Xbox 360, It's about the Games

Michael Gartenberg | November 22, 2005, 08:03 AM

This will probably be the shortest of my comments. The specs are pretty well known and there are plenty of review of the launch titles. Suffice to say, if you don't like fantasy games, you won't like Kameo. If you don't like racing games, forget PGR3 and Ridge Racer and if you don't like war titles, forget Call of Duty. Games are very subjective and one man's ceiling is another man's floor.

The console itself is very nice. It works in either horizontal or vertical position and can use up to four wireless controllers (with two USB ports for plugging in wired controllers or to re-charge wireless ones). There's an Ethernet port on the back and a clip that supports connecting the wireless 80211.a/b/g adapter. The console is sleek but the adapter brick is pretty hefty (same tradeoff Apple made in the Cube way back when). Overall the system is quiet (I've heard reports of noisy consoles but mine isn't one of them). Connecting to my TV set and audio with the component cable took only a few minutes (most of it spent getting to the back of the TV). From there connecting to the network, setting up a new Xbox Live acc't and getting into the games was a only a few more minutes. Overall, setup is pretty simple and the console and directions walk you through it well.

The games themselves looked great to my eyes in 480p and 780p. Even connected to a plain old TV set with a composite cable, they looked much better than anything else I have seen. The games themselves integrate well into the Live experience and I had no problems playing both on and offline. So far, Ridge Racer 6 has been the title I've been playing most. It lacks the real world cars and locales of PGR3 but it brings home the arcade experience like no other title I have ever played. The graphics are perfect, smooth. There's a wide variety of tracks to play with and even though the overall "drift" control is highly un-realistic, it's fun. To me, that's still more important. PGR3 is a lot more sophisticated, looks a little better and is based on real world locations so well modeled, if you're familiar with them, you'll know where you are looking out the Window. NBA2k6 has also been getting a pretty steep workout here and I can say is it's the best looking basketball title I have ever seen.

Do the graphics and gameplay make for a next gen system. This is one that will be debated for some time I'm sure but my vote is yes. Everything I've seen is a real improvement over what's come before these are just the launch titles. There's a lot of power to tap into that developers are just getting into. Be interesting to see how things look as we get into the next wave of stuff. Combined with new titles in the Live Arcade, the overall platform adds up to something new and different. If you like video games, no need to wait for purchase (that is, if you can find one).