Xbox Live

Preview - Nick McCrea returns from X02 with news of Microsoft's 'Live' service.

If there was one overarching goal of X02, then it was this - to convince the gaming and wider press of the potential of Xbox Live. The event saw a number of announcements on the subject, as well as providing the opportunity to play the launch titles first hand in an Xbox Live environment.

Xbox Live will beta in the UK, France and Germany from November 1. These countries were chosen because they represent the vast majority of the gaming audience MS hope to capture, and because online gaming has had a better history in these countries, providing a better-informed quality of beta tester.

The Xbox Live full launch will occur on 14th March, exactly a year to the day from the original European Xbox launch (the US Xbox Live will debut in November, exactly a year to the day also - clearly MS has thought this out for a while!). Rollout will occur in waves, with eight countries comprising the first wave. These countries will be : UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden. It will, for those of you who don't already know, be a broadband only service. MS don't provide you with the internet connection, simply access to the Live service. This is achieved through the purchase of the starter pack, which also contains the voice communicator. This is simply a headset and attached microphone, and it will be the only method of communication in Xbox Live games - MS have not yet sanctioned the use of typed communication (though I expect this position to change when the voice com is established). The starter pack will cost 59 Euros so expect a UK price tag of around £39. Microsoft did not announce the countries in the second wave, but Jay Allard (Xbox Director) did reveal later that users in other European countries could still use the service, but would not be covered by tech support in their own language - implying that they could still use another language support service, perhaps?

The starter pack will ship with two games, Whacked and MotoGP. Whacked is a strange combat game show-style affair, featuring weird looking and occasionally naked contestants. Moto GP is a graphically stunning motorbike racing title, and while it does look like fun, the real appeal will lie with Mech Assault, Unreal Championship, and Ghost Recon, also to be released on the Xbox Live debut.

Mech Assault is an arcade multiplayer mechwarrior style game, and having played it extensively in Seville I can say I'm thoroughly looking forward to it. The premise is quite simple - take a number of big stompy robots, tell each of them that the others called him a mummy's bot, and then release them all into a variety of arena's to duke it out like irate bulls. This game was destined to be played with a voice communicator - talking trash to an opponent you've just vaporized is incredibly fun, and to all those who voiced doubts over the communication system, don't knock it until you've tried it. The graphics are first rate too - I was firing at an enemy who then fled behind a building, and as my line of fire passed in front of his hiding place I could see my tracer bullets slam into the edifice, and a line of explosions tore across its front, knocking out the windows of several floors.