First Xbox 360 Thoughts - This system rocks

Michael Gartenberg | October 11, 2005, 06:27 PM

I just spent the last few hours getting up close and personal with Xbox 360 down here at the MSFT event in Manhattan and thought I'd post a few thoughts while I'm waiting for my next meeting. Here are some initial thoughts. I also posted a few pics on my PhotoBlog if you want to take a look. (and yep, the dark thing in the corner on the first pic is an iPod nano. MSFT wanted to show how you can hook any media player up for use as in game music. No protected AAC but suitable Windows devices will play protected content including Janus subscription stuff).

First, the games. I had a chance to play some Kameo, Perfect Dark, Project Gotham and a few others and they all pretty much rocked. I also love the more casual games in the Xbox Arcade Live section. Graphics in HiDef are amazing and 360 will no doubt spark more than a few sales of HiDef displays. But are the games really next gen and worth moving over to? That's a subjective question. Better graphics don't mean better game play as a rule but, they do make for a more immersive experience and that's the case here. Project Gotham totally blew me away with the realism and depth in the game. (according to the team, there are more polygons in the Brooklyn Bridge in the game than there was in the entire NYC in prior games). With what appears to be really high production value across the board, I think there's going be strong demand for the system and the games. Even stuff like Xbox Arcade Live benefited from the new graphics experience. Old arcade titles looked sharp and clear and a lot of eyes candy was in all the titles which didn't change the gameplay but did make them more fun. Overall, there's a lot of appeal here for pretty much all audiences. No doubt we're seeing a big push to move this beyond the hardest core gamers and into a more mainstream audience. I think the formula is correct and this strategy just might work. What was interesting was watching hard core gamers here that were getting really involved in the "casual "stuff.

The Media features are interesting and remember that there's a full blown Media Center Extender built into every unit. Unlike older extenders, the look and feel is much more Media Center like with things like zooming transitions for photos and full support (well as full support as MCE has) for HD content, including streaming live HD stuff. There's a lot to say on this feature and I'll leave the rest of it to a separate post.