Game play

Friendtech markets the pricey $499 DreamX-1480 primarily as an Xbox-LAN game server. We would agree with this advantage of the unit. When playing Xbox System Link games, a single Xbox must provide both the network gaming overhead while also leaving enough CPU power for gamers on that local system. With the additional CPU power, Xbox LAN gaming with games such as Halo is superb. Some of you may ask if it’s better to play Halo LAN on the PC. While that is a valid question, the real importance of the faster CPU is seen when it comes to things like playing Halo 2 on a LAN. Some of the best multiplayer games are Xbox exclusive, or likely will not make its way to the PC until a significant amount of time.

In single player gaming, we did find noticeable improvements in games with slowdown. MotoGP 2 was one of the first games we tried on the upgraded Xbox – the difference was incredible. At stock speeds, Moto GP 2 only approaches 30 fps. While the game is not choppy, it doesn't offer the direct hand-to-game connection feel. Running at 1.48GHz increases the frame rate significantly. Even in split screen mode, the game has the responsiveness of a 60fps game. Importantly, the lap times are unaffected by the CPU speed. In other words, Moto GP 2 on the DreamX performs ideally – the only difference is the faster framerate.

We then turned to Halo, and again were pleased. In levels such as The Maw where you are ambushed by those flying aliens, the DreamX is able to maintain a solid framerate. The improvement is even more noticeable when playing 2 player co-op in which there is a significant increase in geometric load. Of course, Halo also pushes the graphics chip to the limit and so we still noticed the occasional slowdown during heavy overdraw. Nevertheless, once you play Halo on the 1.48GHz CPU, you don't want to go back to the stock speeds.

We then moved onto NFL Street. With PS2-like graphics, the additional CPU performance offered no discernable performance boost. So far the DreamX was doing well, offering improved gameplay with Moto GP 2 and Halo, and providing appropriate compatibility with NFL Street. We were excited because the CPU improvement was consistent with the CPU scaling performance we saw with the GeForce 4 on Intel platforms (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/gf4intelscaling/default.asp).

Could the DreamX be a true FiringSquad Editor's Choice product? Well, as you know, most of the time someone asks a rhetorical question, the answer is no.

Unfortunately, our trials with FIFA 2004, Spawn: Armageddon, Splinter Cell, and Robotech all showed excessive gameplay speed. In these cases, slowing down the CPU provided no haven. When we tried kill.switch, we were incredibly frustrated with the choppy video playback – the system appeared to crash while playing video suggesting that it is a more serious bug. FIFA 2004 is the most interesting of the group. For the other games, slowing down the CPU offered minimal reduction in speed. With FIFA 2004, slowing down the CPU made the framerate choppy, however the game was still running twice as fast as it should (a 2 minute half became one minute). We were also surprised about this given that FIFA 2004 is also a PC game.