360

I had one hell of a busy week last week, so by Friday I felt the need to...well, do nothing for a little while. Or at least not work. So after weeks of hearing from friends how much they loved their Xbox 360s, I dropped by my local EB Games and picked up all the goodies.

Now, I've been holding out for quite a while in anticipation of the Playstation 3, which as everyone knows is supposed to arrive sometime later this year, for a few hundred bucks higher than the 360, and arguably not that much more feature wise. Depending on who you listen to, the PS3 will either save or sink Sony (which I kind of doubt), but there's no question how high the stakes are in the gaming industry. And after spending a few days with the 360, Sony definitely has their work cut out for them.

Perhaps the biggest surprise about the 360 is how well Xbox Live is designed. Now, considering Microsoft's history of poorly written instructions, clunky UIs, and laborious walkthroughs to get the most basic of tasks done, Live is very well executed. With my manual still in plastic, I zipped through the account creation process, purchased a year of service, set up my profile, and was sending messages to friends to add me to their Friends list. Then I hopped over to the demos area and compiled a huge list of games to download and try. All of it smooth and easy.

But perhaps my favorite part was while playing the MotoGP demo. I became incredibly annoyed with the background music in the game, so I grabbed Connect360, installed it on my G5, and by the time I got back to the console my iTunes library was ready for playback through the Xbox. All was right with the world.

Now excuse me while I get back to my pimps on Saints Row.

(For those out there with 360s too, I'm "dominey" on Xbox Live)