Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this column are those of the participants and the moderator, and do not necessarily reflect those of the GIA. There is coarse language and potentially offensive material afoot. That jewel just begs to light up. Don't say we didn't warn you.

Well, looks like I spoke too soon yesterday about the GameCube pricing. It did seem too good to be true, but this is one of those times when I'm perfectly okay with being wrong. Between a $200 GameCube and what will likely be a $250 PS2, I wouldn't want to be in Microsoft's position right now. Especially after letters like these.

I was a supporter of the Xbox for a long time. I disliked the PS2, hated the way it somehow convinced everyone as the system to buy over Dreamcast, and looked forward to MS thrashing Sony at E3. And then I actually got there, and wondered what the hell I was thinking. I looked at Sony's booth and saw all of their good or great games all in one place, and there were more of them than I had previously realized. In contrast, I couldn't even bring myself to enter MS's booth after seeing their press materials and game catalog.

What I think I'm trying to say is, I own a Wonderswan Color and I don't plan on buying an Xbox.

Actually, I doubt that the Halo fans were the same ones in the Luigi's Mansion lines. I know it's hard to remember sometimes, here at the GIA, but there are lots of people who enjoy PC games and are looking forward to the Xbox delivering that sort of experience on a console. Then again, a huge-selling PC game means 10,000 or so copies, so good luck to Microsoft finding success with those guys.

You know, around the PS2's launch there may have been quotes like "It's historic, a mass-market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the way the printing press did," but at least they came from the actual president of an actual established game development firm. Attributing nonsense like that to an anonymous "industry analyst" is just sad.

Actually, I tend to use Microsoft PC products as well. But not because I have to--because I find them legitimately better than the competition. IE is better at page handling than Netscape, Outlook is easier to use than Eudora, and so forth.

I didn't always feel this way. There was a time when I would rather have sold my computer and live a net-less existence than use IE over Netscape, or any of MS's products. The way Microsoft has always worked, though, is to enter the market with an iffy product and slowly improve to the point where their ability can't be faulted. Whether this will happen for the Xbox, I don't know--this is a console, not a PC, and they are Americans in a Japanese-dominated field, after all. But there may be hope yet.

It's probably more to do with my own narrow preferences in games than the quality of the Xbox-exclusive titles, but none of them do much for me. Dino Crisis has always seemed like the weakest of Mikami's efforts (which is saying something) and DOA has been trying to play catch-up to Soul Calibur and Tekken since the series started.

And how exclusive are they really? It's already known that Metal Gear Solid on Xbox isn't going to be a port of the PS2 game, but something different--just what that "something" is, nobody knows. Jet Set Radio Future is decidedly non-exclusive, as Smilebit made a point of letting everyone know.

On the other hand, there is that Matrix game. Hope Shiny comes through on that one ...

I'd certainly hope that the Xbox DVD player will be a sight to behold, since it's now going to be a separate package from the main system, which means a DVD-playing cost over and above the $300 price tag.

But as for the rest of your letter, that's certainly a novel way to get something out of the Xbox. My only wonder is why you'd want a stripped-down machine like that when you already have an "expensive system" already catered to your own needs. Maybe the idea of using Excel with a large black controller is too fun to pass up.

Don't forget that we haven't seen the full extent of the first-party lineup, either. Mario and Zelda titles are confirmed to be showing at Spaceworld, so it's very possible that Nintendo is playing it close to the vest until then, without showing their third-party stuff yet.

Closing Comments:

I wasn't entirely kidding yesterday when I put Tomak: Save the Earth in contention for Game of Show, as it was certainly a bigger surprise than almost anything else. What do you think? What's your favorite off-kilter weird game? Remember, nothing counts if it's so tame as to actually see U.S. release--I don't want want twenty letters about Incredible Crisis here.

-Nich Maragos, turning Korean