What triggered off that dream (and a bloody good dream it was too) was because the day before I was researching which console I would love to own and beat up to death with all the next generation games available. Should it be the Nintendo Gamecube? Should it be the Sony Playstation 2? Or should it be Microsoft’s XBOX? Paperweight, radiator or air filter? Hmmm, it’s a toughie… that’s why I bought them all just to be sure.

The XBOX is a heavy beastie, it’s the size of an average VCR but feel like it’s been living off ‘micro chips’ for a while longer because boy is it heavy. It has ribbed sides just like a cheese grater; a DVD tray at the front and a large green circle thing at the top of the console looking like some nerd dribbled blob phlegm on it before the boffins at Microsoft carved XBOX into it. Yes this console is not attractive at all.

However do not think this console lacks power. Being from Microsoft, this console is made from PC components already available in the PC market and so it boasts the ‘most powerful next generation console to date’. Well Billy Gates, you are right this console is the fastest at the time of writing this review, but just wait until the next next generation consoles arrive.

So a quick gander underneath the ugly bonnet and what do we find? Well it does say it is a 128bit console (don’t ask me I have no idea what that means except that the Playstation 1 was 32bit so this must be much better right?) and besides that we find a bunch of stuff inside that PC enthusiasts wouldn’t find alien to them:

Processor: 733MHz

The heart of the XBOX. Without this there be no XBOX. This Processor is quoted by Microsoft to be an Intel Pentium 3, however with my hardware tinkering I discovered it’s really an Intel Celeron CPU (gasp! Celerons are a much cheaper version of the Pentium 3). Microsoft lied to us! Ah well it’s still more than double the speed of the Playstation 2.

RAM: 64MB

The memory available to the XBOX to load up games. Based on PC100 SDRAM (one of the oldest types of RAM) this isn’t the fastest type of RAM available to the XBOX for games. However, on its PC cousin the PC requires 512MB RAM minimum to play the latest games, whereas the XBOX can make do with 64MB to play it’s version of the exact same games. Why’s that?

Graphics: NVIDIA Custom graphics

Microsoft shook hands with the best graphics chip makers at the time, NVIDIA, to make the graphics chip for the XBOX. This ‘custom chip’ is really the GeForce3 but modified that ever so slightly for a boost in speed for the XBOX. The NVIDIA GeForce FX (5) is already out for PCs, but this graphics chip can still churn out the amazing graphics for the latest games. With a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels on-screen at any one time, not only is it the fastest but it’s also the sharpest in image generation. I still remember my mates talking about taking the graphics chip out of the XBOX and putting it into their PC’s for a cheap upgrade to supreme performance. Yeah right, dream longer mates.

: 2x - 5x read

The DVD drive available for the XBOX is of reasonable quality. It can read all the original XBOX game discs in a cinch, however if you have DVD movie backups on recordable DVD then the ability to read depends upon what drive you have. With further hardware tinkering and research I have discovered that there are 3 types of DVD drives for the XBOX. 1st is the Thompson drive, the earliest drive that has the least compatibility with disc media, then it’s the Philips drive with better media support. Finally it’s the Samsung drive, with support for most disc media. How to tell the difference? Open up the drive’s tray and have a look at it. If it’s a long ‘U’ cut down the middle of the tray then it’s a Thompson. If it does that but at the end there’s a large round cut so it looks like this ‘=O’ then it’s a Philips. If you get 2 holes in opposite corners of the tray then it is Samsung. I wish you luck you get at least a Philips drive!

Hard Drive: 8GB

Yes this console comes with a hard drive. It has 8,000MB or 8GB of storage so you can store all your game saves onto it and not require a memory card unlike the other next generation consoles. Very convenient and saves money! What’s that? Heat problems? Microsoft even thought about this and made sure the hard drive spins at 5,400RPM (slower than the average PC hard drive nowadays) so heat is kept in check.

Audio: 64-bit 256 Channel Surround Sound

The XBOX is currently the only console to support Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with 3D hardware audio support. The other consoles only support the older Dolby Surround standard, giving the XBOX an upper hand with audio reproduction. I think the sound chip is by Yamaha, although I am not certain.

Network: 10/100 Base TX connection

Yes, with this connection the XBOX can go online via broadband and you can play your multiplayer games over the internet with your mates. This connection type has been proven to be extremely fast on PCs so its incorporation here is more than justified.

So this console is very well endowed, not unlike a certain Katie Price in disguise. But hey these cool specs wouldn’t mean squat if in practise they don’t deliver the goods so let’s get finger twitching!

Plugging the console into the TV was easy as pie, didn’t even need the manual. Everything is more or less colour coded for ease, if there’s a cable then finds a port to plug it in, the ports are specifically designed to fit only that type of cable. The final connection should be the control pad, plug it into the left most port of the 4 ports at the front of the XBOX (4 ports for multiplayer games). After that just power up the XBOX console and place a game into DVD drive tray for the complete gaming experience. The console boots up rather silently to my surprise, with only a little whirling sound from the system fan and the hard drive.

Ah… Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball… what a beautiful game. As a guy this game is amazing, sure it does make me look like some saddo sex deprived rodent but I am using it to review the console so it’s a ridicule I must endure… for now. This game is about a bunch of lovely fine women playing volleyball on a beach in nothing but their skimpy bikinis, and it involves a lot of bouncing about the place. The ladies are very well rendered in 3D, very smooth whilst image quality is very crisp. The individual hair effects, the bouncing bosoms, the sand spraying across the beach by their naked feet sliding through it, their graceful movements in hitting the volleyball has all been nicely captured and reproduced by this XBOX 3D game. So the graphics are luscious and amazing with vibrant vivid colours and are fantastically animated by the console, but how about the audio effects?

I have a 5.1 surround sound setup in my room and connected it to the XBOX. Ok, it’s volleyball time. I can hear the ocean washing ashore behind me, the ball being smacked from the left to the right in front of me, whilst the ladies are giving out their little girly grunts as they give the ball a good ole slapping and shout at each other to pass the ball. Ah surround sound supremacy at its best, the sound is very clear with no static. The in-game music is also of very high quality as well, the stereo CD quality sound is very nice indeed especially since it was playing through my surround sound system. To keep it fair I plugged the console’s sound system into the TV, the quality is still very good even in stereo mode, but nothing beats the Dolby Surround experience!

Ok so audio and video is very good (with little loading as well thanks to the speedy DVD drive), but there are the little disadvantages to this console. Well firstly is the control pad. If you purchase an older XBOX then you would end up with the biggest control pad ever designed for human hands. It is hard to grip and the buttons are rather difficult to reach. The newer control pad dubbed ‘Controller S’ is a redesigned control pad released after many complaints. The pad is smaller and the buttons are easier to reach, but compared to the Playstation 2’s pad it’s still on the big side and not as comfortable.

Secondly taking this console over to your mate’s is definitely going to keep you fit as it is the heaviest console ever conceived by human minds. Two Playstation 2’s just about weighs as heavy as one XBOX, if you want to build up your bicep muscles just screw a handle onto it and then do 15 reps a day on each arm.

Lastly I can’t watch my movie DVDs on this machine. Oh great I have to buy the DVD add-on pack for it before I can watch my beloved DVDs. After some poking around and some research I discovered that Microsoft would have had to pay the DVD forum royalties per console sold if they incorporate DVD player capabilities into the console. So Microsoft sneakily added the DVD movie support, but made it so that it can only be activated if we purchase the DVD kit for it, thus getting around the royalty payoff via a loophole in the system.

At the moment this console stands at £99.99 without any games and 1 control pad, or £119.99 to £129.99 for the console with games pack (the cost depends on what pack). It is cheaper than the Playstation 2 console for solo console or game combo and it is more powerful so it is very good value for money. It doesn’t have as many game manufacturers backing it up as the Playstation 2 (Microsoft isn’t as experienced in the gaming industry as Sony hence the reason Sony having more of a following), but it does have a fairly large collection of games and manufacturer supporting it so you don’t have to worry about not having games to play on this behemoth of a console. Fantastic graphics and sound hampered by poor control pad design; build weight of its chassis and lack of DVD movie support straight out of the box. However it is still excellent value for money and has the most power in the video game console industry at the time of this review. Final Fantasy fans should stick with Playstation 2, Resident Evil fans should stick with Gamecube, the rest of us should buy the XBOX. What are you waiting for? Buy this console before it runs out!

Bonus:

Because this console is based on PC hardware, hardware hackers have managed to make the XBOX console boot into the Linux operating system so that you can use the XBOX as a very cheap PC. All you need after that is a USB keyboard and mouse, and a network cable to connect it to the internet and download stuff onto the built-in 8GB hard drive. Man the things these people can do with their spare time…Â