Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Got to play around with a 360
One of my co-workers got his name pulled from a XBOX 360 lottery drawing at Meijer this morning. He brought the console back to the office because his intention wasn't to play the 360. It was to take it apart and take pictures of it (for a story on TechRepublic).
So I was able to play around with the console for about an hour. Here are some random thoughts:
* The new "blades" interface is very nice. It makes it very easy to move between the "games," "media," "system" and "XBOX Live" screens.
* The controller is really cool. It's the perfect size and is well balanced. Most of the weight seems to be in the handgrips, so the controller sits nicely in your hands. The wireless worked great, too.
* The console gets really hot. It has two large fans on the back of the case; however, after playing half of a game of Madden, the game disc was hot to the touch.
* The media connectivity options are awesome. We installed Windows Media Connect on my PC at work and then let the XBOX try to connect to it. The XBOX and my PC were able to sync up and we were able to view photos from my PC on the 360.
* The hard drive comes preloaded with some music and video content. Interestingly, Tsar's "Band-Girls-Money" single was included. The song was also featured in Burnout Revenge.
* Madden 06 for the 360 is pretty disappointing. The XBOX version was a really well-produced game. The 360 version seems like a rush job. It feels like they just crammed in what they could for launch instead of getting the game right.
One of my co-workers got his name pulled from a XBOX 360 lottery drawing at Meijer this morning. He brought the console back to the office because his intention wasn't to play the 360. It was to take it apart and take pictures of it (for a story on TechRepublic).
So I was able to play around with the console for about an hour. Here are some random thoughts:
* The new "blades" interface is very nice. It makes it very easy to move between the "games," "media," "system" and "XBOX Live" screens.
* The controller is really cool. It's the perfect size and is well balanced. Most of the weight seems to be in the handgrips, so the controller sits nicely in your hands. The wireless worked great, too.
* The console gets really hot. It has two large fans on the back of the case; however, after playing half of a game of Madden, the game disc was hot to the touch.
* The media connectivity options are awesome. We installed Windows Media Connect on my PC at work and then let the XBOX try to connect to it. The XBOX and my PC were able to sync up and we were able to view photos from my PC on the 360.
* The hard drive comes preloaded with some music and video content. Interestingly, Tsar's "Band-Girls-Money" single was included. The song was also featured in Burnout Revenge.
* Madden 06 for the 360 is pretty disappointing. The XBOX version was a really well-produced game. The 360 version seems like a rush job. It feels like they just crammed in what they could for launch instead of getting the game right.
¶ 6:29 PM 
About Shawn Morton
Married father of 4, social media strategist at Nationwide, consumer electronics enthusiast, hair metal aficionado.
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