You'll never believe this, I have now joined the Dark Side!

[AzBat]

I know this probably belongs in the Console forum, but considering everybody I know regularly reads this forum, I figured they might find this interesting. But I will understand if it gets moved.

OK, I was there when the first consumer level 3D card was announced and I was there when the first soundcard was released and I was even there when the PCjr(first consumer PC) was released, but through all my years of playing with PCs I never once bought myself a game console. Yes, I had an Atari 2600 and a NES, but my parents bought those. And yes, I have played many games on SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1 and Dreamcast, but I never once thought they were worth paying for when I had a PC. However, on Friday all that changed when my wife and I bought the Xbox as a Christmas gift for ourselves. All I can say is "WOW".

What made me do such a thing? It probably had to do with a quite a few things. First, I loved the idea of how it was based on familiar PC components like an Intel CPU, NVIDIA graphics, DVD drive, hard drive, controllers based on USB technology and a Ethernet connection. Second, I was thrilled by the idea of a system being based on the DirectX API, used a Windows 2000 based kernel and played DVD movies. Third, all the PC game companies that made the games I played promised support for it. And finally, and some people may think I'm nuts, but I even liked the idea of Microsoft making it. It was a console that used everything I was already familiar with. So it wasn't so hard to understand it, get used to it and get excited about it. All in all, I just always thought it was the coolest idea for a game console and having a cool name to back it up didn't hurt either. Did Microsoft brainwash me with their marketing? Well, maybe just a little. Hey, I love the Xbox t-shirt they gave me just over 2 years ago at their name/logo press conference. I'm even wearing it today. Also, unlike most people, I don't believe Microsoft is the anti-Christ. I've enjoyed their operating systems, web browser, office apps, games and even game pads.

So, did the Xbox live up to the expectations I had? Yeah, pretty much. I just wished I had the money to purchase it a year earlier. Even though I purchased it on Friday, I didn't open it till last night. I was feeling guilty about spending $200 on it and was tempted to take it back for a refund. But last night my wife told me she would be very upset if I did that since she knew that I had been looking forward to buying one since they came out. Plus, she had been wanting a DVD player forever anyway! Unfortunately for her, she wasn't expecting me to play on it 8 hours straight last night. And that was just with the Exhibition demo disk! I really enjoyed playing Halo and Splinter Cell. The graphics in Dead or Alive 3 was unbelievable, but I wasn't very good playing at it. Probably has a lot to do with getting used to the controller. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to play as good as I did using a keyboard and mouse on PC games, but I'm starting to like the dual analog thumb sticks.

Now, what does that mean for me and PCs? I'm still going to be interested in keeping up with the latest 3D technology, but I think after purchasing the Xbox it will be quite awhile before I will spend my own money to upgrade from my P2-400 to something that will work with a DirectX 9 card. It's much different now that I have to use my own money to buy computers and graphics cards. I had been looking to purchasing a Radeon 8500 or 9000, but after some thinking it would cost me even more than $200 to upgrade my PC so it would work. So, right now I think my own money is better spent on the Xbox. Although, it is going to take some time getting used to spending money on games since I won't be able to download free game demos or play Internet games without paying for a service. Oh well, I guess you can't have it all!

Ok, now I can't wait for your responses. Some of you will probably call me an idiot and others will say it was the best decision I could make. Either way, it will be very interesting to hear what you think.

Tommy McClain

 

[Doomtrooper]

Actually I think you made a wise decision, after playing with a Gamecube at a party the other night I am going to get one for my kids for Xmas...I was thinking X-box but the Cube has better kids games.
The PC gaming industry just plain sucks anymore...with a handful of games that are actually worth playing (UT 2003 was a huge dissapointment for myself)..Developers playing favorites with IHV's (specific extensions or code paths etc..)..System requirments that cost a arm and a leg to keep up with and of course the hardware is two years ahead of the developers.
I am not the only one thinking this, my UT clanmates (all in their 30-40's) are also making the jump soon, no downloading drivers..no specific extensions and best of all..CHEAP and looks great on a big screen TV.
When you look at EA sports says about the PC industry (they sold 75,000 NHL 2003's) vs. 1 million console NHL 2003's you can see the PC is not the coding target anymore...
Not sure who to blame, IHV's or Developers but they will be driving more nails into the coffin unless the PC gaming industry shapes up.

 

[Username]

PC's will always be a priority coding target because the margins are much much better.

I still find the Xbox controllers unweildy, the new one is far too small, and the old one is fairly awkward to hold (and a little bit too small as well). Still waiting for an even remotely ergonomic controller design for controllers before I invest too much time in them.

 

[jandar]

Actually I think you made a wise decision, after playing with a Gamecube at a party the other night I am going to get one for my kids for Xmas...I was thinking X-box but the Cube has better kids games.
The PC gaming industry just plain sucks anymore...with a handful of games that are actually worth playing (UT 2003 was a huge dissapointment for myself)..Developers playing favorites with IHV's (specific extensions or code paths etc..)..System requirments that cost a arm and a leg to keep up with and of course the hardware is two years ahead of the developers.
I am not the only one thinking this, my UT clanmates (all in their 30-40's) are also making the jump soon, no downloading drivers..no specific extensions and best of all..CHEAP and looks great on a big screen TV.
When you look at EA sports says about the PC industry (they sold 75,000 NHL 2003's) vs. 1 million console NHL 2003's you can see the PC is not the coding target anymore...
Not sure who to blame, IHV's or Developers but they will be driving more nails into the coffin unless the PC gaming industry shapes up.

GC has alot more adult titles coming. Capcom and Square are back with the big N.

I like the XBox, but too many of the games are too short. And yes, although the graphics are nice, too is wayy tooo much drawin in lots of games.

If you have kids, get the GC for sure, and make sure to pick up Super Smash Brothers Melee & 4 controllers. Hours of fun.

 

[Username]

You're worried about draw in and short games and you are recommending a GameCube?

 

[Doomtrooper]

For five year olds I would say yes..since I've seen them both....and no my twin girls are not interested in cutting down someone with a machine gun at 5 years old...Nintendo caters to the younger crowd for sure..Mario and Kirby etc...if there is some adult titles coming then that is just a bonus for Dad.

 

[Windfire]

I just picked up an XBox for Christmas too! Costco had the console, an extra S controller and the DVD controler for $239. I then tapped one of my Microsoft friends and picked up a half dozen games for $20 each (Halo, MechAsault, Blinx, etc.).

It's going under the tree until Christmas. I have to at least act like it's a Christmas present! I'm hoping that games like Blinx and others will be good for my kids.

I'm hooking it up to my 32" TV. I hope the Xbox can hook up via SVideo cable. I don't have component in on this TV.

My biggest hurdle is going to be not having a mouse/keyboard for games!

I'm also wondering if getting a wheel will be a good idea for the driving games I'll have (Sega GT 2002, Gotham Racing, Rallisport Challenge, Halo?, etc.)

I know one thing... The XBox can't do hi-res like my P4 2GHz + TI4400.

Steve

 

[Nagorak]

I'd just like to discourage people from buying an Xbox just based on principle. Microsoft's forray into the console market is just another chapter in their book of anti-competitive practices. They are losing insane amounts of money, yet obviously have no intention of trying to turn a profit. It's simply their intention to dump Xboxes onto the market until they manage to take it over since their competitors do actually have to make money.

It would be one thing if they were actually trying to compete fair and square, and I can even understand taking a small loss as they tried to break into the market, but that's obviously not their strategy (and their loss isn't "small", it's HUGE). This sort of BS just shouldn't be encouraged and unless you don't want to have anything but overpriced Microsoft Consoles on the market in 5-10 years (after everyone else is out of business), then it's in your best interests to support Nintendo or Sony.

 

[fbg1]

I'm hooking it up to my 32" TV. I hope the Xbox can hook up via SVideo cable. I don't have component in on this TV.

It can, but you have to buy the S-Video Xbox cable separately. Also, always use S-video or Component cables for Xbox. You'll see a significant difference in gfx and visual quality going from Composite to S-Video or Component.

 

[fbg1]

I'd just like to discourage people from buying an Xbox just based on principle. Microsoft's forray into the console market is just another chapter in their book of anti-competitive practices. They are losing insane amounts of money....

Now that I have Xbox and PS2 for my gaming and DVD needs, I don't need Windows anymore. W2K is therefore the last MS OS I plan to buy. Once MS stops supporting it, I plan to move completely to Linux. Linux has everything I need and want in a PC except for the games - from Mozilla and OpenOffice to Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Java. I'm not the only one with this mindset either. If enough people are thinking like this, then MS may be shooting themselves in the foot with Xbox.

Same for upgrading my PC. I used to be a PC gfx whore, but 3d console gfx and games are now good enough that I don't feel the need to continue upgrading my PC to be able to play the best new games. I do plan to build one more PC in the near future, but that's just to get a nice 64bit setup with either dual Opteron or Athlon 64. I'll probably add a late generation DX9 vid card for posterity. But in general, I'll be gaming and entertaining on consoles, working on my PC.

 

[Teasy]

there is some adult titles coming then that is just a bonus for Dad.

There aren't just adult titles coming, there already here. Nintendo themselves have already put out some adult titles. Check out Eternal Darkness and Metroid Prime for instance. Of course there are also lots of other adult games from third parties too, everyone by now has to know that the whole new Resident Evil series is exclusive to GameCube (Resident Evil 1 and 0 out so far). As well as a few other third party exclusive adult orientated games and quite a few multi-platform ones.

I agree though that GameCube has the highest quality games for 'the whole family'. PS2 has plenty of these too (more then GameCube) but there just not of a high quality like Nintendo's. Although to be honest some of Nintendo's 'for the whole family' offerings may be too high quality for a 5 year old. What I mean there is they aren't simple enough. Mario Sunshine for instance isn't a easy game for a very young child, neither is something like Pikmin. Of course SSBM is as you can just mash the buttons.

 

[marconelly!]

I also used to be a big fan of computer games (C64, Amiga, PC) and I pretty much ignored consoles. But PC games as of late really don't cater to my taste anymore. I used to love good adventure games like those from Lucasarts and now they are all but gone. On the other hand, there are some really good adventure games on consoles, with amazing atmosphere, most notably Ico, Shenmue, Silent Hill 2. Action games like Halo, MGS2, Splinter Cell are just awesome, and there are many games that are just plain fun, and new experiences in the genres that I never even seen before, like Frequency, Rez, Space Channel 5...

 

[Rodéric]

I agree with Nagorak, and discourage people from buying XBox. (and any microsoft product as much as possible)

 

[Gubbi]

I'd just like to discourage people from buying an Xbox just based on principle. Microsoft's forray into the console market is just another chapter in their book of anti-competitive practices. They are losing insane amounts of money, yet obviously have no intention of trying to turn a profit. It's simply their intention to dump Xboxes onto the market until they manage to take it over since their competitors do actually have to make money.

Great.

Sony, the altruistic company that brought us the DMCA and more ?

Or Nintendo that were just fined 168M€ by the EU for anti competitive practices/price fixing in the 1990s ?

If you have to go by company business practices you're pretty much stuck with solitaire.

At least Billy G. gives a wad of cash to cancer research (and others) once in a while.

Cheers
Gubbi

 

[Plasmatics]

I stopped reading early on. Anyone who ignores consoles or the PC in favor of the other (or for that matter one console over another) for any length of time is someone whose opinion I cannot respect.

 

[Ug Lee]

This sort of BS just shouldn't be encouraged and unless you don't want to have anything but overpriced Microsoft Consoles on the market in 5-10 years (after everyone else is out of business), then it's in your best interests to support Nintendo or Sony.

Excellent idea. Piss off Microsoft and support a Sony monopoly instead! yay!

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Good choice getting an Xbox. There's a good blend of PC-type as well as console-type games on the system. You've done pretty well in chosing the bundle + DoA3 + Halo + Splinter Cell. I recommend getting MechAssault as well, and possibly Ghost Recon.

Early next year there are some great games coming, like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Panzer Dragoon Orta, and Dead or Alive Xtreme Volleyball.

Happy Xbox gaming!

 

[MrSingh]

oh dear. so when are you guys going to stop eating meat to prevent animal slaughter? or stop using electricity because it damages our environment? etc. etc.


just enjoy the games. the intense competition between Sony, MS and Nintendo has given consumers some of the best deals ever.

 

[covermye]

Good analogy, Mr. Singh. I don't necessarily love M$ or their business practices, but hey... capitalism is good and all that stuff. From a consumer and citizen standpoint, I'd rather see a successful M$ than a powerful federal gov't that's hell-bent on "creating more competition" by hammering success.

Probably too political of a post for not posting here in a while, but the point remains: it's all about the games, man. Doesn't it sound silly that you'd allow your pursuit of pleasure in deciding which game console to buy to be clouded by idealistic views of business practices.

-Chris

 

[BenSkywalker]

Johnny-

Your reccomending a port of an old PC game(RtCW) to a PC gamer who just purchased a console? Well, I'm not familiar with AzBat's gaming library but I would suggest JKII out of any of the PC ports headed to or currently on the XBox.

AzBat

Although, it is going to take some time getting used to spending money on games since I won't be able to download free game demos or play Internet games without paying for a service.

I'd reccomend either finding someone who has a subscription to XBox Magazine or perhaps subscribing yourself. Each month it comes with a demo disc that will have five or six games for you to try out. Not exactly the same as DLing a free demo, but you also know it will run flawlessly on your 'rig' too