I preordered in August (there’s a thread here somewhere) and it arrived at 1:00pm yesterday via Federal Express. I cut out of work at 3:00, had it hooked up by 4:00 and played Kameo for about 3 hours straight. It rocks. I love it. I also tried Perfect Dark for about an hour. It’s not really my favorite genre (I don’t like sneaking games), but I can tell it’s a good game.
I got the premium bundle with two wireless controllers. I’m generally untrusting of wireless devices, but these controllers are doing well so far. I’m not yet comfortable with the button layout, but that will come.
Mine is hooked up to a 65" rear projection HDTV set, so I think I’m taking full advantage of the 360’s capabilities. Except that I’ve done something wrong hooking the audio up. No sound through the stereo speakers, so no surround sound, but I’m relying on the tv speakers for now.
I also got PGR3 and Medal of Honor, but I haven’t opened them yet. I’m waiting for my brother in law and nephew to get here for Thanksgiving so that there can’t be any accusations that I’ve practiced before whipping their asses.
One thing that is annoying about this thing is that if you put a CD in or stream music from your PC you won’t get ANYTHING from your sub. It took me a awhile to figure this out last night. I thought my machine was broken or something. If you put a regular stereo CD/MP3 in there you will only get sound out of the 2 main front speakers, because the 360 isn’t downshifting into stereo mode automatically when it only gets 2 tracks hence no “.1” from your “5.1 surround sytesm”.
My sub is active with any DD 5.1 source (game or movie) and the sub comes through loud and clear when you set your main audio output on the 360 to “Dolby Stereo”. Just no when you play a CD with it set to 5.1.
Friggin retarded. I was so stoked when I could play my music from my PC on the TV (which works fantastically BTW) but then was disappointed that I would not be able to get any real low-end.
Nevermind my last comment. It just dawned on me that when you set the audio mode it is only talking about Xbox Dashboard audio which includes streaming music. I set this for stereo now and it still plays the games in 5.1 which is how I want it.
Damn. You’d think they would spell this out better in the instructions (which are pretty much non-existent).
Played with a friend’s 360 for a few hours last night, and it was fun on a bun! Quick impressions:
Good:
[ul][li]The wireless controllers are awesome. Really easy to get working too - you just press the center button and it lights up and gets in line. On the system itself it has a ring of light showing how many controllers are plugged in as well. The only problem I had with them was that I accidentally hit the top trigger buttons accidentally a few times (causing me to make some sorry passes in NHL), so I guess it takes a little getting used to. But if you’re worried about latency/response/whatever - forget about it. They work flawlessly. [/li][li]The media stuff is very very cool. We plugged my iPod into the USB port and listened to my “Electronic” genre songs while we played NHL2k6. You can also set it up to play music from your computer. Awesome. We also plugged in my friend’s digital camera and checked out his pictures on the big screen.[/li][li]While a router problem (we think) kept us from getting on Live, everything I’ve heard about it is cool, so I’m looking forward to checking that out soon. [/li][/ul]
Medium:
[ul][li]The graphics were good, but weren’t mind blowing. NBA2k6 looked the best, NHL2k6 was sharp, and PGR3 was just OK (kind of jaggie in the case of PGR3). This of course will improve soon enough (check back after we get to see stuff like Gears of War). [/li][li]It’s a little loud, and warm, but nothing out of the ordinary. Anyone with a somewhat current computer or a DVR won’t notice the noise at all.[/li][li]The launch lineup is pretty limited. I can’t stand shooters on the console and sports games only keep me occupied if I can play against my buddies. If I bought one now I’d probably be playing Geometry Wars for lack of something better for the moment. [/ul][/li]Bad:
[ul][li]You can’t do custom soundtracks on every game apparently, which is pretty weak (PGR3 wouldn’t let us). [/li][li]The games are $60, which is just outrageous. NHL2k6 was/is $20 on the other consoles. They spruce of the visuals a miniscule amount and suddenly it’s $60? Please. Same goes for the other two titles I tried. They were good, but nothing “next gen.” They charging ten dollars more not because they have to offset some additional development costs. They’re doing it because they can, and it’s really disappointing to see.[/li][li]The OMG XOBX HEUG power cable. Kind of hard to figure out what to do with this thing in my friend’s setup. It won’t be a problem for me, except for the fact that I move my PS2 all over the house when I’m hooked on a good game, so I have two extra power cords for it. I have a feeling the beast that the Xbox360 uses will be a lot more than $4.99.[/ul][/li]Overall, I’m impressed. It’s a solid piece of hardware and a lot of fun to play with. Now we just need some games.
Bad:
[list][li]You can’t do custom soundtracks on every game apparently, which is pretty weak (PGR3 wouldn’t let us). [/li][/QUOTE]
I thought the same thing but I figured it out today. You pull up your Xbox dahsboard (by hitting the big green button while the game is on) and you can pick music there and it will play in place of PGRs tunes but you still get all the Sound FX. You can’t change tracks from within the game though, you need to pull up the dashboard (which isn’t tough really). You can play playlists from here, the whole 9 yards.
I’m guessing you can do this in every game since the dahsboard controls all of the music, though I may be wrong.
PGR3 is turning out to be a very fun game. The online play is awesome. The integration with Xbox Live Leaderboards is great. It tells me how I ranked worldwide after every ride.
