Jul 28 2006
My new favorite toy (or how my wife became an Xbox widow)
For my birthday, my wife completely surprised me and got me an Xbox 360! I was not able to do anything with it for a few days because we were in North Carolina, but the day we got back I had it hooked up and ready for action.
The Xbox 360 is amazing device that really has set the bar high for Sony and Nintendo when they release their next-generation console. First off, it supports HDTV right out of the box, also the console can be turned on and off from the wireless controller, and the controller itself is smaller then the orginal Xbox controller with better button designs.
The day after setting up the console, it traded in a bunch of old games for a couple 360 games (Ghost Recon-Advanced Warfighter, and Project Gotham Racing) to test drive on the new system; I put Ghost Recon for a spin and sat back to enjoy. At first I thought ‘is this it? The graphics aren’t that much better.’ I paused the game to check both the in-game settings and the 360’s settings, both were set to the highest HD quality (1080i). So I went back to the game and within a few minutes of playing I started to see the added improvements.
It’s subtle, but it’s there. With the Xbox 360, the gamemakers are able to add the little things that help the game seem more realistic. In Ghost Recon, if the character is taking cover from gun fire behind a car, the enemies will shoot out the windows and you can see small shards of glass bounce off the character. It’s little details like glass bouncing off the character’s head that were missing from previous games consoles.
I have yet to sign up for an Xbox Live account, but will probably do so in the next few weeks to give it try. I’m also looking forward to trying out the Windows Media Center extension portion of the 360 (videos, music, and photos can be streamed to the 360 from a Windows Media Center PC). If there’s a downside to this device it’s probably one of these two things: It’s loud (cooling fans spin constantly) and the external power supply is rather large (about one-third the size of the game console). But I would trade it for anything.
[tags] xbox 360, Ghost Recon[/tags]
No wonder you’ve been so quiet here lately.
Glad you’re enjoying your present! I got to play GRAW over at Taylor’s, and really enjoyed it. Have fun!
(Nice one, Jene!)
I’ve been wary about the new generation of consoles. While I haven’t played the 360 for myself, I haven’ t seen anything that gave me that “holy crap” sensation the first time I saw Mario 64. Though not as pronounced, even the PS2 was an obvious step up from the PS. I’m not seeing it so much in this generation.
That being said, I certainly wouldn’t complain about a 360 landing in my lap! I still remember receiving the PS2 completely unexpected from the wife for Xmas a few years back. She became a Vice City widow.
Happy belated birthday, btw. And say hey to Jene for me when you take a break from the new toy!
Happt birthday!! It seems like you made out this year……!
Happy birthday!! It seems like you made out this year……!
Ha! Didn’t mean to post that one twice! I got this message that says “you can only post a message once every 15 seconds. Slow down cowboy!”
That was funny!
Going back over my comment, I have a strong sense of deja vu. Did I say almost exactly that on another post about the 360? I’m going to have to refrain from any further discussion about next-gen consoles for a while.
KOM- I think we’ve had this next-gen console discussion before, but I don’t think it was in the blogosphere (maybe email?). But you’re right, I have nothing to complain about one dropping in my lap.
Robyn- Thanks for the birthday wishes. And I had no Idea one could only post a comment once every 15 seconds and message is pretty funny as well (wonder if I could change it…)
James-GRAW is really cool, but I had to stop playing it when I realized I was taking cover behind the cereal aisle at the local grocery store. Switched to a racing game.