Adventures in 360

I finally got my 360. My husband and I went out at 10pm Monday night to the local Wal-Mart hoping to score him a 360 since we had already been told by EB that he would not be getting his on the 22nd. (See the blog entitled "Xbox 360 Preorder Woes" for the full story.) The backwoods Wal-Mart had come through for us in the past when it came to finding consoles/games that were hard to come by in the city (the Nintendo DS is a good example since it was sold out right after launch). However, when we arrived at Wal-Mart, there were already 75 people in line some of which had been there all day and the only 360s they had left were the Core packages (the $300 Harddrive-less 360). They had 4. Since neither of us were crazy about the two price points in the first place and we didn't want to give into Micro$oft's desire to sell all the accessories at a premium price to piecemeal a Core package into the Premium package, we opted to leave. In hindsight, it might have been easier just to buy the Core and deal with it. But we didn't. And at this time, the HDD add-on isn't even available.

So, we jetted on over to EB to do the midnight wait. We stood around very unhappy-like chatting with the store employees and the other 5 people who were also lucky enough to be getting a 360 at launch. Hanging out talking Harry Potter and DS games was entertaining as could be for someone who was standing on her feet for 2 hours waiting for midnight knowing she'd only be getting 4 hours of sleep that night before heading back to work. But midnight finally arrived and after collecting my 360, 2 360 tshirts, and a white EB Launch Event 360 bracelet (like the yellow Live Strong bracelets) we were home bound. It's funny. Even the store employees joked that Micro$oft should have spent less money on swag and more money on getting more 360s into the hands of gamers. Yeah.

Fast forward to today. Now that I've had the chance to play various games (yes, we've been sharing - something we aren't good at), I have to ask myself, "Is it worth $400?" Well, for the record, it's not my $400 that bought my 360. It was an early Christmas gift from someone else. In that respect, sure, waiting until midnight at EB to pick it up was worth it. I'm not sure that I'd have spent $400 of my own money on the 360 itself. I can't complain about having to buy the games. Speaking of games, we bought:

Kameo
Perfect Dark Zero - x2
Project Gotham Racing 3 - x2
Quake 4 - x2
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland

Obviously, the "x2" you see designates the games that we each have a copy of for Live play. And unfortunately, those second copies are currently still in their wrappers since my husband doesn't have "his" 360 yet. (Thanks again, Micro$haft). Anyway, about the games.

So far I'm really liking Tony Hawk, but then again, I've loved that series from its inception. Although I will admit that I abhor the THUG games and believe that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 was the pinnacle of the series. That said, I'm still enjoying THAW. The Classic Mode is the mode I've spent most time with. Off the top of my head, I lack a total of 4 goals before 100% completion. It's basically the best previous Tony Hawk levels thrown in for a welcomed diversion from Story Mode. The downfall of THAW for the 360 is that it is painfully obvious it was rushed for launch. In other words, it looks like crap. In fact, I've read from other reviewers that the Xbox/PS2 versions look better than the 360 version due to the game not being optimized for High Definition. Ah well. It's still fun even though the collision detection and level seams are ugly as all get out.

I haven't played Kameo yet as that was bought upon my husband's request, however I'm sure I'll try it at some point. PGR3 is awesome because it's, well, Project Gotham Racing. PGR2 is a Junkie-favorite, so 3 had a lot to live up to. So far, the single player campaign is as fun as ever. But I have noticed that the tracks themselves don't seem to be as fun as its predecessor. I haven't taken it on Live yet since we only have one 360 and we've mainly been experiencing it together, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Unlike THAW and its High Definition glitchyness, the same is not true of Quake 4. Talk about GORGEOUS! While I've been itching to take this game on Live, I've refrained for the time being. I've been entertaining myself with single player and I must say that of all the games I've seen thus far, this one by far takes the graphics cake. Id Software and their Doom 3 engine are just too freaking cool. The story is very immersive for a twitch-style game, but it certainly doesn't take away from the "shoot anything that moves" mentality; it only adds to the overall experience. It ought to be a blast on Live!!! I've noticed that the farther I progress, the framerate does take a dip here and there. Again, id only just released this game for the PC and with developers having only had the 360 development kits for a short few months, this things are to be expected with the first crop of games.

And then comes Perfect Dark Zero. Let me first preface my point by stating that I really only bought this game for multiplayer on Live, as I did not enjoy Perfect Dark on the N64. Rare hasn't done much to truly impress me since, well, I honestly don't remember ever truly being impressed by Rare. Sure, I played Goldeneye on the N64, but back then I wasn't into First Person Shooters. But other than Killer Instinct - and more specifically, Killer Instinct Gold - Rare's never been a stand-out developer to me like it is to so many other gamers. So, I wasn't expecting much in the area of multiplayer. PDZ does something that my favorite FPS (Unreal) does. It has the option to include bots - and very powerful, intelligently thinking bots at that. Again, I have not taken PDZ on Live yet either, but I'm here to say that I've spent the most time with PDZ (outside of THAW) than any other 360 game I bought. I'm impressed with multiplayer to say the least. It's like a cross between Halo: Combat Evolved's Slayer and Ghost Recon. Basically what that means is that it moves like Halo but has similar tactical aspects to Ghost Recon. I've read that some gamers have complained about the missing jump option, but honestly, I haven't missed it. In fact, I think it's one less thing you have to worry about. In place of a jump option, the developers have included a "Cover" option. It's pretty self explanatory, but basically it's a move that allows you to duck and cover by any surrounding object to better protect yourself from enemy fire. Personally, I haven't used that feature much either since it hasn't been a part of my fragging style, but I'm sure it'll come in handy in its own time.

As I type this, I'm watching my husband play Kameo and I must say, it's pretty and it appears to be very epic in its adventuring. Little cut scenes here and there really help push the cinematic feel along. Guess I should check this one out sooner rather than later, but from some of the troubles he's had with it doesn't give me much push to play it.

All in all, I'm pleased with the 360. The Dashboard update as well as the Live features (every game is Live Aware and can be tracked on xbox.com as well as in the Dashboard) are definitely top-notch. The addition of Achievements is one cool cookie, too. In fact, I'm so enamored with Achievements that it's gonna have to get its own blog entry. :P