My Life Is Digital.

A few weekends ago, I had the opportunity to go to the DigitalLife convention in the Javits Convention Center, and explore the large ranges of technological advancement. Not only at this convention was I allowed to play some games, which will not officially see the light of day for weeks to come, but I had the opportunity to get my hands upon the Xbox 360.

Walking into the center was like entering a different city. Towering advertisements streamed through the air as orange giants, brandishing the Cingular banner, stood ready to crush all children who dared to voyage near. (A possible metaphor to how they tramped all over AT&T.) I nearly had a seizure walking into the main area. Thousands of screens glared straight at me, different images and sounds washing over my face. Nearly two hundred playable Xboxes, PS2s, Gamecubes, PSPs, DSes, and computers stood at my right, each with different games, ranging from the older games such as God of War and Halo, to unreleased games like Spartan: Total Warrior, and the far off, yet hugely anticipated, King Kong.
Directly ahead of me, a huge war battled on different terrains. On a gigantic screen composed of four already enormous screens, genetically altered superhuman battled it out amongst them selves and the covenant, while off to the side, 16 terrorists defended their HQ from an onslaught of specially trained counter terrorists.
But on my left was my immediate attraction. Displayed by projection onto a white screen, I saw the already recognizable image of the Xbox 360 Dashboard. Now I won't bore you with the technical details like Microsoft did to the audience, but they proceeded to tell us absolutely everything I already knew about the Xbox 360, with the exception being that the actual console was less then ten feet away from me.
I'd already seen their press conference online so I already new how their speech was going to go, including their absurdly dick moves towards Apple and Sony which involve plugging in both the PSP and the iPod into the machine. But, what I wasn't prepared for was their personal attack towards me. At one point, with the iPod Nano plugged in, Big BIll (Or whatever his name was) pulled up their playlist, and put on The Fallen, by Franz Ferdinand. Now, I can deal with the Xbox being compatible with the iPod, and to some extent with the PSP. But, having rooted for the downfall of the 360 since they faked their consumer survey and released the name, this was a personal blow. Sure, it was a change from Monotonous B.I.G. they were playing before, but I could barely stand to watch as Franz Ferdinand was pulled to the dark side.
After the Dashboard demonstration, Big Bill decided to demonstrate the first of the new wave of High Definition Gaming, of which I have posted a screenshot:



That's right, the Xbox 360 will be capable of producing Joust in 16 bit, HD quality graphics! Hell yeah Microsoft! You guys just secured your dominance on the next Console War!
I thought it was about time for Microsoft trying to impress us with the 'Xbox Arcade', where you can buy a game for $10, instead of playing it for free online, and bring out the big guns. Apparently, Microsoft thought so too, because they proceeded to pop in Kameo: Elements of Power. Graphically, it looked as if it was a PS2 game with improved talking animations. But in power, I admit to being partially impressed. It's true, even though they were off in the distance, there were about 100 dragons flying independently in the sky. PGR3, however, made the graphical power of the Xbox 360 pretty apparent. It looked pretty damn good. But then again, it is a track race, and I noticed textures were lacking on a few surfaces. That was pretty much all they were willing to show us, and, instead of letting us play an actual game, they had us just mess around with the controller. It got passed to me and I messed around with it for a little. It does feel solid, but I wouldn't feel good dropping it. Not only would the battery instantly fly out, but I'm sure it would dent up and pop open pretty easy. That was it for then, and I made my way onward.

I spent a round in Star Wars Battlefront II, which, I have to say, was an extraordinary amount of fun. It retains the same game-play elements, but drastically quickens the pace, which is a change I was grateful to observe. The biggest addition I got to witness was the insertion of a Jedi into the field. I was playing on the imperial side, and it was quite impressive to see my comrades backing up as fast as they could, only to get slaughtered by a merciless Jedi. These tide-turners spawn once a match, and the only thing more thrilling than watching Luke smash his way through our defenses was when I blew him to bits seconds later with my Rocket Launcher. Being the only competent member of the Imperial forces, we still lost, although my slaying of Luke did help to even out the match. Lucasarts seems to have adopted a strategy similar to Burger King. Star Wars: Have It Your Way.

One of the highlights of the show came in my chance to play the as of now unreleased Guitar Hero. As time was running out, I figured I would only have one shot at playing. So I boosted the difficulty up to Medium, and started rocking out to Take Me Out, which in in the third level of difficulty book, on top of the medium preset. I knew I could have gone for an easier level and completely beaten the blahbelshnaps out of any record, the sight of seeing the six year old ahead of sail through Ironman combined with my frustration with Microsoft for having abused Franz Ferdinand before hand led me to pick up the plastic guitar. Biting of way more then I could chew, however, led me to put the guitar back down 80% through the song. And yet, the man at the Kiosk was noticeably impressed with my performance, and refused to believe that it was my first time playing. Later, he would approach me on the street and shake my hand, telling me how awed he was by my effort and near succession on that level. We would then nod solemnly and disappear into the mist, telling me we would meet again- at another convention... Yes. Nerds Unite!

But I promised I'd get my hands on the actual 360, didn't I? You see, I found, in the back of the convention, an empty looking kiosk, with an Xbox 360 hooked up to a small TV. I watched the climatic battle of some Tech Demo, and then when it began to start over again, I looked around surreptitiously and, thinking I was good to go, pushed the eject button. The dashboard opened up mid demo, and the movie disappeared from sight as the tray opened with a satisfying hiss. Instantly, the entire monitor turned off and a representative swooped down upon me. Apparently, not only can the Xbox 360 play games, but it can also call down the wrath of the gods. I was lucky to make it out with my life, man!

That's about it for my exciting day, and now that I've finally got this post out of the way I can move on to bigger and better things. I think I'll end this post with a nice quote I overheard during the Xbox 360 demonstration.

"For the final shirt, who can tell me how many wireless controllers the Xbox 360 supports?"
"Seven! Oh wait, no. That's the PS3!"