Yes, I'm Having a Very Merry Christmas

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, ok, it's true: a week ago I finally got an Xbox 360 Premium bundle. Here's the proof:

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/xbox-360-premium.jpg

When I was at the Mobius 2005 conference, it was darkly amusing to me how many people had read about my Xbox woes and asked me about it. And I told them all the same story about I'm about to tell you - just ask Howard Chui, he was within earshot every time I told this story. I think he thought I was bragging or something. ;-)

On November 30th I received an email notification from CompuSmart, the company I had pre-ordered my 360 Premium with back in September, saying that they had shipped me something. I got very excited, but it quickly disappated when I checked the email attachment and it said they were shipping me the wireless controller by itself. That same day I checked my online VISA balance and saw that they had billed me the full hit - $620 or so. More than a little peeved, I called them and asked how they could possibly bill me for a product they didn't have in stock yet. They told me that it was just a pre-authorization, and not a real charge. Yeah, right. I insisted it was a real charge, they insisted it wasn't. So I wasted 45 minutes waiting on hold with the Royal Bank VISA deparment, only to have them confirm what I already knew: if it appeared as a charge that I could see, it was a real charge. Pre-authorization charges aren't visible to the end user, though they do consume your credit limit until they expire.<!>

I called Compusmart back and asked to speak to a manager. I left a voicemail for the woman I was referred to, and waited (this was on a Friday). Monday afternoon I called back and managed to speak with her this time, and she said she never received my voice mail. I explained the situation to her again, and she said they shouldn't have billed my credit card without having the product in stock, and that they also shouldn't have shipped me the wireless controller by itself. She said she'd look into it more and call me back. A few hours later she called, and I was expecting to have her tell me she'd credit me back the Xbox 360 portion of the charge and I'd continue waiting. Much to my surprise and delight, she said she had managed to track down a 360 Premium bundle! I was delighted beyond words, and sure enough, when I returned from Mobius the 360 was waiting for me at the local post office.

So what did I do with the Core? I checked on eBay, and the price for an opened Core wasn't much over retail, so I opted to simply return it to Zellers. I was surprised that the woman at the return counter didn't even open the box to confirm that the Xbox 360 was inside.

The combination of the Xbox 360 with the hard drive and HD cables is simply awesome - it's a much better experience than I had with the core. But I'll talk about that later. Have a great weekend everyone!

[Jeremy Charette]

Wow, and to think I'm going to have to camp out in front of Best Buy Sunday morning to get mine.

Guess Zeller's isn't so bad after all, for a "ghetto" store. :wink:

[JTWise]

Congrats - sounds like a review is in the works!

I think I finally scored one at Circuit City online yesterday! It should ship tonight or Monday and I should have it by the end of next week. Any DMT folks can feel free to add me to their friends list - XBL Gamertag is Taxman.

[OSUKid7]

But I'll talk about that later. Have a great weekend everyone!
:lol: haha...also a nice way of saying you'll be occupied with your 360 for the next 48 hours? ;) Have fun man...only wish I had the dough to get an Xbox 360 and an HDTV.

[Darius Wey]

I have 74 days to go and I'm counting them down. How sad. :lol:

[Chris Gohlke]

AND, you are probably one of the few people who could legitimately write this off as a business expense. :twisted:

[surfer]

Now im jeallous (Did I spell that correctly ? :wink: ) Have you tried playing halo 2 or 1 on it?

[Kent Pribbernow]

You always get early access to Microsoft products. Bastard! :wink:

Call me crazy, but I haven't jumped on the console gaming bandwagon, probably won't. PC gaming still offers a superior experience; better graphics and manueverability in first-person shooters. Still, if I had to choose a console, XBox 360 is where it's at. I hate Sony.

Now..what I really want is access to Windows Vista betas! 0X

[OSUKid7]

Call me crazy, but I haven't jumped on the console gaming bandwagon, probably won't. PC gaming still offers a superior experience
True, but I want the Xbox 360 for the Media Center Extender capabilities as much as I want it for gaming. I'm no big gamer...I gaming occasionally, but the media capabilities definitely makes it worth the cost. I just can't justify buying a 360 without having an HDTV...and well, that's just a little out of my price range. ;)

Now..what I really want is access to Windows Vista betas! 0X
heh, you're not missing much yet. I got in cause my friend knows a guy at Microsoft. :P I've played around with it a few times, but there's still some huge bugs, and I don't have enough PCs (or time) to try to live with those bugs. Some are saying that Beta 2 will be a public beta, so hopefully you can get in on the action then. :)

[Kent Pribbernow]

heh, you're not missing much yet. I got in cause my friend knows a guy at Microsoft. :P I've played around with it a few times, but there's still some huge bugs, and I don't have enough PCs (or time) to try to live with those bugs. Some are saying that Beta 2 will be a public beta, so hopefully you can get in on the action then. :)

It's still too early in the development stage. The current build isn't even feature complete yet, and Vista's real GUI won't be unveiled until at least beta 2. So, in its current form, I wouldn't even bother installing on a test system. The good stuff is yet to come. But I digress. :turn-l:

[Jason Dunn]

AND, you are probably one of the few people who could legitimately write this off as a business expense. :twisted:

You bet! :P It's nice having a business where I cover things I'm interested in on a Web site. It helps with the wife too when I say I need to buy something... ;-)

[Jason Dunn]

You always get early access to Microsoft products. Bastard! :wink:

Dude, this was from a pre-order I made back in September - this had nothing to do with getting early access. I have no juice that would allow me to get an early Xbox 360...

Call me crazy, but I haven't jumped on the console gaming bandwagon, probably won't. PC gaming still offers a superior experience; better graphics and manueverability in first-person shooters.

I think PCs are better for some types of games - namely RPGs and MMO games, but honestly, playing Call of Duty 2 in HD on a 61" TV is so much better than playing a FPS on my PC. There's just no contest. Prior to the Xbox I would have agreed with you simply due to the resolution issues, but now that everything is in HD, it looks SO much better.

[mcsouth]

I think PCs are better for some types of games - namely RPGs and MMO games, but honestly, playing Call of Duty 2 in HD on a 61" TV is so much better than playing a FPS on my PC. There's just no contest. Prior to the Xbox I would have agreed with you simply due to the resolution issues, but now that everything is in HD, it looks SO much better.

Okay, I can go with the whole "looks GREAT on the HD widescreen TV", especially when you are playing on 61" - I'm sure that helps the whole immersion thing, and you are using a 5.1 surround system too, right?

But the controls.....granted, I don't play console games much, and I definitely like the 360's controllers over others that I've used, but I've played the COD2 demo on my PC and numerous 360 demo stands, and there is no comparison in the ease of use of the PC controls IMHO. I have played this demo on the 360 stations lots, and still have trouble with the controls - particular when trying to aim on a distant target, such as the machine gunner on top of the Nazi HQ on the beach - I can consistently and easily do this with the PC controls (even with my std MS wireless mouse), but I have trouble getting lined up using the joystick on the 360's controller. This adds just enough frustration to convince me that PC gaming still has the edge in FPS environments yet, at least in some conditions.

Yeah, I still want a 360, as much for the extender functions as anything, like others have mentioned, but I expect I will still do a lot of gaming on my PC...

[Jason Dunn]

...particular when trying to aim on a distant target, such as the machine gunner on top of the Nazi HQ on the beach

Not having played COD2 on my PC, I can't really comment on this - in fact, I don't play any FPS shooters on my PC (haven't for years) so in terms of controls I guess I'm just used to the Xbox 360 experience. I can definitely imagine it would be easier to line up a distant target with a mouse versus the Xbox controller...

[Darius Wey]

But the controls.....granted, I don't play console games much, and I definitely like the 360's controllers over others that I've used, but I've played the COD2 demo on my PC and numerous 360 demo stands, and there is no comparison in the ease of use of the PC controls IMHO.

Now this is something you and I have in common - we're both extremely uncoordinated at playing FPS games with a controller. To me, the whole world revolves around WASD keys and the left and right mouse buttons. I know for a fact that it will take me months to adapt to the Xbox 360's style of gameplay.

But there is something great about the Xbox 360 that not many people are aware of. It offers undocumented support for keyboards and mice out of the box. There is a catch though. It only works for input - e.g. messaging, and filling out forms on Xbox Live. You can't use it for games - at least, not yet. Apparently, it's up to each and every game developer to enable mapping support for keyboards and mice. Rumour is, Halo 3 will offer such support, but rumours being rumours, I wouldn't get my hopes up too high just yet.

[mcsouth]

But there is something great about the Xbox 360 that not many people are aware of. It offers undocumented support for keyboards and mice out of the box. There is a catch though. It only works for input - e.g. messaging, and filling out forms on Xbox Live. You can't use it for games - at least, not yet. Apparently, it's up to each and every game developer to enable mapping support for keyboards and mice. Rumour is, Halo 3 will offer such support, but rumours being rumours, I wouldn't get my hopes up too high just yet.

Now this could be nice....but do you think a wireless keyboard and mouse could work? When playing with a 61" TV, I would think you would want to be back a bit more from the tv than a typical keyboard cable would allow...

It will be interested to see what the hacker community can come up with after the 360 has been out for a few months in quantity. For as much as MS has tried to lock this down, I have to believe that some enterprising hacker out there will find a way to unlock additional functionality.

[Darius Wey]

Now this could be nice....but do you think a wireless keyboard and mouse could work? When playing with a 61" TV, I would think you would want to be back a bit more from the tv than a typical keyboard cable would allow...

From what I've read and from what I've heard from friends of friends of friends, wireless keyboards and mice work right out of the box.

[Deemo]

"Everytime a bell rings a {website guru} gets his {Xbox}"
OK....somewhat paraphrased. :wink:
Merry Christmas Jason :)