Video Games: November 2005 Archives

I've been scouring message boards for a week since the XBox 360 launch, looking for evidence of a second shipment. Lots of people said that today (Tuesday) would see a second shipment of 360s arriving in stores. I found one such case on IGN 360 boards: this fellow walked into a Target in Minnesota as the clerk was restocking the shelves. Lucky bastard picked one up; I think I would have bought two. Other nerds are stalking Best Buy stores with such frequency that they may have to file restraining orders. J.C. Penney might have tried to sell the XBox 360 premium for $800, although it has been removed and looks bogus to me. One fellow said he ordered the XBox 360 from Sears.com on Thanksgiving Day and he has received it already.

I had a big dilemna this morning: go to work or check out Target? In the end, work won, I need a paycheck for the 360 and the plasma TV. Let me know if you find evidence of second shipments. Nuff said.

Technorati : XBox 360
Ice Rocket : XBox 360

I didn't get an Xbox 360 on launch day. I wasn't worthy. The true hardcore fans either pre-ordered months in advance or they camped out overnight. My attempt to buy one was laughable; I left at 6:30am and went to Wal-Mart. A group of four guys stood in front of the door, all 360-seekers, waiting for the store to open at 7am. This Wal-Mart in Pleasanton closes at 11pm; I had called the day before and they assured me the 360s would be sold when the store opened. When I saw such a small line I did a fist pump, yeah baby, I got it! The joke was on me when the sales clerk opened up the door and said: "We sold all the Xbox 360s at midnight. We had 75 people in line and the manager didn't want to make them wait overnight." I was mad as hell, but what could I do? Everywhere I drove, I found lines of hungry gamers who camped out at Best Buy, Target, and Circuit City. I knew the people in those lines exceeded existing inventory. In a last ditch attempt, I drove to Costco at 9am. No one in line, yes, god, maybe there is a chance! Then I saw a sign that said: "We are not currently selling the Xbox 360."

Bummer. But every cloud has a silver lining. I have all these new Xbox 1 games that I barely started playing, including Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One. It turns out to be a pretty nice WW2 FPS, even though the graphics can't hold a candle to the 360 game. I must confess that I didn't like the first Call of Duty on the Xbox. I didn't like changing characters in different locations as the war progressed. The BRO fixes that by making you a member of America's "Fighting First" infantry division. You join the team as they prepare to kick Rommel out of Africa, and stay with them as they help kick Nazi butt across Europe. You can carry two weapons and a bag full of grenades. The weapons are standard grade WW2 material, and so is the level design. In one mission, I had to storm an airfield, take out Nazis room by room, and wind my way through to an anti-aircraft turret. While the Americans fought the Nazis in the sky, I manned the turret and shot down a number of German planes. The sound effect was so awesome on surround sound speakers, that I think Ol' Grandma Hardcore should refrain from playing the level-it might crack her bifocals!

The sound design in Big Red One is the most spectacular thing about the game. You get a lot of vehicle and turret variety. I think it's an enjoyable shooter; a lot of reviewers are knocking it because it does nothing to advance the WW2 genre, but what can? Oh yeah, the real Call of Duty 2 for Xbox 360. OK, maybe you should rent BRO from Gamefly like I did. Nuff said.

Technorati : Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Xbox, Xbox 360
Ice Rocket : Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Xbox, Xbox 360

OK, I said before that getting an XBox 360 now is totally not worth it, and anyone with brains would wait a year from now--when Halo 3 is out and they've got bundles at a good price. I should have known my early adopter mania would overwhelm me at the last minute. A few things happened between then and now. I read all the XBox 360 hype on IGN, Gamespot, and Team XBox. I actually played XBox 360 at Circuit City on an HDTV and saw how great the graphics were in action. Project Gotham Racing 3, Kameo, and Call of Duty 2 are all top-notch games. In particular, I was blown away by CoD2--I didn't really expect this to look so great, but it does.

And the third thing that happened...suddenly my wife wants to buy a new Plasma TV. Shock follows shock, as Stan Lee used to say. She usually doesn't want to buy things like this. But she wants to do some furniture rearranging and a flat screen TV will make this all work much more smoothly. Whatever the reason, I'll take it!

So what happens to people who didn't pre-order a 360? Unless you got in line today (Monday 3/21) at around 12 noon, you might be screwed. After calling the local stores, I found the following store openings and inventory levels:

• Best Buy: Opens at 8am with 64 consoles
• Wal-Mart: Opens at 7am with ~30 consoles
• Target: Opens at 8am with 16 consoles
• Circuit City: Opens at 10am with 19 consoles

Most of these are the $400 consoles with the hard drive. It would be crappy to be last in line and have only the $300 package to buy. I'll buzz around these places in the morning and see how long the lines are.

Whatever happens, I won't buy the XBox 360 on EBay. No way! I can imagine the prices will go from $500-$1000 in the first two weeks. Nuff said.

Technorati : XBox 360
Ice Rocket : XBox 360