The Xbox 360 Experience

"Our impressions of how the Xbox 360 has performed so far.

Now that we've all had some time with our Xbox 360's and the initial, frantic impressions are over with, people have are finally able to interpret to a level-headed degree the pros and cons of the console. Having been lucky enough to acquire one myself at the Zero Hour launch event Microsoft staged last week in the Mojave Desert, I've got some early impressions of my system at home has been working out.

First, the good. I'm really impressed with the Xbox Live and Marketplace functionality of every game at launch. If anything, this proves that Microsoft is in fact committed to delivering a solid online experience to gamers which, I think, is one of the major directions that games in general are headed. If you don't believe that, just look at World of Warcraft and the unbelievable success that title is still experiencing, especially with the The Burning Crusade expansion on the horizon. Whether you're still a stickler for single player experiences or not, you can't deny the draw of playing with others. That's not to say games focused strictly on single player are being totally phased out. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a single player behemoth many are looking forward to, and may very well prove just as entertaining and deep as an online experience. However, it's generally more engaging to interact with others, and I'm definitely pleased that this is the direction the Xbox 360 and its games are headed.

The Dashboard layout is definitely a plus so far, though I don't quite understand why the option to change your Theme is so difficult to find. You have to open the Guide button blade, go to personal settings, then go to themes in order to switch it up. Once there, it's great, and given the amount of downloadable content on the Marketplace you can really tailor your Xbox 360 interface however you'd like. But why isn't there an option to switch or tweak your theme right next to your gamer picture and profile name options?

So far, the Friends list has been working well. It's really easy to send invites to people you know on Xbox Live and once they've accepted you can even see what game their currently playing provided they're signed in. Though this is a totally extraneous feature, it's still really cool. That way, if you see someone is playing PDZ online, you can send them a message over Xbox Live and see if there's room for you to hop into their server. Like the ever increasing amount of content on the Marketplace, the options in the friends list provides a great foundation for games to grow in the future. I mean, it may not seem all that great now, but wait until there are hundreds of games available for the system, then it will become apparent how useful the organizational options the Marketplace and Friends features are.

Ripping your own songs directly to the X360 unit is another awesome feature. This is especially true for games where you don't necessarily need to listen to the music, like Geometry Wars. I'm not saying Geometry Wars' music is worth replacing, but it's a nice feature to be able to turn on something like Four Tet's Rounds as you shatter restless geometric shapes for high scores." [more]