Preview: Microsoft's X-box unleashed

Microsoft has made some daring claims for its upcoming foray into the games console arena. But can the X-box reality live up to the hype?

Bill Gates chose the PlayStation's home turf to publicly unveil Microsoft's entrant to the games console arena. The crowds at the Tokyo Games Show in March were treated to the sight of Gates's green-eyed monster and a selection of the games Microsoft hopes will ensure the X-box becomes an essential part of your living room.

The console itself boasts an Intel 733Mhz processor and a custom-designed 250Mhz nVidia graphics chipset, which the company promises will make the console three times faster than its competitors.

Add to this its 8Gb hard disk and built-in Ethernet port providing broadband connectivity and you've got online gaming. A DVD drive and four built-in controller ports round off the package that owes a lot to PC design.

One of the first games to grace the platform is a sci-fi shoot-'em-up called Halo. Roaming about both on foot and in a selection of vehicles on a strange planet, you take on a mysterious enemy called the Covenant.

Allowing both single- and multi-player missions, Halo boasts groundbreaking graphics that the developer says will "blur the line between your couch and fantasy". If only half of what is being said is true, Halo is guaranteed to be good.

The third instalment of the Oddworld franchise, Munch's Oddysee, is a 3D adventure populated by a bunch of strange creatures and even stranger situations. The two heroes, Abe and Munch, are out to save Abe's mother, and a combination of each character's unique psychic and physical abilities will help them achieve their goal.

In a similar vein, the darkly comic Malice mixes the madness of Alice in Wonderland with the wizardry of Sacrifice as our eponymous heroine fights her way through burning and flooded levels gathering greater magical powers as she goes.

Racing games are currently represented by a game code named Project Gotham, which has more than a passing resemblance to Metropolis Street Racer on the Dreamcast.

Like its predecessor, winning in this city racer requires a mixture of style, speed and risk-taking in order to accrue kudos. The greater the kudos the more successful you become as you tear up over 300 tracks in four cities.

Similarly, snowboarding title Amped requires you to grab the attention of the media and sponsors in order to get all-important exposure and thus rise up the career ladder. Unlike other snowboarding games, Amped allows you to roam freely around courses performing stunts rather than trying for the fastest time.

Role-playing games such as Azurik: Rise of Perathia and Nightcaster round off the preliminary line-up. Both follow magicians who must acquire greater powers to overcome the forces of evil. So far, so uninspired. At least Azurik's immense free-roaming 3D environments promise to put the X-box's hard drive to good use.

Another established games title that Microsoft has secured for exclusive release is Tecmo's graphically rich arcade beat-'em-up Dead or Alive 3 (its current incarnation, Dead or Alive 2 can be found on both PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast).

With a requisite quota of buxom babes and hulking brutes fighting it out in beautifully rendered arenas, it could prove to be exactly what Microsoft needs to steal the competition's thunder.

Recent deals with Sega to develop 11 new titles, and Konami, which will release special versions of its Metal Gear Solid and Crash Bandicoot games for X-box, have added to the growing anticipation among gamers.

However, the first consoles don't go on sale until the autumn in the US while UK gamers will have to wait until spring 2002 to get a piece of the action.

www.xbox.com