So Mark, what made you plop down $400 on an XBox? Just wondering. You seem normally to be in the "my computer works fine, why spend more money" camp.

He had it a couple days before launch according to a post a day or two ago. I think he got it free.

--Dave

Microsoft sent me one.

It does save me the money I would have spent on buying a next gen system for my kids this Xmas. I'll try to get some freelance console work out of it too. And do some coverage here, since the interest in it from PC gamers seems to be higher than usual for a console.

Bill Gates was on the Rosie show yesterday and gave everyone in the audience an Xbox.

Mark, was it a debug unit or a standard retail unit?

Wow, that's surprising that they sent you a free one. In the paper they were interviewing people standing in line outside of a dept store that was going to have them on sale; a few of the people in line were MS employees who were quoted as saying that being an employee was no help getting a new X-box. Silly employees. They should have started a cut-and-paste news site if they really wanted to be first on the block witn an X-box (or attended the Rosie show when BillG was a guest).

"Microsoft sent me one."

Wow. I almost stopped at CompUSA today to get one. Resisted the urge.

Jeff, I got a standard unit, not a debug.

Tim, companies send out systems to press people. It's not surprising, though I was a bit surprised Microsoft sent me one since I haven't done a lot of console work.

In part this is probably due to Microsoft knowing the PC press people better than the console press people due to their PC game history.

OTOH, I doubt I could even get a press copy of a PS2 Jampak CD from Sony. Sony and Nintendo have their lists of press people and I'm not on them. In fact, my experience is that console companies are hard to work with. They tend to blow off PC game press people like me when I need something.

I took the plunge today and bought one. Need to play my Halo. We have a box at work that MS sent us, but I rarely have time to play it much there...

>"a few of the people in line were MS employees who were quoted as saying that being an employee was no help getting a new X-box."

We sure they weren't plants? Sounds like something a marketing department would come up with. ;^) Was this Seattle or Redmond?

Brad Grenz

"being an employee was no help getting a new X-box"

They were probably some of those "temps" that Microsoft likes to screw out of benefits while keeping 'em on the payroll for years.

Hmm, the Xbox processor really is a P-733 with 128kb cache, AKA a celermine:

http://www.hardocp.com/articles/xbox/pic15.html

Too bad, because having half the cache reduces performance ~15% (on PC games) over an equivalent speed P3 with full 256kb cache.

Also, that "Xbox kiosks are failing" article (can't remember the site) was load of muckracking crap. I haven't seen a single complaint about Xbox reliability!

Damn rumormongers.

"Also, that "Xbox kiosks are failing" article (can't remember the site) was load of muckracking crap. I haven't seen a single complaint about Xbox reliability!

Damn rumormongers."

Uh, I have. There have been complaints at Amazon's boards and at IGN and on USENET. A few people posted the error screens.

Post the links to that, please.

Yeah MS sent me an Xbox too; comes in the retail packaging. I bought Halo on Wednesday, but got FF and NFL Fever from MS on Thursday. Think I'll wait to spring money for an extra controller though, when are the third-party dealies supposed to come out?

--- Alan

1. http://prospero.amazon.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=am-compgames&msg=2447.1

2. http://boards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=14189944&replies=28

3. http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&threadm=3bf403da_11%40Usenet.com&rnum=5&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dscreen%2Bof%2Bdeath%26hl%3Den%26group%3Dalt.games.video.xbox%26sa%3DG%26scoring%3Dd:

"Ok, I got mine at 12:01am. I sat in line for 8 hours. I also bought the
extra controller, not the one identical to the one included but the other
one. You know the one. Anyway. While playing, sometimes it pops up that
the controller has been unplugged, to plug it back up and hit A to continue.
I hit A and it continues on. Anyone else seeing this problem?"

4. http://www.forumplanet.com/planetxbox/topic.asp?fid=1446&tid=446388

Why shouldn't there be problems? It's a PC isn't it?

4 is a bug in the game (doh!)

3 is with a third-party controller

2 odd, but doesn't affect gameplay, only movie playback

1 valid problem, probably defective OOB

Still don't see evidence of widespread defective machines as hinted at in the kiosk article. Certainly nothing to justify invective like "Why shouldn't there be problems? It's a PC isn't it?"

Random Sparks quote: "Oh my word, she's from Germany / Well it's the same old country, but the people have changed."

I'm guessing that the prevalence of these kinds of problems is about average for console defects -- very rare. Mine works like a champ, nobody I know has had a problem with theirs, and I haven't seen any of the ballyhooed kiosk freezes/crashes. Statistically, from what I have heard and seen, these problems are probably no more frequent than with other consoles.

BTW, if one of those problems listed DOES wind up being with a third-party piece of hardware, then it's kind of hard to point the finger at MS for that one...

So far my experience has been very positive -- Halo is awesome, Project Gotham is pretty addictive (plus the "build your own soundtrack" feature is much cooler than it sounds, IMHO), and DOA3 is an excellent sequel with great graphics.

Yo Kool, why did you drive over my Kangol? Cause ya think I stole your rhyme style?

>"Hmm, the Xbox processor really is a P-733 with 128kb cache, AKA a celermine"

Told ya so!

Brad Grenz

"Certainly nothing to justify invective like "Why shouldn't there be problems? It's a PC isn't it?""

This is invective? Choose your words more carefully please. I love PCs but they always have problems. The PS2 had a DVD driver update, didn't?

I knew it was a waste of time to post those links, since you never acknowledge anyone else's point. But just to remind you: I never said the XBOX was having major problems. I think it's a great system and every system has problems.

Another reminder: You also said "I haven't seen a single complaint about Xbox reliability!" In that, as in so so so many other things, you were wrong.

Speaking of Internet lies, all the morons posting about piles of XBoxes sitting unpurchased seem suspect, at least where I live. Best Buy, Target, Software Etc., EB, and Wal-Mart were all sold out as of yesterday. Supposedly CompUSA had some.

I've also decided that I'm going to try to exchange Rogue Squadron for another title when I get my GC bundle from Amazon. It's a stunning looking game (saw it at Best Buy) but to say it's on rails is not saying enough. When I watched, after every few seconds of button mashing you get a little 3 second cutscene of the fighters turning right or left, then ... back to button mashing. Imagine if they had put the team that made this to work on a GC Dark Forces update instead .... sigh ....

It is a beautiful, noisy game though. Hope it sells a lot of GCs.

"I knew it was a waste of time to post those links, since you never acknowledge anyone else's point. But just to remind you: I never said the XBOX was having major problems. I think it's a great system and every system has problems."

You ignored MY point: that there is no basis for that "the sky is falling" article insinuating that Xbox kiosks were failing all over the place, and hence, the Xbox was fundamentally unreliable.

Did you honestly think I meant that no Xbox will ever fail?

"You ignored MY point ..."

Oh, so that must have been some other wumpus who said "I haven't seen a single complaint about Xbox reliability!" My bad!

Chet, would you apologize to wumpus for me?!?

"Oh, so that must have been some other wumpus who said "I haven't seen a single complaint about Xbox reliability!" My bad!"

You're interpreting what I wrote too much. A single complaint about reliability from a website, magazine, or other publishing source, post-launch. Similar to the original article I referenced-- Xbox kiosk failures. A third-party claim of hardware issues, like the Dreamcast's bad CD pressings, or the PS2's bad DVD software in Japan, etc.

Not "single" in the sense of an individual user having a specific problem. I hereby declare you the winner of the imaginary argument that 100% of all products are shipped without the slightest defect.

C'mon Yoda, you're smarter than that. How old are you? 3,000 years?

How are they going to release Xbox patches for games ?

Theoretically they might be able to do so via the modem and hard drive, but console land is traditionally the world of "you bought it, you're stuck with it." The games are supposed to be right the first time.

Maybe they'll bring the semi-lame PC tradition of "Gold Editions" to the console; i.e., "Halo Gold," with multiplayer bots and a few new maps/missions.