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Xbox first impressions 03:08 PM - Robert "Apache" Howarth - Consoles: Microsoft X-BoxWhile I\'ve had the actual Xbox for some time, today is the first day I\'ve had any real games for it. Earlier this morning at around 11 am the Fed EX man dropped off a little bundle of love from Microsoft that included: Halo, Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham Racing, Fusion Frenzy and NFL Fever 2002. There are a few memories that really stand out in my jaded, eye candy obsessed mind like the first time I played Quake 2 on a Voodoo card; Unreal on a Voodoo2 and now when I loaded up DoA3 and Halo for the first time on the Xbox. The visuals for these games are un-fu*king believable, plus run at well over 60 fps (well, it feels that way at least). Any slow down problems that Halo might\'ve had at E3 have been solved, and Dead or Alive 3 feels like it\'s running about 200 fps, as it\'s just that smooth.I just finished the first part of Halo (getting off the ship) and so far, if I had to compare it to anything - I\'d say it feels like an Aliens movie mixed with Half-Life, but with insanely good graphics, even on a television monitor. The controls are really nice, and after about 30 minutes of playing, the gamepad controller loses its awkward feel and with the added force-feedback support, the experience becomes downright captivating.I\'ll have more for you in the morning update, but for now - I\'m going back to play Halo...
Originally posted by Watchdog I too am anticipating DOA3 and Halo. I can hardly wait.
Originally posted by ddaryl What bugs me is what the hell is up with thos elame ass demo Kiosks MS has set up everywhereThey do not stand out at all
The first time I saw Halo up close and personal was a couple years back at E3 when Octane and I happened upon Bungie\'s booth. Their black curtain mini-movie theatre was showing the game off on a Pentium2 powered 300Mhz PC equipped with TNT2 video card. I was impressed then, and so was everyone else. Looking back, the demo they showed off wasn\'t too impressive by today\'s standards, but at the time it was generations ahead of anything else on the market. That year (and many others) Halo walked away with many best of E3 awards -- at least until Microsoft bought Bungie and announced that Halo would premier on the Xbox instead of PC. At the 2001 E3 expo Halo was on display in playable condition and for the first time people weren\'t singing its praises; they were complaining about the poor frame rates it suffered from and other such not-so pleasant issues that tarnished the game\'s once untouchable reputation. Microsoft blamed the problems on its unoptimized sound subsystems but no one wanted to believe them. Journalists by the droves wanted to see the Xbox fail and went out of their way to publicize its poor showing. As the old saying goes - the bigger they come, the harder they fall. The mainstream gaming media weren\'t the only folks complaining about it either. When Microsoft delayed the PC and Mac versions of Halo in favor of making the game an Xbox launch title, the game lost a lot of its fan base. Rumors still persist that Microsoft will never allow a PC or Mac version of Halo see the light of day, but according to official sources, both are still slated for release next year. Bungie has played its hand very close to the chest the last four years or so that Halo was in development -- and to this day the real storyline of Halo has not yet been revealed in print or online. The depth of Halo\'s story and varied gameplay are astounding, and within two hours of playing I not only witnessed great in-engine rendered cut scenes with outstanding voice talent and quality writing, but fought back an alien boarding party, escaped on a life pod (which oddly reminds me of Star Wars), witnessed some awesome space scenes, drove a dune buggy around, manned an alien gun turret and did a dozen other interesting things that action aficionados are bound to appreciate.Visually, Halo is hands-down the most impressive game I have ever seen in my entire life. Nothing even comes close to it. At the time, I thought Unreal 1 had great graphics and art style for its era, but after witnessing the true beauty of Halo, a new standard to which other first-person shooters must now aspire has been decreed. From the huge levels, highly detailed player models, monsters, particle effects, lighting and everything in-between, Halo will be the new benchmark that first person shooters will be judged by.Beauty is great, but what about performance? While I haven\'t checked out the four-player split screen mode yet (sorry, I think I\'ll wait for the PC version to play against others) the single player, full screen performance in Halo (Xbox) is superb. Word is that it\'s locked at 30-frames per second, but in reality it "feels" like its much more, as the gameplay is as smooth as butter and suffers from no choppiness whatsoever.Other than the frame rate issue, my biggest personal concern was playing the game with the controller. Now I\'m all for gamepads when it comes to fighting, driving or sports games, but for first-person shooters, my preferences lean all the way to the standard keyboard and mouse configuration. Bungie (to their credit) cleverly put in a little gamepad configuration mini-game that somewhat reminded me of going to the optometrist. Before long, the program inverted the controls for me and tweaked a few other things and I was on my way. My biggest surprise, however, was that the Xbox gamepad has force feedback support, and the first time the hull was breached and the aliens spewed forth into the ship, I actually felt the explosion! The force feedback support really adds a new level of immersion into the game as it makes combat and driving much, much more interesting.Speaking of combat and driving, Halo has plenty of it. Just from playing the first four chapters of the game I\'ve seen a decent amount of action and fragged at least a few hundred alien critters. Starting off, your character sports an assault rifle and pistol, but can use any weapons the aliens drop as well. You are limited to carrying two guns, however, so make sure to pick them carefully (you can change those two weapons any time you come across new ones, so no worries). So far I\'ve tried out the aforementioned assault rifle and pistol, a variety of plasma guns from the aliens, a needler that is similar to Half-Life\'s hive gun, plasma grenades and two kinds of turrets - on the back of the dune buggy and some fixed alien weapon emplacements. Other weapons I\'ve seen, but not yet tried out include a high-powered pistol, heavy gauss rifle, rocket launcher and other energy based alien weapons.In terms of vehicle support, Halo really excels in this department. Some games like Red Faction might\'ve given you a little taste of what solid vehicle support can add to a game\'s flavor, but what Bungie has done in Halo, far surpasses the efforts of any other action game. The vehicle models (jeep, tanks, fighters, etc) are spectacular, and the control schemes they use (while a bit tricky at first) are ingenious. 4x4\'ing through the mountains, green fields and beach surf on the dune buggy along with the force feedback, grinding against rocks, running over aliens, jumping over ravines or bottoming out on a hill are just a few of the activities you can enjoy in Halo. Throw a few marines in your favorite vehicle and you\'ve got the makings of an off-road killing spree you\'ll have to see first-hand to truly enjoy. The physics model that Halo uses puts most off-road games I\'ve played to shame, and nothing on the PC (or console for that matter) really compares to it.What else really shines? Well, without writing a 5000-word essay on it and spoiling the game, I\'d have to say that the artificial intelligence really stands out. The squad level dynamic A.I. that the Halo marines use blows away even Half-Life\'s impressive marine behavior. The alien AI is also very well done -- they do a great job at dodging attacks, laying ambushes and generally doing their best to kill you without resorting to lame cheats or auto-aimed attacks. The sound is amazing as well -- just wait until you plug the Xbox into your stereo and listen to it in surround sound mode. I was also really impressed how great Halo looked on a normal 27" Sony Trinitron television set. I expected all sorts of nasty jaggies and artifices, but with a GeForce 3 powering the Xbox, the game still looks really good, even at a tv low resolution. The writing is great, the story is solid, and to be honest, Halo is hands-down the best action game I\'ve ever played in my life.Well, that\'s about it for now. I\'d go into greater detail about the story and what I\'ve seen so far (not to mention post a million new screen shots), but since Bungie tried so hard to keep the game under wraps for all those years it was in development the least we can do is not spoil it for you. Come back on November 15th for our full review…
Originally posted by Vulcan Raven Who is this guy again?????Nothin against the xbox, I\'m quite looking forward too it. How could any true gamer not. But I just dont think we should all take this guys word as gospel.
Originally posted by DaRkGaMeR All these websites like Xbox, and so do the mags, so i bet us Xbox people won\'t be dissapointed ethier.
Originally posted by Vulcan Raven Of course all the mags and sites are going to say they like it even if they dont. Cause if they say it sucks then people wont buy it so people wont buy their mags or visit their sites.So if they want to survive they have to hope it is good, or convince everyone it is good, even if it isnt
