Tom's Hardware Reviews Xbox Live

VividU writes "Tom's Hardware has a review of Xbox Live." Also includes a bit of a summary of the state of networked gaming on the other 2 major consoles (Coleco and Intellivision). A good read if you're looking to see what's going to keep you glued to your couch in 2003.

Comments

ps2 network adaptor

[asv108]

Personally, I prefer the way Sony is handling online play with the PS2 network adaptor. There is no centralized service for all games, and at least right now there are no subscription fees for most if not all of the current games.

Re:In the first week of X-Box live

[John Jorsett]

150,000 people gave Microsoft their credit card number and agreed to be billed a to-be-decided amount indefinitely, until they figure out how to cancel it [snip]

Does this worry anybody else?

It would me. I remember the conversation I had with my credit card company when I couldn't get through to AOL to cancel my account. They told me that even if I switched card numbers AOL would automatically be transferred with it and continue to bill me. If I cancelled the card, I'd still be liable for ongoing charges due to my 'agreement' with AOL. I finally had to wait on hold for 45 minutes to get through to AOL in person. It's like having the mafia after you. One guess whether MSFT will follow the same model.

Re:Xbox seems to have the upper hand in this

[Juggle]

Gee, I Must be confused. I had a friends PS2 on loan for a few weeks and could swear I was playing on-line games free.

THPS3 and 4 both support on-line play without the sonly network adaptor (they support most USB ethernet connectors including the one I had laying around) and don't require any kind of subscription since individual players run their own servers much like PC based multi-player gaming. The game included Gamespy based code to find on-line games and it worked flawlessly.

In fact one other thing the PS2 supports that apparantly Xbox dosen't (since it was a complaint in this review) is the use of a USB keyboard. I grabbed my own keyboard ( a MS natural no less) tossed on the PS/2->USB adapter it came with, plugged it into the PS2 and was able to enter my game info that way instead of using the controller - saved a lot of time and made chatting in-game possible without a headset.

I also have to agree with the other posters who want to know why the built-in ethernet is such a benefit when you still have to pay to use it on-line and then keep paying (an unspecified ammount no less) on a regular basis to keep using it. I like the pay once for the hardware model of the PS2 way more in that regard. But then again I always prefered buying my own cable or satellie box instead of paying a monthly "rental" fee as well.