Xbox 360 Post-Launch Impressions

I've finally managed to get my hands on an Xbox 360, and after about a month or so, I'd have to say that Microsoft has certainly identified the niche they want to carve out for themselves. Xbox Live Marketplace (not necessarily Xbox Live Arcade, as others might suggest) is the killer app for the system, it's bundled in, and it's brilliant.

The jist is this: you can download game demos (for free), movie trailers (for free), and music videos (for free). Those are the loss leaders. Then you'll see things that have a cost, and you decide you might stick your toe in. You spend about $20 to buy 1600 "Microsoft Points". Once you've spent that money, it's gone. Whether you use all those points or not, Microsoft has your money. But that's not even the brilliant part yet. So you buy some themes or gamer pictures, but probably not, because they have incredibly limited value, and you're smarter than that. So you buy a game in the Xbox Live arcade. Most games cost about 800 points (which is $10, but you don't really ever think about it that way). Pretty soon, you're out of points, but there's another game you want to play that you came across while looking at the free stuff in the Marketplace (or you saw in one the Achievements list of one of your friends, another brilliant idea which I'll get to).

Of course, the Xbox Live Arcade is one of the biggest draws of the Marketplace, and it's easy to see why. Geometry Wars is outstanding, as are many of the other games that originated as web games (like Bejeweled). My wife has already beaten Jewel Quest, so it's safe to say that the Xbox Live Arcade is a hit with the girls. In fact, she's already fallen prey to the lure of "Achievements", which are a casual way to compare your supposed prowess against fellow players. I may be better at twich games, but she totally owns me at puzzles (mostly because of the time spent). But now she's looking for a new fix. She likes how pretty Geometry Wars is, but I supsect that since I've purchased the full version of Outpost Kaolki, she'll discover that one and quickly beat my gamerscore on that one too.

As for those full games, there's not a tremendous amount of variety out there, but there are some definite hits. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and Fight Night Round 3 are notable for their graphic fidelity, which even on my standard def TV look amazing. First party titles like Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo are games that I tend to go back to and try to improve on in between discs coming from GameFly (which is a MUST if you don't want to drop $60 on each game, but want to boast a large "played" library).

Achievements are a great idea, but the execution is somewhat flawed. Microsoft knows on which side their bread is buttered, so to speak, so they've capped the Gamer Point maximum for Live Arcade games at 200, while full Xbox 360 titles can go up to 1000. Lazy developers (EA, I'm calling you out) implement these points in the laziest way possible, leading to sites posting "get GP quick" lists ... cheapening the entire experience. That said, it's pretty easy to delve into someone's play history and discover how they earned their points. It's been said elsewhere, but 200 points in Geometry Wars is a far bigger accomplishment than 1000 points in Madden '06, and gamers figure that out quickly. Some games lay out their achievements in a logical manner, as levels are passed or based on total play time, but others give you points for just going into some menus, which is completely asinine. Still, the Achievements (and corresponding Gamerscore) keep you coming back for more, which is where the brilliance comes into play. It's a simple concept, but creates so much stickiness for the machine that it's hard to see why this was never done before.

Drawbacks? Sure ... the Xbox 360 is expensive ($399, as long as you don't by the "Sucker" version at $299), it's LOUD (even though I apparently got one of the quieter ones), and you really don't get the full experience unless you have an HDTV, which I don't yet.

I'll have game impressions up over the coming weeks, as I put my thoughts together, but if you check my Gamer Card, and see a game that I played that I haven't done a post about, drop me a line and I'll move it up on the list.