Next Generation - Xbox 360

Well I must say that the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2005 was absolutely awesome and I had a blast testing all the new and upcoming games and hardware to be seen in the near future. I was anticipating playing with the Xbox 360 the most before I went on my trip. My wish came true after I sailed through a big ocean of people. There were samples of the Xbox 360 out on the expo floor that I was able to play. Among the fun demo games were Call of Duty 2, Full Auto and Need For Speed-Most Wanted.

The Xbox 360 is not only eye-catching, but it has a lot of new features that would appeal to just about anybody. Opening the doors to high definition entertainment, every Xbox 360 game is optimized for a minimum of 720 pixels, 16:9 HDTV output. That basically means that if you own a HDTV capable television, the games will look awesome! It has 512 megabytes of memory and a custom ATI graphics processor to bring you the ultimate visual fidelity. even on regular, non-HD television sets.

It will come built-in with the Windows Media Center Extender functionality so when you want to take a break from your gaming, you can access your recorded television programs, digital movies, music, videos and photos stored on your Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs. You can also watch all your favorite DVDs, listen to CDs and look at your photos (burned onto a CD or DVD) with its progressive scan DVD movie, CD music and photo playback support. In addition, every MP3 player, digital camera and Windows XP PC can plug direct into the Xbox 360 via its USB 2.0 ports.

The Xbox 360 will be available this holiday season just in time for Christmas. By the end of the 2005 holiday season, there should be about 300 games available in 24 countries. The price is not yet set yet, however, Microsoft has partnered up with Mountain Dew to give away thousands of Xbox 360 consoles before it hits the store shelves. Beginning August 28 this summer, a winner will be selected every ten minutes for nine weeks straight.

I don’t know about you, but when August comes around, I’ll be guzzling a lot of Mountain Dew to try to score myself one of those beauties.