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Company: Microsoft
 
Market Price: $199.99
See it on Amazon
The wife and I finally caved into the propaganda coming every direction from Bill Gates and bought an Xbox.
My video game journey
Video games and I go way back. I was five when Nintendo first came out. It was the most amazing thing I had seen in my five years on the planet. My brother and I teamed up to pressure the parents into buying one. Their response was, "Just wait and they'll come out with something better soon."
During that time, we continually went to houses that owned a Nintendo and saw how life was better because of the console. The houses seemed to smell better and even have prettier carpet. The kids there were definitely happier. Realizing this obvious necessity we were missing in our childhood, we kept the pressure up until the parents finally gave in five years later.
Our lives were changed. Finally, staying home would not be boring. We started collecting, buying, and trading games at all corners. It was never a question of whether we'd get another Nintendo game for a birthday or Christmas, it was a question of which ones.
A year later, Super Nintendo came out to make Nintendo look like a modern day Pong.
We never got another gaming system.
Now that I'm living my own life, the wife and I... well, at least I'm determined to not wait until a gaming system is about to be out-dated before I get one.
Why an Xbox?
Some of you are probably asking why we picked Microsoft's Xbox over Sony's PS2 or Nintendo's GameCube. There are several factors that came into our decision.
First of all, getting all three gaming consoles like some people have suggested is ridiculous. I'm not a kid anymore so my life is full of things called responsibilities. Trying to find time to play with one console is trouble enough; finding time for three is impossible. Then there is that whole budget factor I've been living on since I moved out from the umbrella of my parents. So we had to pick one and only one.
Second, in order to justify this new purchase to the wife, it had to do something practical like play DVDs. That ruled out the GameCube.
Third, according to the side-by-side stats, Xbox beats out PS2 and GameCube in sound quality, polygons, disk space, processing speed, and memory.
Finally, the wife was able to find a refurbished one for 150 bucks. That is a lot more appealing than the original $300 price tag attached to the Xbox when it first hit the market.
The Interface
The interface is something straight out of a futuristic hacker movie. Everything is tinted green just like The Matrix. It's all very slick, but, more importantly, easy to navigate.
If there is no disc in the console, the user has three options on the screen: Memory, Music, and Settings. Recent releases of the Xbox also have an option for Xbox Live. If you insert a game, DVD, or CD, the Xbox begins to play the inserted disc.
I was very impressed at how easy tasks were with the Xbox including setting the time, clearing up disk space, changing the language, and setting parental controls. This is much more advanced than previous game systems that only had two settings: On and off.
Playing DVDs
Just so Microsoft can squeeze a little more money out of its consumers, a $30 attachment is required in order for the Xbox to play DVDs. The attachment comes with a remote that doesn't even have an on-off button which pisses me off to no end. Just think about it: I can control virtually everything in my house via remote. Hell, I can even lock my car doors from the bathroom, but I am still forced to get up to turn on my Xbox. I guess I need the workout.
Other than my bitterness towards the extra money and the weak remote, the Xbox plays DVDs beautifully. It offers every option I've ever needed in a DVD player. We've watched dozens of movies in widescreen format and with subtitles without a hitch.
Playing games
It's impossible to say that game play rocks since every game is different. Some games seem to take advantage of Xbox's extra power while others are just lame. While I do plan on doing reviews for individual games, I've played about ten of them and my overall impression is, "Wow!"
I've come a long way from Super Mario Brothers and my life will never be the same (until Xbox2 comes out, that is). The role playing games are so in-depth that the wife and I have been enthralled in them until late into the night. The action games are extremely life-like. But my favorites are the games based off of cartoons. These games create 3D worlds that look exactly like the cartoons.
The Xbox has an 8 GB hard drive with more than enough room to save games on it. Every game I've played so far has the option to save checkpoints and/or profiles.
Playing and copying CDs
My big beef with the Xbox appears when I try to play CDs. The console is extremely picky when it comes to which CDs it will play and which ones it won't. Apparently it will only play original music CDs, Sony CD-Rs, or CD-RWs. So far, I've only been able to get it to play original music CDs. This sucks since my 3000+ MP3 collection would be a nice feature on my Xbox.
Also, what if I want a CD in my car, house, and at work? If all electronic devices behaved like the Xbox, I'd be stuck lugging all my CDs around wherever I went or buying several copies of the same CD (I'll bet the music biz would like that one!).
Personally, I think Microsoft is trying to get into bed with Hollywood. They can use stuff like this to say, "See, people can't play downloaded music on our gaming system. We're all for protecting musicians' rights." Then the music industry can reply with, "That's so cool. Let's make a multi-billion dollar deal together. We'll all be rich by milking the hard working man for every penny he's worth and giving him as little music as possible." (For more on the Music Industry and its treachery read The Music Industry is slitting its own throat.)
However, there are some cool aspects to the CDs that the Xbox will play. For one, you can copy the music to the Xbox itself. From there, you can mix, arrange, name, and delete the music in anyway you desire. Some games will let you play the music saved to the Xbox during the game.
Other minor annoyances
There is no doubt that this console is a computer at heart. When I turn the thing on, it has the classic computer sound of a fan constantly blowing. This gets bothersome while watching a movie with a quiet scene in it. Suddenly, the effect of silence is ruined by the sound of the Xbox humming in the background. The wife and I have to put the thing behind some glass doors which has solved the problem. I can see this problem becoming worse as more appliances become computerized. Soon we'll have a house full of humming equipment. It will be just like working in an industrial plant instead of living in a home.
When telling some friends I was about to get an Xbox, they told me some stories of it overheating. I haven't experienced that yet, but after leaving it on for hours, it does seem a little sluggish. This is solved by simply turning it off and on. Too bad I can't use the remote for that task though.
Physically, the Xbox is big. It's big enough to kill a donkey with and definitely too big to carry around often. Those who enjoy taking their gaming systems to their friend's house for a slumber party are going to curse the day they bought an Xbox. Luckily, I don't do slumber parties, so it just sits there.
Conclusion
With all its annoyances, the Xbox is still a fine addition to our home entertainment. The games are incredible and DVDs play without any problems. It is Microsoft's first game console and they have a track record for doing much worse. On the contrary, I think they've got a killer gaming system.
Related links:
See it on Amazon
Xbox official site
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