 Here we are again with our impressions concerning our shiny, new XBOX 360.
One of the main reasons I've wanted the 360 was for Oblivion. I've played all the Elder Scrolls games on the PC and heard that the 360 version was "made for" the 360. I admit being a little apprehensive, formerly a firm defender of PC gaming - especially for RPGs of the first person type. I have never truly enjoyed first person games (shooters or otherwise) on console machines because I am a keyboard/mouse combo junky. I enjoy have a full range of motion that I can control the speed of. Using a joystick, you are a slave to its speed and impreciceness. This problem has led to many deaths in Halo and other shooter games. After a few hours of Oblivion, I was relieved to find that the controller worked very well with the game. It was a little more difficult to perform true thrusting and lunging moves, but once learned, the action was actually more pleasing and exciting using a controller than I believe it would have been with a mouse and keyboard.
We also have Need For Speed: Most Wanted, MLB 2006, Call of Duty 2, and Tomb Raider Legend. All of these games look amazing, especially MLB. The players look as if you are watching a telecast of a baseball game. Oblivion is alive and quite scary in the dungeons. We have the machine hooked up to a 32" tube television (a very high quality one) and everything looks great!
We turned on XBOX Live to see what all of the fuss was about. The Silver service basically allows you to get XBOX updates and game patches. That's it. You can't play any of the games (to my knowledge) with other people without signing up for a Gold account. Since the 360 system comes with a free month of Gold, we enabled that. We were a bit dismayed to see that any extra content (outside of patches) would cost more money, on top of the Live charges. Oblivion, for example, had new content (horse armor) for about $3. Buying new content on Live consists of spending points. You can buy points online or from retail gaming outlets. Twenty dollars buys about 1600 points. Most of the useful things are over 500 points. Features like themes (based on sports teams, etc) are 150 points. Most of the downloadable content is simply fluff, but some things, like the Microsoft Arcade games, aren't too bad of a deal.
 One of my recent game rentals, was a game called Electroplankton. The game is not a true game, much as Brain Age is not a true game. The game is all about making music with the fishes, or Electroplankton, in the game. It has 10 different kinds of Electroplankton, and each one has its own style of music. You tinker and manipulate the Electroplankton until you get sound that you like.
Electroplankton has two modes, a performance mode, which is basically a sandbox or a practice mode. It also has a mode called audience mode, in which you play the game while the game messes with your set up while you are playing. There is no kind of high score, and no unlockables, which keep replay value relativity low. Electroplankton also has no kind of saving, so all your musical creations are destroyed when you turn off the power. I am not sure if the game is worth a purchase, but it makes a great choice for a rental.
 A few months ago, I proclaimed that my days of keeping up with PC upgrades were over. I vowed to stop spending hundreds of dollars every two years and simply buy a new console for games. Keeping that in mind, we decided to purchase an XBox 360 two weeks ago.
Although the 360 isn't "new", it is for us. So far, I am pleased with the machine and have a few comments.
First, the machine is physically better looking than the original. It's not nearly as thick and bulky. It's sleek and looks stylish enough to leave on display next to our entertainment system. The construction seems solid and not as fragile as my trusty old PS2. However, the power supply, now a separate unit, is simply huge.
We purchased the full 360 package (not the "core" system) which included a hard drive, a wireless controller, headset, a component video cable, free XBOX Live Silver, and a month of Live Gold Service. More on the Live service later.
We bought an extra wireless controller as well. They are a big improvement over the originals (especially that horrible first edition XBOX version). They are slimmer and feel very comfortable. The wireless range and signal strength is remarkable. We were able to control the XBOX from down the hallway and around a corner from the machine (about 25 feet away or more). The ability to power up the machine from the controllers (using the embedded "X" symbol button) is a nice touch. The console has a four quadrant circular display to tell you which controllers it detects. As more controllers are turned on, more quadrants light up.
The new 360 dashboard (user interface) is very easy to navigate, with tabs and easy access even during gameplay. At any time, the X symbol brings up the dashboard, much like Alt-Tabbing on your PC pops you back to your desktop while playing a game. The set up and configuration of outputs and video settings was a breeze and only took a few minutes; the same goes for getting the system online using the embedded network card (Ethernet).
So far, we could find no faults with the machine. It looked great, the interface was well designed, and the controllers were exceptional, possibly better than the infamous PS2 controllers (my personal favorite).
In Part II we'll look at the games and the Live service. And finally, Part III will examine some of the machine's extended features, such as Media Connect and how it interfaces with a surround sound system.
 The most recent game I rented was Brain Age for the DS. It is a very good game, and I ended up buying it, which you can do through some game rental stores if you want to keep your rented game.
My whole family enjoys the game, and the game allows you to compare scores and results, creating some friendly competition. The “game” is really a compilation of simple reading, counting, and arithmetic, but it somehow makes the game fun. The game uses both voice and writing recognition, and while they both are usually problem free, the game seems to have problems with the word blue, and the writing can have problems if you write numbers certain ways.
Brain Age throws in some Sodoku puzzles for extra brain sharpening, and you end up with quite a good game.
IGN reviewed Brain Age and gave it an eight out of ten
Nintendo put up an article out of Nintendo Power of Brain Age. They gave it a five out five
Gamespot put out a list for Brain Age that has all the unlockables and what is needed to unlock them
G4’s show X-Play reviewed Brain Age and gave it a four out of five
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