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Head-to-Head:
Sony and Microsoft have developed online services for their game systems and they are both available now. And with the ultra-lucrative holiday season upon us, this could be a make-or-break situation for both companies. While the two online gaming services are vastly different in design and execution, you should examine carefully your needs before investing in the online games, especially if you haven't decided on a console yet. ONLINE: THE FINAL FRONTIER When SemperAptus began, online gaming was exclusively for Internet connected PCs. Even then, novice computer users and people with low speed connections complained about the laborious process to establish a game and difficulty in maintaining a connection to the server. That's all about to change. THE PS2 NETWORK ADAPTOR We all know that the Playstation 2 is the #1 console in the world. What you may not know is that the Playstation 2 Network Adaptor is going to be the second best selling video game hardware item this Christmas. According to PlayDate Inc., a marketing services company, more Network Adaptors will be sold than actual Nintendo GameCube and X-box consoles. Their research shows that only the GameBoy handheld system will outsell the PS2 Network Adaptor this holiday season.
The PS2 Network Adaptor supports high speed (DSL, Cable Modem, etc.) and low speed connections (modem dial-up) and includes pre-configured settings for many of the popular Internet Service Providers. It ships with playable demos of Frequency and Madden NFL 2003 and includes a mail-in offer to get Twisted Metal Black Online free. But the PS2 Adaptor does not allow across-the-system or all-encompassing in-game communication. This means that to establish which game you will be playing, when and how, you'll need to call your teammates. Then you might as well stay on the phone to trash talk, or strategize. Although we find this intolerable, your long distance provider will thank you for this. X-BOX LIVE Microsoft, as they have been known to do, has set a high standard for gaming. X-Box Live requires high speed Internet service and, realistically, a nearby hub to connect to via the Ethernet port in the back of every X-box. Of course, these are the same requirements for connecting the PS2 Adaptor to a high-speed Internet service. And with high-speed comes high-features. Once you get it connected, all you need to do is plug the headset into the memory port of the X-box controller. This should take five seconds for most of you (and ten seconds for the people who still have trouble taking the plastic wrap off a CD). The X-box Live kit includes online demos of Moto GP and Whacked! -The latter being a game you'll either come to love or instantly hate.
The most impressive but least bragged about feature in X-Box Live is the ability to see what your friends are playing and how they rank in comparison to you. When you're ready to play, a quick check of your Friend's list will reveal who is online and what they're playing. And, for example, when you check your rankings in MotoGP, they are shown right next to other players on your Friends List, so you can see who earns bragging rights. In our tests, we were able to log in, create a game, and invite someone on the other side of the US in less than 60 seconds -- without previously arranging which game to play or when to play it. You can even message a friend while they're playing MotoGP to ask if they'd like to play Unreal! MAJOR FLAWS: SONY MAKES NO MONEY & X-BOX MAKES NO FRIENDS One of the most interesting omissions in Sony's online presence is a profit motive. Although the company reportedly offered special benefits to companies that develop online titles, the company has absolutely no way of turning a profit on the online service. This makes a gloomy outlook for the future of the service and a potential critical flaw: individual games could lose their online component if the software developer (who also must run the server in this scenario) decides they're losing too much money on maintaining game servers. Now X-box Live is no shining knight either. Although the online component is much more integrated, we found one major flaw. Although they advertise that you can carry your Gamer Tag (online player ID) to a friend's house, we found that the current games do not support this feature. Unreal Championship and Whacked! would not allow us to load two Gamer Tags in the same online game while many of the titles had trouble with two voice headsets plugged into one machine. Microsoft does allowed a "guest" account to play online with a paying member, which we applaud to encourage the growth of the platform by demonstrating the excitement and incredible set of games. But a guest cannot establish a rank or game statistics. THE POTENTIAL FOR ADDITIONAL SERVICES In addition to the mere joy of terminating your friends from around the world, the online connectivity of consoles offers a whole new world - literally. You can now download new worlds (levels), characters and much more via the Internet. Sports games can offer updated rosters to reflect new drafts for teams and updated injury reports. Microsoft is even planning to offer fully playable mini-games, although we have to see it to believe it. FEATURES AT-A-GLANCE
CONCLUSION If you already own either of these consoles, you should rush out right now and buy the online gaming accessory as well as a handful of games. And if you are considering a console purely for online play, the X-box is the clear winner in the online gaming arena.
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