One hot console
NEW YORK – I got the chance to play a dozen Xbox 360 titles at a recent pre-launch event for the news media.
The Xbox 360 video game console is everything the original Xbox should have been, updated and shipped five years later.
But is it worth it for existing Xbox owners to shell out the $300-$400 for a new one? That depends on how important appearances are to you-and how much you play.
If you can find a 360, it will go on sale Nov. 22. Some retailers say they’ve already sold out of their presale allotment, making the “getting it” part difficult.
Xbox games uniformly offer high-quality graphics and sound, the best ever. Every game will have high definition pictures, every game will support wide screen TVs, every game will have surround sound.
The games do look fabulous, but as lovely as they are, they’re about on par with the best PC games currently on the market — a quantum leap above current-generation consoles, but something we’ve seen before.
The controller is remarkably similar to the original – or what the original should have been. It’s gently curved on the bottom to cradle easily; the black and white buttons have disappeared to be replaced by right and left shoulder buttons; and the whole thing is sized a little better for smaller hands.
Games that ask you to use both the buttons and the triggers may be annoying, because it feels more comfortable to use your index fingers on the triggers, skipping the shoulder buttons, but all told it’s a comfortable, natural-feeling controller.
Custom soundtracks supported
Every game will support custom soundtracks. Microsoft addressed a real frustration the old system caused by building in online and hard drive-stored databases of CD tracks and titles. That means that transferring your CDs no longer results in a playlist full of “Track 1” and “Track 2” titles. The console can draw music from external devices – including competitors’, like the PlayStation Portable and Apple’s iPod – and it is incredibly easy to use that feature.
Getting music from the iPod, for example, required plugging the iPod into the USB port in the front with its own cable. The songs were available instantly to play behind any game.
The games for 360 take advantage of the system’s boosted processing power in a number of ways. Enemies are more numerous. “Kameo,” a fantasy title about a shape-shifting elf, for example, has one battlefield scene with 3,000 independently operating, more-intelligent enemies. Games are more likely to use full-featured systems from PC games, including physics engines that make objects fall and break realistically.
But the biggest improvement in the Xbox 360, the one that makes it a must for gamers who spend a lot of time online, is that the Xbox Live online service is getting a major upgrade and some nifty new features.
Profile alerts other gamers
Your gamer profile alerts others to how avid a gamer you are, what kinds of games you’re looking for, how far you’ve gotten in different titles and, for friends, what they’re doing online or off. You can choose what information you want to share.
You can rate other players, and if you give one a negative rating, Live automatically will avoid putting you in future matches with that person. The matchmaking system also considers expertise and interests – what style of player you are, basically – to put you together to play with others like you.
You can send text, video or audio messages to your friends, so it’s easy to challenge your whole crew to a match. You can get messages and send them no matter what you’re doing on the 360 — playing online or off, watching a DVD, listening to music, you name it. Every game for the 360 will support Xbox Live features at all times, even those that don’t technically support online play. It keeps track of your friends like an instant messaging program, your rankings like a fantasy sports league and your entertainment like TiVo.
Take “Project Gotham Racing 3,” for example. It allows you to sit in on others’ races as a spectator, using Live, and flags you when some of the best-ranked players in the world are playing.
Now that’s entertainment.
If you’re primarily a PC gamer, and you don’t mind playing at your desk, you can get some of the experiences the 360 has to offer, though not in such a pretty package.
But if you’re a console gamer, this is your chance to get PC game features plus the best of online console play without having to leave the couch.
The Xbox 360 has a seven-month lead over the next console; the Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to debut in June. The new Xbox isn’t a quantum leap forward for gaming in general, but it is a dramatic improvement for console gaming in particular, and it’s just downright cool to look at and use.
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