It has consumed me

It's a well known fact amongst friends and family that I'm a rabid consumer whore, a known trait that I carry with disgust, believe me. The idea that a product can somehow enhance my life - theoretically - has been ingrained in my head to the point where simply trying to change my ways is impossible, so going with the flow - as they say - seems to reduce the amount of strenuous activity imposed on the sorry-ass state of my brain. This obviously does not translate into 'smart shopping' in any way or form, as my tendancies in the marketplace has resulted in the whole concept of shopping being a gamble on whatever meagre funds I have instead of being an enjoyable experience within the confines of a smorgasbord of delicious objects of desire. But once in a blue moon, I make one of those purchases that not only reinvents how I schedule my day but also something that I don't carry feelings of angst after leaving the store.

My friends, the Xbox 360 is one of those purchases.

It's ironic how I virtually swore off years ago buying anymore video games in favour of guitar crap - an even bigger source of fustration - and now I find myself trying to catch up with all the goodness that entails from buying a system with potentially a thousand or so supplementary products that go along with it. So needless to say, the system has absorbed what little waking hours of the day I've had and has forced me to reconsider the monumentous obligations I've held - which includes maintaining the health of this blog - which has increased astronomically since the new semester has started.

What has me completely gung-ho about the system lately has been the improvements made in the dashboard of the system. It seems like such a miniscule feature in the grand scheme of things but when you compare the first Xbox's dashboard capabilities with the reinvented 360 image, the differences are staggering. The biggest difference is that I can now customize the dashboard with themes that match my personal tastes. I can modify my gamer tag - the virtual profile of yourself online - by wading thru the pictures that I can choose to represent myself online, or creating an intimidating motto to front in front of all the anonymous gangster kids out there. Weaving in and out of the interface thru the various 'blades' is so seamless you'd find yourself spending time just exploring your console and checking out every nook and cranny rather than playing that $80 game you just bought. I cannot stress how amazing the dashboard really is within the confines of my meagre library of polysyllabic words.

Perhaps what adds to the experience of surfing thru your dashboard is the integration of Xbox live. Microsoft has created The Marketplace, an area where subscribers can wade thru thousands of downloadable content, ranging from gamer tag pictures and dashboard themes to game updates and game demos and arcade games (more on that later). Keeping true to the concept of the 360 being a multimedia system, you can also download videos and music on marketplace. I was rather pessemistic about this feature from the beginning, thinking that the idea of purchasing simple pictures and minor features seemed like a waste of my money, but lo and behold, I find myself purchasing marketplace prepaid point cards just to download some of the interesting content online.

The one thing that has me surprisingly addicted to are the arcade games that you can download online. These are mostly old school games such as Doom, Pac Man and the soon to be available Castlevania to reinvention of old favourites such as Feeing Frenzy and Geometry Wars. The amount of parlour games available are ridiculous and impressive. It was a thrill to actually play Doom - a game banned by my parents back then due to it's content - after it had came out over a decade ago. I am still awaiting the arrival of Duke Nukem 3D or the old Commander Keen games, and if they ever rear their faces on the marketplace, I will explode and cavort in glee. Game demos of upcoming games and currently released games downloadable for no charge at all continues to tease us over time.

The biggest draw to the system has to be the expansive library of games that are currently available. Who wouldn't be suckered in to getting a system like this for games such as Gears of War, Rainbow 6: Vegas - online favourite at the moment - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and now Lost Planet? With new releases coming up over the next few months, the library will just keep getting better and better and so far is trumping the new and upcoming releases of the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii - however debatable and unfair the comparisons may be at the current life of the consoles.

As much as I have had this crazy hard on for the 360 these past few weeks, several issues stick out in my mind. The package I received did not contain standard AV S-Video cables but high definition component cables, which for many of us still dwelling in the RBG age in television sets means that we have to go out and buy the $39.99 cable, adding onto the system's already large price tag. The system seems to emit a large amount of heat within a short period of time, which lends itself to being an uncomfortable feeling to the end-user, since we all know how disastrous overheating can be to expensive computer desktops. I have not yet experienced any complications regarding the issue, though hopefully an official cooling system might be available in the near future to reduce potential complications. Also, the wireless controllers, as much as I appreciate the wireless capabilities offered by the system, suck the life out of my batteries at a rapid pace. To remedy the situation one could go out and buy the rechargable battery packs along with it's charging kits ranging from $30-$40. It seems as if the trend these days by companies is to skimp on the features available upon the intitial purchase and to force the consumer to buy more to enhance the product to it's full potential - things like the DVD remote is useful but has to be bought seperate - therefore increasing the financial costs for the system to astronomical figures. Microsoft certainly isn't the only party guilty in commiting these headaches and this itself isn't anything new, but when I look across the board at several of the consoles and various other electronic goods that are out in the past few years it certainly seems like the practice has been put into place more often than I can remember in the past.

However, all negativity aside, the 360 is a wonderful piece of hardware that should make the average Joe satisified at what this machine can do, making it an intrinsic part of any tech nerd's life. The already impressive library of games will increase over time and has a much more positive outlook than it's main competitors Playstation 3 and the Wii, despite the personal jabs by Bill Gates that the Wii is now the 360's main competitor. The Live service is still very much a huge part of the system and has made itself to be more than just a way for gamers to connect with each other but to do much more with the marketplace system. And let's not forget the untapped multimedia potential of the system, which has me being able to rip several CDs that I could not do otherwise because of the DRM bullcrap. All the features implemented in the console has me unduly excited for the future of this system, as there is so much potential to be unlocked in a very much still a young system at this point in time, which is a feeling that rarely occurs to me. Truly Microsoft has finally outdone itself this generation.