IF you are a video games fan, yesterday was Christmas Day. At least it was according to the Microsoft marketing machine responsible for launching the fastest, most powerful console on earth - the Xbox.

The machine wasn't ready for a Europe-wide launch on December 25 so Microsoft launched an advertising campaign urging gamers to hold off until March 14. It would, they promised, be worth the wait.

Fans with long memories will remember Microsoft's first tilt at producing a games console. It was called the MSX and, while it was a moderate success in Japan, where it still enjoys cult status, the system sank without a trace everywhere else.

Now Microsoft is back for more and this time it's playing to win.

The stakes couldn't be higher. Video games are now the second most popular form of entertainment, only behind movies in popularity.

PlayStation has grown the market remarkably over the past five years. Sales of video games in the UK were a record breaking £1.5 bn in 2001 and the market appears to be growing exponentially.

Never one to duck a challenge Microsoft is going head to head with the Sony PlayStation 2. Market research has shown the average age of a gamer is 24 - a far cry from the days ten years ago when cartridge-based software was just for kids.

But taking on Sony is no easy task. PS2s already nestle beneath the television sets in millions of front rooms across the globe. A recent survey discovered that PlayStation was the third most recognised brand in the world, beaten only by Nike and Coca Cola.

Only a company like Microsoft would dare to go up against that kind of might. Even Nintendo has ducked a direct confrontation by unashamedly aiming its next gen console, called the Gamecube, at children.

Microsoft is in it for the long run. That's why it expects to lose up to £5 bn on Xbox hardware just to establish a foothold in the market.

Eventually, Microsoft hopes to recoup those loses in sales of gaming software.

So what is the Xbox like?

It is certainly a big heavy brute of a console. By comparison, the PS2 appears to be filled with fresh air. About the size of a small video recorder, Xbox at least manages to look sophisticated enough to sit along side a VCR beneath your main television. Microsoft hopes its new console will come to dominate your life as much as your living room.

There are good reasons for the size and weight. Xbox is the first gaming console to come loaded with a hard disk drive for near unlimited storage capacity and that adds significantly to the box's girth.

The consoles designers have also dipped into the PC parts bin for the processor (an Intel Pentium III) and the graphics chip (an nVidia GeForce 3) to give the Xbox real muscle.

To put the specifications into perspective, an Xbox runs more than twice as fast as a PS2. It also has double the memory and the graphics chip can produce several in-game special effects that would be a nightmare for programmers on the Sony machine.

Xbox also takes gaming audio to new levels. It's the first console to produce Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, making for a much more engrossing gaming experience. Until now the best Sony's machine could offer was six channel surround sound in DVD movies and full motion video playback only.

Don't believe me?

Then plug your Xbox into a home cinema system and boot up a copy of Halo, the console's premier first-person shoot-em-up.

As the aliens advance on your position, you will hear them before you can see them all around you. The positional audio is so good you could whirl round and plug the bad guys with complete accuracy just by relying on your ears alone.

The Xbox has other attractions too. It's the first console to be broadband compatible out of the box. That means near instantaneous multiplayer gaming over the Internet. You can also link your consoles up for eight player games.

Another benefit of the hard disk is that it allows you to record audio CDs and play back your favourite tunes as part of the in-game sound track.

Of course, none of this matters one jot if the games are rubbish. Just ask Atari. Its Jaguar console - the last hardware platform from America - was technologically advanced but games with titles like Trevor McFur In The Crescent Galaxy were still pants. Eventually Jaguar brought down the entire company.

First impressions of the launch line-up for Xbox are remarkably good. A glance at the list shows Microsoft has something for most tastes, although fans of epic role playing games will have to wait a while longer.

Halo is the title most critics agree to be the Xbox "killer app", a game so good and genre-redefining that it's worth buying the console to play.

On first acquaintance, it looks to be just another first person shoot-em-up and, in fact, the lack of mission structure and objectives makes it seem to be somewhat on the shallow side. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Halo's back-story is the same old alien invasion nonsense we've all heard before. Your character must obtain a new super weapon before the bad guys or it's game over for mankind.

What makes Halo different is the sense of realism it brings to proceedings. There is barely a moment to think before the game throws something new at you and levels can last for several hours at a time. Thank goodness for the automatic mid-level save points.

It's in co-operative mode, where two players work together, that the game really comes to life. You simply have to work with each other in order to survive. One example would be an attack on an alien camp. One of you may opt to go in all guns blazing while the other hangs back and picks off aliens who get too close using a sniper rifle.

Likewise, when driving a Jeep, one of you will take the steering wheel while the other mans a gun to keep the chasing baddies at bay.

If shoot-em-ups aren't your cup of tea (and Halo, good as it is, induced chronic motion sickness in this reviewer) the Xbox line-up offers car racing in Project Gotham, strategy in Championship Manager, football in Fifa 2002 and platforming in Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.

There is no doubt that Xbox has the capability to beat the PS2 and Microsoft appears to have the will needed to meet the Sony challenge.

At £299 it's the most expensive console by some margin but the price differential will narrow dramatically when Sony releases a hard drive add on for the PS2 later this year and PS2 will always be technically inferior to the Xbox.

Right now if you want to experience the pinnacle of console video gaming then X marks the spot.

Published: Friday, March 15, 2002