Posted by Ohso on 18, 2001 at 9:10 PM:
I thought I'd add an update to my XBox review since the following are true:
a) It's been one month since I got it
b) I'm sitting at work with nothing to do at the moment
c) It's too ugly outside to go get some food
d) I haven't done much gaming this month besides XBox.
Okay, where to begin?
Controller quick disconnects - Well in my earlier post I mentioned I liked the fact they added the quick disconnects for controller cords should they be tripped over. As you can guess, that has happened several times already. The *really* nice feature is that when one becomes disconnected, the game instantly pauses and waits for you to reconnect it and press 'Start'. That saved me several times after someone kicked a cord loose.
CD Ripping - This has a lot of cool potential. The XBox recognizes store bought music CD's and burned CDRW discs, but not most CDR's. I have already loaded plenty of music into the thing and use my own 80's music in Project Gotham Racing. It seems about half of the initial release games have this custom music ability. Also, XBox makes a decent jukebox since it can play music directly in the menu, no CD required. I found you can trigger a cool full screen visualation during your music by pressing Y, and then X while in the music player. The little dancing lines in the bubble to the left will expand to fill the screen.
Online play - Most people may be aware that the official internet gaming service for XBox doesn't start for another six months or so, but you can already play any System Link compatible game over the internet now using a VPN setup. System Link games are designed for multiple XBox play through a crossover cable or a home LAN network. Halo is one such game. Gamespy has some software you can put on a PC to set it up if you don't understand PC networking and VPN's.
Games -
Halo is the best game I've played in a long time. I mentioned before how *smart* the enemies were but how little I knew... I finished the game on the normal difficulty and am playing again on Legendary (the highest). Unlike a lot of games that just throw more baddies at you on higher levels, Halo does something I've never really seen before. The enemies get even SMARTER. It's incredibly tough. I've now played Halo in both Co-operative mode with a friend and in Slayer (Deathmatch). I love the multiplayer in this game because it makes you think before you act and is more tactical than something like UT. Running in circles while jumping and shooting a rocket launcher at anything that moves will not get you anywhere in this game...Start jumpling like an idiot and you will die...fast.
In addition, I've played Fuzion Frenzy. We got it because my wife thought it looked neat. It's a great game if you are having friends over or throwing a party. It's designed for up to four players and has something like 45 mini-games within it. They all have almost no learning curve so they are great for people not normally into gaming to play. Lots of fast action.
The other games I bought, Project Gotham Racing, and Oddworld have turned out to be a lot of fun as well. I won't go into details as this post is already getting too long...
I've played a few other games on a friend's XBox, including Nascar Thunder, and Airforce Delta Storm. Delta Storm was a bit disappointing becasue the plane doesn't control like a real plane. I was expecting it to be a bit more like a simulator. You can't do barrel rolls at all.
Ok that's it, no more I promise. :)