Friday, March 8, 2002
Guess who got an X-Box?
Posted by Jason Dunn in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 08:58 AM
And now for something completely off topic! You've been warned. :-)
My birthday is in a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd go get myself a present early: I bought an X-Box (ok, ok, it's for my wife too!). Now for those of you that think I'm a Microsoft fanboy, the X-Box wasn't an automatic choice. I looked at the PS2 and Nintendo Gamecube. I dismissed the Gamecube fairly quickly because I personally didn't find the graphics all that impressive when compared to the PS2 or X-Box. The size and price were great, but I wanted something that was at least on par with the graphics engine in my computer, not something that looked "old school".
So now it was down to the PS2 and X-Box. I haven't owned a console for quite some time (the last one I purchased was a Super Nintendo - yikes!) so I didn't have any huge preferences for games that were out for one platform or another. I looked at the games, and there are some impressive titles for both. The PS2 has many more games, and a wider variety, so I was leaning a little in that direction. The physical size is smaller, and it was also $449 CND (same price as the X-Box). My brother has a PS2, and a few games for it, so there's the old "loaner" factor there. Decisions, decisions.
Ultimately, I chose the X-Box for two reasons since price wasn't a factor:
1) I happened to have a $60 in store credit at the Microsoft company store from the MVP Summit in November 2001. Guess how much games are? $10! So I was able to get six games for $60 US. That's roughly $95 CND. Games are around $75 CND each, so I was able to get $450 CND in games for $95 CND. Not bad at all! I bought some games that look great: HALO, Amped, Project Gotham Racing, and three others.
2) The X-Box is really a PC at heart, and that's something that appeals to me. It's HDTV ready, has built-in Ethernet, and has a real hard drive, RAM, powerful NVidia GPU, etc. I know Microsoft is gunning for the home electronics market, so I think they'll be coming up with some very cool X-Box "stuff" in the coming year. They're the underdog in this market, and when Microsoft is the underdog, they innovate HARD.
It was a tough decision, and while I wish the X-Box was a little smaller, so far I'm really impressed with it. I like the OS shell you can access - you can copy music from CDs to the hard drive for custom game sound tracks (I think - I haven't quite figured it out yet). Of course, part of me wanted to wait for the HomeStation, but I had to have SOMETHING cool for the house warming party next month. ;-)
Any of you X-Box owners have any tips to share with me?
My birthday is in a couple of weeks, so I thought I'd go get myself a present early: I bought an X-Box (ok, ok, it's for my wife too!). Now for those of you that think I'm a Microsoft fanboy, the X-Box wasn't an automatic choice. I looked at the PS2 and Nintendo Gamecube. I dismissed the Gamecube fairly quickly because I personally didn't find the graphics all that impressive when compared to the PS2 or X-Box. The size and price were great, but I wanted something that was at least on par with the graphics engine in my computer, not something that looked "old school".
So now it was down to the PS2 and X-Box. I haven't owned a console for quite some time (the last one I purchased was a Super Nintendo - yikes!) so I didn't have any huge preferences for games that were out for one platform or another. I looked at the games, and there are some impressive titles for both. The PS2 has many more games, and a wider variety, so I was leaning a little in that direction. The physical size is smaller, and it was also $449 CND (same price as the X-Box). My brother has a PS2, and a few games for it, so there's the old "loaner" factor there. Decisions, decisions.
Ultimately, I chose the X-Box for two reasons since price wasn't a factor:
1) I happened to have a $60 in store credit at the Microsoft company store from the MVP Summit in November 2001. Guess how much games are? $10! So I was able to get six games for $60 US. That's roughly $95 CND. Games are around $75 CND each, so I was able to get $450 CND in games for $95 CND. Not bad at all! I bought some games that look great: HALO, Amped, Project Gotham Racing, and three others.
2) The X-Box is really a PC at heart, and that's something that appeals to me. It's HDTV ready, has built-in Ethernet, and has a real hard drive, RAM, powerful NVidia GPU, etc. I know Microsoft is gunning for the home electronics market, so I think they'll be coming up with some very cool X-Box "stuff" in the coming year. They're the underdog in this market, and when Microsoft is the underdog, they innovate HARD.
It was a tough decision, and while I wish the X-Box was a little smaller, so far I'm really impressed with it. I like the OS shell you can access - you can copy music from CDs to the hard drive for custom game sound tracks (I think - I haven't quite figured it out yet). Of course, part of me wanted to wait for the HomeStation, but I had to have SOMETHING cool for the house warming party next month. ;-)
Any of you X-Box owners have any tips to share with me?
