Xbox 360 first impressions

Sorry for the lack of updates on this site lately. It’s just that I’ve been busy….playing. I must say I am extremely impressed with the Xbox 360. I know it came out last year, but I didn’t get it until this Christmas. Prior to that I never played any games on it, nor messed around with any of its functions, nor ever even been in the same room with one.

I was mostly impressed with how well everything worked out of the box. Once everything was connected and turned on, I had to setup some simple console settings like language, TV type, etc. From there I was able to easily setup an Xbox Live Gold account, right from the console! Once that was done, I then started playing some games that came bundled with the 360, including Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and some demos. Then I got into Gears of War.

That same night Jenny’s dad, Steve was also on his 360 and we added each other to our friends list. He then sent me a chat request, I accepted, and just like that we were taking to each other through our Xbox 360 headsets.

Let me give you another example of how fun and easy this is. I’m currently on my 360, signed into my Live account, and playing Gears of War. When my buddy Paul comes online and sends me a message. So while playing the game, I get a little pop up that says Paul is online and has sent me a message. From here I can pause the game and check the message. He wanted to play some Gears of War co-op. So I sent him an invite, he accepted, and within 10 seconds he was in the game playing with me. We could then talk to each other via the headsets and work through the game together.

I really am just blown away by this. Never in my gaming experience have I seen such amazing intergration with a gaming console, its games, and their multiplayer. Not even a PC game has come close to this! And that’s all I have to say right now. Now back to playing (it’s my last vacation day before I get to go back to work).