Should I buy an Xbox?

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Should I buy an Xbox?

Author:

Topic:

Posted:

Apr 19, 2002

Comments:

Well, firstly, why does everyone (well, probably not everyone, just communists) hate Microsoft?

Microsoft may be evil, but who gives a rat's ass? Are people so stupid that they can't tell an evil mega-corporation when they see one and act accordingly? It's not like someone's pointing a gun to anyone's head and saying "Buy SQL Server or I'll fucking clip you!". While people might like to believe that they're under the control of uncontrollably powerful external forces, they're not. It's just a huge fucking cop-out for being lame. How many times have you heard some hand-wringing fuckwad complain "... but I'm forced to use Outlook at work"? Quite a few, I imagine, given the quality of web site you seem frequent.

So, anyway, all I want to do is buy some new geek crap, play some games, get bored and never use it again. I don't want to engage in some dialectical wankery wrt Good vs. Evil in the context of post-post-modernistic technoplasticity. What's up with that?

Alternative question: should I wait for Gamecube?

More diaries by Buddha

	I've had enough of this Enlightement crap
	I was just thinking...

	Honestly, (none / 0) (#1)
	by derek3000 on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 07:54:38 AM PST

	don't do it. I had a similiar video game habit a while back. Thank God I sold it on Ebay--now I have much more time to watch TV. ---------------- "Feel me when I bring it!" --Gay Jamie

	Answers. (none / 0) (#2)
	by because it isnt on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 08:19:34 AM PST

	Well, firstly, why does everyone (well, probably not everyone, just communists) hate Microsoft? I think it's like elenchos says, they have penile envy or something. Personally, I don't "hate" Microsoft per-se, just some of the things they have done. So, anyway, all I want to do is buy some new geek crap, play some games, get bored and never use it again. Have you bought a mountain bike with suspension and stuff? Those things are geeky and cool. Buy a spanner set and you have a non-stop summer of tinkering. Really, summer is coming. Playing games in summer is like sunbathing in winter. Mind you, Konami's Dancing Stage is damn good fun. adequacy.org -- because it isn't

	Having used and supported a variety of computers (none / 0) (#3)
	by Adam Rightmann on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 10:50:52 AM PST

	including Mac computers, Windows computers and Solaris computers, I find Windows computers almost as easy to use a Mac computers. And since I am the computer guru for my family, whenever I have to help them with networking, or applications, I count my lucky stars that they use Windows 98, or ME, instead of Lunix. It would be so hard to look into a child's face, and explain the new game they bought just won't work on a Lunix PC. A. Rightmann

	Windows games can run under Linux (none / 0) (#5)
	by PotatoError on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 02:58:52 PM PST

	Using WINE <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	Not very well though... (none / 0) (#6)
	by budlite on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 03:26:09 PM PST

	which is a pity. Still, at least I have the native Unreal Tournament binaries, which are a damn sight faster then the Windows ones.

	True but (none / 0) (#7)
	by PotatoError on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 04:17:30 PM PST

	Many of the more popular games work fine and although arguably slower its not that big a difference. You can to compensate with a faster graphics card or faster computer. For example Windows version of RTCW runs at about 30-40 fps on my main computer but on this one it runs at 20-30 fps. The graphic cards are the same and both are running Windows so that extra 10fps seems to be lost to the 128mb memory difference or the difference in processor speed. Sure games ported to linux using WINE have other occasional problems in functionality but I hardly think its reasonable to pin the blame on Linux - afterall the games were written primarily for the Windows platform and its a hard task to rewrite Windows API's. One of my friends runs CounterStrike using WINE and he experiences more than acceptable frame rates and ping during LAN games - though im sure its not as good as if he was running the Windows version on his machine. Funny thing I found though - why did someone use WINE to port Quake3 Arena when ID released a Linux version for it anyway? Maybe Linux Zealots are a bit obsessive afterall. <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	yet another error from the potato (none / 0) (#10)
	by Narcissus on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 05:48:11 PM PST

	windows programs are not ported to use with WINE/Lunix, WINE simply takes the native API calls that the program sends and interprets them as best it can to something the kernel can use for I/O ... oh and yes some LZ's do have OCD -------------------------------- Ok, who picked the flower???

	I strongly recommend you buy an X-Box (none / 0) (#4)
	by PotatoError on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 02:46:56 PM PST

	I'm not a huge Microsoft fan so this is pretty weird coming from me. But I do feel that the X-Box is a great product they have made and that it is being unfairly put down. My advice is that if you want to buy a games console then buy an X-Box. Firstly, it outperforms Playstation 2 and GameCube. Secondly you have to understand that X-Box is just an entryway for Microsoft into this market. I didn't expect it to sell as much as Playstation 2 which is a well known brandname. In fact most of the reason for low sales can be attributed to this: people only want to buy one console and many kids are put off by Microsoft's functional image. Plus the playstation came out earlier so people bought that instead. However Microsoft are determined to get into the console market and they are moving heaven and Earth to satify X-Box customers. They recently dropped the price of the X-Box and to compensate the people who bought it early and at a higher price, they gave back money and free joypads and stuff. If you want customer support and service then I recommend X-Box. There are also many good games out there for X-Box and Microsofts links to PC game makers will mean many more games in the future. They have sold tens of thousands of X-Boxes so there is still demand for games to be made so don't worry about that aspect. Microsoft have also done some nifty work in the games development area of the console. Afterall these are the people who developed DirectX - now the standard for developing 3D PC Games. Frankly programming games for the X-Box is a hell of a lot easier than for the Playstation 2. Therefore I expect there to be better games. Like I said X-Box is just an entryway into the market. I expect the X-Box 2 will take even more sales when it comes out in many years time. PlayStation 2 is good but im telling you that X-Box is the definition of progress in the console industry which had been moving very slowly. While Sony are scared of turning their console into a computer-console hybrid, Mircosoft embrace this move and I can only imagine all the innovative things they will add to their future consoles - things such as long needed cheap and sufficent data storage and what about some decent working online gaming. And lets have some game editing too! Im sure many console gamers would be happy to create custom levels for games they love but are denied the chance because of the lack of interactivity available with current consoles. I never buy game consoles cuz I like the flexibilty to gaming that PC's offer and which consoles lack. But, I can see Microsoft as being the only company who could change this. <<JUMP! POGO POGO POGO BOUNCE! POGO POGO POGO>>

	Looks good, but... (none / 0) (#9)
	by The Mad Scientist on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 05:16:19 PM PST

	...beware of their track record and their tendency to expand their influence by slow creep. Anything you wouldn't accept now you could be pretty happy to cope with in couple years of conditioning. The XBox has way too closed architecture to make me comfortable with. You can't even take the disk out of it and connect it to another machine; it is protected by the hardware-level password according to ATA3 specs.[1] I don't feel exactly comfortable with getting forced away from the internals of anything I acquire. [1] There is a way through, though. The disk needs to be unlocked, by the valid password, in this case supplied by the XBox BIOS, after each power-on. You can fool the disk though, by powering on the XBox, letting it unlock the disk, then while the disk is still powered you can unplug the IDE cable and connect an IDE cable from a computer (while the disk is still powered from the XBox), and voila - you have access to it. (Or you can monitor the IDE bus by a logic analyzer and just take the password.)

	Consoles are cheap - Buy them all. (none / 0) (#8)
	by dmg on Fri Apr 19th, 2002 at 04:55:03 PM PST

	I mean, if this were a wankers website I would waste no time in informing you that I am the proud owner of: A commodore 64 An Atari Lynx A Sega Megadrive A Playstation A Playstation2 A DreamCast A Nintendo64 And I intend to buy every other console that comes out, simply because they are quite cheap. For the price of a good night out, you can buy a cutting edge console that will last you a year or two. And PIKMIN will be available at the launch of the GameCube!!! time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration. -- MC Hawking

	Yeah, good idea. (none / 0) (#11)
	by Buddha on Sun Apr 21st, 2002 at 07:30:38 AM PST

	What the hell, even if you get only few months of mindless relaxation out of a console (think of it as a form of meditation :-), it's probably worth the cost. I used to have one of the really old ataris with great games, don't know which model (c. 1981), but it would still be fun to have today if I hadn't of thrown it out when I "grew up" at some stage.

	Hmmm (none / 0) (#12)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sun Apr 21st, 2002 at 11:58:47 AM PST

	I dunno... The XBOX has a couple of good games (DOA3 and Halo) but the controller sucks ass. It's way to big and way to heavy. My wrists were killing me after a coupel hours of playing. I had to routinly set the controller down and move my wrists around to try and work the cramps out. Other than that not too many complaints, just had to spend about 30 minutes to get the system to recognize the game cd. (It kept asking me to insert an Xbox game CD or a DVD Movie) and No, it's not a burned game. I have better things to spend $500 on than a DVD burner that's not going to do me any good.

	GameCube (none / 0) (#13)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sun Apr 21st, 2002 at 12:02:13 PM PST

	I'd definately wait for the GameCube. With the money you save on the Xbox you can get an extra game and controller and memory card. Sure, it's not as powerful as the Xbox. But the controller rules, and it's got a lot of great games here, and on the way. Look at Resident Evil DROOL and WaveRace Blue Storm. Plus a Final Fantasy game is on the way from Squaresoft. Basically it all boils down to the controller, and what you liek to play.

	Well (none / 0) (#14)
	by DG on Sun Apr 21st, 2002 at 10:15:17 PM PST

	i like the game cube, the starwars game was kinna cool, problem is they never seem to make a lot 18+ games, or they seem to be too cutesy, i'd get a ps2 or an xbox, plus you can't use the gc for a dvd player if you don't have one, only game seems to be any good right now is smash brothers, plus even if xbox games moved to pc i'd get em for console since they work better on console © 2002, DG. You may not reproduce this material, in whole or in part, without written permission of the owner.

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