come get some!
Categories: l33t
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I spent most of my Saturday playing Unreal Championship on X-Box Live having gotten the service earlier. I know there’s a lot of non-believers out there, and, believe me, I was one of them. Microsoft? Game console? Hahaha… how many driver/security patches do I need to even get started?
The service took about 20 minutes to setup, and mostly because I have a semi-compliant router. I basically had to change some port settings around, and manually punch in IP/DNS/etc into the X-Box. The X-Box Live website had a very comprehensive guide to installing Live in a shared DSL/Cable network. I read their instructions for my router, and presto! I was online.
I played mostly Bombing Run (it’s football, with guns…), since that’s all people wanted to play online. There’s really no noticable lag or slowdown — I was very impressed. The headsets were a mixed-bag. On one hand, the voice comm was great, much better than Roger Wilco or Team Sound on the PC. Voices were very clear. On the other hand, players can choose voice masks, such as the kiddie one, and it sounds absolutely annoying. Also, the headset isn’t very comfortable… does Microsoft only expect me to play in four hour blocks?!?
We’ve been talking about the console wars a lot in chat the past few days, and it’s probably because I became the first X-Box advocate. I really believe that the weakest console is the PS2. The fact it has a huge gaming library works against it in that it has a lot of games, but none are absolute showstoppers. The PS2 looks, well, old and senile when compared to Metroid Prime or Panzer Dragoon Orta.
I also prefer multiplayer/online games… while Sony is years ahead of Nintendo in this respect, it’s way behind Microsoft. Also, Sony doesn’t have a compelling game. Phantasy Star Online is a killer app for the GCN, and Mech Assault and Unreal Championship are extremely fun on the X-Box. What does Sony have? Football? Bah! Bombing Run!
I guess my biggest problem with the PS2 is that people keep saying how great Final Fantasy X is or how awesome Devil May Cry is… well… they are both good games in their own respects, but the fun factor is completely lacking when compared to online/multiplayer games. I derive the most fun fragging my friends in Deathmatch, and a little bit less when trying to work as team to defeat Dark Fol. I think those are also experiences that shouldn’t be missed out on as well.
