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XSN Sports - It Coulda Been A Contender?
Thanks to Gamers With Jobs for its article discussing the apparent problems inherent in Microsoft's XSN Sports titles for Xbox Live. The article points out: "The XSN Sports brand was intended to provide a unifying structure for the ultimate online sports gaming experience." The author then goes on to argue that "the games upon which [XSN is] based do not compete in market share with the competition, at least for the most popular sports", also pointing out the alleged clunkiness of Rallisport Challenge 2's XSN Sports event settings, which has you "manually entering the name of the competition [and a number of other selections] into the Xbox using the controller." What would you like to see from XSN Sports, after its break for 2004 ends?
I recently purchased the aforementioned Rallysport Challenge 2, and have to say I am very pleased with it. _Except_ for the XSN BS. Or the plain Live! content.
Sure, it's great to race ghost rallies realtime, but the killer is the comms. For some reason, the game developers thought that it would be interesting if you could only talk to the person in front of you, and the person behind you. For one thing, this leads to you talking to seemingly random people when you're lined up at the start. Also, during a close race, it's hard to keep up a conversation with one person, as that person would have to be within one position of you. Not to mention the fact that the guy ahead of you is keeping up a conversation with the guy ahead of him, so you only hear half of it. Kind of like someone talking on 2 cell phones at once to someone talking on 2 cell phones at once [... ad infinitum]
I've played lots of Live! games where you can talk to your whole team at once (ala Rainbow Six 3) or everyone in the game at once (ala PGR2). I haven't done any bandwidth measurement, but from the sounds of the audio, they're using a fairly high compression codec, and they're band pass filtering for additional size reduction. There's no reason why I should only have to talk to 2 other players bandwidth-wise.
I suppose I should mention how impressed I am with the use of the communicator in SC:PT. In that game, the communicator becomes a somewhat vital part of gameplay (the spies can intercept mercenery communication, and the mercs can jam the spies). This obvious good sense comes from Ubisoft (who, IIRC, also made PRG2) so it doesn't surprise me that they got things right. What suprises me is how much MSGS got things wrong.
Did nobody play-test this stuff?
Karma: Raspberry Kiwi
If I sign up for a tournament on my PC, which is linked to the gamertag- then why do I have to put in all the info again, on my Xbox? Unlike the author though, I finally got smart enough to write the shit down on paper. Even that was annoying, because the way the screens are set up on the XSN site, you can only print ONE password at a time- because the other rounds are behind 'tabs'. So, I end up writing them. This sucks, because in my daily life I don't write anything anymore.
Another problem with the XSN setup, is that I have to go to my PC to sign up for a tournament. The tournament usually doesn't start for a few days. By that time, I probably will be busy or something. Here is a scenario that would be a lot better:
- I'm playing on my Xbox, and decide to start a tournament.
- On my Xbox I go to the XSN tab and 'Start a Tournament'
- I invite friends and stuff, and boom- an hour later the tournament starts.
- The tournament only runs a few hours, and we know who the winner is by the end of the day
- We can stare at the stats for the rest of the week on XSN.
Also, the only game that I have successfully taken part in tournaments in Links 2004 (golf). Because there, you are only competing for a low score, and you don't need to go head-to-head. I guess you can do this in Rallisport Challenge 2 also, but I am so bad at that game that entering a tournament would be an absolute joke. But the important thing is that I don't need to arrange a play time with a stranger. Like I really want some dumbass e-mailing/calling/IMing me because we are scheduled to play a game of basketball.The delay of days, or in some cases weeks before a tournament starts is crazy. If I get the itch to start a tournament, I want to start it NOW not sometime in the distant future.
That's why I end up playing 'Optimatch' all the time. I don't want to wait around for this stuff. But if tournaments were immediately available, and I know I can sit and play for a few hours- sure, I might as well. Otherwise it's too damn complicated. What's next- mandatory practices?
XSN is a great concept. They just need to integrate it into the games a little more. Bigger tournaments are usually not better, because getting 64 people to cooperate is never gonna happen. But if Microsoft keeps trying, and they come out with XSN 2.0, I'm sure this could kick some butt.
Actually, come to think of it. XSN is really not necessary if the games themselves have this built in. But at least it was a push in the right direction.
No reason to lie.
Do games have to be exclusive to be good?
This arguement is heard over and over 'Xbox sucks because the same games are on the PC'.
So?
This might be a factor if someone A: already has a PC and B: is wondering which console to purchase. But when it comes down to it, the important part is 'what games can I play'. Not, 'what games can I play on my console, that nobody else can play, unless they own the same console.'
But I don't see how it relates to the quality of the Xbox. But if you are all jizzed up about exclusives, take a look at Chronicles of Riddick.
No reason to lie.