http://xbox.ign.com/articles/400/400591p1.html
Grand Theft Auto: World
Why it´ll be great: October 2004 proves to be a pivotal time in vidoegame history as Rockstar announces its intentions to take the GTA franchise to multiple consoles including an exclusive online version at launch for Xbox 2. Getting Samuel Jackson to reprise his role as Jules Winfield and casting him in the lead of GTA:World means Xbox 2 will become the most anticipated console launch in history.
The 150 gigabyte hard drive of the Xbox 2 will be used to record your actions throughout the 75 hours of gameplay so that you can use the " Inner City Hindsight" replay feature. At any point during the game, but most likely when something goes wrong for your hero, you can use Hindsight to instantly see what you did wrong to send everything down the crapper. Trusting your lieutenant to personally deliver 100 bricks made sense until you use " Inner City Hindsight" to find out that he actually cut a side deal with a rival organization and he´s been skimming millions for months. The random profanity generator will revolutionize videogames as players can throw analog stick combos and have Winfield unleash 750 different phrases featuring the word " m$*#@*#cker"
Any game as comprehensive as GTA:World will require more processing and memory capabilities than anything seen before. The current generation Xbox simply wouldn´t have the horsepower to keep track of everything going on and the rewindability of GTA:World is still on somebody´s drawing board somewhere. Likewise Microsoft won´t want to sully the company´s image on the verge of taking over the videogame industry so the company´s proprietary " content filtration system" will allow parents to input a code into any game that will censor all objectionable material in a game. Black bars and mosaic screens will instantly pop up on screen to hide weapons, drug paraphernalia or animal abuse in any M rated Xbox 2 game. GTA: World will be the example to all publishers of how to make the game developers like and that families will love thanks to Xbox 2´s content filtration system. Freed from the limitations of the ESRB, Microsoft with the Xbox 2 will have a considerable advantage over Sony and its PlayStation 3.
Super Mario Online
Why it will be great: Mario´s fared quite well throughout his lifespan. He´s gone from platforming pioneer to 3D superstar. But he´s yet to conquer the online world. That changes with the launch of Xbox 2, as Mario´s world is brought into the online arena. The coins, the stars, the funny little Italian voice, and his " brother" Luigi are all still there.
Now gamers will be able to play as one of eight famous Mario characters in a co-operative adventure that will take them through twenty different worlds as they battle Bowser and his evil hoard. And the head-to-head 20-player battles will be even more intense than those found in Conker´s Other Bad Fur Day.
There´s not greater video game all-star than Mario and the wonders of Xbox 2 will bring his world to life like never seen before. Whether playing offline or online, gamer´s will have the best Mario yet. And let´s not forget the special GBA 2 connectivity, which will allow for downloadable mini-games to be stored on a GBA 2 for play away from home. And of course, the special Mario Tamagachi mini-game to boot!
Why it will be Xbox 2: There´s no greater mascot than Mario and no system in greater need of a mascot than Xbox. It´s the perfect fit. Following Nintendo´s 2004 decision to stop producing hardware outside of the GameBoy Advance, Microsoft will quickly shell out a fortune to be the exclusive home for Mario. No Starfox, no Samus, no other Nintendo characters exclusively on Xbox -- Just Mario and his little world. The positives for MS would be through the roof and the cash incentive for Nintendo would be enough to buckle the Japanese giant´s proud legs enough for Mario to make Xbox 2 his new home
