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Tom's Hardware Reviews Xbox Live

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stumbling-into-the-future dept.

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.

7 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. It's not as good as the hype by alen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  2. Online Console Gaming = Big flop. by Viewsonic · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Of the three XBox owners I know, none of them liked XBox Live at all. They all decided the same thing: Playing games online is best played on the PC.

    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.

    1. Re:Online Console Gaming = Big flop. by Rew190 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Of the three XBox owners I know, none of them liked XBox Live at all. They all decided the same thing: Playing games online is best played on the PC.

      Really? See I've had the exact opposite experience. All of my buddies are PC gamers (so am I), but we all love XBox Live so far.

      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.

      I understand what you're saying here, but MS' Live sales simply don't seem to back this up. It's selling like hotcakes, and games that use it are selling like hotcakes. If anything, I would think that folks with PCs and broadband were techies who would love to pick up a console as well.

      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.

      I've been keeping track of this, and all of the rumors so far have said that it's looking like it'll be another flat fee (probably another 50). MS isn't stupid, and I'm sure they realize that they'll lose lots of customers because they don't want to have to worry about paying a bill every month. I really wouldn't worry about this.

      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*.

      Sony will probably never take off with online gaming since it has no centralized system. You'll have to pay a seperate bill for every single online PS2 game you want to play. Who's going to want to do that? I can understand if they come out with a killer online app, but that's only one game. Nintendo isn't taking their time, they're simply not placing emphasis on online gaming as an important part of GC. All that's coming out is Phantasy Star Online. Period. As far as MS blundering, trust me, it hasn't. I'm very happy with the service, as are most people I've talked to. Most reviews are also positive. I must ask, how can you justify that the biggest software company in the world has no experience in online gaming? Did I miss something?

      PC Gaming is here to stay, that's for sure. But XBox Live has impressed me very much. PC Gaming does not let you bring 3 of your buddies over and play football in the same room against 4 other guys from the other side of the country. PC gaming is a bitch to set up. XBL couldn't be easier. I've seen very few lag issues so far. PC gaming is more exposed to cheating at this point than XBL.

      I would definitely reccomend that anyone with broadband and an XBox pick this kit up and get themselves a copy of MechAssault (which I feel is the best XBL game right now). Try it for yourselves.

  3. In the first week of X-Box live by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  4. Re:Warning - Old Xboxes Don't Work! by Angry+Black+Man · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  5. Re:Xbox seems to have the upper hand in this by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  6. Re:Not appropriate for my household. by kaosrain · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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 :)