One more xbox review.........

Author's Rating:

Pros: Many games, xbox live

Cons: Superseded, 360 available, ps3 available soon

The Bottom Line: 
Xbox original is plenty for most of us. In the end, game selection will probably be the deciding factor.

Author's Review
I've had many game consoles throughout the years. My latest before the xbox was the venerable original sega console. For it's time this machine was a marvel and offered a huge game selection, I love pinball and that system had the most pinball games I've ever seen made for a game system. I've also owned Atari 5600 and the original colecovision and on and on. For awhile there the game consoles just weren't offering me enough of what I was interested in versus the PC so for quite awhile I wasn't really interested in a game system but today the pendulum has swung the other direction again.

When I got into karate a few years ago one of the big fun things to do at school parties was network several xbox consoles together and play halo with up to 16 players at a time. My first taste of halo convinced me to get an xbox. Multiplayer halo is just a total blast and the controls are simple enough that anyone can play it, for me this has always been a personal itch...if the controls are too hard to remember I won't play it.

The xbox has a couple of competitors out there including ps2 and nintendo but no body else has halo.... This game was a breakthrough in several areas and is one of the few that really uses all of the xbox's capabilities to the fullest. Halo was pretty much the single deciding factor for me to get an xbox.

What is an xbox?
An xbox is a case, motherboard, power supply, standard PC hard disk (with some security measures built into its firmware) and a customized dvd reader. If you've ever gotten brave and opened up your xbox, there's really not a lot to see in there. The units have cooling for the cpu and perhaps another ventillation fan in the back, it looks a lot like any computer inside that has everything built into the motherboard, there are no card slots or anything along those lines.

What sets the xbox apart from competitors:
The xbox's main strength at least in my opinion, is its ability to network consoles either wirelessly or via hard wire for multiplayer capabilities. The only somewhat annoying part of this is that each xbox must generally have a copy of the game in the dvd drive so your friends have to bring their games along too, not just the unit.

How dependable is the xbox:
I've had mine for over a year, admitedly I don't play it a lot but I've never had a single problem with mine. I've got a couple of friends that had problems with their consoles and being the computer geek that I am I decided to do a bit of research and try to fix it myself.

Apparently two very common issues occur with the xbox, both related to the DVD drive. In one case, his dog jumped on the console when he was playing a game, wouldn't work after that just generated a flashing red access light on the front. The tray on the dvd unit can become misaligned is one big issue, the other frequent problem is a dirty pickup lens. (A cd cleaner isn't enough to clean that guy....you have to open the console and get inside the drive itself.) I found some well illustrated disassembly instructions on the internet, the only special tools you need to get inside is a TORX driver set with a 10 and 20 bit. Of course like everything else, opening your xbox will void your warranty so don't do this if it's a brand new unit. Fortunately for both of my friends a cleaned pickup lens (I just used alcohol on a qtip) and a can of air to blow out the dust got it all going again. The dvd unit is only about thirty dollars to replace if cleaning doesn't do the trick or the tray gets damaged.

The above is the easy repair on an xbox. The hard drive is quite another matter. Since microsoft is of course concerned about hacked games etc., the hard drive is security coded and it must match the security code in the motherboard firmware. I'm sure some hacker can tell you how to put in a new hard drive but that is much more effort than I want to deal with...for a dead drive I'd leave it to a professional or buy a new xbox.

Moving games to another console:
In order to move your game save information to another xbox you have to buy a plug in memory card. These are non volatile memory cards (means they don't need power to save their information, like SD or compact flash media for digital cameras). These cards are not cheap but not terrifically expensive either and the only thing it's used for is moving game saves to another console (and you only have to do it once because your save is transferred off the card and onto the other console's hard drive--of course if you want your new progress on the original machine you have to save it and carry it home to update your system).

The ps2 also uses cards like this but that is the only save on that system since there is no hard drive so you just carry your card along and plug it in where you need to. The memory cards plug into a slot on the front of the xbox controller, depending on the third party controller you buy not all have the slots on the front (sometimes they're sacrificed for cost. There are a few other accessories that plug into these ports on the front of the controller, I believe the Live headset uses this port and there is also a hands free microphone for the xbox that plugs into the ports on the front of the controller.

Xbox Live:
Xbox live is a web based service that offers such functions as online multiplayer game play for those games that support it and special updates not available anyplace else. Live alows a fairly large number of people to play together and you don't have to be in the same house either. Live has chat functions (headset often comes with the Live kit and play card). Halo for instance had several specially created multiplayer game maps that until recently weren't available unless you had xbox live service. The fee for xbox live is something like $5.99 a month, fairly cheap entertainment but of course your broadband connection is extra.

Game selection:
Besides Halo there are many first person and role playing games for the xbox, most of the popular driving games are also on the xbox or xbox and ps2.

This website has a comprehensive list of games available for the xbox or 360 and you can filter it by genre: http://games.teamxbox.com/ The xbox seems to be more directed to driving games and shootem ups which is fine but sometimes I just want a good dungeon romp and there are only a few of those that I know about.

Personaly, I prefer the selection of games on the ps2 for the types of games I like to play. I like dungeon romps a lot and the ps2 offers the shadows of azeroth series which is excellent and one of the few that really supports multiple players. This website has a comprehensive list of ps2 games thar are available by title: http://www.gamersunderground.net/ps2/gamelist_a.html

Controllers:
Xbox controllers are fairly robust, I've only ever had one go bad and that was because someone was abusing it. The rule in my house is you bring your own controller, this avoids the disputes over who broke it and who is going to pay to replace the broken controller. I've had all of mine for most of the time I've had the xbox, as long as they are not abused controllers last a long time. Both wired and wireless controllers are available. I've always preferred wired, I find most wireless have a bit of lag that I don't care for when playing a fast paced game. A good controller costs about $30.00 but you can find cheap ones lacking some features for as little as ten bucks.

Controllers offer a lot, there is a multidirectional push pad and a stick controller on the left side. On the right side there are four buttons and two smaller ones for less used functions, the front of the controller has triggers on each side and if you've got a non-microsoft controller there could also be buttons on the front of it if you don't like the triggers. There is a start and back button in the middle of the controller. Some third party controllers may also have switch that allows you to switch the up/down on the stick controller. The stick is most often pov (point of view) in games such as halo and some folks prefer to reverse the way the stick acts to affect the camera.

What I think of it?
I own both a ps2 and the xbox right now. The xbox has Halo, I don't like halo 2 as well as halo 1 but both games are a lot of fun multiplayer and I like the networking capabilities the xbox offers for up to 16 player games where supported. Xbox live is a big selling point for xbox, I don't have it myself but a lot of my friends do and it is a pretty good value for the price. The ps2 also has online for a couple of their games and it is currently free.

In terms of game selection, the ps2 has many more games that appeal to me in that they are mindless fun and nothing that takes too much brain power to play. The xbox hard drive will sooner or later guarantee its failure since computer hard drives generally only survive about three years of heavy use.

The new Xbox 360 has been out for awhile now and is becoming easily available, there just aren't many games out for it yet. The 360 was designed intelligently because the hard drive plugs in, it's not internal and thus less problem replacing it when it goes bad or you need more space. The ps2 has it over microsoft because they maintained compatability for earlier games in their new console; microsoft can't say the same. The 360 can run some older games but not all and you usually have to have Live service to download the updates and fixes necessary to make some games work. Microsoft may have made a bad decision when they chose this route, a lot of parents are not going to want to lay out all that money again because the old games don't work on the new console.

I still haven't decided to get a 360 yet, I think they're pricey and it sounds like bugs are still being worked out of the hardware, yes the games are neat but unless you've got the HD tv and the surround sound system to make it all look and sound fantastic the xbox looks just as good on a plain old TV set. Ps3 is due out soon, it will again be compatible with anything put out for consoles one or two, if they match the multiplayer capabilities it may really give microsoft a pain as far as market share.

For now I'm happy with my xbox but for someone just now deciding where to put their two hundred bucks the 360 or the ps3 might be more attractive; especially if you've also got the HD tv and the good soundsystem.