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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.
I bought mine on launch day along with mechassault and unreal. I sold both on ebay. Mechassault is pretty mediocre single player and multi player is any better. You walk in a line and shoot stuff as you get to it. No strategy like outflanking your enemies.
Unreal is the same. You shoot and kill and that's it. I also bought Ghost Recon, but haven't had a chance to play it. Going to try it this week. Otherwise it's a wait for some decent games other than sports.
As far as the service itself, it's pretty good. On my sdsl connection I don't see any lag.
I haven't had to pay a dime for the few online games I've played on PS2. Madden 2003, free (but service not guaranteed after the release of the next one). I think Tony Hawk 4 and the Japanese Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is free for now (but don't quote me on that). The Twisted Metal online game is free (both for the game (with network adapter purchase) and for service).
If they keep up the 'free service for a certain time span' deals, I'll be ecstatic. These sort of games are usually getting old by the end of that span anyways, and I doubt I'll be playing any MMORPGs on it anytime soon.
And for those who want to jump out and say "But who wants to buy an expensive PC to play games online, when it only costs $200 to buy an XBox." ..
Well, consindering you NEED broadband to play XBox Live, this basically translates that the person has some fat cash to pay a $50+ monthly fee for internet access. Do these types of people typically have really crap computers? No. MicroSoft has walked into a virtual minefield without looking at marketing demographics first. The people that will keep this afloat are people without broadband and decent computers, which are NOT the people who can actually use it.
And after your first free year, targeted monthly rate for this service will be $10-15/Month. It's not set in stone, but if it is any lower than $10, they will lose money on every single player.
You can see why Sony and Nintendo are taking their time. Leave it to Microsoft to boldly blunder into a market area it is entirely unfamiliar with and die, then work out a program that actually *works*.
SEGA has released a dev kit for all games to get online who uses its SDK which is cross platform compatable with PS2 and Gamecube.. So people who want to play Football on both systems can play each other seamless. They plan on putting up a "Blizzard" type of service where it will be free, etc etc.. Who knows if this will take off. I predict: No. At least not unless the PC dies a horrible death.
Kinda troll-ish, but I just got up, so I'll bite.
It's really not so bad. Other than the weapon select, which unfortunately can be kind of tough in live mode (you have to keep pressing the change button till you get to the one you want), the gamepad is just as easy to use as the mouse, it just takes a little practice. Moving using the joysticks makes the gameplay only marginally slower if at all, and it's a lot easier to do things like making a running jump while selecting a weapon with a gamepad, since all the controls are right at your fingertips instead of all across the keyboard (i know this is configurable).
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 (which might not be a piece of cake, considering that MS do not seem to understand that with consoles, unlike software or one-off hardware sales, you have to keep the customer happy).
Does this worry anybody else? It worries me, because it confirms Microsoft's long held belief that the retail market is ready for software-as-a-service, and that people really are dumb enough to pay upfront for the device, and pay ongoing amounts for the functionality.
You know those friends you have who tease you because you spend $X a month on computer bits that you don't really need? Well, they're about to enter your world, only they don't even get to build a collection of little anti-static bags as a bonus.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This same thing happened to my little cousin (14 years old). He actually bought an Xbox on launch day and this year bought Xbox live only a few weeks after it launched. It told him to call microsoft with code 522 error. When he called they told him the older Xbox'es needed a "Hardware upgrade". I wanted to find out exactly what this "hardware upgrade" entailed so i called them after he told me about it.
apparently the first gen models had an unflashable (via software) TSOP. the so called 'hardware upgrade' was in order to allow for onboard, software-based TSOP flashing and upgrading. not sure if they actually replaced the chip or merely changed the TSOP circuit, but we were pretty angry about it.
the byproduct of years of oppression by the white man
Poor testing and pervasive bugs have never stopped MS from releasing anything
You obviously weren't a beta tester, nor had any experience of how well the beta test went.
The XBox team has their shit together at MS. It's one of the few parts of MS that I think is doing a fine job.
I don't know about the parent... But I bought my XBox at 12:10AM on launch day. Been playing it since without problems, and I was on the Beta test for XBox live. At no time have I had any problems playing Live!
You quitting proves that the karma kap worked. The most annoying of the whores shut up. --CmdrTaco
Of course *if* more Sony titles begin requiring a subscription fee, then all of this could change, but right now that's a big IF to make a solid conlusion about the "Value added" of a product.
Or PS2/Playstation owner, Dreamcast owner, Saturn owner, SuperGrafx/PC Engine owner, PC-FX owner, Playdia owner, Pippin owner, Mega Drive owner....
Even after you get rid of all the date sim games, music games (some of which would do well here, but skip them anyway), card battle/monster raising games (same thing, some would do well here), and anime tie-in games (ditto), you would find the Japanese catalog of games mind-bogglingly huge. Maybe 40% of those games make their way outside of Japan, and often the ones that are exported aren't anywhere near the best games Japan has to offer, just what American publishers think will SELL.
Now, look at the xbox line-up. Who's doing Japanese games for xbox? Sega, Capcom, Konami has afew titles, and, uhh.......XICAT? Yeah, that's some line-up. I'd rather own a SuperGrafx than an xbox at this point, since the number of good games on that platform outnumbers that of the xbox. (Anyone familiar with SuperGrafx gets the joke)
Face it, xbox is relying on American and European content, the same developers who traditionally produce PC content. That's why the xbox is selling well in those markets. That's why many games from such companies that are popular on the xbox are more or less simplified PC games, modified to take adavntage of console controls. That's why the damn xbox logo is puke green....just as tasteless as the people who are expected to find such a logo attractive.
But, I have no doubt that the xbox is and will continue to be extremely successful. There's no accounting for taste. Thank goodness for import stores.
becasue the Playstation is not going to sell a service that lets you play al your games, you have to subscribe to each individual on-line game.
Funny... I have yet to subscribe to ANY game. and I have played 5 different offerings... including Tribe 2 Arial assult.
from everything I have heard... almost NO playstation game will be a pay for play online, except for the MMORPG or other online "community" or server resource heavy games.
sony is way AHEAD of ms this way.. just like my Pc games.. I dont have to pay anything to play them.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
But the showstopper for me is two-fold: The lack of a dial-up option (not everyone has a cable modem accessibility yet!), and the fact that, by license, it appropriate for use with "kids under 13".
:)
A lot of the times, these things do not go hand in hand. If you were to allow your young children to go online to play, they would most likely be left with an impression of swear words and sexual references.
I understand that maybe you'd like to have at least one of these (I would love to have dialup access for the Xbox as well), but either one is possible. If you're unfortunant like me (can't get broadband even if you wanted to), then there really is no way currently to play over the internet. However, you can still get little kid's games. There's multiple copies of MAME for the xbox, and you can buy a multiple cd set of all the MAME roms for around $7 from tombestones.
Hope it works out
I was looking to buy a console this Christmas, and was leaning towards the PS2. I'm not a particular fan of Microsoft, though I'll use their products if they're good (for example, Mac Office 2001). Anyhow, I haven't really kept up with the console market, and XBox Live really was the reason I changed my opinion and picked up an XBox -- my first console since an original NES. I've had a great experience with it these past 3 weeks.
After catching up with the market and playing my new toy, here's a reflection of my rationale for choosing the XBox and XBL:
- I have a cable modem, and I would refuse to use anything but a broadband solution
- I don't want to deal with annoying inconsistencies in multiplayer setup between game titles. XBL has a relatively consistent set of terminology between games.
- I really do appreciate the Microsoft "single source" approach, for now. I don't have a problem paying a nominal monthly fee for a better overall experience (which is what I feel I'm getting thus far).
- The variety of XBL games available is WONDERFUL. I picked up NHL 2K3, Unreal Championship, and MechAssault. (I also grabbed Splinter Cell, which alas is single player, but still great).
- The voice communicator is a nifty add-on, and works relatively well.
As for the quality of games:
- MechAssault is my fav, best experience since MechWarrior 2. It actually has some elements of strategy involved with assault compared to other shoot-em-up's. The single player missions are fun too. Well worth the buy for me -- but I know some friends that don't think much of it because they just don't like the shoot-em-up genre.
- Unreal Championship is tons of fun, just what I would expect if I were playing it on a PC or Mac, though the graphics aren't as good as a high end PC, and sometimes lag gets a bit much
- NHL 2K3 is very rich, graphics aren't as good as EA's but the gameplay is really great. I have a learning curve to get through, unfortuantely.. advanced modes can be tough for newbies to sports games (which I admitedly am)
- and (non-XBL) Splinter Cell is one of the best adventure games on the market right now, IMHO.
What don't I like? Well all in all, the price was rather steep after buying 2 extra controllers, an advanced AV kit, 4 games, XBL, and a console (which had 2 games bundled). That put me back around CDN$800 after taxes. Games run around CDN$70/each at Best Buy. How the hell can parents afford to give this to their kids?
XBox really seems to have been well executed. I have no troubles supporting Microsoft in this product arena, provided they continue to make a great product. It remains to be seen if the market at large will make it a profitable platform, though hopefully it will -- it will keep Sony, Nintendo, et al competitive.
-Stu
here
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.