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journal: fun
XBOX and Halo, how did they gain success?
Upon hearing of the creation of Microsoft’s new console I thought it would immediately be a failure, but I was wrong. It has long been a fact that first person shooters are best played on the PC, so what changed with the XBOX. Nothing. A mouse and keyboard still smokes the XBOX’s dual analog controller, and the keyboard adapters don’t really work very good, although they do give the edge. Not to mention that the hardware is pathetic compared to the modern video cards and Pentium 4s. Halo is bearly playable on the XBOX, so why is it so popular? I have one word, marketing. Microsoft ground the XBOX and Halo into the minds of people everywhere. You have to give it up to Microsoft to be able to sell something that is utter crap. Maybe with the XBOX 2 MS will get it together and make some sort of keypad/mouse combo, for those of us who can’t use the dual analog controller, which is a craptacular way to FPS.
Suffice it to say if I buy a console, I will be buying a Gamecube, if/when the Legend of Zelda comes out, but never a Microsoft console, I’m glad I didn’t waste the money. Besides, which other games are popular on the XBOX? I can count on one finger the only other game, Halo 2. I think Microsoft should’ve named it “Halo Game Series Console”.
Again, you have to hand it to MS for making a craptacular product so popular.
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thinkback
I love it when the PC hardcore crowd put on their holier-than-thou faces and assert with smug certainty how the keyboard and mouse are better than dua-analog thumbsticks.
The fact is, both control methods have their strengths and weaknesses. The keyboard and mouse combo gives you more precise and faster aiming and somewhat better access to weapon selection and other advanced functions. Dual-analog gives you much more flexible movement, easier long-range targeting and can offer game designers tighter controller setup design.
Take Halo and Halo 2, for example. Those games were designed with Xbox controller in mind, and the games’ control schemes are tight and focused as a result. A mouse and keyboard would limit the freedom of movement you have in the game, and would also make weapon management somewhat confusing.
As far as the Xbox being ‘craptacular’, well that’s your opinion. Personally, I love hopping on Xbox Live a few nights a week and turning some laps in Project Gotham Racing 2, talking trash with the headset and generally having a great time. I’m a racing game fan at heart, and ever since the exit of Papyrus from the racing sim genre, the PC has been sorely lacking decent racers. Xbox has handily filled that gap for me with PGR2, and Forza Motosports is looking very sweet.
| UnnDunn | Jan. 31, 2005 | |
| 6:27 pm |
also remember that a keyboard and mouse is one hell of a lot clunkier than an XBox pad, no matter how big it is, and it’s not at all suited to any game type other than FPS
| unfunk | Jan. 31, 2005 | |
| 10:19 pm |
Legend of Zelda is already out on the Game Cube - they had a special going on last year with it in fact.
| Mar. 08, 2005 | ||
| 9:03 pm |
http://www.zelda.com/universe/game/legendzelda/
That Legend of Zelda, or the Windwaker?
1.
Perhaps it’s the fact that Microsoft didn’t want the console to appear like it’s just a PC-in-a-box. Halo controls just fine with the Xbox conroller - the only people that ever complain about it are the hardcore PC gaming geeks that think that a keyboard and mouse is the only acceptable control method for FPSes.
As for what other popular games are on the machine, well you have already presented yourself as a hater, so naturally you wouldn’t have had a look as to what is popular/good on the machine - also please note that popular does not necessarily mean good