Microsoft (X-Box) Xbox LIVE Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)XBox Live rocks. It earns all of those four stars I'm giving it. (None of this 3.75 rounded up [poop], more like a 4.25 rounded down...) The ability to play online is much, much cooler than any other feature that the XBox offers, and it is revolutionizing the console gaming experience as we know it.
In short, if you spent the money to buy an XBox, you're foolish if you don't spend a quarter as much to get five times the fun. With XBox Live, there are always people out there ready and willing to play you at any variation of any game you want.
However, there are a few things you need to be aware of before buying it. They're minor compared to the major plusses on buying this, but it will help set realistic expectations and avoid some disappointment.
First of all, unless a game is designated as being XBox Live compatible, this kit won't allow you to play it over the Internet. There are only a very few games out there currently with that designation, but many more will be out by Christmas this year. But PLEASE don't expect to play some of the most massively popular games such as Halo, Dead or Alive 3, Project Gotham, Rallysport Challenge, etc. over the Internet just by buying this kit! You WILL need new games, such as Unreal Championship, NFL 2K3, Whacked!, etc.
Secondly (and Microsoft does a good job telling this up front, but it's worth repeating here), you MUST have a broadband connection to the Internet. Dial-up and ISDN won't cut it, people, you really do have to have DSL or a cable modem.
Thirdly, every game I've played so far allows only one person at a time to use their XBox Live account on an XBox and play online. In other words, don't expect you and three friends to be able to all connect simultaneously from your XBox and play as a team on Unreal Championship. This is only possible if you and each friend has his or her own XBox Live account and is playing from his or her own XBox, each connected to the Internet by broadband!
Fourth, as anyone familiar with online gaming knows, there are people who kind of bring a "wild" element to gaming. This means that parents should closely monitor what their kids are hearing and saying to the anonymous throngs of games out there, some of whom are real jerks and whose language would make sailors blush. And there is also a small contingent who do assinine things like host a game and then bail out if they start losing, which drops the connection and ends the game for the other up-to-fifteen people playing with him/her, or worse, who play just for the perverse pleasure of making everyone else in the game miserable by shooting his/her teammates, driving the wrong way on the track, etc. There aren't many like that, but it's really frustrating when you run across one.
Fifth (and last), in spite of Microsoft's hype, there are the occasional network glitches. This is buried at the bottom of my list because I have to admit that the network is surprisingly stable and it hardly ever happens, but realistically, you should expect something to "burp" once every few hours of gaming. And to be fair to Microsoft, I don't even think it's the XBox Live service, it's much more likely the normal "burps" one experiences any time one is firing network packets like mad back and forth over the Internet for several hours.
So that's my fair assessment. Yes, there are a few things to be aware of when buying this product and going online, but in spite of those things, I wholeheartedly recommend buying it.

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Xbox Live is an online gaming service that lets you play multiplayer Xbox games over the Internet via your broadband connection. This Xbox Live starter kit includes a one-year subscription to Xbox Live, plus the Xbox Communicator, a device that plugs into one of your Xbox controller ports and lets you talk with other Xbox Live gamers during games.
To play games over the Xbox Live service, you'll need:
High speed, or broadband, Internet service
An Ethernet cable so you can connect your Xbox to your external DSL or cable modem (and maybe a router, if you want your home computer and Xbox to share your Internet connection)
A subscription to the Xbox Live service (this kit comes with a year of service--additional service costs a monthly fee)
An Xbox game that is online-enabled