Entertainment

360 update

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So I've now owned my 360 for over 48 hours - I thought I should post an update.

On the whole, things are going very well. The console itself, along with the new dashboard and interface, continue to amaze me. For example, I've just connected up my iPod, downloaded the aac update from Marketplace, and can now listen to anything on my iPod whilst playing a game. I've also tried hooking up my card reader, and doing a slideshow of all my digital camera photos - there's a very nice panning effect used during the slideshow. If I install Media Connect on my PC, I'll be able to stream images from my PC, which is also a nice touch.

As for the games, I'm more impressed with some, and less impressed with others. PGR3 is utterly amazing. On the right track, with the right cars, it's just about the best racer I've ever played. It's certainly the best looking. NFS:MW is good fun, and looks very nice, but I've not had anything like the races I've had on Gotham. Both have been assured a place in my collection though. Sadly, the same can't be said for Tiger Woods. It is, quite frankly, a steaming pile of dung. Online play is erratic with connections dropped, a terrible framerate, and dreadful interface. Furthermore, it doesn't support the VGA cable properly, so every resolution other than 640×480 is stretched to the wrong aspect ratio. Take my word for it, 640×480 on a TFT screen is fugly. So, bye bye Tiger Woods, hello Madden. I've not tried it yet, but will post an update later.

Condemned is the scariest thing I've ever played - even with the lights on. It's visceral, spooky, and utterly compelling. Kameo looks fantastic, but I've not spent enough time with it to comment properly yet. Which brings me to Perfect Dark 0, which is in some ways a letdown, and in others better than I expected. The single player is fairly average; the first couple of levels are so cliched and unoriginal that it's almost enough to make you stop playing. Co-op doesn't make a lot of sense, as the other player is cast as characters that (in terms of the narrative) can't possibly be in the level. Multiplayer, however, is great. The lack of jumping makes a lot of difference. Players instead have to roll around to avoid being shot, resulting in desperate rolls into cover to avoid being sniped by other players. Coupled with the dual wielding (which requires each trigger to be used to shoot), and it feels more like a John Woo style action movie than any other FPS I've played. I can see me spending quite a lot of time online with PD0.

So, all good so far. Sadly, it's not all good. I don't seem to be able to download anything from Marketplace (other than teeny weeny files) and neither do a lot of people online. I'm not sure yet whether it's my ISP, but I've tried swapping my router, bridge, cables, hub, etc. I've even tried using someone else's Live account, and that didn't work either. The only thing I can't change is my ISP (or can I?). The VGA cable isn't quite as crispy as I'd hoped either. It looks nice, yes, but not as nice as I expected. Maybe my TFT is crap, but I find that hard to believe, given that I've always been impressed with the way PC games look.

So, mostly very impressed, with a couple of let-downs. Given how high my expectations were, and that the hype surrounding the machine was so enormous, I don't think that's too bad

© 2005 Is there food?.