Just played the Xbox, first impressions inside if you care to read...

Well, I walked into my Software ETC today only to see that the XBox thingy was there. There wasnt anybody playing or somehuge line or anything (hhmm...) so I quickly ran up to it. First off, I hate the controller. It feels so big and the upper right buttons are too close, but I got pretty use to it after about 5 mins of playing Munch WHICH BTW is a pretty horrid game, maybe cause its only the demo, but other than the pretty graphics, there wasnt much there. Which brings me to the demo disk itself which isnt all that great either. I notice there are about 12 movies and one playable demo. Me not like that.

After seeing some of the movies and playing Munch, I dont think the Xbox is that much better in the graphics department as I expected. It has much smoother textures and the AA helps, but i wasnt blown away.  

On a side note, I over heard coments of other people when I was leaving the store and I heard "This isnt better than PS2!" and "These are the best graphics of all time!!", so its should be intresting to see how it goes down this coming fall.

Overall, I think the XBox will handle nicley in the up coming "console war". Other than the bulky controller, it should do fine as long as the games are good. I will be buying one as soon as I get the dough $$$

My impressions are similiar

Oddworld looked very uninspired graphically  compared to what I expected

But in all honesty I think it has alot to do with those crappy TV\'s MS supplied with their Kiosks. they looked like they we\'re used or refurbished

A few of the video demo\'s did\'nt grab me like the recent screenshots we\'ve seen. DOA3 looked sweet at timesand at other times I thought I was watching DOA2:HC

The controller was pretty cool except for the push button on the right side. They we\'re uncomfortable to reach and too close together for their design. I did enjoy the extra black and white buttons on the face but prefer the 4 shoulder buttons of the Dual Shock
SOny\'s DS is still king of controllers



Overall I think the Kiosk is doing more harmthen good for Xbox  especially since 8 million America PS2 owners and all there friends who\'ve played the system  can judge what they see at these Kiosks and compare them to PS2 games they\'ve played

Kiosks are good because the average 30+ year adult with some money DOESN\'T usually know much about graphics and stuff, or have experience in that area (enough say, to compare games by gameplay).

Out shopping for their 15 year old, they see these things which are (especially to them), visually stunning compared to their remembered pac-mans, and marios, and say, wow my kid will LOVE this.

$KA-CHING$

I felt the same exact way when I saw it in person. It isn\'t fair to judge the X-box on those crappy demo videos, and Munch, but let\'s face it, it will happen. Not only was I unimpressed, the 5 or 6 other people @ EB watching me play felt the same way. And they looked to me like casual gamers. So M$ has to do a better job of trying to pick them up.

/ dm /