Microsoft's Xbox 360 launched in the US this week to the deafening sound of hype -- Gates & Co. hired a vast aircraft hangar in the Mojave Desert and invited 2,000 of their 'l33t'-est gamer buddies to celebrate. Crave has to wonder at the mindset of people who travel thousands of miles to spend all night playing games in a draughty, oversized garage. Particularly if, like this guy, you forgo playing and spend eight hours in the queue to get the first unit.
Predictably this was echoed across America, where thousands of young men (and not a few women) slept rough in order to be first in line when the doors of retailers like Best Buy opened on Tuesday. Even more predictably, many of the pre-ordered consoles went straight on eBay and sold for twice the RRP.
More worryingly for the normal gamer, reports soon surfaced of frequent crashing and an extremely noisy fan (the air-moving sort, not the spotty kind). This may or may not have been confined to a few customers, as Microsoft claimed, because those who were affected got busy posting vitriolic pieces on games blogs straight away. It's fair to suggest that a large proportion of disgruntled 360 owners would have had the ability and inclination to post at length on the subject, so perhaps the problem is not as widespread as might appear.
Eighteen games are available at launch in the US; we'll have to make do with 15 over here (Ridge Racer being the major loss). When the titles were announced, the response was mixed -- there are a lot of sport titles and not many original, only-on-360 games. Of these, Project Gotham 3 and Perfect Dark Zero have been very well received, with the latter attaining near 'killer app' status with our sister site, GameSpot.
With games going for £40 a pop in the UK, many Xbox owners will be glad to hear the 360 is backwards-compatible with old Xbox games -- but only certain titles, and only if you have the hard-drive 'premium' version 360. Microsoft have more details here.
The 360 is more than a games machine, though, it also functions as a Media Center PC 'Extender', letting you stream digital media through to your TV, and you can plug your iPod in and play music or use its tracks as the sound in your games. You can read our in-depth review of the console, which lauches in the UK on 2 December, here. -NH
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