A week of Xbox Live-My Experience

[YoshiM]

I've been on the fence over Xbox Live for some time. On the PC side of gaming I've always had the lower end machine so I was always at a disadvantage. As I'm more a console gamer I figured I'd get the best of both worlds-online but with an even hardware playing field.

OXM had their free 2 month subscription so I jumped at it. I put together a 35+ foot network cable to run from my cable modem in the computer room to the living room, popped in the demo disc and let 'er rip. After an hour of playing the Crimson Skies and the Return to Castle Wolfenstein demos I knew I was missing something: the head set. So I purchase a Version 1 kit but I don't use the year subscription, just in case I may not like the experience I can at least sell the kit on E-bay to recoup the money I spent. Now I was ready to truely experience Live.

Overall it's a fun experience but towards the end of the week of my testing the games started to get tedious. Yeah the human element mixes stuff up but overall the objectives get a bit tiring. I'm not a sports guy and when I do play a sports game it's not in a competitive setting. So that puts me into the FPS/action side of things and there is only so much one can take even IF you play different games. Voice does add a lot but only when used properly. Usually those who have headsets talk to issue directions (which is fine and great-adds to the experience), talk to make conversation (cool too), stay quiet to not lose concentration (understandable but kinda boring) or make asses of themselves either with noises or constant stupid babble. Another downer is that the games I actually enjoy doesn't allow me to communicate with my opponents. RtCW is a perfect example as is Counterstrike. Rainbow Six does it right but it's a bit on the slow side for me and Crimson Skies has it but only in a non team game.

I'm not here to say Live teh sux or anything. If you are into online but the PC side of gaming left a sour taste, give XBL a try. It may take a bit to find a good group to play with but when you do it can be a lot of fun. For me I just confirmed that my desire for online gaming isn't that big and the subscription doesn't seem to be worth it to me and I just wanted to share my experience.

[BHvrd]

Problem is once you play the hell out of any game on Xbox Live it's pretty much over. The mods that Xbox Live tout's are no more than usually one or so levels, nowhere near the dedication and constant moding as on pc.

Without a dedicated user base how can any game survive on Xbox Live? Only with developer support, and so far it has been less than good.

Online gaming on consoles has a long way to come, and imo I had a better experience on Dreamcast online. Some may ask why, and the reason is it had browsing capabilities, and user made content that people shared on Sega's Website, and user created sites. It made the experience much more personal and open ended. Xbox Live is just too confined, imo. They need to think outside the box next time, seriously!

[Darth Sensei]

I haven't tried XBOX live because I'm leery of being a part time gamer and constantly getting my ass handed to me by teens who do nothing but play 24/7.

To me, a game is only really fun when you at least have a chance of winning.

Are my concerns unfounded?

D

[petewhitley]

I haven't tried XBOX live because I'm leery of being a part time gamer and constantly getting my ass handed to me by teens who do nothing but play 24/7.

To me, a game is only really fun when you at least have a chance of winning.

Are my concerns unfounded?

D

Pretty much. Most (if not all) Live games rank players, so you know going in. And I've picked up games for the first time and found that simply having years of gaming under your belt puts you at an advantage over alot of players. On the whole issue, I like Live because it doesn't link outside the XBox. It's the simplest, sureest way to play games online. Additionally, the experience is exponentailly more fun when you have some close friends online with you. You simply host your own games and boot anyone who bothers you.

[BHvrd]

Pretty much. Most (if not all) Live games rank players, so you know going in. And I've picked up games for the first time and found that simply having years of gaming under your belt puts you at an advantage over alot of players. On the whole issue, I like Live because it doesn't link outside the XBox. It's the simplest, sureest way to play games online. Additionally, the experience is exponentailly more fun when you have some close friends online with you. You simply host your own games and boot anyone who bothers you.

Ranking has nothing more to do than rank who plays more, they are a joke. They don't rate actual skill. I want to have fun not be ranked, and if I am, I at least want to be ranked on skill. Sure, I may have so and so kills, or so and so deaths, but I can still be #1 if I play enough.

Also, can you honestly say that you wouldn't like user created content? You wouldn't like to design your own level, ect..?

The only fun I have on Xbox Live are on servers that
"don't" have voting or kicking enabled. It brings out the best in people, and people aren't wasting their time on who they don't like or needs to be kicked, that's just petty. Instead they're sending rockets up their asses or vice versa.

Btw, friends aren't always there.

[buttasuperb]

Ranking has nothing more to do than rank who plays more, they are a joke. They don't rate actual skill. I want to have fun not be ranked, and if I am, I at least want to be ranked on skill. Sure, I may have so and so kills, or so and so deaths, but I can still be #1 if I play enough.

Crimson Skies ranks you on skill. It goes from one small star to 4 small stars, to one big star if you're good. Also if you do shitty, your score will go down. So you have to play a lot and be good to be highly ranked.

For me, Crimson Skies will never get old, I will not get tired out shooting planes out of the skies. I don't use the headset, as 90% of humans are idiots, and I don't need to hear what they have to say. I tried it out once for the hell of it, and I heard was mumbled crap. If you don't plug in the headset adapter, you can hear some of what people are saying through the tv, it's mostly garbage.

CvS2 on the otherhand, while it's awesome that a 2D fighter is online, the dropping and ranking system is retarded. If you are winning a match and your opponent drops, no one gets credit for a win. It only totals wins and total matches in your ranking, and doesn't have any kind of drop percentage. Hopefully this is something that can be fixed in the future.

Anyways, I love xbox live, I think it's the best thing to happen to gaming since maybe SF2. It encourages competition which I like considering most of my friends aren't videogame nerds like me. Maybe soon I'll start getting into Counterstrike, although that means I'll have to use the headset, haha.

[petewhitley]

Ranking has nothing more to do than rank who plays more, they are a joke. They don't rate actual skill. I want to have fun not be ranked, and if I am, I at least want to be ranked on skill. Sure, I may have so and so kills, or so and so deaths, but I can still be #1 if I play enough.

Also, can you honestly say that you wouldn't like user created content? You wouldn't like to design your own level, ect..?

As Butta noted, ranking (in most Live games) definitely has alot more to it than who plays the most (are you on Live? it's pretty obvious in most games...). Of course, with more hours played usually comes more skill. User created content would be fine, but a closed system = quality control, and I'm not willing to forgo that for user created content (personally).

[MarioAllStar2600]

I bought mine on Launch day and it didn't work, so I returned it. I am getting it today though, I can't take not being online. ARGH! I am getting TopSpin also.