Dear Future Gamer

Who out there is serious about this X-Box being a PS2 beater? For Christ's sake, Microsoft can't even code software correctly without having to release an update three weeks later!

What will they expect us do to? Buy an X-Box, then three weeks later download a bug fix off the Internet that'll take six hours to download and several attempts to do? And this is just for the hardware. God knows what the software will be like. Aren't people fed up enough with having to constantly download patches for their PC games? I mean, it's almost standard procedure nowadays. Buy the game, get home and install it, then spend two days trying to download the patches and configuring the game to get it to work properly. Then you have to do the same again two weeks later.

I for one don't think that Microsoft will have a Sony beater. As ever, competition is good for us consumers and keeps everyone on their feet, striving to make our playing hours more and more entertaining. I got fed up of having to constantly update my PC to play the games that were any good, and decided to buy my PlayStation (back in 1996) so I could happily go out and buy a game without having to worry whether my machine would be up to it. I haven't looked back since. I believe that the Sony monster will be the best on the market and will remain so until the next Next Generation consoles are released. Hats off to Sony and fingers up to Mr Gates!

Daniel C. Skinner

FG: X-Box could be a cheap, well-supported alternative to the might of Sony, Sega and Nintendo. Surely the idea is to make things as simple as possible for the gamer, which is why many people buy consoles in the first place. Don't think that just because PCs can be a pain in the backside at times that X-Box will automatically be the same.