Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Xbox 360 is only two weeks away!

For me, that is. I know many of you will have owned one for at least six months, but I have yet to pick one up. There are various reasons for this, the main one being cash flow. Because I moved into my own flat last October and am now paying my mortgage and other regular bills off, spending £300 at once is out of the question. I aslo wasn't terribly enthusiastic about the machine, because in recent years I've become increasingly bored with the FPS genre, and that seems to be the most prevalent genre on the 360.

However, it wasn't really a question of if I would get one, it was more a question of when. Luckily, my bonus from work is going to be very nice indeed this year so there will be plenty of cash to pay for my car insurance and pick up an Xbox 360 as well. The number of games I'm actually interested in is increasing all the time - Project Gotham Racing 3, Ridge Racer 6, Kameo and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion all come instantly to mind, plus Xbox Live Arcade titles such as Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Marble Blast Ultra and the classic Smash TV. Then in the future, there's Lost Planet and Dead Rising from Capcom to look forward, which are both looking very exciting. I recently got a chance to play the Lost Planet demo, and Geometry Wars, and my anticipation for my shiny new machine has only increased. Finally, I might even pick up a copy of Forza Motorsport for the original Xbox and make use of the backward compatibility, as I never got around to playing the game when it was released.

I also picked up a lovely new black DS Lite at the end of last month (being at the much more impulse friendly price of £99), and it's totally fantastic. You notice colours that you never saw before on the old DS, and the new longer stylus is more comfortable to use too.

Finally, I can't leave out the PSP, as Loco Roco was recently released and has fast become the best game on the system in my opinion. I will post a full review just as soon as I finish going through all the levels, I promise. The PSP also now has it's own Platinum range, which means you can pick up great games like Ridge Racer, Wipeout Pure and Everybody's Golf for very reasonable prices.

If anyone reading this blog has any recommendations for Xbox 360 games, either full retail or on Xbox Live Arcade, please post a comment and let me know. I'm still quite new to the system and I'm currently researching what's available and trying to make my mind up what to get with my machine.