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Games Entertainment

MS Reveals Big-Name Xbox Games 346

Posted by timothy from the tuxracer-flightgear-and-frozen-bubble dept.
LukeG writes "At this year's huge X02 event in Seville, Microsoft pulled out all the stops to convince the vast contingent of mainstream journalists present that the Xbox did indeed have the credentials to take on Sony and Nintendo. As well as the huge acquisition of Rare, Microsoft also reveled in the number of other potential AAA titles confirmed at the show. The best of these are examined in this preview."
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MS Reveals Big-Name Xbox Games More

MS Reveals Big-Name Xbox Games

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  • Wow, there's some new AAA Xbox title that slashdots sites to death?

    Coooool.

  • WTF? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wakko Warner ( 324 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:05PM (#4364224) Homepage Journal
    You can play games on the XBox?

    From reading this site, I assumed it was just another Linux platform.

    - A.P.

  • Version 5 of the best game yet (Score:5, Funny)

    by Brento ( 26177 ) <brento AT brentozar DOT com> on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:07PM (#4364239) Homepage
    The most hotly expected title, IIS5, is another sequel to one of Microsoft's popular games. Players will try to avoid massive publicity that could disrupt their home base, while simultaneously doing patches in real time. Weapons at the player's disposal include new firewalls and cluster services (aka "cluster bombs"). While some multiplayer features are still present from the original version, the much-anticipated massively multiplayer mode is still not available, as verified by a recent posting on Slashdot.

  • Can't access thanks to IIS... (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:09PM (#4364255)
    Posted anonymously to protect the innocent! No karma-whoring here!

    X02 and the future of the Xbox

    X02 is the cunningly named sequel event to last year's Cannes X01 launch. It essentially gives Microsoft a competition free platform to make important announcements, introduce upcoming games and to spend prodigious amounts of money on industry journalists. This years event took place in Seville, and gave a fascinating glimpse into the direction Microsoft is heading.

    Boarding the plane at Gatwick, I soon found myself engaging in some interesting speculation about what the event would reveal, and precisely what the show needed to achieve from Microsoft's point of view. Things have not gone entirely to plan for the Xbox in Europe, and while there has been no Japan-style disaster, Microsoft has only just edged out Nintendo in a region that has become increasingly important to the industry as a whole. In Europe, the battle for second place is still wide open. The consensus opinion amongst the journalists on the flight was that Microsoft needed to impress at X02 - particularly in the short term. Sony have an almost certain record-selling title in GTA: Vice City, and analysts have always held the view that this Christmas period - the first in which all the consoles have been available in all regions - is far more important than the last one. Worryingly for Microsoft, a number of their key titles have slipped alarmingly, and despite having a reputation for patience on this front (confirmed by many of the developers I have spoken to) I think the situation is now becoming a concern. Games like Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance and Knights of the Old Republic would have been extremely welcome, but it seems we won't see either until next year.

    The event began, therefore, with an air of expectation amongst the assembled delegates. Knowing nothing of the venue, it was something of a shock when the numerous coaches pulled up outside an enormous theme park on the edge of the city. Festooned in green and black, and with a spectacular laser and water show, it was clear that Microsoft wanted something of a party atmosphere. This was primarily achieved through the free alcohol that was available, however, and it makes me tremendously proud to report that your British media representatives were foremost amongst the European nations in creating the necessary mood through alcohol consumption. It brought a tear to my eye, to see such dedication.

    Clearly wanting to take a grip on the situation before everyone became too drunk to care, Microsoft quickly convened the nights press conference. Acting as master of ceremonies was Sandy Duncan, VP of Xbox Europe. Also speaking from Microsoft were Jay Allard, general manager of Xbox, Ed Fries, VP of content for Xbox and Michael Cassius, the European Xbox director. Several developers and publishers also made speeches, including Jay Wilbur from Epic, Peter Molyneux from Lionhead, and Yves Guillemot from Ubisoft. The proceedings were laced with flashy music and special effects as you might expect, but most of the interest was of course generated by the announcements made.

    Some of these were pretty much expected, but overall there was a slight shift in tone from the company that may well prove to be significant. The initial announcements concerned various games planned for the platform, and included Project Gotham Racing 2, as well as other unheard of titles like Climax's Sudeki (which ultimately was considered one of the most promising games of the show - more later).

    The worst kept secret in gaming - MS's purchase of Rare - was also revealed, with a cool price tag of around $375 million. The Stamper brothers were present, but did not speak - probably too stunned by the fact that they're now stinking rich. One interesting point was the movie played after the announcement. There has been intense speculation over which franchises would be retained by Rare, and which would revert to Nintendo. This movie seemed to suggest Rare would retain Perfect Dark, the Conker franchise and Banjo-Kazooie, as it featured all these characters as well as the first game to be released for the Xbox - Kameo. Kameo is a fairy with the ability to morph into a variety of other creatures, and the game seemed to be some kind of action puzzler, with a similar play-style to other Rare games. Release date is as yet unknown, but we're not likely to see it for at least a year.

    The biggest announcements, however, and certainly those that MS was keen to promote the most, were those concerning the impending launch of Xbox Live. A lot of information was given here, and it will be covered in more detail in another article, but the pertinent points are the lauch date - March 14th in Europe - and the price, at around 59 Euros. This should translate to about £39.

    The promotion of Xbox Live was definitely the prevailing theme of the show, and indeed MS representatives constantly badgered people to go and try it out. My overall impression was that MS are very happy with the system they have designed, but are slightly worried about how to sell and promote it. To elaborate on this point, let me just explain that this type of show is not only attended by specialist gaming press. In fact we were probably in the minority, with many more journalists from more neutral publications like the BBC or mens magazines, as well as general press. This meant that not all the journalists present came from a gaming background, and MS representatives made specific requests several times during the event for people to try out the Xbox Live demonstrations. They were extremely keen to get the message across, and were perhaps worried that certain press elements in attendance were missing out on the experience.

    As said previously, there was a general consensus amongst the press that MS needed X02 to be a success to win over some critics. In this regard, the show was a success - but probably not an unqualified one. There are definite chinks in the armour, and perhaps the most significant is the real lack of stand out titles available in Europe in time for Christmas, and in particular titles with mainstream broad-based appeal.

    Of all the possible AAA titles demonstrated at the show, only one will definitely be released in time for the holiday season. Ubi Soft's Splinter Cell looks fantastic -essentially it's the Tom Clancy take on the stealth genre. It plays a little like Metal Gear Solid, but aims to be more realistic and less arcade-like. There is also less of an emphasis on interruptive story, and the gameplay is extremely compelling. It's scheduled for release in November, and there'll be more info on it and other titles in the X02 games round up.

    In the long term, however, things look decidedly rosy for Xbox. There are an enormous number of titles in development for the console as we speak - three hundred at the last count - and an amazing number of those look like they have real potential. Several games stood out as potential classics. I'll save the details for the games round up, but these included Sudeki, Kameo, Steel Battalion, MGS 2: Substance, Brute Force and Molyneux and co.'s offerings Fable (formerly Project Ego) and B.C. There are also titles designed with Xbox Live in mind, and having played both Unreal Champoinship and Mech Assault I can confirm that both are incredibly fun, with UC particularly being a grade A title.

    X02 was also significant for the tone of the rhetoric we heard from many of Microsoft's top people. Ed Fries admitted in one particular speech that "we learned the hard way about the mistakes we made", referring at the time to two things - the eventual realization that Xbox prices were far too high when it came to the market, and also to the decision to release the controller S in Europe on November 1st. This conciliatory tone was evident throughout the event - Xbox is clearly trying to avoid the kind of bad reputation that MS as a company has with certain audiences. There was also quite a bit of honesty from the Xbox team in that they often admitted that they did not have all the answers. During the developer unplugged session, Jay Allard was asked about potential difficulties of using a voice communicator with certain game genre's. He simply said that MS had no idea how people would act in-game with the communicator, and that some risk was involved in the effort to bring voice to gaming, but that he and his team were convinced that it was worth a try.

    The members of the Xbox staff present at the show were all as candid as Allard - it did give me the impression that the company is trying head off any accusations of being insensitive to consumers and the general public. As such, the event did go a long way towards convincing me of the viability of Xbox Live and of the continued success of Xbox in general. The particular thing to remember here is that Xbox will continue improve with age - it has only been in Europe for a matter of months. Encouragingly, there are a number of titles due that are almost guaranteed to be a success by any measure - games like Knights of the Old Republic, Halo 2, Fable and B.C., and Microsoft is clearly looking at long term prospects by buying companies of Rare's calibre. It seems that Microsoft's goal is now simply to grow its user base and make a success of Xbox Live. Playstation 2 has an unassailable lead in terms of numbers, so MS seems to be shedding it's myopia and looking to the future, and I'd contend that this is no bad thing. 2003 looks to be the definitive year in the history of the Xbox...

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • "He simply said that MS had no idea how people would act in-game with the communicator, and that some risk was involved in the effort to bring voice to gaming, but that he and his team were convinced that it was worth a try."
      • I've been beta testing XBOX Live, and the voice communicator has been a damn fine addition to online gaming. For the most part, players have been cordial, and I really haven't seen that big of a problem with people abusing the technology. Thumbs up Microsoft. So far, so good.
  • Because if they did, by now one of them would have contacted the owner(s) of one of these sites and offer to sue slashdot for malicious actions.

  • This sounds sweet! (Score:5, Funny)

    by yobbo ( 324595 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:12PM (#4364280)
    Error 403.9: Access Forbidden

    sounds like a shooter

  • blah (Score:5, Funny)

    by ne0nex ( 612727 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:16PM (#4364301)
    300 titles? maybe one of them will be a game where you, the lone programmer on a daring mission into the depths of hell (i.e. the basement of Microsoft headquarters) try to develop a web server that won't crash.

  • Eagerly awaiting the 10 pages of drooling PS2... (Score:3, Funny)

    by mbourgon ( 186257 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:17PM (#4364314) Homepage
    ads. Come on, guys. I _own_ an X-Box, and that was a bit fanboyish. It had its tongue stuck further up MS's ass than even their magazine [officialxboxmagazine.com], which is saying something.

    News for nerds? Where...
  • -X02 Splinter Cell Sudeki Steel Battalion Fable B.C. and get this quote "Unfortunately we'll only see Splinter Cell and possibly Steel Battalion sometime soon - the rest are at least a year away. It's encouraging, however, to see such quality in development - I suspect that this time next year the Xbox will have a considerable lead over its competitors in terms of the numbers of top quality titles." Hahaha
    • I hate to suggest this but after reading the first page(the only page I could get to load) it feels like astroturfing. I mean come on...statements like those quoted above are just weird. It is as if they were told to write something...ANYTHING.

      Who knows? Maybe they are smart enough to understand something that isn't released on the XBox is better than stuff not released on the GC or PS2. ;-)

  • Why does the XBox get so much coverage? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:23PM (#4364335)
    I mean, you don't see /. mentioning Sony or Nintendo's big line up, do you?

    • Re:Why does the XBox get so much coverage? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Josuah ( 26407 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @10:35PM (#4364951) Homepage
      Probably because it's not news for Sony and Nintendo to have great games or announce game partnerships. We already know that the PS2 and GameCube have awesome games. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are holding press conferences or exhibitions to try and convince us of something we don't think they are.

      News like the console price drops did get posted on Slashdot. And the PS3's "out-of-box" speculation. And the PS2 sales and DVD integration. And the GameCube of worms eating.

      Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well.
      • wish I could mod you up :-(

      • Eh? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Inoshiro ( 71693 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @02:09AM (#4365606) Homepage
        "Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well."

        Just because I'm over the age of 18, doesn't mean I suddenly stop enjoying the games I used to enjoy. Fun is fun, regardless of age. Have you even tried Animal Crossing yet? Super Monkey Ball?

        Plus, I'm more than tickled about the Resident Evil remixes for the Gamecube (more than enough to keep my hair on end for a looong time), as well as the fantastic Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requim. But maybe you skipped those because you were too busy getting NFL $YEAR or NBA $YEAR for the Xbox.

        They (Nintendo) are targetting people who want to have fun, not just the usual beer-swilling football/hockey/soccer/$sports over 18 game players. As Martha might say, that's a Good Thing (TM).

        • Re:Eh? (Score:3, Informative)

          by analog_line ( 465182 )
          Don't forget that you still can get all the football/hockey/basketball/whatever games on the GameCube as well.

        • Re:Eh? (Score:2)

          by Saige ( 53303 )
          My god, Eternal Darkness is SO not a game for kids - I've had it freak ME out, along with a number of friends, and at 28, it takes a bit to do such a thing. I would suspect that any 13-14 year old is going to really get affected, with the possibility of nightmares (I've come close myself).

          Then again, it might not be so bad if I wasn't playing the game only at night with all the lights off...

          I still refuse to go into that bathroom ever since the tub scene. I did watch a friend look at the tub, and summarily scream and scoot backwards across the floor about 10 feet - I haven't seen a game do that before - ever.
    • What happens on the XBox (which I do not care about) will tend to spill over to the desktop (which I do care about).
      Therefore I do care about what Microsoft is up to with the XBox.
    • Actually, there was a post when Nintendo annouced the new Zelda, Starfox, and Mario games a while back. Also Metal Gear Solid II got some front page treatment (though more geek stuff, then yeay it's out).
    • Look up "hypocracy" in the dictionary, and you see "http://www.slashdot.org".

      Microsoft is evil! We must destroy the Evil Empire. But ooooh, look at all the pretty games and hacks you can do to the xBox! Let me buy one today!

  • MSXBox's New Games (wish list) (Score:5, Funny)

    by JoeCommodore ( 567479 ) <larry@portcommodore.com> on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:45PM (#4364434) Homepage
    Hmmm, I didn't see the article before /. effect... but I believe these are some of the titles:

    The AntiTrust Shuffle (TM)
    You play either Bill Gates or Steve Balmer and using a dance pad you whip out the moves to avoid the slings and arrows of outrageous justice. As you improve your skills you can advance to being the Master of the DRM Market, as you manipulate (again, via the dance pad) the masses and the RIAA/MPAA against each other towards more control for yourself. You can even do doubles with two game pads.
    Inter game bonus rounds let you earn extra points based on effectiveness of various celebration dances and 'who's the man' gesturees.

    Embrace and Extend (TM)
    Kind of like a tetris game where those rectangular pieces that fall from above and can fit in a lot of other game slots below, but in this you must catch the pieces in mid-fall and re-shape them to VisualSquarish#.net shapes where they only seem to fit in the Microsoft game slot... If you don't have time to to 'extend' the pieces you still earn points by getting them all to go into the Microsoft Game slot anyway, if you don't get into MS you loose points and are told you are a loser. (also available for WinCE handhelds)

    'Innovation' Avenger (TM)
    Fight the evil GPL who wish to suck Innovation out of the Microsoft Universe. Armed with the best legal offenses and wads of cash you pick off the relentless multitudes of drones (liiks like sinistar, but the drones are building some sort of Penguin...)
    The game employs advanced AI technologies where the AI drones get smarter faster than you do... But you can also can get political and corporate power-ups to throw more roadblocks into their assault.

    EULA (TM)
    Word game - still under development.

    Have you guys heard of any others being planned?
    • Yeah, I got some others (and remember, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, assuming I spelled gander right!)...

      Formula51:

      Based on the movie of the same title about some extraordinarily strong weed... you see, you HAVE to be smoking some good stuff to think that ANY Linux GUI looks even half-way decent. In this game, you will be shown various Gnome and KDE themes and you simply look at it and stare at it and the last person in your living room to puke because it's so damned ugly is the winner. A sure-winner party game with the simplest control scheme ever.

      Complexitosity:

      In this game, you will have to enter a long series of arcane commands to perform simple actions. For instance, to pick up a new weapon:

      cat >> wpn.dir
      chmod a+r wpn.dir
      grep -n '[wP]eapon' wpn.dir
      ncftp ftp.wpnsrv.com
      get newWpn.sword.tar.gz
      cd /usr/me/weaps
      tar tar -tvzf newWpn.sword.tar.gz

      Then of course you'll have to compile the downloaded source for the weapon you just picked up, but I don't want to ruin the whole game for you!

      The Rightous Few:

      In this game, your job is to go around to a bunch of virtual forums, both message boards, chat rooms and other constructs, and extol the virtues of Linucks (any resemblance to real operating systems, overhyped or not, is strictly coincidental) to anyone that will listen, and to many who won't. All the while you will explain how Linucks is the savior of the known world, the greatest thing since the advent of breathable atmosphere on the planet Earth and all the while telling the virtual evildoers who support MicroZoftt that all they do is spread FUD, even if they actually LIKE Windoes. It is your job, as an Open-Sores avengers, to spread 100 times as much FUD as the MicroZofttees ever could. Remember, it's just a game, nothing like real life folks! (Ahem... cough... SARCASM).

      Battle For Knowledge:

      In this exciting game, it is your job to brutally force owners of intellectual property to give up their means of making a living by giving open, free, unfettered access to their intellectual property. You can use a number of tactics to achieve your goals from threatening them with lawsuits, pirating copies and making it a moot point or holding guns to their heads until they do as they are told. All for the greater good of humanity of course. (I can't tell, is my sarcasm coming through clear enough?!?)

      Fading Reality:

      In this game, which is a truly revolutionary concept, you must fight the constant decent you feel into obscurity, insanity and irrelevance as you continue to push a subculture agenda aimed at the destruction of modern society and free market values. As you get deeper and deeper into this game you begin to feel that no one but you could ever possibly have the right answers about anything whatsoever, and so you begin to fight, almost religiously, for your single-minded purpose and goal: to rid the world of all proprietary systems and to destroy the very fabric of the modern American capitalist system. This game was originally called "Communism Redux", but is now being called "Fading Reality", subtitled "The Open-Source Movement".

      Harde-har-har.

  • Mirror Mirror (Score:4, Informative)

    by extagboy ( 60672 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:47PM (#4364439) Homepage
    Luckily I got a look at the page... Uploaded to my web site.

    page1 [geocen.com] page2 [geocen.com] page3 [geocen.com] page4 [geocen.com]
    page5 [geocen.com] page6 [geocen.com] page7 [geocen.com] page8 [geocen.com]

  • RARE MEANS NOTHINGHELLOO!!!!! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by GuardianAli ( 552915 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @08:51PM (#4364455)
    1.) Rare has a veeeeery bad habit of taking their time with games. Rare releases a game when THEY feel it is worthy. A good motto that nintendo didnt mind since that is what they strive for too.
    But cause of that they release maybe 2 games a year!
    Microsoft cant have that. They didnt pay 350 million for 2 games a year.

    So one of two things will happen.
    Microsoft willlet them do their thing in which case they over payed again, 350 million for 2-3 games a year..
    or they force Rare to go faster in which case the quality of their games drops. If that happens then they arent Rare anymore and is Rare by name only.

    2) all they make is platforming HUNTING games anyway...gather 100 coins, barrels, whatever.
    same formula they have used for 10 years or so.
    and as for perfect dark..the Goldeneye team, the people that made it LEFT rare long ago.

    • I wouldn't go so far, personally. While I've never really cared for Rare's games, if they can make companies like Microsoft, et al, bend over for them at their will, then I say let them take their time. It's better to have 2-3 good games than 9-10 really poor games. I believe, as a programmer, to not do something until the programmer(s) believe it's ready for release.

      After all, I've been waiting for VALVe's TF2 for years now... haha...
    • I saw that video of all the RARE characters being cute and funny around the Xbox logo. I broke down in tears when I saw what they did to Joanna Dark. She's a freaking anime!!! What, did they think she was too sexy as a human??? I don't know what they're smoking over there, but they need to change brands before they lose a hard core fan.

      You can see the video here: ftp://209.164.21.30/pub/misc/rare_sequence.mov [209.164.21.30]

      -Lucas

    • It'll be the second. That's what they did to Bungie, after all. Bungie had most of Halo done, but they had to come up with levels. Anyone familiar with the Marathon series knows how creative Bungie COULD be in doing that. Microsoft didn't let them, which is why the Halo levels are widely considered repetitive (see Penny Arcade for an, um, colorful take on the subject)

      Same thing is likely to happen to Rare. Likely might be putting it weakly- Microsoft does not produce art or quality, and they WILL do the same thing to Rare. Just as Bungie isn't the same Bungie, Rare won't mean the same thing either. It's simply a question of what your boss will let you do.

    • or they force Rare to go faster in which case the quality of their games drops. If that happens then they arent Rare anymore and is Rare by name only.

      Of course, there are those of us who believe that Rare lost any magic they once had when they ceased to be ACG in 1985...

  • "essentially it's the Tom Clancy take on the stealth genre. It plays a little like Metal Gear Solid, but aims to be more realistic and less arcade-like. There is also less of an emphasis on interruptive story, and the gameplay is extremely compelling."

    So its not really anything like MGS is it? They are just invoking MGS's name because it sold boat loads and they're hoping to borrow some hype.

  • Micrsoft and the Pickle (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WankersRevenge ( 452399 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @09:02PM (#4364510)
    Microsoft is finding itself in a real pickle with the X-Box. With GTA Vice City coming out very soon its looking to be the next killer app and things weren't helped by Rockstar signing an exclusive deal with Sony. Microsoft needs a strong christmas sales and right now, it doesn't look good.

    It doesn't matter how many games it has in development. If XBOX sales slug on by, the marketplace will view it as a turkey. And without any exclusive blockbuster titles, why bother dropping two hundred dollars on it when you can have the same thing with Sony

    All that I see on the horizon is Halo 2 which is cool and all. But lets be honest - its just another FPS. It doesn't nearly excite the imagination as GTA. My view - MS is fucked. Playstation 2 just keeps getting stronger. So in the end, when you have an un-used Xbox, why not use it as webserver? What else are you going to do with it?
    • gimmie a break...do you even game? or are you just an anti-MS zealot?

      sure GTA:VC is going to be great, but it isn't going to end the Xbox.

      have you looked at the fall line-up for the Xbox, including the lineup for XBL? have you played XBL? i am beta testing it and lemme tell you, compared to the launch and online play of SOCOM, it kicks the living shit out of the PS2's online plans.

      so let's examine what i am excited about for this fall:
      1) Unreal Championship (on XBL...woot!)
      2) Blinx (using a HDD in a way the PS2 can't even imagine)
      3) Ghost Recon (was great on the PC, will be great on XBL)
      4) Tony Hawk 4 (the franchise continues)
      5) Sega NFK2K3 and NFL Fever 2003 (on XBL these ALREADY kick ass....)
      6) Splinter Cell (MGS killer. 'nuff said)
      7) Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance (just in case Splinter Cell doesn't apply the double head-tap isn't!)
      7) BMX XXX (pr0n for adult gamers.)
      8) DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball (bounciness!)
      9) Fable (Peter Molyneux - 'nuff said...again.)
      10) Shenmue II (continuing the DC legacy...with DVD movies included in the game pack to get people up on the story line) ...and the list goes on.

      i am not trying to be a fanboy, but the level of shit on /. sometimes is just too much.

      this is going to be the BEST Xmas for gaming b/c of the level of competition with 3 consoles. we owe MS thanks for making both Sony and Nintendo work harder to get gamers, b/c nothing is guaranteed anymore.

  • New AAA Titles (Score:3, Funny)

    by bucklesl ( 73547 ) on Monday September 30, 2002 @09:16PM (#4364568) Homepage

    ...Microsoft also reveled in the number of other potential AAA titles confirmed at the show:

    • TourBook 2003, Tony Hawk Edition
    • Emerill's FoodGuide Deluxe
    • NASCAR Emergency Roadside Response
  • Our chief feature is Surprise! Surprise and fear ... fear and surprise ... Our _two_ features are surprise and fear. And ruthless aquisition of real game companies. Our *three* products are Surprise, Fear and Ruthless Aquisition. ... and an almost usable Linux platform...

    [...]

    NOOOOObody expects the Microsoft XBox. Amongst our products are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, rutheless aquisition of real game companies, an almost useable Linux platform, and a new controller that fits normal hands...
  • Now who gets to change the rules? The owner of course.

    It's a well known fact Bill Gates is a Game player.

    Ever wonder what game he was playing that he got off of
    the anti-trust suit, with only a slap on the hand and told
    not to do it again?

    Do you really want to buy games from a cheater?

  • AAA? (Score:2)

    by mstyne ( 133363 )
    Since I work in radio, I instantly thought Triple A (Album Adult Alternative) radio format -- suddenly I pictured a first person shooter, with Kenny G as the protagonist...

    It could be the game that breaks things wide open for the X-Box. Really.
  • This is a distillation of what I have heard all through the postings:

    "Whatever you do, don't get labelled as a turkey. If you do, you're dead in the water, and no amount of good games will get you out of that funk. Having no class A titles will get you labelled as a turkey. After that point, no amount of great games coming out later will get you out of that pit."

    Methinks that MS is on a rampage to buy its way out of turkeydom. Sony and Nintendo all have games that make you want to go to a friends house and play them. So they are safe. MS really doesn't as of yet except for a FPS named Halo... but then again I own a LOAD of FPS games. ...personally after all of the money my relatives have spent buying me crappy MS games for Christmas and not knowing any better, I wish them nothing but the worst shopping season EVER for them.
  • 1. The controller and console are heavy in a truly aerobic fashion.
    2. Games are priced right where kids can afford them if you don't miss a kidney.
    3. If you promise to buy 3 1st party games inside your first year, Bill Gates will send you to college.
    4. Large, boring game environments encourage outside play.
    5. Underdeveloped countries have already discovered the X-Box's invaluable use as a cheap space heater for entire villages.
    6. Trying to remember the point of Munch's Odyssey or Halo helps improve long-term memory skills.
    7. Ballmer the Hedgehog.
    8. Worthless guts can be taken out of the X-Box to convert it into a two-story playhouse complete with green skylight.
    9. Billchanger on front works even on old wrinkled fives.
    10. Nobody goes blind from SLEEPING in front of the TV too long.
  • Because of the lack of games, and that if M$ could could just buy developers and secure exclusives, ala Sony then they could turn the fortune of the thing around. The XBOX already has loads of games avilable for it and and decent quality of exclusives ie Halo etc.

    The reasion that the XBOX is dieing are the sole fault of M$ and do not have anything to do with people developing for it,

    Firstly, The thing is really badly designed, from the oversized controller (surpassed only by the dreamcasts in its crapness) to the brilliant idea of using off the shelf parts negating any possible improvements in production technology

    Secondly, The total failure to do anything "innovative", People are not going to buy some thing which is exactly the same as the competition, for example imagine where nintendo would be today if they hadn't started doing kiddie games in response to the PSX. You don't attack your enemy on their home turf it's common sense

    Thirdly, a total ignorace of the market, right now M$ are spending millions on XBOX live an online inituative to create a virtual disney land, WHY? any twelve year old can tell you that multiplayer on a console means having your friends around for a round of tekken tag, not being owned by some bot weilding script kiddie on the other side of the planet, at best your looking at someone porting evercrack for people desperate enough to pay $30 a month and sony are already well ahead in that department.

    Microsoft can buy all the software companies they what, Bungie, Rare, Capcom etc, to secure all the exclusives they what, it ain't going to make a lick of difference unless they solve these problems first, fix the controller, create some new innovative game along the lines of the Sims or what GT1 was, and not treat their marketplace the same way they treat people who buy computers (lame oversized 2 joystick, 3 pedal setups only work with flight sim nuts and they are going to stay on PC's)

    The XBOX hasn't got a problem with being labled a turkey it was a turkey when it was released almost a year ago, and the only way to cure a turkey is to shoot it.

    • 1) You have the option of getting a smaller controller, but I prefer the original one.
      2) As an XBox Live beta tester, I can say that it's the greatest thing to happen to consoles since Mario.
      • 1) You have the option of getting a smaller controller, but I prefer the original one.

        Yeah and the market for selling add on to consoles is so hugh, thats like saying if ford can't make a decent steering wheel, then it is up to the owner to fix it instead of buying a volvo, face it consoles are defined by their controller, it is the one thing that you have to get right when designing a console, and the fact M$ screwed up demonstrates how out of touch with the market they are.

        2) As an XBox Live beta tester, I can say that it's the greatest thing to happen to consoles since Mario.

        Still have to sell it to the masses and it ain't going to work, consoles aint computers, most people will lose you after then you log on and wait around for someone to play, besides this types of things where tryed on the PC like mplayer years ago and where are they today? hell where the hell is M$ gaming Zone?, everyone just uses gamespy.

        • Call me stupid, but the main reason why I actually bought the XBox is because of its big controllers. Besides, the small controllers are made by MS to. Those big controllers are confortable and fit in my hand. The Sony ones are way too small for my taste.

          Well it just doesn't work that way with the consoles. Neither Sony nor MS will take the risk of letting the console owners host the games. Most console owners don't have a T1 connection and stuff like that anyway.
          • Damn straight. I've got larger than average hands, and the xbox controller is my favorite of the bunch. The old, non-dual shock psx controllers stunk, but the dual shock is ok.

            I must say though, that nintendo's wavebird also kicks some serious butt. I played Sunshine last night for about 3 hours. The only caveat is they should have used 900Mhz instead of 2.4Ghz, ah well. ;) Who needs to use their wireless lan while they're playing 'tendo! ;)
      • 2) As an XBox Live beta tester, I can say that it's the greatest thing to happen to consoles since Mario.

        You want to maybe qualify that a bit more by giving us some examples of WHY it's so great? :) Or are you under an NDA of some kind?

    • I only had to get 10 words into your comment to realize you didn't really have anything useful or to say, as denoted by the "M$". Nothing like screeming "I'm a biased retarded fan-boy!! M$ sux!" in the very first sentence.
    • You know, as much as I hate the Xbox, I sure as hell wish that I could use the Xbox controller. Or really, any damn controller other than the dual shock. It's too small--any game that requires a lot of L or R button pushing gives my hands RSI in half an hour. And with the Xbox little kids like yourself can just buy the smaller Microsoft controller. On PS2, normal sized hand folk like myself are obliged to buy poorly made 3rd quality controlers. What I wouldn't give for a quality larger (or at least better designed--the gamecube controller doesn't give me problems) PS2 controller. How I miss luxuriously perfect (except for the dumb video memory unit) dreamcast controller.
  • I have a friend who bought an Xbox and it stopped working after 5 months. He was told it would be at least $200 to fix it and apparently this is quite common.

    Either find a reseller who's willing to warranty it for a year themselves or don't bother buying one, you've been warned.

  • Deja vu (Score:3, Interesting)

    by IamTheRealMike ( 537420 ) on Tuesday October 01, 2002 @02:42AM (#4365666)
    "It seems that Microsoft's goal is now simply to grow its user base and make a success of Xbox Live. "

    It seems that this has usually been their strategy with new products. Simply plug away at them as they get progressively better, combined with some nice market leverage. I wonder if in 3 years Nintendo and Sony will still be smiling. This is almost exactly how the Office story played out.

  • First, I own an Xbox. Burn me at the stake. That said, I think it's a tad to late to stop Sony's rampage short of fielding 100% par excellent titles at an alarming rate. Sony has excellent name brand recognition and have used their experience to build some excellent franchises. The sheer number of games they've had flowing into the system nearly guarantees a crop of good titles sprinkled here and their. It got off to a slow start, but it's seriously cooking now. Give the XBox franchise another generation (the X2?) and i think you'll see a force to be reckoned with, but as it stands now, building a solid foundation with this system is probably the primary goal for now. Sony is entrenched and it's good. The XBox will provide MS with much needed battle experience, even if it doesn't "win" this round of the console wars.
  • That is, the two games within the world of the movie "A.I." that were supposed to be out at the Xbox launch, but disappeared? They were going to be made by the Dreamworks game affiliate, but now I just get fading links on Google when I search for them.

    Someone tell me what happened to them? Was A.I. the movie considered such a flop that they were killed? I would buy an Xbox the the day of their release, but I promised myself when I bought my PlayStation 2 a year ago to wait until then...
  • They list loads of games that are coming out, yet I'm willing to offload £200 on an Xbox *SOLELY* for Toejam & Earl 3. For me, it is the killer game.

    But hey, I own a Gamecube and a Playstation 2 already so...... (I honestly think you can't just buy one platform anymore - you have to have all of them. Damned exclusives)

    Does nobody miss the days of the C64, Spectrum and Amstrad, where games were frequently available on every platform, despite being originally written in assembler! Where if you can find a game for one, you could find it for another? Exclusives are very irritating.
  • From the article: It's encouraging, however, to see such quality in development - I suspect that this time next year the Xbox will have a considerable lead over its competitors in terms of the numbers of top quality titles.

    What drugs is this guy on? Does this person seriously believe that Sony and Nintendo are sitting on their hands, and aren't going to be bringing anything out through next year? This is probably the most idiotic statement I've heard from the Xbox fanboys. I'm sure they're very happy that development for their console is starting to get rolling, but none of this convinces me in the least that they're going to get anywhere near the volume of the PS2's lineup, nor do any of these games look like they'll do anything to drive people away from Nintendo's licensing juggernaut.
  • Microsoft signs exclusive deals with OEMs (Dell, HP, Gateway) and they are convicted of abusing their monopoly power to shut others out of the market. Sony signs exclusive deals with game producers to shut others out of the market and they are competing fairly? Microsoft was already in a deal to get GTA III for the XBOX before Sony shut the door on that by paying Rockstar millions so Microsoft wouldn't get the title. Funny thing is this is EXACTLY how MS wound up in their legal quandry. They signed exclusive deals and wound up a monopoly. They did not become a monopoly first THEN sign exclusive deals.

    I smell a rat and once again the /. community is fine with this as long as it hurts Microsoft. Hypocrites. You cry that MS should play fair and compete on the technical merits. They did just this with the XBOX and now that Sony is abusing their dominant position in the console market and the slashbots cheer.

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