X-box-me-do (Microsoft Xbox)

Member Name: andithegoose

Product:	Microsoft Xbox
Date:	19/07/03 (392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hard Disk is nice, Some good racing/ action games

Disadvantages: No visible niche, Poor design, No DVD playback out of box

We advise you to prepare your review offline, then to copy it to this space. This ensures that in the event of a connection time-out your contribution is not lost on posting.The Microsoft X-Box is a big machine, make no mistake. But what lurks underneath its hulking great exterior? Is it a games console worth buying, or simply a cut-down PC without (thank the Lord for small mercies) Windows?

Well, the X-Box is certainly no slouch in the technical specifications department. It boasts a processor running at over 700Mhz - not only faster than the PlayStation 2 and Gamecube, but also faster than my iBook laptop. It also features an 8Gb hard disk. While this may not seem a necessary feature for a games console, it is in fact very useful. The hard disk can not only be used for game saves, but also patches, add-ons, content from the internet, and music. The music feature is a very nice little touch - you can rip CDs onto the hard disk, and in certain games set the music to play in the background. Sure, you could simply pop a CD on your stereo, but as gimmicks go, its a good one.

The machine, it has to be said, looks ugly. Its big (think VCR-size), and the lime green colouring is just awful. If the PlayStation 2 colour scheme was designed to represent the Earth and space (as its designer claimed it was) then the X-Box surely represents the contrast between space and post-nuclear holocaust Earth. That said, the four joypad ports included as standard is welcome, and goes to show how misguided Sony were with including just the two on the PS2.

The pad is not particularly good. It is too big, for a start, and the reason for the size seems less about features and more about the over-sized X-Box logo that sits in the middle. It boasts 4 action buttons (A, B, X and Y), two trigger buttons, two analogue sticks and a D-Pad, as well as Pause and Select buttons. Also included are slots for memory cards, but given the hard disk, these seem a bit unneccessary,
and in any case should be included on the main unit itself.

DVD playback, a strong selling point on games consoles these days, is not included as standard. Instead, the user has t
o pay an extra £20 for a DVD playback kit. This strikes me as very cynical indeed, as the DVD playback codecs must be on the machine anyway (the DVD playback kit is basically a remote control and an IR reciever).

The range of games for the X-Box is a little lacklustre at the moment. It boasts some classics (Halo jumps to mind), and Sega are busy translating its more adult games to the machine (Panzer Dragoon Orta, House of the Dead 3, Sega GT), meaning Sega fans will need to own all three consoles to enjoy all of Sega's releases. The lack of Japansese support for the machine is really its detriment, though - the majority of games are Americanised. This does mean, however, that shoot em up, sports and racing fans are well catered for on the X-Box - its just a shame that PS2 does racing games better (GT3), the PC does Shoot Em Ups better (just about every shoot em up ever made), and sports games tend to be multi-format anyway.

The X-Box is a nice machine, it just lacks a niche. The PS2 has the mass market sown up, and consequently gets the biggest games first, as well as more quirky games that need a large target market to make a profit. The Nintendo Gamecube has a large number of classic franchises, and already some classic games (Zelda: Wind Waker, Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime). And almost everyone has a PC. The X-Box is, therefore, a nice machine to own - sadly, its rivals make a better purchase.

Summary: