My friends and I have spent countless hours
playing the many mouthwatering games for Xbox and debating their merits. But
none of us had played the games in widescreen 1080i mode, or even 720p. So I
persuaded “business associates” Sacha, Ryan and Lesley to come over and play the
games, to comment on the graphical enhancement at higher resolutions and to give
their thoughts on gameplay. All declined my invitation until I sweetened the pot
with free pizza and Budweiser.
JUDGE & JURY: To help evaluate the gaming experience, the author (back left)
bribed some friends (Lesley, Sacha and Ryan, front left to right) with free
pizza and Budweiser.
Please note: If you read this article
and buy an Xbox, you are going to want to change the settings in Xbox’s setup
screen before inserting a game. It took us a bit of time to figure out that
there are three video resolution options and a widescreen option. Just a
bit.
Several games take advantage of Xbox’s 720p and 1080i support. World
Series Baseball 2K3, NBA 2K3, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, Street Hoops and Soul
Calibur II were some of the first games to take advantage of the system’s 720p
support. Two games broke the 1080i barrier: Dragon’s Lair and Enter the Matrix.
Syberia supposedly supports 1080i, but we sure couldn’t get it to work. More are
scheduled for release.
