radioheadrule83
Banned
I decided there's never been a better time to own an Xbox. There are plenty of awesome games out on the thing, it has a hard drive (which should be the defacto-standard in consoles from now on IMO - even if its only small), has ethernet built in, and Xbox Live is cool AND I have broadband.
What I got credit towards it for:
I decided to trade my platinum GBA SP in, and 5 Gamecube games in towards the purchase. I traded Red Card Soccer, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, True Crime: Streets of LA, Starfox Adventures, and Serious Sam: Next encounter.
I still have a NES GBA SP, and I'll be picking up an old wideboy advance soon for cheap and throwing an afterburner in it so I can still play Four Swords Adventures on cube. I was sorry to let the GBA go in hindsight.
What it got me:
Crystal Xbox + S controller
Chronicles of Riddick
Halo
Prime observations
* The thing really is as heavy as all the jokes say. My mother refused to walk it from the building we work in to the car when my dad was taking her home early.
* This thing looks rediculous in terms of size next to the PStwo, and it looks big compared to Gamecube.... but damn, the crystal machine is hot. Silver on the top. The crystal pad is nice too, I love seeing the rumble motors go off.
* I remember the one thing I loved most about the Xbox having played it in other peoples' houses was the hard drive / music facility. This is still the case.
* I really like the bios/dashboard thing
* When I was buying it I thought of the Agent Smith "inevitable" pictures people post here.
Few impressions and questions:
I have heard nothing but godly things about Halo. I won't pretend that some part of the sequels hype did not help me decide to buy this machine... along with it being a machine I can mod, it was one of the major factors. I expected to be blown away by Halo...
now bare in mind I've only been home from work a few hours. I've played through the evacuation of the ship, and helped rescue survivors on the surface with the warthog. I've just done the level with the sniper rifle where you end up taking reinforcements onto the elevator to rescue the general bloke from the covenant... and then I decided to give Riddick a whirl.
Is this one of those games that I will slowly become engrossed in and enjoy much later? The story hasn't really sat well with me yet, and understandably I guess. I've not played it long. I'd just like to know in realistic terms, so I'm not disappointed, how good this gets.
Riddick on the otherhand has impressed me straight away. I'd heard good things about it, but not being a huge fan of the films or film-liscences in general (I don't hate them or anything) I wasn't expecting much. However, the graphics are awesome. The voicework team they've assembled is great (I like the choices of Xzibit and the bad guy from 24 season 3). The early parts and interaction remind me a lot of the beginning of a Half Life game or something. The fighting is brutal, I love the close up hectic camera work during fights. It's truly brutal. The conversations people have and the internal politics of the prison have been awesome so far, and made playing it very enjoyable indeed. I've just broken away from it now because my eyes are hurting from all the death they've been exposed to...
that and all the strain sitting at a computer 8 hours a day puts on them.
So that's that. I'm officially a multi-console owner!
Thom
