gekko
10-21-2002, 07:01 PM
After about a week with Xbox Live, here's my thoughts on the whole thing.
The headset feature-wise is very nice. Has a button so you can quickly mute yourself. It's voice-activated, so no need for a button. And it has a volume control, which is handy. As for comfort, it's not that great, in fact, it's not good, period. The whole go-behind-the-head deal makes it very uncomfortable. To any SOCOM players, you're in for a disapointment. You get used to it after awhile, but it's still not good. Then again, this is coming from the same designers that gave you the controller. On the bright side, the headset is detachable from the part that plugs into the controller. This servers two purposes: allowing you to use a custom headset (anyone with a mic and earpiece work fine. Cell phones anyone?), and allowing you to rank it out and stick it in your cell phone or cordless phone and keep playing while on the phone :D Few problems though. First, muting players is great. But you'll be pausing the game, going into the Players menu, finding the player, and then muting him. Kinda a long process, and if you're on lap 1 of 26 on a race (for the hardcore MotoGP fans), it'll be a while. And why isn't there an option to mute everyone? Sometimes you don't want to be listening to someone in the room and hearing someone else through your headset, but you're busy playing, you don't want to rip off the headset. Overall a thumbs-up, but the headset could be more comfortable.
The downloadable content they offer is... wait, what downloadable content? Currently only 1 thing can be downloaded, and that's a roster for NFL 2K3. Still rather outdated, Vikings don't have Gary Anderson kicking. Nothing for Fever (surprising), NBA 2K3, or Whacked (don't think there's the option). ReVolt I believe has some, and premium content (price $0.00) but that's been canned, and I don't have it, and you'll never see it. Ask Bond if you care. On the one hand, it's a nice feature. But it's overrated, and I'm already seeing it being, what I call, abused. For sports games with changing rosters, it's very nice, assuming the companies keep it updated. For hit games that people play for a while, new stuff would be sweet. But then you have games like Unreal Championship. They already have characters and stuff ready for downloadable content on launch day. Wow, exciting, isn't it? Well, no. Why are they withholding stuff that they have completed from the game just to give me something to fill up HD space with? I'd rather have them put it in the game rather than keep it and release it periodically for Xbox Live. But when used properly, it will be a great feature. But right now, it's not really used at all.
The switching between games isn't as smooth as I had hoped. You know, you get an invite to play another game, pop in the game and play. Well, you hit the eject button, and your Xbox still resets and everything. Not a very smooth process, but it still serves its purpose.
The signup process is a pain. On-screen keyboard, ick. Type your whole billing address and everything. It's not exactly fun. You give your credit card, sucks for people with bad credit. No option to choose whether or not you want to auto-renew. MS, being the scam artist they are, will automatically renew you. So if you forget, you pay. Because as all good marketers know, if people don't have to see what they're paying for and take the cash out, they're more likely to buy it. So it causes a hassle for those who want to cancel, like me.
Rankings are good for some games, for sports games they suck. But at least they actually work, unlike SOCOM. Sports games are all a matter of who plays the most games. Go 20-0, no one cares. You're up against guys going 160-30, and yes, some people have played that many. MotoGP is a much better system, ranking players by best lap time for each track. Overall I've been down to 79, right now I'm hanging in the 80s and 90s, and this is out of 9000+. I'm #3 in the fish bouncer minigame :D Comparing your rankings with your friends is very nice. But for sports games, it's all about who plays most.
I guess the worst part about Xbox Live is the games. Fever sucks as is, and it's very laggy. NFL 2K3 and NBA 2K3 aren't bad, but I'm not in the mood to sit through an entire sports game. I prefer to pick up the controller, play until I'm sick of playing, and leave. Not get sick of it with 2 quarters left to play. Whacked is the worst gme you'll ever play. And MotoGP just kicks all ass, but I'll be sick of it before Live launches. So I basically have only one good game to play. The other launch games basically are NHL 2K3 (I think), Unreal Championship, MechAssault, and Ghost Recon. I'll be playing Ghost Recon religiously. Would be happy with SOCOM, but cheaters are ruining it. That and the damn servers disconnecting people.
And there are already people ruining the online experience. Little problem is with people driving backwards in MotoGP, knocking players down and changing the outcome of the race. But it's worse with sports games. See, when a player pauses the game, the other player gets a pause screen too. They can only wait for the player to unpause it. Well people play until they're about to lose, then pause the game and let it sit. Basically go do something else until finally the opponent quits and they get the win. The people designing the games could change this and add a forfeit option come up after about 5 minutes, but it's too late for Fever 2003, NFL 2K3, and NBA 2K3.
I miss anything?
The headset feature-wise is very nice. Has a button so you can quickly mute yourself. It's voice-activated, so no need for a button. And it has a volume control, which is handy. As for comfort, it's not that great, in fact, it's not good, period. The whole go-behind-the-head deal makes it very uncomfortable. To any SOCOM players, you're in for a disapointment. You get used to it after awhile, but it's still not good. Then again, this is coming from the same designers that gave you the controller. On the bright side, the headset is detachable from the part that plugs into the controller. This servers two purposes: allowing you to use a custom headset (anyone with a mic and earpiece work fine. Cell phones anyone?), and allowing you to rank it out and stick it in your cell phone or cordless phone and keep playing while on the phone :D Few problems though. First, muting players is great. But you'll be pausing the game, going into the Players menu, finding the player, and then muting him. Kinda a long process, and if you're on lap 1 of 26 on a race (for the hardcore MotoGP fans), it'll be a while. And why isn't there an option to mute everyone? Sometimes you don't want to be listening to someone in the room and hearing someone else through your headset, but you're busy playing, you don't want to rip off the headset. Overall a thumbs-up, but the headset could be more comfortable.
The downloadable content they offer is... wait, what downloadable content? Currently only 1 thing can be downloaded, and that's a roster for NFL 2K3. Still rather outdated, Vikings don't have Gary Anderson kicking. Nothing for Fever (surprising), NBA 2K3, or Whacked (don't think there's the option). ReVolt I believe has some, and premium content (price $0.00) but that's been canned, and I don't have it, and you'll never see it. Ask Bond if you care. On the one hand, it's a nice feature. But it's overrated, and I'm already seeing it being, what I call, abused. For sports games with changing rosters, it's very nice, assuming the companies keep it updated. For hit games that people play for a while, new stuff would be sweet. But then you have games like Unreal Championship. They already have characters and stuff ready for downloadable content on launch day. Wow, exciting, isn't it? Well, no. Why are they withholding stuff that they have completed from the game just to give me something to fill up HD space with? I'd rather have them put it in the game rather than keep it and release it periodically for Xbox Live. But when used properly, it will be a great feature. But right now, it's not really used at all.
The switching between games isn't as smooth as I had hoped. You know, you get an invite to play another game, pop in the game and play. Well, you hit the eject button, and your Xbox still resets and everything. Not a very smooth process, but it still serves its purpose.
The signup process is a pain. On-screen keyboard, ick. Type your whole billing address and everything. It's not exactly fun. You give your credit card, sucks for people with bad credit. No option to choose whether or not you want to auto-renew. MS, being the scam artist they are, will automatically renew you. So if you forget, you pay. Because as all good marketers know, if people don't have to see what they're paying for and take the cash out, they're more likely to buy it. So it causes a hassle for those who want to cancel, like me.
Rankings are good for some games, for sports games they suck. But at least they actually work, unlike SOCOM. Sports games are all a matter of who plays the most games. Go 20-0, no one cares. You're up against guys going 160-30, and yes, some people have played that many. MotoGP is a much better system, ranking players by best lap time for each track. Overall I've been down to 79, right now I'm hanging in the 80s and 90s, and this is out of 9000+. I'm #3 in the fish bouncer minigame :D Comparing your rankings with your friends is very nice. But for sports games, it's all about who plays most.
I guess the worst part about Xbox Live is the games. Fever sucks as is, and it's very laggy. NFL 2K3 and NBA 2K3 aren't bad, but I'm not in the mood to sit through an entire sports game. I prefer to pick up the controller, play until I'm sick of playing, and leave. Not get sick of it with 2 quarters left to play. Whacked is the worst gme you'll ever play. And MotoGP just kicks all ass, but I'll be sick of it before Live launches. So I basically have only one good game to play. The other launch games basically are NHL 2K3 (I think), Unreal Championship, MechAssault, and Ghost Recon. I'll be playing Ghost Recon religiously. Would be happy with SOCOM, but cheaters are ruining it. That and the damn servers disconnecting people.
And there are already people ruining the online experience. Little problem is with people driving backwards in MotoGP, knocking players down and changing the outcome of the race. But it's worse with sports games. See, when a player pauses the game, the other player gets a pause screen too. They can only wait for the player to unpause it. Well people play until they're about to lose, then pause the game and let it sit. Basically go do something else until finally the opponent quits and they get the win. The people designing the games could change this and add a forfeit option come up after about 5 minutes, but it's too late for Fever 2003, NFL 2K3, and NBA 2K3.
I miss anything?