In a moment of spontaneity, I broke down and bought an Xbox 360. My initial impression? Very impressed. It’s sleek design is marred only by a few slight flaws. Take for instance the great look of the console and controller, and match it up with the hideous logo (that green X looks out of place no matter where it is) or the atrocious game box design. Who does neon green boxes appeal to again? The controller is almost perfect; my only complaint (besides the giant X logo) is that the digital pad sucks. Good thing you rarely use it, but as long as the digital pad has been around, how can you screw that up?

The real worth of the system is how much fun it is, and I’ve had a lot of fun on it (can’t stop playing it). From downloading demos (I have to move my router into the den becuase the wireless adapter = $$$) to playing Dead Rising (I only have one game because they too cost $$$), I’ve had a LOT of fun on it. While many of the demos are top notch (Ghost Recon, Dead or Alive 4, and Call of Duty 2; Fight Night looks like a movie), the system takes a hit on poor quality control when you play a demo like blazing Angels that is so below par it seems sad. Far Cry Insticts Predator’s online demo looked like Picasso’s rendition of an FPS.

Still, I’ve started Dead Rising over 3 times from the beginning and loved every second of it. There’s something about taking a lawnmower to a hoard of zombies that is just appealing. The game has some minor flaws though. For instance, the dialog text is insanely tiny. I have to sit 3 feet from the screen to read it and I have a decent sized TV. How this made it past product testing is beyond me, but someone needs to be fired over it. Also, a patch REALLY needs to be made. It’s actually painful to read the story at times and for a change it’s not because of bad dialog.

So, what’s my final verdict? The Xbox 360 is a GEM (I can’t say how incredible the graphics can be); it just needs a little more polishing from Microsoft. I’m left wondering what Sony could possibly do to stay even remotely in the game. Some big shake-ups are definitely in the store for the video game industry.