Daniel C. Skinner, the writer of the 'X Box Hater' letter in FG47, is off his nut! This console/PC has lots of advantages over conventional consoles, and even over the mighty Dreamcast.

Tell him to consider this:
1. The box will be built by different companies, thus driving down the price.
2. It will be upgradeable. Look at the PlayStation - slowdown in bad-guy, full scenes in Crash 3. It's showing its age. This doesn't happen with the PC as you can upgrade it, and this means one X Box is for life, with enhancements being added as you want or can afford.
3. Emulators. Bleem! can run PlayStation games and UltraHLE can run N64 games. If this technology could be put into an affordable console, you'd be able to take your pick of the best games, and MS could take on Sony or Nintendo in any court and win.
4. The machine will be able to run office software too, so no more shelling out £600+ for a PC for the family. Buy an X Box and stick it under the TV.
5. Patches are small. I've never spent six hours trying to get one.

He clearly has no clue as to how good the X Box is going to be. I want one. Oh, and great mag. Like the price - £0.00.

Scott 'Shaka' Ewing

FG: But will it make the tea? X Box remains a rather shadowy piece of kit. Would you really want to constantly upgrade a console? And don't forget, many of the best games are made by the good denizens of Sega, Nintendo and Sony. Check out the X Box feature in this issue, Scott.