Xbox Mayhem Bundle: Includes, Xbox, Extra Official Controller, Halo and Dead or Alive III & Free Halo Strategy Guide

Halo is a fist person shooter - anybody that says it's more than that is being blinded by the graphics - which are nice! But, the bottom line is that you run around an alien world in great scenery shooting things. Then you end up in various alien bases and shoot things. There isn't even the usual tasks of keys to find (possibly a plus point), puzzles to solve or doors to unlock - you are just led through a very linear path around the story to shoot things - which is fine - if you like that sort of thing. However, there are currently superior first person shooters out and I would personally prefer to wait for the fantastic Deus Ex (which I own for PC) for the Playstation 2 - this is a game with far superior depth. I'm not knocking Halo, it's great fun - looks fantastic - but not as good as the hype - it's not accomplishing anything new gameplay wise.

Dead or Alive 3 I've also found limiting. However, I put this down to already owning a copy of DOA2 for my PS2. Although, believe it or not, the graphics are even better on the Xbox, there is no significant change in gameplay - if anything there is less to play for. In DOA2 you could unlock several new costumes after playing through the various modes enough. As far as I'm aware there is only one extra costume for Kasumi (my fav.) plus a few ponytail alteration (which is simply a button press away and not an unlockable item). This is causing limited replay value for me as there is no insentive to play through the game several times as I know I'm not gaining anything new by doing so. This may sound shallow but the appeal I hold for the DOA series (apart from the obvious buxom babes) was that although a great fighting game it added the sense of fun and wasn't as serious as the Tekken series. I can't help but feel it's lost some of this. Again, if you already own the PS2 version this is not worth buying the Xbox for.

For me the bottom line is that the Xbox obviously has the technology - but in hindsight I would have waited for the game developers to put it to better use and to prove the console before I made my purchase. Hopefully by christmas (as with the PS2) I can be proved wrong and more games worth forty odd quid will emerge. My advice would be - if you already own a PS2 you're not missing out on much and it may be worth waiting a bit longer before shelling out for the Xbox.

I bought the mayhem bundle and i truly think that it rules, more so than my PS2!! - and thats saying something!