"Great console.. great tech support too!"

Well to begin with I bought my console on the 2nd January 2003 (in Australia) with the Massive Entertainment Pack. This pack included Sega GT 2002, Halo and Jet Set Radio Future and costed $450 (AUD). This was damn good value...

Rather than wow/bamboozle people with tech specs which mean absolutely nothing to them like I did in my PS2 review; I'll review the XBox hardware and its operating system.

the setup and customer support
The XBox is very nicely built and looks pretty damn cool as well. The moment I took it out of the two (very hard to unseal) boxes I knew I had something special. The cables are nicely tied up and the manual is quite nicely printed; with the exception of the error with the customer support number. All was going great for me; I hooked in the 2 cables (Power and AV) but then it booted up and said ''Your XBox requires maintenance... Please call Customer Support''. Bear in mind this was at about 8pm at night on Thursday; and the shops closed at 9. I rang up, and found I had the wrong number; and had to ring a new number but that wasn't a problem to me; I was quite impressed with the customer support though. I told them my details, they gave me an ID number and told me to go to the store and tell them the ID number. Whilst the guy at the store ('Target' if you wanted to know) was a bit lost, he rang up and with the ID number he was told to give me a brand new XBox. Now, at this late hour talking to both him and the Microsoft customer support; I was very impressed with the service. I managed to get it within half an hour!

Hardware
Now the thing is big. Very big. But don't let that put you off. It’s a damn fine machine. This thing has an inbuilt Hard Disk so you don't even need to buy memory cards! Great value in my opinion because it works straight out of the box! The massive pack I had came with 3 games and that made it even better still! Anyhow, this machine also makes nice noises when it boots up...

The XBox supports full Dolby Digital 5.1 and it features it in many of its titles; but of course you need an adaptor to use it but it was reasonably priced ($30). The controllers available are the normal and small versions; both at about $60 Aussie. I don't mind, I thought the normal one would be too big but within a day I'm used to it and can drive (near) perfectly on Sega GT! The controllers have this nifty inline adaptor thing to prevent the bloomin' heavy XBox moving around if someone accidentally pulls their controller too hard. Rather than pulling the XBox with them (should a certain person get very annoyed at losing say... a 100 hour endurance race) the cable disconnects itself and there’s no harm done.

The controller itself is quite nice to hold; it has enough buttons to keep you happy and has two slots on the back for whatever accessories Microsoft can come up with; such as a microphone/headset for XBox live. The layout is a bit confusing at first but you get used to it and its clever design. I would have liked the triggers to be a bit less hard to press (in comparison with PS2's shoulder buttons) but I am sure I can get used to them pretty quickly; although they do feel a bit stiff.

The system impressed me with its auto-diagnostic functions. As mentioned above it knew when it needs technical support. Also this thing can tell you if the AV plug isn't plugged in, if the system is overheating, if the disc is reading, etc... all this is shown through either its on screen display and through its flashing LED circled around the disc eject button. Very cleverly the disc eject button is larger than the power button; because you use it more!

Audio and Graphics
The audio in this baby will blow you away. The sound quality in Dolby Digital is amazing; but even more amazing is the ability to record soundtracks onto the HD. Whilst it’s a bit sensitive to using pirated CD-Rs, you can use originals and (surprisingly) CD-RW media. The XBox then lets you use these soundtracks you've recorded off normal audio CDs, in many games; most notably racing games. So you have the potential to be driving along in a rally game, listening to classical music!

The graphics are just as mind-blowing. I have a PS2 and I never realised how powerful a good graphics engine is. Sega GT and Halo blew me away with their graphics! They look so realistic and there are many more super-rich-looking games coming soon. If you want to see good graphics try looking at Halo, Rallisport Challenge and DOA3.

The XBox can play DVD movies with is amazing; but you need the DVD remote kit. Thankfully I got mine for free with the pack and it’s legendary. Sure it doesn't come free usually but it totally beats the PS2's DVD capabilities. For starters you can set A-B repeat (which lets you bookmark two sections and it loops the stuff in between) and it also lets you ZOOM in and out unto 10x! There is also the fact that it can fast forward up to 32x! That is damn fast compared to PS2's fast forward. The only gripe I have is there is no direct access to buttons for angles and subtitles but rather you have to press DISPLAY and then select it using LEFT-RIGHT and ENTER. The remote however does look a lot cooler than the PS2 remote and is a lot thinner and nicer to hold.

The Games
The games lists are amazing. From an economics student Point of View, Microsoft is acquiring companies faster than you can count the hairs on your neck (bad analogy I know...) which means more games for you, the XBox-owner. Microsoft is putting a lot of effort into their game studios and providing start-up capital for many new companies which means there'll be many exclusives. With Microsoft's acquisition of Nintendo's share in Rare; there is an almost certain guarantee we'll be seeing a Banjo-Kazooie-like game on XBox as well as a sequel to Perfect Dark.

XBox Live! is Microsoft's online gaming network. Microsoft included everything you need in the box (Ethernet adaptor and HD) so its all ready to go. The only problem is you can only use it with broadband internet but I guess this stops slowpokes from using the service.

The future
Unlike Gamecube which has a somewhat 'discolouring' future with regards to 3rd-party developers; and Sony's list of A grade titles getting shorter; XBox seems to be the winner in the end and I'm sure it will be here for a while.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/03, Updated 01/03/03