is flawed. Which is of more use to Microsoft, a big pile of unsold Xboxen, or the cash equivalent? They lose -more- money if they have to scrap them.

As for hacking, hasn't the message got through yet?

Re:A PS2 with different games

[instinctdesign]

This quote from the Salon article said it best (and I couldn't agree more):

"Have one look at the tanker scene in MGS2," says Keighley, "with the rain falling, the puddles splashing and the wind gushing, all at 60 frames per second. That scene by itself is more cinematic and more realistic than anything I've seen on the other consoles ... Microsoft keeps telling us that Xbox is more powerful than the PS2," says Keighley, "but at least at this point MGS2 is just as impressive looking as anything I've seen on the Xbox. It just goes to show that graphic horsepower and processing speed isn't always what matters -- creativity and artistry can go a long way to making a console successful."

Re:too bad it was going to be a big leap forward

[Junks Jerzey]

being a big cross-breed between RTS and FPS.. but MS required bungie to orient it more toward the X-Box.
oh well :P yet another possibly great thing MS managed to stomp into the ground.

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.

Salon's biased look at innovative games...

[2Flower]

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.

Re:No more BSOD

[Keith Russell]

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.

My take on the whole thing

[jeffc128ca]

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.

C O N V E R G E N C E

[renehollan]

People here know that I've gone on and on about having a reasonably powerful device in my living/family room to which I can stream audio and compressed video from a home server (hence the need for some kind of standard network connection). It has to be quiet, and not look like a computer.

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.

Re:huh??

[gamgee5273]

One thing to worry about with the HD, tho':

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.

Re:Salons review..

[kindbud]

Even Microsoft knows that you must first get the rope around their neck, before pulling the noose tight.