Microsoft Xbox [2002] 

"Beneath the cool, tough exterior is a system capable of powering the very best single and multiplayer gaming experiences available today."
Xbox.com

Microsoft's first serious games-only solution claims to blow away the Sony Playstation 2 and was released for under £300. The Xbox always had a good chance of competing as it has better graphics provided by nVidia famous for its GeForce graphics cards sold for PCs. The Sega Dreamcast was the first console to feature PC-like components and PC code-like OS system and an old PowerVR graphics as used by a few people years ago.

The Xbox runs at 733 MHz, which is twice the speed of the PlayStation's graphics and aims to do 150 to 200 million polygons per sec compared to 66 million or so that the Playstation 2 can realistically do. The Xbox also has DVD playback if you buy the additional unit and should include at least a 6 GB hard drive to speed things up.

Microsoft also claim that 60% of the games will be made by themselves which is relatively high, and although it may help them in dominating the world, Microsoft do not make the best games for the PC, but companies like Electronic Arts do! There are a lot of on-going costs associated with the Xbox, including game prices and the DVD function explained above. Also the games are not as good as we would have liked, apart from Halo.

Plans for the Xbox 2 have been drawn up by Microsoft. Where they hope to increase online gaming following the huge inroads that the PC has made. In 2004 the Xbox Crystal was introduced (pictured), which has the same interior. The Xbox 2 is set for a possible release in late-2005.

VERDICT

Graphics Sound Games Extra features Cost If the Xbox is supported well with good games it will succeed, but the Playstation 2 is a worthy competitor, as well as the of the Nintendo GameCube, which was introduced in 2002.

MICROSOFT CONSOLES: Xbox 360 Xbox

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