XBox 360

Well, actually I've had my new Xbox 360 for a few weeks now. It's quite an interesting machine. Some of my favorite things I can do with this system:

1. Play games. Of course, that is the main reason anyone would buy a game system. I picked up three games for it: Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Burnout Revenge, & Dead or Alive 4. Oblivion is a single-player RPG with some of the best graphics I've ever seen. Burnout Revenge is a racing game where crashing other cars is a benefit. DOA4 is a fighting game with awesome scenery, and I'm not talking about the backgrounds. ;) I also borrowed a couple games from my brother-in-law: Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2. Quake 4 is a first person shooter, similar to Quake thatI used to play on the pc. It even came with Quake 2 that will run on the xbox 360 as well. Call of Duty is a WWII adventure game. Excellent graphics for all of them.

2. Downloadable Games. With my Xbox Live account I can download smaller games and demo games. For example, I downloaded a game called Geometry Wars. It cost me around $5. It's a pretty good, action packed game, similar in playing style to Robotron 2064 from long ago. A lot of fun. I have also downloaded demo version of games for free. Full Auto (mentioned in a previous blog post), Test Drive Unlimited, & Uno are just some of the ones I've tried out. If I want to buy them, I can either activate them online for some of them like Uno. Others I can purchase from a store when I want.

3. Xbox Live. I have a friends list on Xbox Live with which I can see which of my friends are online, and what they are playing. I can send messages (text and voice) to my friends to chat, setup play times, etc. I can even check online through xbox.com to see if any of my friends are online & check messages. Plus, I've got this gamer card I can post on websites:

This shows my name online, my gamer score, reputation, and style of gaming. Also, it shows the last 5 games I've played.

4. Controllers. I have the option of getting wired or wireless controllers for the 360. I opted for wireless. With four kids and one dog running around, wires would just cause problems. The system supports up to four wireless controllers. These Microsoft wireless controllers have virtually no lag time, don't need line of site, and the rechargable battery pack I got for them work for a while and don't get battery memory.

5. Connections to other devices. Using my network, I can use the 360 to display pictures and play music from my computers. I can use the USB connections on it to plug in my ipod and play music off of it. I'm sure there are more ways of using it but I don't know of them at the moment.