It’s been a long time since I reported to you on points of interest in the gaming industry from my booth here at the Cafe in weekly and caffeinated incoherence. Now I’m back, brothers and sisters, with a new and more focused column on the Xbox – welcome to the first installment of The Microsoft Café here on the Spin Gate.
For those of you who do not remember my old columns featured in the Week in Review, I’m Paul, and that’s my partner Ruprick, aka “The bean-grinding wonder.” He’s normally behind the bar, pouring me espresso shots, but things have changed a little bit here in the Café. The powers at be at GWX have wired up an Xbox in my booth so that I can both play and report on Microsoft’s wonder-box. Right now I’m actually watching Ruprick play some of the worst online Castle Wolfenstein I have EVER seen...
“Dude, Ru, change classes man. This is just painful – be a medic. At least you can heal someone then…”
Actually, I wish he would just get off his ass and make me a shot.
Well, why he plays let’s just catch up on a few tidbits for the Xbox, the console to end all consoles:
Ten Hut! There are plenty of military themed shooters on the Xbox. Ranging from arcade types like Castle Wolfenstein here to more detailed infantry sims like Ghost Recon. So there is a lot of this genre to be had on the Box. But there are two new military games that should make Xbox owners very happy: Full Spectrum Warrior and Call of Duty.
FSW looks to be what fans of tactics were hoping for with Ghost Recon and Rainbow Warrior Six – a squad based game that, well, features “tactics.” As great as GR and RS are, they still never reach the level of interdependency and cooperation that you need to play the PS2’s infantry shootin’ champ, SOCOM. Hell, the arcade-like Castle Wolfenstein on the Xbox has more cooperative elements in its multiplayer, thanks to the four soldier classes etc., than those two do. Unless you’re Ruprick that is…
“Ru, don’t pick the Venom gun brother, it's not your weapon of choice, it's that extreme lack of skill, man."
FSW looks to be more of a sim than we have ever seen in this genre. You focus more in this game on controlling your squad members than actually shooting anything yourself. And rather than killing hoards of enemies, a single terrorist can take be enough of an obstacle to keep your team busy. And don’t look for any deathmatch online, you and a buddy will have to direct your teams in absolute unison to overcome mission objectives. Sound a little too realistic? Well this one comes straight from the Pentagon, so expect the verisimilitude to be off the charts.
As for Call of Duty, hey, who hasn’t heard of this Medal of Honor killer? The only thing to make it better is to put it on a console. And of course, that’s what we’re getting (The PS2 as well.) This won’t be a port, rather CoD 2 or something. But hey, we’re expecting this to be an Xbox Live favorite.
Bevy ‘O Baldur’s Types
One thing that we like about this Box is it’s multiplayer capability. And I’m not just talking about going online and getting your ass shot off…
“Ru, ru! Switch to a Lieutenant, brother. Hand out ammo…DO something… Anything…”
Anyway, the Xbox has a wonderful offline co-op capability built into it as well. It has 4 controller jacks built in, and while lacking first party wireless controllers (like Nintendo’s Wavebirds) you can invest in the Logitech wireless or get some cable extenders (or huddle around the TV.) Of course one of the big offline, problems is the split-screen. Unless you have a really big TV this can hinder your experience. That’s why Ru and I recommend several of the single screen coop games available, and there are quite a few out right now for the Xbox.
Two we recommend right now are D & D Heroes and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. These games like (several) are either based on the old Snowblind Baldur’s Gate engine or something very similar. This engine may be old, but it still makes for an excellent single-screen experience.
Heroes is technically a well made game, but like all of these BG type games, it may lack in originality. Still, it is a hell of a good time in coop mode. Heroes actually has the advantage of being up to four player, and make no mistake, it’s still a much deeper RPG action experience than Gauntlet ever was.
BG II is also out, but if you want to take a break from the pure fantasy setting you may want to give Fallout a whirl. Again, this is a game that plays much better multiplayer than the reviews would leave you to believe. For more details on Fallout, check out Joe Mackie’s review.
State of the Box Microsoft’s Xbox is doing pretty well according to Robbie Bach, Chief Officer. Bach has been all over Reuters this month talking Xbox. He’s very upbeat as far as the “Good News”: Xbox has sold 13.7 million units since its launch in November 2001. Looks like MS will reach its forecast of 14.5-16 million units sold by the end of June. Xbox Live has 750, 000 subscribers. And these are real numbers, and do not include 2-month trial only players. But as MS converts many of those holiday trialees, this subscription total should push over the 1 million mark soon.
The “Bad News”: good sales on Xbox consoles actually hurt MS profits! Remember, this is a unit that they are still losing anywhere from $100-200 on every time they sell one. And more importantly, MS’s most important console competitor, Nintendo has had an exceptional showing in the recent Funtime report. Forget about catching Sony, Xbox needs to consolidate its number two position.
Well, regardless, Bach should be upbeat, ‘cause we are all about the Xbox up here in the Café now! This is definitely a sweet console, and we will be all a chatter as gossip on the next generation Xbox (2005-2006) starts rolling in.
Don’t Be Afraid So we are back brothers and sisters. And we hope that you enjoyed these scant tidbits of Xbox joy we had to share with you. Look for this column every week right here at GWX, and all of you Xbox’ers, please take a moment and consider writing in to us at the Café.
“That’s it!” [Yanks away controller] “I can’t take watching your chunked and defiled body on the screen any more. You’re relieved of duty Private Ruprick – now go do what you do best and make me a strong Cappuccino.”
Oh yeah, feel free to share any of your Live horror stories playing online as well.
