I can't say I've played a lot of video games, but I can say I've played the entire EA Games Battlefield series for PC. I loved those games and was sure to purchase each one in the series shortly after they were released... until Battlefield 2.
Battlefield 2 had fairly high video card requirements and although I was pretty good at keeping my PC parts fairly recent, my aging motherboard could not support the upgrades necessary to play. I told myself I would be upgrading soon. I finally purchased and played Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2142 more than a year and a half after they were released! Boo!
That is when I decided to purchase a video game console. I'm not a console advocate, but I was sick of the constant barrage of hardware upgrades being dictated by PC video game makers that I just couldn't afford.
It took me a long time to finally pull the trigger and buy a gaming console. I would probably still be waiting if Wifey and our eldest daughter had not bought me gift certificates to put towards one. I bought myself an XBox 360 Elite.
(I know that PS3 fanboys are probably screaming and pulling their hair out right now, but my goal is to eventually own both ;)
Why I love it
There are many reasons I could list here about why I love my black beauty. Just listing the technical specifications alone make this tech lover happy. However, I'm just going to focus on the things that really stand out for me.
Playing games on my big screen
I have my precious hooked up via HDMI to my 40" Samsung LCD and it looks and sounds amazing. I love First Person Shooter (FPS) games and playing games like Call of Duty 4 and 5 rocked!
Hookup versatility
At one point I had my XBox 360 hooked up to my Samsung 22" monitor with an HDMI to DVI cable. The unit automagically adjusted the output to the monitor's resolution and it looked fantastic. The included audio only connector allowed me to pipe out the missing sound to a great set of speakers I own. (You don't get the HDMI sound when converting to DVI)
Voice Chat and connectivity
I had no idea how wicked this was until I played a game together with a buddy while he was at home on his Xbox 360! Via internet we played a co-op campaign while communicating the whole time via voice chat. How cool is that!?
Media Client
My PC is downstairs and has an attached external drive that is home to a bunch of movies and TV series episodes. My XBox is upstairs in the living room connected to the big screen. All of my videos are shared/streamed across the network to my XBox via the magic of Windows Media Player 11. It was as easy as having WMP 11 monitor the appropriate video folders and authorizing my XBox to have access to the library. Equally important is the fact that most of my videos are Xvid format and play flawlessly with the XBox 360 media update.
Games
Oh yes please! A cool effect of being fairly new to the console field is that there is an abundance of relatively older games I haven't played that are usually really cheap. I don't get to play often so it takes me quite a bit of time to finish a game. By the time I'm ready to purchase a new game, it's usually on sale. That works for me!
Easy of use
Ever since I gave Wifey a small tutorial, she has had no problems using my XBox to watch TV episodes I download for her on the media server downstairs. She no longer misses her favorite shows.
I could probably go on forever, but I think you have enough to chew on.
Happy gaming, chatting, streaming or whatever it is you want to do!
