Addition to the video game family
As we all know, the next generation consoles are well on their way. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was released in Australia on March 23rd, 2006, about 4 months after the Amercian, Europe and Japan release. Sony’s Playstation 3 is also on its way with a projected release date of the second half of 2006, some sources have cited September 2006, others have said November 2006, but nothing has been confirmed as yet.
We managed to hold off purchasing a Xbox 360 for all of one week before curiosity about the new console got the better of us. In the end, we forked out about $1000 (AUD of course) on a Premium Pack, an extra controller, an extra headset, a Play and Charge kit and the following games:
- Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
- Kameo
- Perfect Dark Zero
I also bought a one year, Gold membership subscription to Xbox Live and it’s possibly the best $79.95 I’ve ever spent. I was never much of an online game player, but G.R.A.W. together with Live has definitely changed my mind.
Many countless sleepless nights have been lost to that game in multiplayer Live mode. It’s very addictive and very fun to shoot characters controlled by another human being, instead of the game’s A.I.. The headsets add another dimension to the Live play. It’s a thousand times more fun being able to communicate with other players around the world using the headset. It makes teamplay in Co-op missions and Team Elimination much more meaningful.
As for Kameo, it’s a very sweet and cute game but pales in comparison to G.R.A.W. The graphics are cute, the characters are cute. It’s just a cute game. I would almost call it a chick game. There’s nothing wrong with chick games, I’m a chick myself, and I did enjoy Kameo, I think I just prefer more grown up games.
I can’t even comment much on PDZ because the damn game freezes up at the same spot every time. We’ve exchanged the game and still no luck. We’ve exchanged the console and still nothing! We’ve played the same 5 minutes about a dozen times and we’ve pretty much given up on it. From the short 5 minutes we’ve been able to play, the game is very hectic. Lots of stuff going on and it’s very loud, almost relentless.
All in all, I can’t believe I’m saying it, but Microsoft and done a fantastic job with the Xbox 360. Now I can’t wait for the Playstation 3 to show what they can do!
