gekko's Xbox Live Impressions
 

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 Still rather outdated, Vikings don't have Gary Anderson kicking.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?

Wow, nice impressions. Do you hafta pay for the downloadable extra stuff? Someone told me that..Dunno if it's true or not. But other than that, good stuff.

Wow, that whole pause thing does sound bad...but overall it sounds pretty fun, If I had an X-Box and was willing to fork out the dough, which I wouldnt be even if I had an XBOX.

This downloadable stuff? No. Some stuff you will, they call it "premium content." Basically it allows developers to go back and develop new levels, or hell, some might go as far as an entire expansion pack, then charge for it, so they can make money. One of the many ways companies will try to profit from online play.

Most stuff you wouldn't. In fact, right now I don't think there are any plans for it. But Ms left the option in so developers can use it if they wish. We probably won't see it for a while in use, because people aren't really into paying for things they're not sure of. Look at PSO. But it's a possibility for the future.

I believe gekko forgot to add that I beat him at NFL Fever 2003, quite badly also. Whenever I'm ahead of people 2 or 3 touchdowns before the half though they will quit, that gets really annoying after awhile. :(

I believe Bond forgot to add that it was the first, and only time I've played Fever.

NBA 2k3 is a lag fest for Ps2... it's likt the game just moves slower than your controlls no matter what you do (I played with a Broadband connection at my friends against another Broadband connection, and it still made reactions times extremely late.)

I'm just wondering if this has been fixed due to the Cable only connections of Xbox live...

If the reaction times are as swift as the NFL games, I may be buying an Xbox within the week

also depends on the speed. just because both of you have cable doesnt say you'll get a perfect game. And have you tried with that same person on an xbox online game? and who hosted the game?

Thing is, Many Cable connects, be it that they are very fast downloads. some only have 128k upload. infact i hear thats the case with many lately.

my friend finally got a cable connection yesterday. i talked him into buying NHL 2003 ............... so later after i went home, i had him host a game and i connected and we played some. at times it was extremly laggy. and after thinking about it a while i found its because he only has 128k upload.................. i have 384upload, so tonight we're gunna try me hosting the game and seeing if its better.

point being. that even if everyone has broadband, some are slower at certain things. upload is important when hosting a game.

But in any case would any speed of broadband be much faster than networking with dial-up modems? I'm actually curious since you brought up the uploading speeds.

To put it simple, I saw no difference between 56k on DC playing online, and BB on Ps2 playing online.

That's just sad.

I hope there is a difference when it comes down to Xbox

Not sure on the NBA thing. Haven't played it yet. But I have yet to hear anyone complain about lag on that game. Fever seems to be the only one that suffers.

of course.

but the upload i was refering to was only about double of a 56k modem, which isnt much of a difference at all in terms of hosting games, expecially the newer games of today which do use a little more then they used to.

which is why usually the big servers that host games that have a lot of people joining and playing. have like usually at least 1MB upload. (not sayin they cant be done on less. just sayin usually.)

if someone is hosting a game and its laggy, usually it will be that way no matter what the game console or whatever. and upload speeds do go up and down at times. meaning if your laggy one time. next time you play it might not be so bad.

Oh.... That is sweet about the microphone for sports games.... Because I thought you would have to press a button to talk, which might affect a drive to the basket or something in a basketball game. I like the fact that you can just talk any time you want.

w00t! I made sticky!

Anyway, I'm very impressed with the way they made the mic work. A few problems arise though. For one, it's not like SOCOM where one person talks at a time. Everyone can start talking at once (theoretically). Usually people are nice enough to stop and let one person talk, but sometimes two people go at once and you get lost. Second thing is if you're playing, and say you're friend is next to you. You're talking to the guys online and then answer your buddies' question, and everyone hears what they say.

That being said, they're not very serious issues, and the idea kicks ass. But it has it's drawbacks, but man, I would've loved to have it work that way in SOCOM. Anyone getting Ghost Recon? :)

BTW, I'm now ranked in the 50s in MotoGP. Damn I'm good :D

Um. just a question...is NHL 2K3 or NHL 2003 online for XBox? I would subscribe to Xbox Live for the sole purpose of an online hockey game (seeing as my PC sucks so playing NHL games on PC would suck for me). Although there are still many other online games on Xbox that I am interested in.