Here’s something funny. All these years, I passed up the original Xbox as just a failed experiment by Microsoft. Not until recently did I realize just how great this system was, what it was capable of, and how advanced it was for its time. I honestly think it got so much hate and low sales because no one understood what it was trying to do. No one really caught on until the Xbox 360 came out, which had nearly the same system and design process, but because it was 5 years later, everyone got it. I don’t think so.
I have to say that the size of the system didn’t help. Sure, the original PS2 wasn’t the slimmest system ever, but it was nearly half the size. This thing is the biggest console I have ever owned or seen. The reason for the huge bulk is that Microsoft thought making a PC into a home video game system was a good idea, and it was. The main bulk of the system is the standard IDE DVD-ROM drive and 8GB HDD. These things are massive and heavy, and this is what contributes to the majority of the weight. The system has the power to throw around, though it is three times as powerful as the PS2 and GameCube. The system was the first to feature PC-type architecture with an Intel Pentium III at 733 Mhz and an Nvidia GPU called the NV2A at 233 Mhz. This made the system very easy to program, resulting in frequent PC game ports and higher-end visuals. Games like Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and many others looked astounding on the system, and even most multi-platform games were superior on the Xbox.
That’s not to say the Xbox is better than the PS2 software-wise. The PS2 was a much simpler system to use, with just a memory card and disc drive. The Xbox Dashboard and Xbox LIVE were revolutionary, causing Sony to push their PS2 Network Adapter faster and thus the eventual creation of PlayStation Network with the PS3. The Dashboard is the baby version of what we know today. You can change your system settings, and these stay stored thanks to the HDD. You can rip music to the HDD, which was a huge feature and allowed custom soundtracks in games, and you can allow soft modding of the system, which became a huge scene online. Sadly, Xbox LIVE was taken down a few years ago, so this is a single-player system only. The system firmware can actually be updated to the latest with a copy of Halo 2 that has the firmware on the disc. DLC is also no longer available unless you soft-mod your console and download it online. However, most DLC for the Xbox was multiplayer maps, which are really not good anymore.
So with a bunch of processing power, a built-in HDD, and a proprietary online service, what stopped the Xbox? Japanese developers did. While Sega had an exclusive deal with Microsoft to create over a dozen games for the system, Square Enix cut off nearly all support thanks to Microsoft executives’ snotty and arrogant attitude toward foreign developers. This is what gave the PS2 a huge boost and quadrupled sales thanks to many Japanese exclusives that we have known to love, such as Final Fantasy, Okami, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, and many other Japanese-developed games. Microsoft was stuck with its own in-house studios and everything but the Japanese market. That’s not to say the Xbox didn’t have its own excellent suite of games.
One feature I love about the Xbox is that it supports HDTVs, which the PS2 and GameCube did not. The Xbox was so advanced that it even supported 1080i, which very few TVs touched back in the early 2000s. Growing up, I didn’t know a single person with 1080i input, let alone know what that was. The Xbox also supports widescreen, making it a perfect retro console for newer TVs. I plugged the system in via component and set the Xbox to HD output, and all the games looked crisp and clear. The PS2 had very few games that supported 480p output, as the system didn’t have the power to do so. With that said, the Xbox has 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS, which sound great even on newer systems. This is supported by the system, thanks to the extra power that can process these channels.
The Xbox also had a fantastic S controller after the infamous Duke was discontinued. The S controller went on to evolve into the Xbox controllers we love today. I’m still not a fan of the Start, Back, Black, and White buttons that are on the arms of the controllers. It’s also odd to not have the bumpers on top, but most of the bulk is from the two memory card slots in the controller that were used to transfer saves to other systems. On the downside, the Xbox does not use the controller to play DVD movies, which requires a separate remote and dongle. This seemed like it was to get more money into Microsoft’s pockets, as the controller could easily be programmed to work.
Overall, the Xbox is a fantastic system that has many flaws but many high points that make it a must-buy for game collectors. It’s really cheap to collect for the Xbox, and the system runs around $50 on average. They are easily moddable, and they have a vast library that you won’t get bored with anytime soon.
Oh, Halo, I have a love-hate relationship with you. Back when Halo was released, I didn’t really think much of it. I saw the box in game stores, but I never actually heard much about it. It wasn’t until Halo 2 that the series really took off and was talked about by everyone who loved it and hated it. I just so happened to be someone who hated it, even though I didn’t play it. It looked like a generic sci-fi shooter with boring guns and boring enemies. For years, I refused to even accept Halo as a good game series. I finally sat down with the first game on PC back in 2007 and felt it was like a chore. The game was overly difficult and ugly, and I didn’t get the game at all. I washed my hands of it and was done.
Later that year, I borrowed an Xbox from a cousin (the original) and rented Halo 2 from the video store (back when that was still a thing) and actually started to like it. The game felt more balanced, more cohesive, and had a more interesting story. However, I still hadn’t even touched the multiplayer, as I didn’t have Xbox LIVE. I wouldn’t experience Halo multiplayer until Halo 3. After playing through every Halo game, I started to feel fatigued by the series. ODST and Reach were extremely boring and didn’t do much outside of the story and presentation. However, I would still go back to playing Halo 2 and 3, but I swore never to touch Halo 1 again. Now, 8 years later, I’ve played through Halo 1 and like it a little more; however, it still feels like a chore.
You play as Master Chief, a Spartan in the Earth Defense Corps who just so happens to get stuck as the savior of Earth. You fight some Covenant, an alien race hellbent on capturing Halo, and then some Flood, a super-weapon species designed to wipe out all life in the galaxy. You spend almost the entire game on the Halo Ring, which is a giant ring-shaped artificial planet that looks like Earth. Later, you run into an AI called The Librarian, whose function is to destroy all life in the galaxy to wipe out The Flood, so they starve to death. Of course, Master Chief and his AI partner Cortana must not have that. The story is quite interesting; however, it doesn’t really explore much of the Halo universe, and I wanted more.
Halo’s famous for its balanced gunplay and enemy AI. While there are only about 10 different enemy types in the game, Halo was one of the only FPS games at the time to force you to change up your tactics, weapons you use, and how you approach each firefight. Despite popular belief, Halo is not a run-and-gun type of game at all. If you run out into the open, you will die almost immediately. Halo is also the father of the regenerating shield, which is a core gameplay element of the game. Without it, the number of enemies you have to kill and scenarios would not be possible, as you would die and never make it through the game. Despite the shield recharging so slowly, it makes you stop and think before you step out again and lose your health.
The guns are also very memorable and iconic in Halo. The needle is a weapon that fires pink shards at the enemy, and they home in. After a few seconds, the shards explode, causing damage. The assault rifle is probably the most iconic weapon, as it’s the standard and most basic weapon in the game. Aside from plasma and standard weapons, you can also drive vehicles. This is actually where I had a huge issue and still do: the vehicles controlling garbage. The Ghost, Banshee, and Warthog are floaty, not very responsive, and counter-intuitive to what the game wants these vehicles to do. I also don’t like how you can’t drive and shoot the Warthog at the same time; it makes you too vulnerable.
The one thing Halo has always had a problem with is the repetitive hallways and the extreme linearity. Nearly every level had you backtrack back to the beginning once you got all the way through, and this got frustrating and tiresome toward the end of the game. The core game is also just repetition, but that’s expected of any shooter. Shooting the same enemies over and over in different variations just gets old, and some people may not be able to tolerate it. Despite this, and like I mentioned earlier, Halo combats this by making you think before you run out into the open.
Outside of the shooting, the game just feels strange as a whole. It feels dated still despite the update; however, it does help tremendously and makes the game more enjoyable. The new graphical update is more than an update. It’s completely redone, and switching from remastered to classic graphics on the fly makes you realize just how old this game is. We’re talking Quake 3/Source Engine graphics here. After playing the updated version, I could never go back. The game just looks way too ugly compared to others, which makes it much less enjoyable. In fact, the updated graphics actually help make the game easier to play with better lighting and more detailed environments. I found the original Halo way too dark in most areas, and it was always hard to see.
When it comes to multiplayer, it also suffers from feeling old. While the maps are remastered, the gameplay just feels a little old and not as fast or deep as the newer games; however, there is a charm to the age. The game is very simple, there’s not much to the multiplayer, and the maps are also not as complicated as newer ones. Fans of the original game will love being able to finally play the original online, like it was intended to be.
Overall, Halo: CE Anniversary is a fantastic update and probably about as good as the original game can get without changing any major gameplay elements. On the Xbox One, the game runs at 1080p and 60 FPS, which looks fantastic, and it also has the menus of The Master Chief Collection’s, which is an upgrade over the Xbox 360 version. If anyone couldn’t stand the original, they may find it more appealing now, but expect the overall gameplay and design of the game to not have changed.
I’ve finally done it. I know I have all three current-generation gaming systems. What’s the positive side to that? Being able to enjoy each console’s strengths and exclusives. The bad side? I play more games than I can in a week. Why did I wait so long for the Xbox One? Its game exclusivity release windows were far and few between, and it didn’t offer anything the PS4 couldn’t… well, that anyone cares about anyway. There are a lot of nice features on the Xbox One that no other system has, but are they what sells the console? At this point, Microsoft doesn’t really have anything to sell the Xbox One outside of its already built-up user base as well as its three trump cards: Halo, Forza Motorsport, and Rare. While Microsoft used Killer Instinct, Forza 5, and Halo 5 to get people excited about the launch, Microsoft’s launch was very weak outside of a few strong games.
Let’s face it, the look and design of a console can really matter. Just look at the Atari Jaguar with the CD add-on—it looks like a toilet. The original Xbox was geared towards PC gamers who were already used to bulky cases. While it wasn’t as sleek as the PS2 or cute as the GameCube, the monster box meant power—and power it had. Being the first system to have an online infrastructure and have a built-in HDD, the Xbox shipped with an 8GB HDD, but Xbox LIVE wasn’t up and running until long after the console’s release. Then a little game called Halo swept the gaming and entertainment industries by storm, and Halo 2 helped kickstart and raise the bar for first-person online gaming. It was massively successful and even made Nintendo and Sony rush for a proprietary FPS. Sony made Killzone (stank), and Nintendo made Metroid Prime (awesome). However, neither garnered the attention that Halo could, and Killzone was quickly forgotten. What else made the Xbox so successful? It’s hardware. It had a whopping 733 MHz CPU based on Intel’s Pentium III Coppermine chipset and a 233 MHz GPU made by Nvidia. This meant off-the-shelf parts and was easily programmable, similar to a PC. While the PS2 was extremely difficult to develop, the Xbox had great-looking games from the start. From Halo, Forza Motorsport, Blinx, and Fable, the Xbox had a great lineup, but it quickly died out towards the end of its life cycle. The Xbox showed its age and games; we’re looking better on the PS2 for some reason (God of War, Shadow of the Colossus), and Microsoft quickly lost interest from Japanese developers, so the PS2 made waves.
With that little history bit, the Xbox 360 had a year’s head start and was powerful, but met the same fate as its little brother. Great games from the start, but many exclusives jumped ship, and Microsoft lost steam once the PS3 sales were climbing. While still a good system, it doesn’t have the exclusives it did five years ago and isn’t as unique as it was at launch.
Out of the Box
The Xbox One takes the original design and the Xbox 360 S design and smashes them together. You have the sleek box shape of the 360 S and the hard lines of the original system. The Xbox One is huge, bigger than the PS4, and somehow less powerful. More on that later. The Xbox One logo on the front brings subtle attraction along with the glossy panels and chrome disc drive bezel. The box is sleek and Microsoft’s best-looking one yet. It’s also surprisingly light for the size of the system.
Under the Hood
The Xbox One is actually a little weaker than the PS4. I know fanboys are going to scream and have a tantrum, but the numbers and facts don’t lie. Sure, it’s powerful, but not as much as you’d like to think. While the Xbox One and PS4 both have an 8-core AMD CPU that is similar to that in phones, the Xbox One is clocked at 1.75 GHz, while the PS4 is clocked at 1.6 GHz. Yeah, go ahead and laugh, but the GPU is probably more important on consoles than you think. While the Xbox One has an 853 MHz AMD GPU, the PS4 has an 800 MHz one but has more compute units. The PS4 has 18 while the Xbox One has 12, meaning the PS4 can outperform the Xbox One with this. To make it easier, the Xbox One has a GPU equivalent to an AMD 7790 or Nvidia GTX 650 Ti. The PS4 has a GPU equivalent to an AMD 7890 or Nvidia GTX 670. While those GPUs have now been left in the dust, the PS4 and Xbox One are stuck with them. Sadly, this means lower resolution on Xbox One, and due to only having 8GB of DDR3 RAM, loading times could be much longer towards the end of the life cycle over the PS4, which has 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. The Xbox One also has three USB 3.0 ports; one is cleverly hidden on the left side rather than being in the front. I also have to commend Microsoft for making this the very first console to have 5 GHz WiFi, which is a huge win over any other console for download speeds. I could download a 62GB digital game five times faster than I could on another console. I love this.
GUI
I hate to say this, but…Xbox One looks too much like Windows 8. I know. I know. Go ahead and say it. It is the most difficult system I have ever had to navigate. For starters, I couldn’t find the system settings. Why is it an app? Why is everything an app? I like apps on consoles, but everything on the Xbox One is an app, and it relies on the internet more than any other console. If you pin your favorite stuff to your home area, you can’t use it when you are offline. It doesn’t end there; I couldn’t find anything in the game store. Yeah, that’s probably important, right? The game store looks empty and completely unintuitive. There’s a small featured section as well as Top Paid, Free, Newest Games, etc. However, I could not find the Games with Gold section anywhere except at the home dash in a featured box. That’s completely ridiculous. I still don’t know what’s for sale for gold members, and I can’t find it. This is the worst game store setup I have ever seen.
Functionality
Let’s talk about some of the Xbox One’s exclusive features. Microsoft is seriously trying to push the set-top box thing; however, this is probably only something that less than 10% of users will use, mainly sports fans. The Xbox One does feature a TV-Out HDMI option, so you can plug in your HD set-top box or even another console. While plugging in consoles isn’t recommended due to lag, it’s an option for people short on ports. Hell, you can play Killzone via the Snap app on your PS4 while someone is playing Halo right next to you. God forbid. There are features in the system to set up your TV and sound system to use voice commands via the Kinect, but only users who bought the launch consoles will have a Kinect. I feel many people from here on out will never see this feature happen.
Another function is the Snap app. This is actually really nice, as it cuts out a quarter of the screen for using other apps on the Xbox One. This includes TV, walkthroughs, web browsing, the media player—you name it. This comes in handy for people who love to multi-task, but I noticed some slowdowns when playing graphics-heavy games. Another feature that is new to Xbox is Blu-ray. Yeah, Sony fans are saying “Ha ha,” but it’s a smart choice. Games are just too big for dual-layer DVDs these days, so with their own high-capacity media disc being burned out by Blu-Ray, Microsoft didn’t have a choice. This means you no longer need a separate Blu-ray player or PlayStation 3 or 4 to play Blu-ray movies.
Another small feature is the Xbox One Smartglass app, which you can use with your phone or tablet. The layout is pretty much the same as the Xbox One itself, was responsive, and worked well as something that can be used to control your console. This is great for watching videos or listening to music, so you don’t have to keep turning on your controller.
Outside of these features, I did find something disturbing that is probably the Xbox One’s most fatal flaw. Slow install times off discs. The PS4 takes less than a minute, and you can play the full game right away. For some reason, Microsoft thought it was cute that you could play what’s installed, but that’s literal. I booted up Killer Instinct, and all characters were locked until the game finished installing. Wonderful, so now I can stare at the menus for 3 hours while the game installs. Oh yeah, another thing: games are fully downloaded from Xbox LIVE rather than installed off the disc. This is one of the dumbest things I have ever had to deal with. I booted up the Xbox for the first time at 5 p.m. on a Saturday, and I left Killer Instinct installing all day; it took forever. The trick is to disconnect from Xbox LIVE before installing, so it only takes roughly 15 minutes. Connect again to download the current update. Even if you have a fast connection, the games take forever to install, as they need to be downloaded and then installed rather than doing both at the same time, like on PS4. One positive thing came out of this, and that’s being able to play digital downloads while you wait, which is something that can’t be done on PS4.
I won’t talk about the controller much, as I already did an extensive review on that, but I will say that the controller is amazing and is an evolution of the Xbox 360 controller. I also want to mention the DVR and capture features that the Xbox One has. The Xbox can snap moments when you unlock achievements, and even the father of the achievement system has evolved. They are more informative when they pop up, no longer leaving you puzzled as to what caused the achievement to unlock. Outside of the name, a description of the feat will also appear.
The Games
It all boils down to the games, right? I played Forza 5, Killer Instinct, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and I was seriously impressed. Microsoft actually released better-looking games at launch than Sony. Forza 5 and Ryse: Son of Rome are truly impressive launch titles. They look absolutely amazing and wipe the floor visually over any PS4 launch title, even Killzone: Shadowfall. Games played just like you expected they would; however, Microsoft has a trump card that will come in handy towards the middle of the Xbox One’s life cycle, and that’s cloud computing. This allows AI and even graphical features to be processed on the Xbox One, which is a super powerful tool that no other competitor has. Forza’s Drivitar AI is computed on a server rather than inside the Xbox One. While this feature is slow to start, it’s sure to bring some impressive stuff to Xbox One later on.
Xbox One for All and All for One
The Xbox One isn’t a perfect system and has many flaws in its GUI and various functionalities, but it’s a great system and a worthy successor to the Xbox 360. While it lacks the exclusives that the Wii U and PS4 have, it will grow in time and hopefully carve its own unique experience that previous consoles from Microsoft failed to do. If Microsoft can keep exclusives exclusive to Xbox One forever, it will help a lot. If they can help grow the system over time, like they did with Xbox 360, it will help quite a bit. It’s impressive to see where Xbox One is now after the disastrous launch and reveal two years ago. Xbox One is well worth a purchase for the handful of excellent exclusives available right now.
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Yep! The fact that I forgot about this game until you made a comment proves that.