XBOX 360 Day 1

I had been pondering the purchase of a new gaming system for quite some time. I still have and occasionally play ye olde N64 but it is definitely last-gen technology. I have played a few games on the PSP3 over at my brothers house and understand the appeal...the graphics just abuse the N64, for example...but it is not for me. The Playstation has a particular graphics theory that...well...I understand they are superior but I just don't like them. I actually prefer the inferior N64 graphics. I admit the graphics are inferior in capability...but I prefer the look. Well, with that in mind then obviously upgrading to the PSP was out.

A couple people at work have the Nintendo Wii and they LOVE it. I have always had a certain affinity for the Nintendo so when I heard Nintendo was releasing their next-gen system I was interested. And the games look interesting. And the people who own the system absolutely love it. D & S, they talk about it almost every day...what they bowled on it last night or what golf course they played, how they shot...they love it.

I, however, have a video game theory. When I want physical exercise, I go get it. I play softball in the spring, summer and fall, basketball during the fall and winter, run a bit, work out at the gym...but I don't want to exercise when playing a video game. I explained my video game philosophy to a friend.

"When I am playing a video game I want to be laying back in a bean bag chair, so relaxed it looks like I have no bones in my body...kind of a human jellyfish look...with nothing moving except my thumbs on the controller, maybe an occasional swipe at a chip or soda, and a bit of drool running out of my mouth..."

In other words, video games should require as little effort as possible. So the Wii was not an option.

At one point I had played the XBox 260 at my friend Alan's place, some boxing game. The graphics were sweet, the control easy to comprehend...I liked it. For years now he has tried to convince me to pick one up and I have always had a good reason not to...I did not have time when I was at University, I did not have time during the wedding planning, etc., and even if I had the time the cost was just prohibitive...I could usually afford either that or to go on dates, that sort of thing. I guess we all know what wins that equation :-)

Well, now that the Goose and I are settled into life together I have a bit more time and it is not as big a stretch financially since we date differently...more nights at home instead of on the town...so I finally pulled the trigger and picked up the 360.

After a great deal of research I decided between the Pro and the Elite. I knew the Arcade was a waste of money because to save games you need a certain amount of memory and to play some games it had to be more than the flash stick. But the 120GB of the Elite seemed like overkill since I don't really download much, I just buy the big 4 sports games, maybe a first person shooter, a racing game, and a fighting game and that is enough. So 20GB is plenty, and since we don't have the HDTV there was no point to buying the Elite for the cable or color...black, white, I don't really care.

Picked up one old XBOX game based on the Battletech universe and a used copy of MLB27K for a baseball game. Went to set the system up. It was pretty easy, just a couple cables and we were good to go...except there was no picture. Some sound, no picture. Tried the HD cable. Fuzzy picture bifurcated bizarrely. Tried different TV inputs. No luck. Getting frustrated. Reread the installation manual. Looked for and found the switch from HD to regular tv and was done with the setup...after having turned a 2 minute set-up into 10. Pretty funny.

Wanted to start with the Mechwarrior game since the graphics would be older and therefore inferior. Found out I missed part of my research because it is NOT, in fact, backwards compatible which I was convinced it was. Oh well. I only spent 3 bucks on the game so no big loss.

Fired up the baseball game. Unfortunately, I unwisely purchased it from Game Stop and it had no manual. The swing system is hardly intuitive. Actually, no part of the game is intuitive. There is no simple press A to swing, B to steal...no, you have lots to do.

First, you use the left joystick for the "Batter's Eye" where you try to guess where the pitch will be located. If you are pretty close to correct a little ball will appear and you will get bonuses to your player stats for that swing. Then, timed as closely as possible to the start of the pitcher's windup, you pull down on the right joystick. When you want to swing you THEORETICALLY release it...but if you want to influence a ground ball you pull down on it, to influence a fly you push it forward or to aim towards left or right field you twitch it left or right...uggh.

I thought I would be clever and play one of the best teams in the league against one of the worst so I selected the Red Sox and for my opponents I selected the Diamondbacks.

The top of the first was pretty smooth. I struck out the side on 12 pitches.

Bottom half...well, that is when I discovered why he had not swung once. Because I was BATTING, not pitching. That was me that struck out. Somehow I was the Diamondbacks instead of the Red Sox.

Pitching is interesting. The catcher suggests a pitch and location. But you don't put the target ball right on his glove...each pitch has a "break factor" that you have to factor in. So you move the baseball around. When you feel the controller vibrate you are where you want to be, so then you press the appropriate pitch button and the length of time you press it determines the speed and accuracy of the pitch. The longer you press it, the faster but less accurate the pitch.

Fielding is relatively intuitive...a blue circle shows you about where the ball will land if a fly or roll if a grounder, the computer picks the "best" guy to field it...more on that later'...and throwing to bases is easy, a button for each base.

My second time at bat I at least knew I was at bat so it went much better. I got a couple swings off. By the 5th inning I already had made contact...one foul ball. I walked once or twice but as often as not could not even figure out how to swing. I played 7 innings, was down about 9-0, and had 19 strikeouts. In 7 innings.Out of 21 chances.

So I was not liking it much. I made a couple changes to the settings to make the "Batter's Eye" less important so at least all I was doing was using the right joystick. I started a new game, Red Sox against the Cardinals.

My pitching was okay. I walked one guy but then I turned a slick 5-4-3 double play. I was liking the pitching and defensive controls. Bottom half of the inning, first batter, I went yard. My first hit was a good one, a home run. I got a couple more hits including a 2 run bomb. 2nd inning was more of the same, I gave up a walk and then, experimenting with pitching controls, managed to throw 3 consecutive wild pitches to score the run. I came back to get the next three guys. I scored another 3 spot in the bottom half. Maybe I adjusted the hitting to be too easy...

Nope. Next inning I could not connect. The control is still not intuitive to me. It was so bad that at least twice I swung and my guy crossed the plate...while the pitcher was in the windup. So there are some issues with the game, though I am sure they are mostly related to my videogame incompetence which is near legendary. I had similar problems pitching where I was trying to select a pitch and instead grooved them over the heart of the plate.

Well, I built a nice lead but then my defense fell apart. One play in particular stood out in my mind. There was a Texas Leaguer over the second basemans' head. The center fielder was just a little ways from the blue circle and I thought I could make the catch. However, he did not seem to be following my commands. Sure enough, the ball bounced about 2 on-screen inches from him without him attempting to catch it. And sat there. I finally figured out they thought the right fielder should have caught it...so I had run him AWAY from the ball. And the CPU did not switch it to the fielder closest to the ball so they got an inside the park home run on a ball that should have been caught and was never more than 2 or 3 on-screen inches from any fielder because I could not figure out how to switch to controlling the closest fielder. Good thing that wasn't frustrating...

I also could not figure out how to advance baserunners.

Overall it was a fun game, though. Ultimately I prevailed in the defensive struggle by the score of 17-14. I figured out some stuff on hitting, pitching and fielding, though none are anywhere near competent yet. And there are features that blow me away.

For example, I selected "light breeze" or something like that for weather...so you could see the wind blowing the fielder's shirts. That was fun...

Plan is to start a season knowing I will lose a LOT of games early on but will learn as I go, make a late-season run and hopefully sneak into the playoffs. Lots of Xboxing in the future...