Pure Digital Thought

Last Thursday, the wife and I went to eat Sushi at a local restaurant which is located in the same strip mall as EB Games. So, I had to stop by as I always do. Wouldn’t you know the guy had just gotten in a shipment of 8 premium systems? My wallet started burning and I handed over the old credit card.

I have to say I don’t regret the purchase. In fact, even my wife likes it. See, the XBox 360 is more than just a gaming system. My wife likes the fact that she can rip her CDs to the harddrive or stream MP3s from our computer in the other room. It also allows her to stream pictures from that computer through a little slideshow feature. So, I’ll say the XBox 360 at least gets the coveted “Wife Stamp of Approval”.

On the gamer side, I’ll say I love it. The XBox Live and Marketplace features are impressive. I didn’t think much about the XBox Marketplace when I first heard about it because the main feature being pushed was that you could buy crap like themes for the XBox Dashboard which I don’t care about. However, it has a ton of content for free as well. Just about every XBox 360 game currently available has a downloadable demo that allows you to try out the game before you purchase it at the store. This is a great feature because I got the “King Kong” demo and found that game to be crap. However, the “Fight Night Round 3″ demo convinced me that I *will* be purchasing that game in the future.

The other thing I find exceptional is the XBox Live Arcade. The Arcade has some old coin-op favorites like Joust in High Definition but it also has newer games like Hexic HD. One of the most raved about games is Geometry Wars Evolved which is a great little shooter game. I really think the XBox Live Arcade is a true innovation for gaming. The Arcade allows small development shops to publish a game throught the Arcade that gamers can purchase on the Arcade. I think this will help gaming because little game development studios are more likely to experiment and come up with new game genres or styles whereas big publishers like EA are not willing to divert from a tried and true cash-cow game formula. Hopefully, this will bring new ideas to gaming which will benefit gamers overall.

Each game has a trial demo that gives you a good flavor of the game and then allows you to use XBox Live Points to purchase the game. Arcade games typically range in price from 400-800 points ($5-$10). Some are rehashes like Bejeweled 2 which some are completely new like Geometry Wars Evolved. Hell, if a game is excellent, I don’t mind plunking down a couple of bucks for it. Although there are more complex games like Outpost Kaloki X, the XBox Live Arcade games tend towards more simple controls which scores Wife Points since she likes more puzzle-like games such as Bejeweled or Hexic.

Overall, I love what the XBox 360 has brought out. It won’t be as graphically pretty as PS3 games but I think there is more to games than just graphics. The XBox Live integration into every games proves that point. Games that can be played online against other players are easy to get started with. The XBox Live service find players with your skill level and sets up matches within seconds. The addition of game “achievements” adds additional playability to games. Game achievements are little extra goals put into the game by the developers. Some achievements are things like scoring 100,000 points in Geometry Wars without losing a life or finding easter eggs hidden in Condemned: Criminal Origins. I think the addition of achievements is another good gaming innovation that will keep players interested in games longer.

I’ll admit at first I wasn’t so excited about the XBox 360 but now I’ve seen some things that really have made me a believer. Hopefully, Microsoft will keep up with the innovation and bring out better things with the XBox Live service.