[[Xbox 360 Logo]]
There’s something about obtaining an item you’ve desired for so long. As a general rule wanting (I mean reeeeally wanting) something for a prolonged amount of time generally leads to an ‘over hyped’ vision of what the final product will actually be like. However in this case I’m happy to report Xbox 360 is everything I’d hoped for with only but a few (fixable) flaws.
Having performed, shall we say ‘extensive testing’ in the Geekpulp labs I can now say from personal experience that Xbox 360 is not only the future of gaming, but all forms of home entertainment. Since having the Microsoft’s next gen console (and an HDTV) in my living room, not only have I played more games but also used my existing digital media (music, pictures, and videos) more thanks to the integration with my desktop PC (in my case a media centre).
The gaming experience of an Xbox 360 on a HDTV is really something you have to see to believe. The weekend following the launch I had a few friends over to show of my newest hardware purchase. Needless to say jaws drop over many a race on the tracks of Project Gotham Racing 3. To be honest I expected having years of Xbox play under my belt to be vastly more skilled than my competition. I was quite surprised at how quickly my friends up skilled in the use of an Xbox Controller and quickly destroyed me on my own console. It was a great night!
By far and away the greatest feature of the console is the gamer points system. While it has its flaws (which I’ll get into) gamer points have managed to create a competitive frenzy in my mind which has made me play games in a way that I had almost forgotten. It’s taken me back to the days of my first console (an Atari 2600) and the thick and fast competition with my brothers for the number one spot on the high score list. I often find myself checking the names on my Xbox Live friends list and comparing my gamer score. Whether they know it or not all of my live friends are now locked into an eternal battle with me for the high score.
So what’s wrong with gamer score? Well you see the problem lies in the way some games issue the achievements/points. Some games produce very little points for doing an extremely time consuming and challenging task, while others issue points for little more than putting the game in the console. Of course I’m exaggerating, but only slightly. To be honest I’m not sure what could be done to prevent this issue given the varying nature of games, I guess ultimately the purpose it to sell more games by driving players to an ever increasing gamer score.
While I could go on forever about features I love, the odds are good you’ve heard it all before so instead to close of this post I’d like to talk about one of the things about the console that I find flawed: The Xbox Live Marketplace. It’s not so much the idea of the marketplace that bothers me (its a great concept) rather the implementation of features. As with some (but few) other areas of the dashboard (for example having trailers under the games blade rather than under videos in the media blade) the market place feels like a bit of a muddle. It lacks any real structure to it and is really not a lot more than a big list of files available for download. This isn’t really a huge issue while the number of files available is small, however this is going to be a very real problem once the numbers start to get up.
Of course if the rumors around an Xbox music/video store are true, the marketplace is one of the main places in the 360 dashboard sure to get a face lift. So while the current marketplace is a worry I’m sure it will be a short lived one. Time will tell. And for the purposes of keeping this post from turning into an encyclopedia of Xbox 360 I’ll keep some of the other great features for another post. If anyone who currently doesn’t own a 360 would like to know anything specific please feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll answer as best I can.