Microsoft XBOX - The Most Powerful Console Ever

Author's Rating:

Pros: hard drive, ability to rip music, best hardware, many good games, XBOX Live

Cons: not many RPG's

The Bottom Line: 
The raw power, amount of cool features, internet play and selection of games makes this the perfect choice for a gaming console.

Author's Review
About a month ago, I decided to purchase a high class new generation gaming console. Which console did I decide to purchase? Sony's Playstation 2? Heck no, I bought myself a Microsoft Xbox. This turned out to be the best purchase that I have ever made.

I went to Best Buy and picked up my XBOX bundle, and received a free steering wheel. I rushed home, opened up the box, and here is what I found: an XBOX, a S controller, two games and some cables. Connecting the XBOX to the TV was very simple and I was playing in no time!

What does the XBOX look like? Well, it has a rectangular shape, is black, has a large green circle in the middle, which have XBOX written on it. On the front, there are four controller ports, and you don't have to buy a multi-player adapter cable. Between ports 2 and 3 is the on/off button, and above that is a slightly larger Eject button. When the XBOX is in use, the circumference of the XBOX lights up to an alien green color. Above ports 1 and 2 is the CD-Rom drive, which is where you insert the games. The console is fairly heavy, much heavier than the Gamecube, but it is not a problem for me.

The cool thing that the XBOX has are the extra features. First of all, you can purchase a DVD Playback Kit, which consists of a remote and a small receiver, which you place in any controller port, and with this kit you can play DVD's on your XBOX. According to my friends that own a PS2, the picture quality and the amount of options during a movie is more extensive on the XBOX than the PS2.

Another cool thing is that you have a hard drive, therefore it is unnecessary to purchase memory cards. All of your game saves and data is saved to your eight gigabyte hard drive, which is enough to last you forever. A memory unit is optional, and this allows you to use your game saves at a friend's XBOX. The hard drive also enables you to rip music from your CD's, CD-R's will not work, and then you can listen to your favorite songs while playing some games, like Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3. The hard drive has about 300,000 blocks of memory, while a full CD takes up about 3,000 (a little less actually).

Another cool feature about the XBOX is Xbox Live, which is the #1 online gaming community. If a game is Live enabled, you can play that game over the Internet versus people all over the world, which can be very fun. If you have no friends in real life, you will still have gaming buddies across the US.

Many people have complained that the XBOX controller is too bulky and uncomfortable. This argument is useless nowadays, because Microsoft (a company that actually listens to queries), created the S controller, which is a smaller version of its controller. Now it comes standard with all XBOX's, and it is very comfortable to use, I like it more than the PS2 controller. The S controller has 2 triggers, 1 navigational pad, 2 pressure-sensitive thumbsticks, four main buttons, two small buttons and the Start and Back buttons. The layout is very user-friendly.

But if you buy an XBOX, not only do you get, the console and an improved controller, you also get two fine games made by Sega: Jet Set Radio Future and Sega GT 2002. Both are very good and interesting games, especially JSRF, but tey do not show you the complete capabilities of the XBOX.

The actual console is far superior to the PS2 and GameCube. The Central Processing Unit, is a 733 MHz Intel Pentium III, which is better than the PS2 CPU (294 MGz) and the Gamecube (485 MGz). The Graphics processor is a 233 MHz custom-designed chip, developed by Microsoft and nVidia, and is the best as well (the PS2 chip is less than 150 MGz). The memory bandwidth and polygon performance is superior on the XBOX. There is 3D Audio, Dolby Digital Surround Sound and HDTV support, as well as a password-protected parental controls option. As you can see, the XBOX packs a powerful punch.

The software selection is pretty good as well, and there are many awesome games for every genre. The games that are available on all three consoles tend to be better-looing and have more features on the XBOX. You can never go wrong with games like Halo, Splinter Cell, NFL 2K3, Sega GT 2002, Ghost Recon, Steel Battalion and man more. The selection of sports and first person shooters is mind-blowing, and the only genre in which the XBOX falls behind in is RPG’s, even though it is home to Morrowind, one of the best, and the upcoming Fable. The future looks bright as well, with Return to Castle Wolfenstein to come out soon, and games like Halo 2, Fable (supposedly better than Zelda), Perfect Dark Zero, a sequel to Conker's Bad Fur Day, CounterStrike and many more to be released.

Overall, I would like to say that I am in no way bashing the other systems, and would like to let you, the customer, know that if you choose XBOX, you won't go wrong.