After spending a week with the New White Box in my entertainment center, I have to say I am very impressed.

But the thing that stands out the most has got to be Xbox Live. It is amazing and addictive at the same time. Everyone gets a silver membership out of the box which doesn't let you play online, but it lets you download free stuff live HD movie trailers, video clips like Red vs. Blue, game demos like the new EA Sports Fight Night 3 which comes out in February, and quite a bit of other stuff. I could literally spend hours going thru all of it. Plus everything is so well integrate with the dashboard. Very smooth!

The controllers are the best I have ever used on any system, and seem to have no lag at even 30 feet away with cordless phones and wireless G in the house. And I absolutely love being able to turn the 360 on and off with the logo button in the middle of the controller.

The dashboard always runs in the background which is great for listening to your own tunes while you play games. And the music doesn't stop when the game does, it will keep playing while you are in the dashboard or on Live, very cool feature. You can play mp3s and wmas from a networked computer which is cool. And once again extremely seamless. The dash is customizable with various preloaded themes that come preloaded on the hard drive with a bunch of other stuff like mp3s and gamer card pics.


If you are online it keeps track of everything and puts it on your xbox web page. Kind of cool. Microsoft definitely does know software and it shows.


Quake 4. Well it looks like a slightly better Doom 3. And it plays pretty much like every other ID shooter. Story is so so. But if you want to blow the shit out of everything, it is definitely for you. Not what I would call a thinking man's shooter though.




Amped 3 is fantastic. The graphics are good, not great. But the style and presentation are excellent. Funny, weird, trippy, psychedelic, all come to mind. Best and most enjoyable snowboarding game ever. Did I mention fucking hilarious!




Project Gotham Racing is beyond pretty...It baffles me how real everything looks, from the environments, to the cars, to the inside of the cars, wow! But the damage modeling sucks, and is very limited, you can plow into a wall at 150 mph and just break a little glass. Lame!



Bejeweled 2 This is a very simple game everyone has played, but you know what? It is damn addictive. Looks very pretty in HD as well.






Geometry Wars Retro Evolved is simply lots of fun. Fast and frenzied, and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Damn cool for a free download on Xbox Live. Oh and it looks damn good to in 1080i!




Gauntlet .What can I say about gauntlet. Same game, how many years later. Definitely brings back some memories. It is still loads of fun, and now can be played on line. The graphics look a hell of a lot better than the original, but not the best looking Xbox Live Arcade game by far.