Xbox 360 – first impressions

As previously blogged I got my hands on a Xbox 360 Core package just before Christmas — and yes I know the Premium is better and if one of those was available at the time I would have brought one. For now this must suffice…

Packaging

The 360 core is packaged in a surprisingly heavy bright green box that draws enough attention at airports and towns when not serving as a make-shift seat. Inside are the curvy 360, the chunky power supply, a wired controller, a basic composite-video only cable with separate SCART converter and a couple of manuals. Surprisingly no demo disk is included and the box handle can detach rather easily when not digging into your skin. 7/10

Dashboard

The dashboard lets you play movies, mp3’s off your iPod or hard-disk, download live content, chat to your friends and see what they’re up to etc. It’s pretty good although some of the functions are a little bit too tucked away. 8/10

Controllers

The core comes supplied with a single wired controller (the Premium has two wireless ones) but I picked up a wireless one. Initially they feel comfortable when navigating menus and playing driving games however a quick bash on the Kong demo left my hands aching. The way the wireless controller quickly finds the 360 which doesn’t need ugly wireless modules dangling out of the front is a bonus. 8/10

Project Gotham 3 Racing

It’s clear this title is pushing a lot of polygons and runs smooth… the problem is the graphics look neither realistic (Gran Turismo) or stylized (Need for Speed). Instead the game actually looks like an arcade game and so keeps you at arms length immersion-wise. The detail in the car is impressive — especially if you take the realistic sitting-in-the-car view where you can watch your driver steer and shift as you wrestle with the controller. The crowds look impressive too, as is the live interaction which includes various rankings, an on-line career and a variety of race modes.

The main problem with PGR3 is the depth. It boasts a little over 70 cars and they’ve all been chosen for being 170mph+, a far cry from the 700+ models in Gran Turismo 4 which boasted old, new and concepts together so you could try out your real life car against a Skyline for a laugh. The result in PGR3 is that every on-line race seems to consist of 5 of the 8 players having identical red Ferrari F50 GTs — the car the game denotes as the number 1. Thankfully many online players can’t handle it for toffee and my little DBR9 slips though to the podium.

The final problem with PGR3 is the car’s physics. They don’t behave how you might expect, lending more credence to the whole “it’s an arcade-racer with a career mode” argument. I can understand how Xbox owners who’ve never touched Gran Turismo might be impressed but GT3 offered depth and play-ability that put this to shame.

Single player score… 6/10… multi player 7/10.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

The NFS series eschews the strict racer ethic of PGR and gives you a city to roam around in, cars to tune and rework, police chases, road blocks, destroyable scenery and a whole host of race modes varying from simple sprints to checkpoints, speed checks and drag mode.

The graphics are rather beautiful and stylized, it’s a deep autumn and the action never really ends. Some of the races start to get a little long even before you are too deep into the title but you can always just mess around in the city and do something else.

My only complains would be that after Underground the selection of car modifications is a little thin although the new ultra-reflective paintwork and the deep engine roars go some way to address this. The on-line modes exist and can be quite fun too. Overall 7/10.

Conclusion

Looking at the current launch titles doesn’t inspire the desire to purchase. Microsoft have managed to hype the console itself up enough to sell what they can make purely on it’s technical specifications but the Japanese aren’t fooled and are waiting for something they want to play.

It is interesting to note that the biggest selling console at the moment is the Nintendo DS, not because its specifications are the best but because games such as Nintendogs and Wario World are fun and different.

I wonder how long Sony and Microsoft can push games that are simply what you played last year but with better graphics?

[)amien