The Wii has lived up to my expectations in a big way.  However, I’ve run into one big problem: quality games are few and far between.  So, two weeks ago, I broke down and picked up an Xbox 360.  I’d heard that the Xbox arcade (part of the Xbox marketplace) was a great place to get/play simple games.  This was just what I’ve been missing with the Wii; its online store only has old Nintendo games, nothing aimed at the Wii specifically.

Right away, my Xbox experience was great. I have it hooked up and doing 1080i video; the difference from the Wii’s 480p is very noticeable.  And, the games are definitly high quality, even thought the controller is 10 year old technology (except, of course, for the fact that its wireless).

The media aspects of the Xbox marketplace are also great. Now, this is serious video on demand.  Between the trial games and the quick video downloads, the Xbox has definitely filled out my entertainment center.

So far, the only problem I’ve had with the Xbox is that it won’t play Divx encoded video.  I have it set up as an externder to my Media Center (which is great; the Xbox has much better video than the MC does), however, it won’t play downloaded videos that are Divx encoded.  I’ve found several applications on the web that provide streaming video decoding for the XBox, and I may move to that eventually, but nothing seamless.  Hopefully, MS wakes up and deals with this soon.

Finally, the Wii is not orphaned.  I’m currently playing Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii, and its great. It makes great use of the Wiimote/nunchuck combo, and the graphics are much more “on par” with the Xbox (though still just 480p).

So much fun, so little time …

9/3/2007 12:55:50 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  general