Originally posted by abhi_juve
1) Dont U have to pay extra for Xbox live?
2) Yeah, but the Xbox dosent have a keyboard and a mouse, Playing a game like halo with a gamepad sucks.
3) Of what I read, Euro 2004 in Xbox stuttered a lot, Where as in my PC
XP 2000+
256 DDR
Gefrce FX 5200(Which is supposed to be a budget crad)
It runs Smooth as Silk.
1) Yes. But it's a good service that keeps all your stats in one profile. It's worth it if you're into online play. It's normally quite easy to find a good game. I always struggled to play FIFA online on a PC, but I'm sure with Xbox live it will be easier than anything. At least it's decent when you have to pay a lot more just to upgrade a graphics card on the PC.
2) I agree with you that the Xbox having a gamepad isn't really a huge advantage. You can easily get a cheap and good one for the PC. At least when you buy a game on the Xbox you know that the the controls are configured properly.
But have you even played Halo on the Xbox? One of the reasons this game was so successful was because it's gameplay kicked arse for a console FPS. If you are used to playing FPS on the computer it might take some while to get used to, but soon the controls are as good as anything. It's nice to know all the controls are on the gamepad rather than all over the PC. And Halo did something very good by putting the grenade throw button as the left-trigger, something that worked very well. I really hate playing any games with keyboard, as a keyboard is IMO designed for typing not gaming, like a gamepad. You may be different, but you cannot say that playing Halo with an Xbox gamepad is bad.
3) Euro 2004 did stutter in some night matches on the Xbox. This was a huge mistake by EA. But 99% of games run as smooth as anything. The same can't be said about the PC. I've tried upgrading in the past but no matter what there was always game that didn't run smoothly. FIFA 2005 for sure will not stutter this year on the Xbox.
And I have a very similar computer to you, and FIFA 2004 stuttered even in low resolutions. Even after just upgrading to a brand new graphics card. This is when I decided I had enough with PC games and bought ant Xbox, and for me that was an excellent decision.