The Xbox 360

Bioshock is, by all accounts, one of the best games that's come out on the 360. NBA Live 07 is, by many accounts, not. So why have I wasted my time with NBA Live and not played Bioshock yet?

I finally picked up an Xbox 360 on Sunday, and I'm loving it. I started house sitting on Saturday, so this is a good time to get to know it, or so I thought. With 2 dogs, work, and my body's constant need for this thing called "sleep" I keep hearing about, I haven't actually gotten around to playing it all that much. Along with the 360 Premium, I bough Bioshock and NBA Live 07. The premium version came with a 1 year subscription to Xbox Live, a headset, a wireless controller, a component HD cable, and now, alongside the price drop, an HDMI out.

The reason why I haven't played Bioshock yet is two-fold. 1) I haven't had a solid chunk of time to dedicate to sitting down and getting into it, and 2) the house I'm at has a tiny, old, crappy TV. Now, they don't have cable, and don't watch TV or movies really, so there's no reason for them to have anything better. But for me, that's a reason to NOT start a game that comes with such great reviews. When I get down to play it though, I'll let you know what I think.

So, why the Xbox 360, and not a Wii or PS3? Well, first, the PS3 is way too expensive, and doesn't have any good games yet. It does have a Blu-Ray player, but I know the fate of all Sony media is doomed, so the PS3 was out. But what about the Wii? It's dominating both the other consoles, outselling the Xbox almost 4 to 1. I had a chance to play the Wii for a while about a week ago, and as much fun as it initially was, the fun faded for me. I don't think it's that great, and with what I find to be a pretty one-dimensional experience, it just didn't do it for me. I'd rather go out and actually play the sports on Wii Sports, and with something like Wii Fit being another flagship game, I'd rather get outside and exercise. I guess I'm just not that type of gamer.

So the Xbox was the logical choice. Not only was I coming from the original Xbox, but there are way more quality games for the 360, Halo 3 is coming soon, I love Gears of War and have heard amazing things about Bioshock, and Microsoft recently announced they would extend all warranties to 3 years and fix or replace all Xbox consoles that have problems for free. So, even if I get the dreaded red ring of death (and I will, as 30-50% are reported to have experienced problems), I can get it replaced for free. I guess Microsoft has set aside $1 billion for all this. Seems like a lot, but that's Just Bill Gates' cigarette money; chump change.

I also really liked the fact that I didn't have to get the HD player like I would have with Blu-Ray in the PS3, and with the HD format war going on, I didn't want to get stuck with the possible Betamax of HD formats. I think I will still get the HD DVD add-on, because I am really close to getting an HDTV, but I have the option, and that's nice.

(So, the actual reason I don't have time to play Bioshock: this post!)