So I bought an X-Box today, have been waiting for it to come out for awhile now. Got 3 games, Halo, DOA3, and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysey with the system.
The X-Box is not as large as I had originally thought it was. I had originally thought it was the size of a VCR, but its actually more like half the size of a VCR. Bigger than PS2, but not enormous. The X-box is relatively quiet, it doesn't run any noiser than the PS2. The DVD tray has a quality feel to it, very similar to the tray of a computer CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, it does not feel nearly as flimsy as the PS2 DVD tray. The unit does run VERY hot. I would imagine that the X-Box could very well malfunction or produce some strange results if you kept it in a very warm room with little ventilation for the fans. I had a few problems with my X-Box, assumingly heat related because I threw my cablebox on top of the X-Box and the cablebox runs pretty warm. It could be that the unit will become less sensitive to heat after the "burn in" period, incase thermal paste needs to bond properly or anything like that. I don't imagine under normal usage that the X-Box would experience any problems as long as you don't block the fans.
In terms of games, the games all look great. There isn't anything revolutionary about any of the games in terms of graphics however.
DOA3 looks just as good as it does in screenshots, but it doesn't get the same reaction as when I played Soul Calibur on Dreamcast for the first time. The nicest thing about DOA3 is that the backgrounds look spectacular. The game itself is essentially still DOA2 though. There doesn't seem to be much changed from DOA2 except they added 2 new characters and the graphics are enhanced of course.
Oddworld looks nice, and is an overall fun game. All the loading problems and slowdowns from the demo disc that was released with the kiosks appear to be gone. Load times are significantly reduced now (easily less than 10 seconds to load a level, sometimes shorter). The game is a cute adventure game that involves a bit of strategy and thinking on the player's part, of course there is not too much thinking involved here.
Halo is easily the best of the 3 games I bought. It reminds me a lot of Unreal when I played it the first time. The outside environments are beautiful... You may actually find yourself stopping to take a look at the scenery. Playing with a controller is not as bad as it sounds either, although I still prefer a mouse/keyboard for FPS games.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Interactive sound is very nice. It works very well for Halo ... Stand in front of the waterfall and spin around, and you'll hear the waterfall panning around you on all 4 speakers. The strange thing is that the center speaker doesnt seem to be used in any of the 3 games I own, not even for speech.
Anyways, thats just my quick review of X-Box, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to respond. Right now I think that X-Box has a lot of potential, and if Microsoft plays their cards right they have a great contender on their hands. The launch games aren't amazing games that are MUST HAVES, but there is a nice wide variety of games out there, and imho Halo is a great game to own on X-Box.
The X-Box is not as large as I had originally thought it was. I had originally thought it was the size of a VCR, but its actually more like half the size of a VCR. Bigger than PS2, but not enormous. The X-box is relatively quiet, it doesn't run any noiser than the PS2. The DVD tray has a quality feel to it, very similar to the tray of a computer CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, it does not feel nearly as flimsy as the PS2 DVD tray. The unit does run VERY hot. I would imagine that the X-Box could very well malfunction or produce some strange results if you kept it in a very warm room with little ventilation for the fans. I had a few problems with my X-Box, assumingly heat related because I threw my cablebox on top of the X-Box and the cablebox runs pretty warm. It could be that the unit will become less sensitive to heat after the "burn in" period, incase thermal paste needs to bond properly or anything like that. I don't imagine under normal usage that the X-Box would experience any problems as long as you don't block the fans.
In terms of games, the games all look great. There isn't anything revolutionary about any of the games in terms of graphics however.
DOA3 looks just as good as it does in screenshots, but it doesn't get the same reaction as when I played Soul Calibur on Dreamcast for the first time. The nicest thing about DOA3 is that the backgrounds look spectacular. The game itself is essentially still DOA2 though. There doesn't seem to be much changed from DOA2 except they added 2 new characters and the graphics are enhanced of course.
Oddworld looks nice, and is an overall fun game. All the loading problems and slowdowns from the demo disc that was released with the kiosks appear to be gone. Load times are significantly reduced now (easily less than 10 seconds to load a level, sometimes shorter). The game is a cute adventure game that involves a bit of strategy and thinking on the player's part, of course there is not too much thinking involved here.
Halo is easily the best of the 3 games I bought. It reminds me a lot of Unreal when I played it the first time. The outside environments are beautiful... You may actually find yourself stopping to take a look at the scenery. Playing with a controller is not as bad as it sounds either, although I still prefer a mouse/keyboard for FPS games.
Dolby Digital 5.1 Interactive sound is very nice. It works very well for Halo ... Stand in front of the waterfall and spin around, and you'll hear the waterfall panning around you on all 4 speakers. The strange thing is that the center speaker doesnt seem to be used in any of the 3 games I own, not even for speech.
Anyways, thats just my quick review of X-Box, if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to respond. Right now I think that X-Box has a lot of potential, and if Microsoft plays their cards right they have a great contender on their hands. The launch games aren't amazing games that are MUST HAVES, but there is a nice wide variety of games out there, and imho Halo is a great game to own on X-Box.
