Prediction: The Xbox won't age well as a console.

[ReaXan]

I still consider the Nintendo64 as probably the console that will go down in history as the one that aged the worst in a short period of time.
But now to the Xbox….where to begin
Well the Xbox controllers are probably the worst ergonomically designed in the history of modern gaming. Even the smaller ones are bulky and uncomfortable to use for fighting games. The sad thing is that 3rd party designers didn’t even bother redesigning the controller into something more comfortable(The button placement on the XBox blows).
The console itself is ugly as heck, the whole green/black theme is overdone to the extreme on the inside and out of the system (luckily the 360 toned down the green and included some more white on the GUI).
The Xbox only had one killer app and that was Halo. Almost every game that came out on the XBOX came out on the PS2 as well.
The hardware inside the Xbox was only marginally better than the PS2, most games looked almost the same except for a few like San Andreas where it looked more polished because of the extra RAM the Xbox had. There was no real reason to buy the Xbox over the PS2 except for Halo.
Xbox Live was cool but wasn’t adopted by the masses until the 360.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Why on earth would you force people to buy a remote to use the DVD Player? That one aspect pissed me off more than anything. With the PS2 you could use a controller and navigate the menus. I don’t mind Microsoft wanting to increase profits but those kind of little things piss off the consumer especially when the competition doesn’t make you buy a remote kit.
On a side note it seems that the Xbox is almost a worthless piece of equipment to the masses these days even though GameStop is still charging 50 bucks for it and is about to discontinue it. That toppled with the fact that only about 40-50 percent of the library of Xbox games works on the 360.
I am having problem’s selling mine on Craigslist even though I have discounted it many times and no one on here even wanted to buy it.

The XBox I swear has some kind of curse on it where you could never get your money's worth investing in it and that trend still continues to this day. The XBox had nothing charming about it compared to the PS2 and even the Gamecube.

[Push Upstairs]

So I can pay $20 *once* to watch DVD's on an Xbox, or I can pay $25 to save my games on a memory card, only to buy more when that fills up.

[Bojay1997]

I still consider the Nintendo64 as probably the console that will go down in history as the one that aged the worst in a short period of time.
But now to the Xbox….where to begin
Well the Xbox controllers are probably the worst ergonomically designed in the history of modern gaming. Even the smaller ones are bulky and uncomfortable to use for fighting games. The sad thing is that 3rd party designers didn’t even bother redesigning the controller into something more comfortable(The button placement on the XBox blows).
The console itself is ugly as heck, the whole green/black theme is overdone to the extreme on the inside and out of the system (luckily the 360 toned down the green and included some more white on the GUI).
The Xbox only had one killer app and that was Halo. Almost every game that came out on the XBOX came out on the PS2 as well.
The hardware inside the Xbox was only marginally better than the PS2, most games looked almost the same except for a few like San Andreas where it looked more polished because of the extra RAM the Xbox had. There was no real reason to buy the Xbox over the PS2 except for Halo.
Xbox Live was cool but wasn’t adopted by the masses until the 360.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Why on earth would you force people to buy a remote to use the DVD Player? That one aspect pissed me off more than anything. With the PS2 you could use a controller and navigate the menus. I don’t mind Microsoft wanting to increase profits but those kind of little things piss off the consumer especially when the competition doesn’t make you buy a remote kit.
On a side note it seems that the Xbox is almost a worthless piece of equipment to the masses these days even though GameStop is still charging 50 bucks for it and is about to discontinue it. That toppled with the fact that only about 40-50 percent of the library of Xbox games works on the 360.
I am having problem’s selling mine on Craigslist even though I have discounted it many times and no one on here even wanted to buy it.

The XBox I swear has some kind of curse on it where you could never get your money's worth investing in it and that trend still continues to this day. The XBox had nothing charming about it compared to the PS2 and even the Gamecube.

If you can't tell the difference in detail between Xbox and PS2 games, let alone the speed at which a character can move within a 3D environment, there is something seriously wrong with you or maybe your TV. As outlined in many posts above, there are tons of Xbox exclusive games, including both Halo and Halo 2, Dead or Alive 3, KOTOR 1 and 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, etc...as well as dozens and dozens of others. I personally love the Xbox controller, both the large Duke and the later S version. It is very similar to the feel of the Dreamcast controller and just works perfectly for FPS games. As for the DVD issue, by 2001 when the Xbox came out, DVD players were pretty common in many households in the US and Microsoft ultimately decided to cut the cost of the license fee out of the base console and leave it as an option for those who wanted it. I personally can't imagine ever using any console as a DVD player, so it didn't really bother me.

[Rob2600]

I still consider the Nintendo64 as probably the console that will go down in history as the one that aged the worst in a short period of time.

Not the RCA Studio II, Bally Astrocade, or Magnavox Odyssey 2?

[ReaXan]

So I can pay $20 *once* to watch DVD's on an Xbox, or I can pay $25 to save my games on a memory card, only to buy more when that fills up.

Solid argument I will give you that one

If you can't tell the difference in detail between Xbox and PS2 games, let alone the speed at which a character can move within a 3D environment, there is something seriously wrong with you or maybe your TV.

I don’t remember mentioning anything about game speed. I know the Xbox is technologically better than the PS2 but it isn’t some mind blowing difference

As outlined in many posts above, there are tons of Xbox exclusive games, including both Halo and Halo 2, Dead or Alive 3, KOTOR 1 and 2, Panzer Dragoon Orta, etc...as well as dozens and dozens of others.

While this is correct the PS2 still had more exclusive games on it then the Xbox, the Xbox would also usually get a later release for some games than the PS2 or none at all.

I personally love the Xbox controller, both the large Duke and the later S version. It is very similar to the feel of the Dreamcast controller and just works perfectly for FPS games.

You in a small minority of people who like the Small Xbox controller let alone the Duke. The Xbox controller was not in the same league as the Dreamcast controller and should not be mentioned in the same breath. Even the Gamecube controller was much better

I personally can't imagine ever using any console as a DVD player, so it didn't really bother me.

So you mean to tell me you prefer the hassle of switching between a DVD player and say a XBOX360 when the 360 can play DVD’s? Whatever rocks your boat I guess

Not the RCA Studio II, Bally Astrocade, or Magnavox Odyssey 2?

While those did age pretty bad the N64 is unplayable to me at this point.

[Rob2600]

I still consider the Nintendo64 as probably the console that will go down in history as the one that aged the worst in a short period of time.

Not the RCA Studio II, Bally Astrocade, or Magnavox Odyssey 2?

While those did age pretty bad the N64 is unplayable to me at this point.

I think N64 games like Wave Race 64, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Rayman 2, Sin and Punishment, etc. have held up quite well.

[Bojay1997]

Solid argument I will give you that one




I don’t remember mentioning anything about game speed. I know the Xbox is technologically better than the PS2 but it isn’t some mind blowing difference



While this is correct the PS2 still had more exclusive games on it then the Xbox, the Xbox would also usually get a later release for some games than the PS2 or none at all.



You in a small minority of people who like the Small Xbox controller let alone the Duke. The Xbox controller was not in the same league as the Dreamcast controller and should not be mentioned in the same breath. Even the Gamecube controller was much better



So you mean to tell me you prefer the hassle of switching between a DVD player and say a XBOX360 when the 360 can play DVD’s? Whatever rocks your boat I guess



While those did age pretty bad the N64 is unplayable to me at this point.

Actually, to someone who plays lots of FPS games, the Xbox was a mind-blowing difference over the PS2. In fact, I can't stand a single FPS on the PS2 because it just can't pull them off. I also defy you to point to a single example of a multiplatform game that was better on the PS2 than the Xbox. While the PS2 might have had a larger library and probably more exclusives, I don't think it necessarily had more great games than the Xbox. I think they both had a handful of really great games and a number of good ones.

I think you're wrong on the controller issue. I have lots of friends that love the original Xbox controller. Of course, I'm 6'1" with fairly big hands and many of my friends are pretty big guys, so I suppose it might be different if I was a little guy.

I have a nice Blu Ray player and home theater system attached to my 42" LCD Flat Panel. I have no interest in using a game console to play movies. It puts extra wear on the console and doesn't perform at the same level as a stand alone player. In the Xbox days, I owned several DVD players and I had zero interest in using either my PS2 or Xbox for playing movies. I suspect most people felt the same way as other than Japan, I don't think any major survey ever showed that a significant number of people in the US were using the PS2 or Xbox as their primary DVD players.

Just because you don't like the Xbox or the N64 doesn't have anything to do with the topic of this thread. Obviously, lots of us have good memories of both systems and will pass those memories along to the next generation of collectors. Heck, the millions of people who spent hours playing Halo and Halo 2 will guarantee that the Xbox maintains a prominent place in the history of consoles whether you like it or not.

[backguard]

speaking of controllers - i found a (new) "limited release japanesse style" xbox controller the other day. apparently it was released between the complaints about controller size and the official switch to smaller controllers.

but that first controller was PAINFUL to use after even 20 minutes. i do have small hands though.

[Astrocade]

On a side note it seems that the Xbox is almost a worthless piece of equipment to the masses these days even though GameStop is still charging 50 bucks for it and is about to discontinue it. That toppled with the fact that only about 40-50 percent of the library of Xbox games works on the 360.
I am having problem’s selling mine on Craigslist even though I have discounted it many times and no one on here even wanted to buy it.

The reason that Gamestop (and I'm no Gamestop fan at all) still charges fifty dollars for a console that has been dead for over two years should tell you something. They sell Gamecubes for thirty dollars and PS2's for forty- and the PS2 is still a "current" console! A lot of people that own a 360 are keeping their original Xbox- they're not winding up being thrown out. That has to due with a lot of different issues, from people that have sot mods and massive game libraries downloaded, or emulators, etc; or the guys that realize some of their old games will not play on the 360. Original Xboxes still sell for a premium price because people are willing to pay it. The people that want an X Box don't have twenty million used consoles floating around like people looking to buy a PS2 or a GC.

One reason that you may have trouble selling your console on Craigslist may be the price. How much are you asking for it? Nobody is going to pay you anything near what Gamestop charges for a used X Box. If you're selling your X Box for forty five dollars, and Gamestop is selling one for fifty, who's going to risk saving five dollars by buying an X Box from some stranger that they have to meet up with some where and hope that the system works? Gamestop guarantees that the console is going to work, and if not you get your money back or an exchange. Can you offer the same thing?

If I'm buying something on Craigslist, I'm not going to put more money into it than I can afford to lose. I buy everything with the understanding that it's probably not going to work. That way, if I get ripped off I'm not going to punch a brick wall.

If you're selling a console on Craigslist, you have to price it so low that someone wouldn't consider trying to get it from a store. Or if it's a classic, rare system you can pretty much price it how you want. For an example: Yesterday I bought a Gamecube, two wired controllers, one Wavebird wireless, and Mario Kart Double Dash for twenty dollars. The guy said that he's had it on Craigslist off and on for a year. I asked him why so long and he said that he originally priced it at 100.00. Gradually he dropped it down to 20 bucks and I was the first person to contact him. I told him that I was mainly buying it for the Wavebird and MK: DD, so the console was negligible. He probably would have made more money splitting up the goods. But even at twenty bucks, what if none of the stuff worked? The controllers and the game work fine, but I haven't tested the console yet. He didn't throw in the AV cable anyway so if I didn't have a GC already I'd have no way of testing it. That's the trap you walk into buying consoles from guys that want to meet up with you in the mall parking lot- you're taking a gamble.

As to why you weren't able to sell your X Box on here, we're a video gaming community. Everybody here that wants an X Box already owns one. If it was a Neo Geo or a Fairchild, you would have better luck selling it here than you would on Craigslist, where it wouldn't be appreciated outside of a non-gaming crowd. If you're selling a common console that has to be shipped, you would do better selling it locally to a casual gaming crowd.

There are "soft" and "hard" sells. A thirty dollar X Box on Craigslist with a ton of games is a "soft" sell. A fifty dollar X Box with a bunch of games is a "hard" sell.

[The 1 2 P]

Since several others have already deflowered the majority of your augument I'm only going to tackle these few things.

Almost every game that came out on the XBOX came out on the PS2 as well.

Yeah, I totally loved the PS2 versions of Farcry, Star Wars: Kotor 1-2, Chronicles of Riddick, Fable, Jet Set Future, Otogi, Ninja Gaiden and the other 100+ exclusives. But those PS2 versions must be SUPER rare because I've never seen them.

The hardware inside the Xbox was only marginally better than the PS2, most games looked almost the same

They looked the same? Then how come in the PS2 version of the Blade 2 game Blade didn't wear his trench coat during game play like he did in the Xbox version? Oh I remember, because the PS2 wasn't powerful enough to display a trench coat on him. As an interesting side note, did you know that Doom 3, Farcry, Half-Life and Chronicles of Riddick(among a few others) were all suppose to be multiplatform games too? I mean, why wouldn't you won't to be on the console leading PS2? So what happened and why didn't they have PS2 ports? Um....because the PS2 wasn't strong enough to handle ANY of them. It's that simple.

There was no real reason to buy the Xbox over the PS2 except for Halo.

And once again we see an example of why drugs should not be legalized, because they make you say nonsensical stuff like that. Seriously though, 90% of this thread is filled with reasons you should buy an Xbox. The other 10% are common sense if you are a true gamer.

[otoko]

And once again we see an example of why drugs should not be legalized..

It's stupidity that causes stupid answers.. not drugs.

[ReaXan]

And once again we see an example of why drugs should not be legalized, because they make you say nonsensical stuff like that. Seriously though, 90% of this thread is filled with reasons you should buy an Xbox. The other 10% are common sense if you are a true gamer.

I guess the bottom line is that alot of people have fond memories of the XBox. I am not advocating the XBox is trash, it just stayed at a premium price used for so long I couldn't find any titles that justified me getting one until last August when it was 60 dollars at Gamestop. Alot the titles I could play on the XBoX I could also play on my more powerful PC(Doom 3,KOTOR). The exception to this was Halo and a few others.

I still stand firm on the fact that the controller wasn't very good. I guess people with huge hands apreciated it but as someone who has medium sized hands it was hard to use in action intensive games. For RPG's it was fine. I still think people would prefer the Gamecube controller if they had the choice. I think alot of my points had merrit and arent drug induced by any means

I didn't have a positive experience with the XBox as some did so I will admit that is my bias.

[bangtango]

The reason that Gamestop (and I'm no Gamestop fan at all) still charges fifty dollars for a console that has been dead for over two years should tell you something. They sell Gamecubes for thirty dollars and PS2's for forty- and the PS2 is still a "current" console! A lot of people that own a 360 are keeping their original Xbox- they're not winding up being thrown out. That has to due with a lot of different issues, from people that have sot mods and massive game libraries downloaded, or emulators, etc; or the guys that realize some of their old games will not play on the 360. Original Xboxes still sell for a premium price because people are willing to pay it.

That and an Xbox is more convenient. The second you bring it home and hook it up, you're done. Buy a PS2 or Gamecube and it is one memory card after another and those things sure as hell ain't cheap if you're looking for a first party card (particularly a brand new one).

As for the dvd thing, I don't understand buying a console to be your primary dvd player. About people who say it saves space and space is a premium, they need to cut the crap because it is a big charade. Half the people who claim to be all about "saving space" and say they don't have the room for a regular dvd player and a couple video game consoles (360/XBox 1), you know damn well they have stacks of old Magic Cards or Todd McFarlane figures piled to their ceiling and thus they don't really have room to talk.

Same goes for a lot of people who have such a hard-on for backwards compatibility. Get rid of the stacks of Magic Cards, 50-100 model airplanes, 50-100 beanie babies along with all of the other junk in your bedroom (or game room) and you'll have "space" for a measly $50 Xbox, a 360 and a dvd player in the same room.

[Daltone]

Am I going spastic or are Halo, Halo 2, KOTOR, KOTOR 2, Jade Empire, the majority of the good stuff (although I use that term loosely around Halo 2's single player), available on the PC?

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Am I going spastic or are Halo, Halo 2, KOTOR, KOTOR 2, Jade Empire, the majority of the good stuff (although I use that term loosely around Halo 2's single player), available on the PC?

You're absolutely right. In fact, I'm sure a lot of the PC versions have better graphics too. But this happens to be a console-centric message board, and quite a few people here would rather not fuck with PC's for gaming.

[Rickstilwell1]

I can't say it will be forgotten. My opinion on the last generation of consoles is that there were so many good games for all 3 systems that you couldn't do without any of them if you were really into video games.

I don't think there were ever 3 systems so neck to neck in success at the same time before. I'll explain:

We all know that Atari was pretty much the king back in the day. Then that throne was replaced by Nintendo as soon as it came out. After the market domination we remember that Sega stepped up a second time and started the true competition.

SNES and Genesis were always close but the other competitors that came and went such as TurboGrafx-16, Jaguar, 3DO and Neo Geo were so far behind in sales because of high price tags or smaller amounts of games. So there were just 2 really popular systems there.

Playstation was a booming success and Nintendo 64 was doing well, but then Saturn sales were not the best. Saturn wasn't available in all stores. Just some. Some stores chose to make a section to keep selling SNES and Genesis alongside N64 and PS1 rather than clearing a space for Saturn. So again, you have only 2 major competitors.

It's because of things like marketing problems that I didn't have any of these lesser known competitors until the past couple years.

Dreamcast was a good intro to the last gen, but it dropped out too soon to run beside PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, making it act more like it was a replacement for Saturn rather than a system meant for running in the generation we are talking about. All 3 of our systems in this generation were readily available at any common store that sold video games. All 3 had good varieties of games and a very large amount of titles.

I'll tell you why I bought an Xbox. Remember Oddworld 1 & 2 for Playstation? I loved those games, and when Munch's Oddysee for Xbox was announced I was disappointed that they had to switch platform brands, making it so I couldn't just play the whole series on a PS2. I already had PS2 and GC thanks to favorite series continuing on them. There were many times I bought new systems just because there was a game on it that was part of a series I liked. Sonic the Hedgehog was notorious for that. I pretty much only bought a Virtual Boy because of wanting to play the Wario game and the 2 Mario games.

So yeah, you can blame that funny blue Mudokon, Abe for my interest in the original Xbox. If it weren't for the Oddworld team switching like that, I probably wouldn't have tried hunting it down until a little later. I keep 2 Xboxs myself. One for playing actual Xbox games, and one hard modded for just playing roms.

[Rickstilwell1]

So I can pay $20 *once* to watch DVD's on an Xbox, or I can pay $25 to save my games on a memory card, only to buy more when that fills up.

And that is exactly the reason why I bought a PS3 when it was fairly new and was PS2 compatible. All because of that, you will almost never catch me using my PS2 system again, unless I want to cheat with Action Replay which doesn't seem to work on PS3. And after I'm done I always transfer my save to the PS3 hard drive with the memory card adapter. I'm hardly using my PS3 as a true PS3. I'm using it as more of a hardware boost for my favorite old Playstation 1 & 2 games to be used with. When games become used and prices are dropped, that's when I'll rush to the new generation's games.

I always do that unless something I really really want comes out. I concentrate on cheap old stuff first, so by the time I get to the newer stuff it will be cheap too.

I wish Nintendo would have made a hard drive, maybe as an optional accessory to the Wii and allowed GameCube files to be transferred to it. But at least I don't have 70 GC games like I do for PS2. I usually go for Nintendo for their trademark character series or exclusive RPGs over anything else. So the memory card issue isn't as bad for me yet.

[roushimsx]

Am I going spastic or are Halo, Halo 2, KOTOR, KOTOR 2, Jade Empire, the majority of the good stuff (although I use that term loosely around Halo 2's single player), available on the PC?

Nah, there's still plenty of good-to-great games that aren't available on PC and are better than releases on the other consoles. For the first person shooters and RPGs (better controls, more content, etc), I'd rather play them on the PC, but when it comes to stuff like the Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider games (Anniversary and Legend), I'll take the Xbox versions instead any day of the week (analog movement? Yes, please).

Even with the first person shooters available on PC, sometimes the Xbox version has additional goodies. Ghost Recon and its expansions received a significant graphical overhaul, Doom 3 had co-op, Half Life 2's autoaim changed the play of the vehicle segments to make them much faster paced, Operation Flashpoint Elite was a complete overhaul of Operation Flashpoint, etc.

2009 and still loving the hell out of my Xbox. Not loving the hell out of Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow, but that's to be expected with an Ubisoft Shanghai game. Thank god they didn't do the Xbox versions of Double Agent or Ghost Recon 2.

[Leo_A]

Now that over half a decade has passed since this thread was created, we've seen Xbox Live support discontinued and and we've seen this generation of systems nearly put to rest with a new generation of systems having taken up their place as the previous generation of console gaming. So I thought it might be interesting to bump this and see how opinions stand today on this topic.

For me, I think the library is aging well and I still have no shortage of great games left to experience on it and still enjoy revisiting past favorites. What isn't aging so well is the hardware itself. But at least homebrew experts have made it easy to replace disc drives, replace capacitors, replace hard drives, restore DLC, etc.

And as a plus, 16:9 and progressive scan support were very common on the Xbox. More so than its competition, these games adapt best to the televisions that most of us now play on.

[Gamevet]

I dusted off my old Xbox about a month ago. Burnout Revenge is still an awesome looking (and playing) game. I still have my HD-CRT, so the console is a perfect fit @ 480p.