They also had one at Target, I was impressed(that they had one at Target) . The controller looks big, but actually feels comfortable. The game they had for demo, Abeworld(Oddworld?) had good graphics but not anything I would consider better than the PS2(which I own). Also, not the type of game I would want to play, personally.

Shenmue II will make Xbox worthwhile for me next year...maybe they will have a price drop by then.

Xbox.ign's impressions of Munch's Oddysee weren't very glowing, especially considering the source. There goes my sole temptation for buying the Xbox any time soon.

EGM magazine just came yesterday......Xbox picked over Gamecube for the time being. Pick up a copy if you don't subscribe...they have a very good section detailing both systems and what one has over the other etc.

I will eventually pick up both as I have always felt the need to own all systems available due to exclusive titles etc.....

Gamecube will be worthwhile once certain titles make their debut on the system....RE games, Zelda, Perfect Dark.

Thanks, but I doubt it's going to change my mind. I didn't care for DOA2 or JGR that much, and if I was going to play Halo anywhere it would be on a PC.

A new demo disk is heading out to kiosks everywhere this week with a demo of Halo.

That Odworld demo was pretty crummy. I supposed Microsoft is saving its big guns like Halo for closer to launch.

I totally agree.....will not change my mind either for both systems. What will change my mind will be titles which should appear on both of these systems next year. If these titles fail to appear, I will be less likely to pick up either system in the future.

has anyone seen if it crashes which was a knock on the system at E3.

I am in a wait mode anyway since no games really interest me that much and since i just got my PS2 . it will keep me happy for a bit.

I went down to Babbages today hoping to see the controller people were talking about and lo-and-behold! They had a playable system and people were playing it. I never liked Oddworld though but I'll reserve judgement until I actually play this game. I did hold the controller (on the 2player side) to feel what its like, it does look humongous but it fit better than I thought it would. The console itself looked larger than I thought it would though, but the size doesn't really matter.

I was waiting in line to play it but then I noticed the PS2 kiosk was empty and it had Devil May Cry in it (which I haven't played yet), so I scrambled over there and played it for a good 15-20 minutes killing demons I'll go back when they get halo.

As of now going on what Ive seen online and what Ive read I wont be getting an XBox at launch and I dont think playing the demo's gonna change my mind. I will however be waiting outside of my ToysR-Us at the gamecube launch. Purely for Rogue Squadren sequel.

I watched someone play it in EB and it crashed. The clerk had to come open up the case and restart it. All I could think of was the E3 horror stories.

So it does have a ctrl alt delete

Everyone press alt f4! NOW!

He he.

Oddworld is an aquired taste, much like tacos. Halo is an obvious choice, much like burgers.
XBox is a wise choce that may be a good buy in the long run, much like frozen foods.

Man Im hungry.

uh-huh.. suuuuuuuure..

Um, why wouldn't you believe that? My Dreamcast has crashed before, and that was one of the stories out of E3. I think it's just as reasonable to assume it did happen than it didn't.

but if you really like a system you do not want to believe it can have any problems.

I am not surprised since these systems take a bunch of abuse. I was more curious if people saw a windows screen or if it just froze.

any system can freeze or crash.

I was laughing so hard when I saw not one but three systems crash at E3. Along with that, one whole display was being carted off, because they did not want to open the cabinet door for where the "X-Box" was sitting. As one of the other crashes systems was being reset, my laughter became tearful as I noticed it wasn't an X-Box at all but rather a PC system with an X-Box emulator program. I died laughing. Only 2 things even have me remotely interested in consideration for an X-Box. 1) Jet Set Future and 2) Possible "Return to Castle Wolfenstein". Oh those 2 and a good 3rd party controller. I have big hands and was looking forward to the X-Box controller. After using it extensively at E3, I came to the conclusion that the buttons, the pressure for the Analog sticks, and the general texture and makeup of the controller, lack of weight, was really poor. I'll be waiting a while unless I win one from Taco Bell.

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/ne...&nid=22-159.db

Does the Xbox need repairs already?

There’s an Xbox that’s broken and it isn’t in any living room in America yet. The Xbox demo unit at a nearby Toys R Us store could not give consumers a taste of the new Microsoft console because of severe loading problems. The Xbox unit had no disc inside and displayed a menu screen to access the hard drive and CD player. But customers who tried to navigate through menus could do little else but wait while the machine tried to load the next menu. The audio that accompanied the menu screen transition skipped severely as well. After a three minute wait, the Xbox reached the next screen but continued to have load problems. Multiple resets also failed to resolve the problem. Soon after, a screen appeared that said the Xbox needed customer service repair. The screen provided a list of customer service phone numbers to contact.

Several Toys R Us employees did not know what went wrong with the Xbox demo unit that now carried a “Out of Order” sign. The store received their unit on Tuesday. The in-store demo units are believed to be actual finalized hardware that consumers will see at launch.

GA has received several reports on problems with in-store Xbox units.

An Xbox unit in the Germantown, MD Target store is reported to have "freezing" problems that requires employees to open the kiosk every 75 minutes to reset the console.

An Xbox unit in Software Etc. store in Souix Falls, SD was reported to skip, freeze, and have audio problems.

An Xbox unit at a Babbages store in Mobile, AL was reported to have similar problems.

A Babbages employee at the Dearborn, MI store reports that their Xbox unit does not function.

"Out of five stores that have playable demos within a ten mile area, only two have working units," says the employee.

Microsoft recently delayed the Xbox launch and will ship an unspecified number of units on November 15th. It’s unclear whether load problems were a source for delay. A Microsoft representative was contacted for the story but did not reply at press time.

God if this is true and they are that fragile then they need to postpone the launch and fix them

They will kill this sytem before it has a chance if one in 5 are that troublesome.

I hope it just is a fluke and not a general problem with hardware.

Frankly this late to be worried that the system is not stable is a real problem.

I played one yesterday at Target, and the controller was OK, but I find the high glossy finish of the buttons to be awkward. They would get sweaty, greasy and then slip when pressed. But besides that it seemed OK.

THe graphics on Oddworld were decent, but not mind blowing like I hoped. But again, it WAS a demo and not going to be showing the best the system has to offer.

That was my first experience...it wasn;t broken, it was up for at least 2 days (I was there Sunday as well, and it was up)...

a least it is a pretty Green screen of death

I went to Babbages and they had a XBox with a bunch of demos u could select. Honestly, every game I saw was very lackluster...nothing "knocked my socks off". Here is a quick run down of the games I saw:

Halo -- kinda cool...but not what I would consider a "system seller". The graphics look better in still pictures on the net and in magazines, the actual game is not that impressive.

Project Gotham -- the cars look pretty good, but still a small notch below the cars in Gran Turismo 3. I know I know that PG's cars have more polygons, but GT3's cars still look better...trust me

NFL Fever -- If you get a Xbox....Get Madden...I was surprised at how ugly this game looked compared to Madden or NCAA 2002.

DOA 3 -- Again, nice but not outstanding.

Just my 2 cents....

wlj

I had a chance to check out the one in the local gamestop we had. I was disappointed that they only had Oddworld, but they said they should have some more games soon.

At any rate, I might just have long fingers, but that controller felt really nice in my hands. Buttons were easy, triggers were tighter than the N64 one (not so familiar with DC). I like having the large area under the heel of my hand, and the force feedback was pretty cool.

Munch was nothing special, but I'll probably give it at least a rental when it comes out. I was kinda surprised - since I haven't played consoles much, though I have watched a lot of the game trailers on my computer lately, that the resolution on the tv is so much less. I guess I just forgot about the 640x480 max. I hope a VGA adapter comes out so I can at least test it elsewhere.

Tuan Jim

There are several that are already made (aftermarket companies). Sorry I don't have the links, though.

I'm still waiting for one that will accept component input so that I can take advantage of the progressive scan feature of the XBOX and hook it up to my PC monitor.

hate to quote it with the pic but is that an actual picture or photoshop. it seems like an actual pic because u can see the flash reflection. if it is that is sad and hilarious.

IMHO i think the demo was not a good thing at all. oddworld as the only playable demo? and not a very good one at that, just collect the flashy things. at least the water looked nice. the videos looked good but we have all seen them before. they should have waited and made the first playable demo Halo. on top of that there was more loading time then i expected, but it is only a demo.