It was on a cold, frosty night in Dublin, that I made my way to the official launch party of the Xbox 360. On the way I saw many people nervously waiting outside shops for their 360's, accompanied by friends and their hopes of getting one. People were thirsty for the consoles. One might think that it would have been satisfied by the many demo stations available throughout the country. These consoles however, had their controllers tightly bound to the system and featured games and demo's which were riddled with bugs. Also, online play on the 360 was still alien to many. Nearing the venue, I also realised that I had no idea what I was in for. I was going Dennis from TER ( www.eliterenegades.com). We waited outside for a minute while the bouncer checked if we were on the list. Mark would have been in for it if we weren't! Everything was ok, and we were in.
Waiting inside were stunning women wearing Xbox 360 t-shirts waiting to check us off the list. Nice touch! And not much further were more "Booth Babe" type girls spinning neon lights about themselves, it certainly had an E3 feeling about it. The drinks were on the house and I gladly indulged myself, it had been a long day. All of the consoles were draped in silver cloth, not yet touched. We could play with them after a speech made by the Irish head of Microsoft Games and Entertainment. In the meantime we had a few drinks and a word with Xbox's PR spokesperson Nicola Watkins (A big thanks for the tickets by the Way!!!) who said that it ought to be a good night. Our conversation was cut short by RTE's arrival. At 8:45pm, we listened as (NAME) gave a short and sweet speech which ended simply in "The future of gaming is here. Jump in!"
The silver drapes were taken back and a there was a mad rush to the consoles. Dennis and I went for Rare's Perfect Dark. This was the first time I had played it and it looked wonderful on the glorious HD screen. We played co-op on the tutorial level which was great, but there was so much demand for the consoles we had to cut it short. One thing that struck me was how quick the game plays and how the people react to being shot. In the bar, the drinks were still flowing from the bar, many 'Gamers' were not leaving it. Were these people in it for the games at all? After a while the food was brought out and I was starving. Many nice things were served but I rather liked the spicy meat thing on a stick, it went well with the free drink! Dennis certainly agreed, although he liked the chicken thing.
After a little while, it became apparent which games were the most popular. Perfect Dark Zero was clearly the winner. With people actually queuing to play it on the several consoles all over the venue. Project Gotham Racing 3 was also very popular. It was certainly the best looking game out of the launch line-up. The games which were available to play were the Microsoft first party titles and most of people were playing the final retail versions for the first time. The graphics of the games blew away whatever brain cells the drink wasn't affecting, although the controller was hard to use with all the greasy food and no napkins. Messy gamers ahoy!
The evening came to a close with the senior Microsoft people having their cake and officially celebrating the launch of the console. In an interesting note, they had several consoles to give away but it required the correct answer to a question. How any games for the Xbox will work on the Xbox 360? Mark said 166 games were compatible, but alas, I didn't win! It was a nice way to see in the 360 and the following day I was greeted by my very own Xbox 360, but that's a story for another day. Bye for now, Joanna needs me!
Photos to come soon... |
