The New Toy part 2

So why the 360? I'll start with the small reasons. Price really wasn't a big issue but I suppose it mattered. Obviously the 360 is cheaper, but it can be argued that the PS3 plays blue ray disks and the online is free. Still the price difference is pretty big, 100 to 200 dollars currently. I don't know I guess price really didn't play too big a roll since you can compare system features and bundles until your face turns blue. I spend several hundred dollars on games a year anyway so whatever.

I think one big thing that got me was that most of my friends had 360s already and being able to play with them was a draw. I'm not usually into doing the popular thing, but in this case it pays off. I have old school friends all around the country, California, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, even a friend stationed in Italy (who's never friggin online). If they all had PS3s would I have a PS3 now? It would be more likely.

Another thing that drew me in was achievements. The community has grown to have a love/hate attitude toward achievements. Some people think too much emphasis is put on them and that they distract from gameplay. Other people say they create new reasons to play a game and provide more to do. Others are obsessed with bumping their gamerscore. Others hate the people who are obsessed with boosting their score and couldn't give a crap about their own. I think I'm somewhere in the middle. Back before the system came out I was reading about the features and the magazine that had the article described achievements as a way for gamers who aren't into climbing online leaderboards and prefer more single player games to show off what they have accomplished. At that time I wasn't really into online play (and was under-enthusiastic about the online revolution in video games) and I was intrigued with the idea of a gamerscore. Now I have to admit that I am one of those people who are obsessed with it. Getting an achievement is a great feeling and I like seeing my gaming habit tied to an ever-growing number. I even track my gamerscore in a spreadsheet, how nerdy is that? Very. So do I think achievements are ruining my gameing experience, distracting me from the gameplay? Can an addict admit he has a problem?

Getting off topic. A third reason I chose the Xbox360 is the games. Now most of the big games that come out now come out for both systems. There are few noteworthy exclusive titles (percentage-wise). However, It seems like the 360 exclusives are more frequent. I don't have numbers to back that up it just seems that way. I only own a couple at the moment, one of which is Forza 2 (which is awesome and I may have to do a post on why its better than the GT series). Shit, I'm beating around the bush here, allow me to knock that off.

The only game I really care about is Final Fantasy XIII. Originally this game was going to be exclusive to PS3. At E3 last year it was announced that this was no longer so. Coffin nail. In my last post I claimed that I was not a fanboy. This is true to the extent that it does not include Final Fantasy. I will always buy Final Fantasy games. Even if they came out with a really crappy one I would buy it blindly and the next one as well. I short, I like them. When that announcement was made I was already leaning towards the Xbox and that was the final deciding factor.

So now that I have had the system for a few months, what do I think about it? I shall evaluate it in a future post.

The New Toy

So to start things out I'll talk a little about what is new in my gaming life. The most significant recent development is the addition of the Xbox360 to my arsenal of systems. I picked it up bright and early on Black Friday of last year, spurred on by a door buster deal. I got the Pro model with the 60gig HD and included double pack of LEGO Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. The Black Friday door buster special was a free copy of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 with the purchase of a Pro or Elite system. At the time I was intending to buy myself the system as a Christmas present anyway and when I saw the ad online I decided that a free game is to good to pass up. I hadn't played a Rainbow Six game since... well the first one on the PC waaaay back in day, I'm gonna say '98? I didn't have any special interest in this game other than that it was free but it has turned out to be one of my favorites for the system so far. So I ended up with a new system and essentially three free games, not a bad start.

So why the 360? I feel obligated to explain myself given the rabid system war that plays out over the net every day. I don't want to be stuck under that dark cloud. I will start by saying that I am in no way a system fanboy, I am not beholden to M$, and I am not an XBot. I have pretty much zero loyalty when it comes to systems. If I did I would be playing a Wii right now and waiting desperately for some decent games to come out. The SNES was my first system and I loved it dearly but I proved to be a fickle consumer when I passed on the N64 in favor of a PS1 (even though all of my friends got the N64). Similarly while I love the PS2 and was initially rooting for the PS3 when it was first unveiled, I ultimately had to go with the Xbox360.

In my next post I'll go into the whys and wherefores.