Xbox 360 - A Short Review...

[Scott]

Okay. I've been playing the Xbox 360 for the past couple of nights and thought I'd share a short review of the console.

First off, games I'm playing:

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06

Madden NFL 06

PGR3

NBA LIVE 06
---------------------------------------

I think it's very cool! I'm really impressed with the integration with Live. You can download demos, play HD arcade games, purchase themes, and of course, play online. I built a Windows Media Center PC last week in anticipation of the Xbox being an extender--and it works flawlessly. I'm able to stream all of my music, pictures, and movies to the box. It's pretty cool to be in the middle of the game, hit my guide, and browse through my music on my media server.

I tried both 720p and 1080i and I found that 720p looks the best for me--probably because that is the native resolution of my TV, and it reduces the amount of "tearing" in the fast frame rate games like PGR3 and NBA Live.

Tiger
I've been playing Tiger the past couple of nights--and really like it. It does have some issues; like only 6 courses, frame rate problems, and a little less-than-next-gen graphics (nice hair maps EA). But they really raised the difficulty to make it a challenging and fun game.
My Rating: 4/5 Stars

Madden
Madden gets 2 out of 5 stars for me. Little things and BIG things are missing to make this a real stretch to carry the Madden name. No Madden announcing (probably a plus, but with that, comes no warnings about downs or clock stoppage, etc.), in fact, only a "radio" announcer can be heard--weird. Looking for training modes? Don't bother. You'll only be getting a franchise mode and online play--that's it. No coaches challenges, in-game, WTF? On a positive note, the graphics are really close to next-gen (with, again, some frame rate issues). Gameplay is nice, and there certainly is no absence of offense--especially if you're throwing to Chad Johnson (right, snodgrass23?).
My Rating: 2/5 Stars

PGR3
By far the leader of the bunch for me. Flawless gameplay, enhanced AI, AMAZING graphics, perfect Live play--the only thing missing from this is the wheel. Look for a more detailed review soon.
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

NBA Live '06
Again, next-gen graphics complete with sweat (ewww). Load times are a little long, and although the ability to practice during load times could be seen as a plus, I'm often confused if it's actually loading anything. Certainly a lot of fun, but again, another EA Sports title plagued by frame rate issues and jerky animations at times. And, what the hell is up with the emotionless faces EA?
My Rating: 3/5 Stars

I think PGR3 and Tiger are going to get the most playing time from me over the next couple of weeks. I'm patiently anticipating the release of DOA and Gears of War too. snodgrass23 came to my house last night to check it out and we both agreed that we had a slight feeling of deja vu while playing that eerily reminded us of the first experience with the Dreamcast...

[Scott]

Feel free to post your reviews here. Oh and BTW, post your gamertag if you'd like and we can battle on Live.

my gamertag: buckeyenutz

[snodgrass23]

Yeah, Chad Johnson only had like 300+ yards receiving in that game we played! He caught everything near him and then would outrun everyone to the endzone unless I had someone tackling him right when he was catching it. If not, there was no catching him.

I agree about the deja vu from first playing dreamcast. I had the feeling then that everything just looked so much better than I was used to that it was a whole different experience. The first time I played NFL 2K, I thought it couldn't get much better!! I didn't get the same feeling with the PS2 and Xbox since they weren't near as bug a jump over the Dreamcast. This is a very large jump, though. Especially all the touches like the Live and dashboard integration, the lights on the controllers and front of the box, and other little things like that just gave me the impression of a much cleaner and much evolved system.

I did have a little issue with the controllers. As much as I like having the 4 buttons on the top edge like a ps2 instead of just the triggers, I found the "bumpers" a bit diffficult to use effectively. I'm sure that will improve with time though. Other than that, I loved the controllers.

My favorite game was PGR3, and is what I will buy right away when I get my system. I still enjoyed all the other games though, even with there shortcomings because of EA rushing them out missing features. The commentary thing was really wierd on Madden. Anytime you had a clock stoppage, like an end of quarter or 2 minutes warning, you'd have no idea unless you were watching the clock closely. It would just cut back to the play call screen abruptly and we would be like, "what happened, oh the quarter just changed."

Again, the Live and Dashboard integration was probably what impressed me most. You can download demos and other things like themes, and basically just alot of little cool things. The integration it had with Scott's media server running Media Center was awesome too, so much so that I might just switch my media server to it as well.

My Gamertag will be snodgrass23 when I get on. It will be very soon!