Xbox 360 FTW
OK, so my last post had pretty much already ended with me convincing myself that the Xbox 360 was probably the right game console for me. logicnazi's post in the comments pretty much sums up why I ended up going with the Xbox 360:
However, if you are more concerned about immediate benefits or are willing to buy a PS3 in a couple years when they have better games and are cheaper AND don't have much desire for a blu-ray player then by all means buy an Xbox 360. I feel the pull of the PS3 as much as anyone but you just can't deny that at the moment the xbox has greater market penetration and better games. Hell, given that the xbox 360 is pretty close to commodity hardware it would be surprising if it hadn't come out of the gate stronger than the PS
I'll be writing up a few more thoughts as I kick the tires on different features, here are some quick hits:
- Unbox experience was nice and easy, aside from some sound issues -- I have a monitor with composite inputs, and then had to dig up RCA to mini stereo connector; I'm an edge case here, so no problem
- I had been warned that sign up process was long / awkward with controller (e.g. address / credit card sign up stuff) -- it wasn't that bad, and it's a "one time operation" ... went smoothly, connected to my existing boris_mann AT hotmail.com ID no problem
- some inconsistencies in UI (this is going to be vague, doing from memory) I end up in one section which has a listing which I click on, which then says, go to this other section to actually get to that feature...uh...just link me there directly :P
- set up Connect 360 and am playing music etc. from my Mac no problem...very nice
- Xbox Live Arcade games seem somewhat expensive: maybe this is just an expectation thing...I expect "small" games to be much cheaper
- also, why can't I buy full-length games online? I've been spoiled by Steam, I guess...and thinking about this more, I guess the games are locked to that particular console? Or to my gamertag?
Thanks to everyone for the lengthy feedback on the last post. Much appreciated.
P.S. my gamertag is "Cudgelsan" -- please add me if you are looking for someone to easily beat :P
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You've been assimilated
It did seem like you had already made your mind up....and given your various points, it was a good choice.
I agree that the Live Arcade titles should be cheaper...seems to be what the market will bear though. A nice thing about the Arcade is the wealth of free demos (just wish there was more video content available for Canadians which is supposed to change with an update soon).
So far, I've haven't bought a single Live game since the demos are usually long enough to give me a taste of the game or makes me think "yeah, this is cool for about 5 minutes" and move on instead of dropping the $$$$ upfront....especially for the MAME ports that litter the arcade (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). But how many times am I going to buy Pacman? I wish Nintendo had Wii demos available for download.
I think the reason they don't have full game downloads is that you'd quickly full up the standard 20gb drive....maybe once everyone has the 120gb drive or they allow externals to hold game downloads they'll start offering it.
What games did you pickup?
Hard drive was more than half full
Actually, the 20GB hard drive only had 9GB of space out of the box...I haven't gone diving around there to figure out what all is there, but lots of demos and trailer videos in HD and so on, for sure.
Didn't buy any games. Came bundled with Marvel Alliance (I like comics, pretty cool RPG elements, I like it) and Forza Motorsports 2 (racing game, meh, boring...). Have some friends I can borrow other games from. Played some Halo 3, realized I still have some skillz leftover since the last time I played FPS games :P
Yes, there are *definitely* a lot of demos that you can just go ahead and spend time on. Puzzle Quest is one that I might buy (interesting blend of RPG + puzzles), but it's like $20...again, just an expectation, I would expect more like $5 - $10. BUT...apparently on the PSP, that same game is like $40, so...