Gaming Signal: XBOX 360 Preliminary Review

XBOX 360 Preliminary Review

OK, going to try to not go over the top but the xbox360 is pretty dang cool.

Being that every conceivable obstacle was set in my path yesterday I finally got the unit up and running around 9:30-ish last night. The unit is solid and well built. The wireless controllers almost are as good as a playstation controller. If the R1/R2/L1/L2 buttons were positioned just a little more down on the face of the controller I would have said it beat the playstation controller, but as it is the xbox controller is a close second on how it fits in your hand. The wireless part though, sweet! Microsoft did a fantastic job with the wireless action and the multifunction �X� button truly is multifunctional and actually useful.

Now to the important stuff� the games. I only had about 20 min in to each game so my mini review here is solely based on first impressions.

Geometry Wars: HD � Xbox360 Arcade Online

First let me say that on launch there are about 5 games that you can purchase online, Geometry Wars being the FREE one. The others were Joust, Robotron, Bejeweled HD, and a couple of other arcade classics converted for HD. Geometry Wars is very fun! Its almost as much fun as Lumines for the PSP, but not quite. Good music, obviously linear, strong free game.

Kameo

Solid 3rd person platform/fighter. The graphics are good in a childish World of Warcraft kind of way. VERY colorful and responsive. The game play style is similar to Fable, and the primary spells of the main character are to transform here in to a fighting plant, a blue ape, a rolling turtle shell thingy. Looks like it will be a fun light hearted button masher.

Condemned

Wow� WOW! W O W !!! Holy cow this was a cool game. Think Indigo Prophecy without the �Simon� mini game for the action sequences. Condemned should be the bar that ALL first person shooter thrillers are made from. This is Indigo Prophecy, meets CSI, meets Quake 3, meets Max Payne, Meets RIDDICK: Butcher Bay. What can I say, all of those were great games and if there is a little bit of all of those in this game. Awesome! The graphics were stunning and the voice acting superb. This is THE launch title. This also is the best I have ever seen where you are in a first person mode yet you can see your feet and hands a la RIDDICK: Butcher Bay. Riddick made the hands feet thing cool but it still wasn�t perfect. Well, in this game, it�s perfect.

Perfect Dark Zero

The opening credits were similar to a Bond movie opener with cool music and a bunch of silhouettes of the main character Joanna Dark doing Bond girl-ish things with a gun. Tre� chic! The graphics in this one were stunning as well. This whole HD gaming thing. There is definitely something to it. I�ll speak more on that below. If any of you have played one of the Metroid games on the Gamecube, there are some similarities there, but it still is the unique world of Perfect Dark and looks to be loads of fun.

Madden �06

Stunning and disappointing all at the same time. The graphics are JAW DROPPINGLY AWSOME. I�m amazed that it doesn�t take a cluster of Opteron servers to run it. But that�s about it. All of the cool Franchise modes from the other platform versions are dumbed down and they left out the Superstar mode that is in the Madden 06 for the regular xbox. Big miss there EA as the Superstar mode is the best addition to the series ever. Still the football is fun and REAL looking for sure. But I still see myself playing the regular xbox version some more because I have so much invested in the Superstar mode. One thing that is better about the xbox360 Madden �06 is the play calling menus. Much improved over the previous versions and it utilizes the widescreen aspect ratio very well.

Project Gotham Racing 3

BLOWN AWAY! This is hands down the coolest racer I have ever played and its so cool I�m going to drop more $$$ on a force feedback steering wheel to play the damn thing. Burnout is still the king of arcade racing, but the GTA guys need to just pack it up and go home. PGR3 is the definitive realistic racer. The view from inside the car is amazing. I can�t wait to play that with a proper controller.

Gun

Solid first person shooter. The graphics need HDR lighting. But the game play is really fun and they got some fairly big name stars to do the voice acting. Your grizzly father in the game is voiced by Kris Kristofferson and is very appropriate. The controls are tight and ya know what, I just love a good Western! So even with the sub par graphics I�ll still play it to the end.

Call of Duty 2

Zdravstvuite Comerads! This game is the �piece de� resistance� (die Frenchie!) of the xbox360!!! The game starts out in Mother Russia, and damnit I felt like I was in Russia! (Except that in the game they speak English, duh!) The controls are well done for an in-hand controller. You keyboard lovers wont have a hard time aiming because the developers did a great job of tailoring the controls to the 360 controller. In fact, I have to say the way they have done the �down sight� aimed shooting really feels like how you would aim a gun. You use the left ctrl stick to get to the general area you want to aim then squeeze the left trigger to aim down the sight of the gun then you correct again with the left controller then squeeze the right trigger for fire. It just feels right! Did I mention the graphics were awesome?!?!?! The save game system allows good flexibility of automatic saves and manual saves. The sounds and voice acting are of the very highest quality. I actually got stressed out in the gun play. My comrades were dying, I needed to do something, lob a grenade at them, wait for it, wait for it, now RUSH THE BUNKER!!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! Just friggin� awesome! I was so immersed that my daughter came in the room and asked who I was yelling at!

Media Center Options

Amazing!!! I turned on Windows Media Connect on my PC. Set a directory for Pictures, Music, and Video in WMC and then pointed my xbox360 at it. Immediately got access to all shared directories and then commenced to setting a custom playlist that can be played during any of these games above and it replaces the games soundtrack with your tunes! The pictures were well positioned and the slideshow options were versatile. The video option apparently needs a Windows Media Center 2005 PC to stream video so I couldn�t try that. But you can copy videos from your PC hard drive to the xbox360 using WMC and the video plays just fine!

Xbox360 Marketplace

Really cool and well done! There are plenty of things to buy. I first had to buy some points that equate to $$$. ($6.75 for 500 points, and the point to dollar ratio gets better the more you spend.) I immediately purchased the Penny Arcade Ultraskin and applied it to the xbox360 Dashboard. Hella� Cool! There is plenty to download and customize your xbox360 to your hearts (read as: wallets) content.

Overall Initial Impression:

Microsoft is off to a great start with the xbox360 and the whole HD gaming thing, ya there is definitely something to this. Let me tell you, my 4:3 aspect ratio 21 inch CRT that I use for my PC monitor. Yeah, that�s got to go! "> Widescreen gaming is fo� rizzle and the PC game manufacturers need to get busy with better widescreen support for PC gaming. I can�t wait until I finish some of these xbox360 games so I can post more than just a first impression of these games. If I had one negative thing to say about the xbox360, that thing gets hot. So give it a wide berth from your other CE devices.

I will publish a more detailed review after I get some of the games finished.