XBOX360 - The Early Days
So I took yet another plunge last night. With several of my co-workers, I waited it line at a local store to purchase an XBOX360. We had spent some time yesterday tracking down which stores were going to have a fair number in stock, and were also not likely to have a very long line. We finally discovered that CostCo was getting about 96 units, and that there was only one person in line as of 5:00pm yesterday.
That turned out to be false - there wasn't actually anyone in line, so we were the first.
To make a long story short, we stayed out in the cold all night, and managed to get our hands on the prize when the store opened around 9:30am. The package contained the Premium XBOX, a wireless controller and charger, and the game Kameo. We were allowed to buy one other game out of a possible 5 or 6 choices. I chose Perfect Dark Zero, and headed towards the checkout.
I got home about 30 minutes later and began installing it. I tore down my current generation 1 XBOX and moved it into my bedroom so I can enjoy the Media Center Extender functionality of it (which is an add-on that I purchased at the Microsoft company store). I dusted off the shelves of my entertainment center and began installation of the 360. Total setup time was about 30 minutes - mostly because it's difficult to reach things behind my TV.
I had problems setting up XBOX Live! because I couldn't remember which credit card I used to buy my current account (EvilCodeMonkey - say hi to me sometime). Aside from that, setup was amazingly smooth. I migrated my account, configured the video to 1080i, and sat back to look at the pretty.
John C. Dvorak, who I generally believe to be an idiot, said that the 360s menus were a tremendous improvement over the Gen1 XBOX's dashboard. He's right - the 360s menu navigation is beautiful, and easy to use. It's a great experience. I hate to admit that he was right about this, let alone anything, but he was.
So, exploring the menu system, I came upon the Media Center Extender functionality, which is built-in to the 360. I installed the new extender software on my Media Center (which required an update to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, which I had been meaning to do anyway), and immediately got connected. I'm actually watching live TV on the 360 right now. It was terribly easy to get this working. Again - a great experience.
And so we come to the games. I've only played PD0 for about 30 minutes thus far, and I'm still getting used to the control style, but the graphics are beautiful. Highdef graphics are everything I've ever wanted in a video game. This is truly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.
I totally love this box. This is one of the best investments I've ever made. Go get one, kids. You'll love it.