Xbox Impressions

But the PC is such a solitary experience and LAN parties are too much work.  Everytime my friends come over we have a blast with Halo.

You can\'t kick back, have a few beers and have a guy\'s night when all your friends are sitting at their computers--and beyond that, more often than not you are playing with strangers.

I play PC shooters too, but console shooters are a completely different genre of games for me.  

Halo is pure fun, the most fun I\'ve had with a video game in a LONG time.  Actually the last time I had this much fun with a video game was two christmases ago; my brother and sisters (and our significant others) brought our computers home and played Halflife and UT for the entire break.  That ranks up there with my Halo experiences, but beyond that I\'m not sure.

there you go making excuses for the "powerhouse" xbox console

30 fps acceptable?  i expect more
timesplitters was 60 fps LOCKED even in multi, so theres yer moot point.  

the xbox came out well over a year later than the PS2, i want well over a year improvement in graphics.  have we seen that?  does halo completely blow ANY ps2 game out of the water?  me thinks not

perhaps its just me, but 4 way console splitscreen FPS = suck
looking at a 5" by 5" corner of a TV does nothing for me

havent we been thru this before?

You cannot compare Timesplitters to Halo.  There is no comparison, I own both and there is a good reason why I never play Timesplitters any more.  They aren\'t in the same league and you know it.

Just you saying that proves so much to me.  There are so many more gameplay options in halo, the graphics are EASILY a year better, so is the sound, the single player--every single aspect of the game completely destroys Timesplitters.

Put the game in and play it for ten minutes like I just did--it\'s laughable that we were drooling over this stuff one year ago.

About the 60FPS, it is not a moot point (for one thing you can get this game to slow down).  The graphics scaling makes things look pretty muddy at times and even when it isn\'t, the game would run over 100 FPS on the xbox today (and even considerably better on the PS2).

5x5 screen?  I\'ve never seen a ten inch television, so I don\'t know what you are talking about.  Most tvs are over 30 inches, so there really isn\'t a problem.  Sure it\'s not ideal, but the fun factor more than makes up for it.

Then there\'s gamespy tunnel software that lets you play online fullscreen.  That\'s not bad either.

So yes, you take games that were released a year ago on the PS2 and compare them to games today and there is a year\'s difference.  No games released last month for the PS2 aren\'t that far behind, but they are still behind first gen xbox titles.  That too says something.

I\'m not making excuses, this is as good as it gets with consoles.  You know I could take it if you pissed on the PS2 for framerate problems (which exist in almost EVERY title), but you don\'t.  You take pot shots at the xbox every chance you get though.  

A little perspective goes a long way:  for the exact same money, you can have better hardware, and games that run and look better anywhere else.  Games that have framerate problems on the xbox would be far worse on PS2.  That\'s a fact, but you don\'t deal with facts.  You talk like IGN.PS2 regulars, spouting the same arguments as they pray their console doesn\'t "lose" the war.

i wasnt comparing halo to timesplitters
i wanna know why TS runs at 60 FPS LOCKED and halo runs AT BEST 30 FPS.  i\'ll grant the year+ to graphical differences and hardware advancements

answer me that, and i\'ll STFU about halos framerate [or lack there of]

30 inch TV huh?  since when do they measure the size along the height or length?

lets say u have a 30inch tv
thats 30" across the diagonal, and a TV is made of right angles

pythagorean theory states side A squared plus side B squared = side C squared

that means that the side and bottom are -roughly-  21" in length in height total

which means u get -at most-  a 10" x 10" square to squint at during the 4 player 15 fps chugfest

a 10" TV would have roughly 4 3.5" sections  

were not "graphic tarts" [my term, please quote source when using it], so were past the course over eye candy right?  i want SOLID 60 FPS.  is that too much to expect from a "powerhouse" console?

you know im well beyond the PS2 vs xbox argument, i just try to make you expect more and not rationalize

 there is no war, the PS2 won it this time again, xbox will take a strong second.  im sure ill like my xbox more and more 6 months from now, when i can stop looking at crappy ports

now dammit watch, weve been thru this.
stop arguing with me  

btw, yer well past 500 posts.  why havent u selected an avatar yet?

Lol mm, I\'m not going to stop arguing with you--it\'s not in me.  And besides, no one else here puts up enough of an argument.  And that\'s no fun for you is it?

A few tidy things:

4 player split screen is 30fps almost always.

The screen size isn\'t so much an issue in 4 way, it\'s the resolution and texture quality, and Halo is pretty high in those areas.  Once you get into it, you don\'t really notice (I\'m still getting a bigger HDTV in a month or so though ).

No, I not a "graphic tart" (mm 02), but I still prefer Halo at 30 over Halo looking like Timesplitters at 60.  You would disagree.

I too am sick of crappy ports.

I don\'t really expect more, I\'d like more sure, but I haven\'t been this satisfied with a console since Genesis (even though Altered Beast turned out not to be such a great game, sorry Altered).  I still haven\'t worked through my christmas games for either system and so I am happy.

There hasn\'t been a game released that I\'ve wanted to play since December and that dissapoints me (again for either system), but good things are coming.  I don\'t need two dozen games a year; if I get 10 a year I\'m more than happy--that\'s even too many probably.  It\'s really up to the devs now; MS gave them a great console, great games are on their way.

Believe me mm, if my birthday in June comes around and there are no xbox games on my list, I\'ll be chirping just as loudly as you.  But for now, I am happy with both my consoles.  

I haven\'t really thought of an avatar, why is 500 a magical number?  I guess I\'ll start thinking...

500 posts has always been the number for which members get pics.  1000 posts will net you some l33t user text under yer name

of course you could turn into npyyz and get all that stuff with 5 minutes, but i dont see that in you  

were on the same level, watch
just on different sides of the room
we can at least see eye to eye

ehhe, you said "graphic tart"
i always loved saying that

in 6 months, one of us is gonna shove our foot in our mouth

Yes I know that fundamentally we are not that different, and there is a little spark of anticipation whenever I see that you have contributed to a message.  Rarely do you disappoint.

After all you qualify my existence here--there could be no good if there was no evil.

____
in 6 months, one of us is gonna shove our foot in our mouth
____

I\'m going to start washing my feet more diligently from now on...one never knows.

I do have an ace in the hole though: 10+ games from Sega!  Surely half of them will be great (if not more).  IMO Sega has been the best dev in the last 10 years.  There I said it, we can argue about that now.

argue?  about sega?

im a sega whore remember?  always was, always will be

i bought my xbox, so ill be ready for shenmue 2 and JGR 2

even if they are "software" only from now on , i still love em *sniff*

im curious why they are developing games for GC and xbox, but no PS2?

any idea? i was never much one to keep up on rumours and speculation

[Bobs_Hardware]

*wants to play Halo*
*wants to play TimeSplitters2*

only FPS\'s im interested in...

just wanted to say..

The fact of the matter is that the xbox is exactly the same price (in N. America) and everything about it is better--controller ports, HD, DVD, etc. It\'s a better value. If you love the Dual shock so much, get the $30 adapter and you can stop whining about that too.

the graphics are EASILY a year better

i dont really think so when you take framerate into account..

eh, not my arguement, ill stay out of it.. (from now)

eh, not my arguement, ill stay out of it

yeah, dont drag yer rational sense in here like Eiksirf does
its not wanted

:P

Originally posted by mm
shenmue 3?

ugh, gonna be a long time for that

I can wait...

My next console purchase will be whichever one gets the next installment of Shenmue...

Why not get a second Box, a link cable, second TV, and play 2 on 2? Or 4 on 4?

ehhe, thats 600 clams and 1200 clams respectively

alot of money , id rather go blind looking at a 10" corner of a TV

After reading NPYYZ\'s closed thread, I\'m surprised he\'s not here, especially since its a pretty negative opinion of the Box as well as his fave game, Max Payne (In the Butt To Play Anymore After Shooting So Many Guy, Over & Over & Over!!!)

:nut:

i rented xbox max payne from work, and played thru about 4 levels till i turned it off.  ill go back to PC version

*cough*

straight port with lessor controls
gimme mouse/KB anyday