Brian Shannon

My wife purchased a XBox for my son (and me) for Xmas and also got Halo and NFL Fever. We love our XBox!

We have been waiting for the next wave of games and from my perspective here is what I see:

Genma Onimusha--decent reviews but criticized for not taking advantage of the XBox platform and not being as good as PS2

Wreckless--physics issues, limited replay value. I was hoping for more of a Carmageddon feel

WWF Raw--several things removed from the game, no season, poor controls, average review.

All in all not a great showing at $50.00 a game. Now I sit and wait for New Legends. Eder Scrolls has been pushed back to April.

Any thoughts?

Aghama

It's off to a better start than the PS2 was.

Tuan Jim

All the reviews I've read have said that this as a standalone game (ie. you haven't played the first), is far and away superior to the PS2 version -- new enemies, attacks, better graphics, etc.

Tuan Jim

SnoopDogg

Max Payne, Inside the Court, Tony Hawk 2x??!

Gallant Pig

Have you looked into Amped? PGR? UFC? Not interested in JGR? I don't see that slow a start.

kar10

Don't do what people say and just "listen" to people and reviews as an advise only. I recommended that you should rent the video game so that you can try the game itself and then you will realize how good a game is.

mtucker

That's the way it is with these new consoles. You typically have to wait about 6 months to a year before they have a substantial game library. I have an XBox, but really haven't touched it since I finished Halo. Nothing is really piquing my interest. That's why you kind of need a secondary system to help "fill in the gaps" in between great games.

Josh H

I think so too. Halo is still the only must-buy X-box game IMO. It is still a better start than the PS2 had though. GTA3 was the first must buy game for me on that system (though I still don't have the money to buy, or time to play, another systems so I haven't got a PS2 yet eventhough there's about 10 games on it I'd love to have.) There's actually not a single exclusive game that's even been announced for the X-box that is a must-buy for me.

It just depends on what you like I guess. Many people would say that the GCN has had a slow start when I think it's line-up is great with Star Wars, Smash Bros., Monkey Ball, Wave Race, as must buy exclusives for me.

Gallant Pig

Star Wars, Monkey Ball, and SSB:M are all must rents IMO. Their long-term gameplay is suspect. On the other hand I'm still playing Halo almost every night. Still playing Amped. Wave Race is the only GCN game I still play, the others are collecting dust. I guess it's all a matter of perception.

Josh H

Like I said, it just varies from person to person. I'm still playing the hell out of Star Wars, Monkey Ball, and SSB:M. Amped board me, and is good as Halo is, and I consider it a must buy if I had an X-box. I'd only play through it once as I'm not a huge FPS fan, and don't like multiplayer deathmatch games, so there's not much replay value in those kind of games for me. I never play through a game again at a higher difficulty level. That said, the game is said to take anywhere for 20-40 hours to play through the first time on the medium (heroic?) setting, so it is still a must buy for me if MS ever gets enough games to convince me to pick up an X-box instead of a PS2 for my second system.

AgtFox

All I can say is different strokes for different folks . Each system has great games for both renting and buying. My advice is to decide what type of games you like and look at the current and future known crop of games on each system. If you find one system has more games you'r einterested than the other you get that one. Even better if you can buy 2 or all 3 go ahead .

As for a slow start, every year around this time is a slow time. I will give the X-Box credit...at least they are bringing out somewhat hyped games that some people are enjoying in these weak months for games. Wreckless and RAW may not be the best games around for everyone but I know a lot of people that love them. One person's crap game is another person's great game.

GameCube has fallen behind thanks to delays for StarFox and Eternal Darkness which now have release dates after E3. Not good when there's really nothing on the horizon from here until after E3. However on paper it looks like the GameCube may have a huge 2nd half of the year should all the games come out...maybe more than either the X-Box or PS2.

The PS2 has Maximo, State of Emergency, Jedi Starfighter, etc. along with some upcoming fighting and other games to fill in before E3.

The X-Box at least is giving gamers the option between a variety of game genres. Not all the games are great or are for everyone, but they have a varied selection to choose from. And Morrowind should be out before E3, hopefully that will be the game everyone thinks it will be.

Gallant Pig

Hey Fox, I agree with you. Did you say you were in Eden Prairie? I'm in Mounds View! It's kinda between Blaine and Fridley, only more south.

AgtFox

Nope, I'm not in Eden Prairie...I'm northeast of where you are. And I don' t have an X-Box (yet...hopefully soon), but someone from work has let me borrow theirs for over a month now (kid got in trouble and got it taken away).

Josh H

Well said AgtFox. That's exactly what I always do. The GCN's line-up best suited my gaming tastes, sot hat's what I went with. I keeping an eye on the PS2 and X-box line-ups to decide which to get in the future as there's no way I'm getting both. Right now the PS2 is ahead by a long shot, being that Halo is the only game out or announced on the X-box that is a must-buy for me, where as the PS2 has FF, MGS2, GTA3, Maximo, GTA3, and so on.

SmackDaddy

I don't think it's any slower than any other console launch, certainly a quicker start than PS2.

But the games I wanted (aside from Halo) are games like Gunvalkyre(sp?) Shenmue II, Panzer Dragoon and Morrowind, which I knew would be far off from the launch. So I guess how you perceive Xbox's current status depends on why you bought it and what games you wanted for it.

slop101

I own both X-box and GameCube.

I have 6 X-box games and 2 GameCube games.

I feel that the GC is off to a much slower start.

Brian Shannon

I had the Max Payne demo for my PC and it was really good. My nephew has Max Payne for his XBox and it looks great on TV. I like more replay value in the games I buy. Although I liked it I was just concerned that it would lose its appeal.

Renting would be a good option but I refuse to do business with Blockbuster. They are simply evil with their practices and policies not to mention the fact that their XBox selection is very poor.

I can see alot of great (hopefully) games coming later on, Project Ego, Enclave, Morrowind, Unreal . . . but it gets painful waiting and watching the hype and then the inevitable release date slippage.

goatweed

I think the X-Box launch is moving along as well as can be expected. The problem is, and this was well known prior to the launch, that PS2 had a HUGE libtrary og games and genres in those games to appeal to a larger mass of people - therefore being the ones to "beat". X-Box post-launch only laid out a handful of games, and even through today don't have nearly the library of games they would need to prompt most people already with a PS2 to go out and buy one. I have an X-Box, but I didn't have a PS2 (I haven't had a console game system since way back to the days of Coleco Vision). So my decision in going with the X-Box was purely out of future potential based on the X-Box's hardware specs as compared to the PS2. I knew that initially the X-Box might not seem appealing (how many times can a person play Halo?) but I think given another year, maybe less, you'll see a lot better and more of a variety of games for the X-Box - as well as prennial favorites of the PS2 porting over.

Overall Im a PC gamer at heart, but I must say I'm very happy with my X-Box - I don't play it as often as I would like to, but thats because there are only 24 hours in a day, and most of that time goes to my job and my wife

boobietheclown

I mean I wish there were more MUST HAVE games to, but Ireally cant complain about Halo, NFL Fever, Max Payne, and NBA Inside Drive. I dont really buy alot of games anyways(I only own 2 right now) so maybe that is why I am satisfied. XBOX has given us enough to look forward to for this year and hopefully they will come through. Just be patient...

Looming on the horizon:

Fellowship of the Rings
Grand Theft Auto 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Tony Hawk 3
etc...

Count me In!

leemik

I think the Xbox is off to a decent start when compared to all other systems. Sure there are not that many AAA titles right now but they are at least interesting and there are a lot of "exclusives" on the Xbox..

On the other hand, I think the GameCube is off to a REALLY slow start (like how the N64 started).. There's no game I'm looking forward to until June!!!!

Luckily the games are so damned expensive that I can't really buy that many anyways

--mike

boobietheclown

im right with you there!

mr.snowmizer

- Project Gotham Racing
- Amped (or SSX Tricky, which is more of a racing game)
- either NHL game (sim vs arcade)
- Genma Onimusha (which IS superior to the original PS2 version)
- Silent Hill 2
- Inside Drive (or NBA 2k2 very soon)
- Nascar Thunder (or Heat)

Any of the above are worth checking into if you're a fan of the genre.

Then, there are the games which have been getting mixed reviews (the first two seeming to have a steep learning curve, which has people writing about how the more they play, the better they like)...

- Wreckless
- WWF Raw
- Blood Wake

And I'm sure I'm forgetting quite a few.

That's not bad for exactly three months. I wish all consoles had started off this "slow".

diacritic

Nice pun!

Gallant Pig

I'm just curious as to when and how much did josh actually play Amped. Amped is light years ahead of SSX:Tricky IMO. SSX Tricky really pales in comparison to Amped. Amped is definitely the best snowboarding game out there. It has a steep learning curve, probably steeper than wave race, but the payoff is excellent. Once you get the racing down and the tricks down, it's a masterpiece. Definitely one of the deepest games I've ever played. Josh, how long did you actually play it? What were your complaints?

Josh H

I only played it for about 10 mins, but I don't like SSX either. These snowboarding games just don't do it for me. I'm burned out on the Tony Hawk series as well. No more "extreme" sports games for me.

That's why I didn't say Amped was bad or anything, and just said it bored me. (unfortunately that wasn't a pun, but a typo above ). It's just not my type of game. I'm mainly only in to Platformers, traditional sports games, racing games (tradtional and kart mainly, don't like the extreme sports racing games like SSX, 1080 etc.) and adventure games.