Although I'd been pretty excited about the PlayStation 3 in the months leading up to its launch, the lack launch units, the price, and the absence of any truly appealing launch titles, except maybe Resistance, led me to purchase an Xbox 360 last weekend. My choice to buy an Xbox 360 instead of waiting until the PS3 becomes widely available was due to a couple of factors:

First of all, I didn't think I'd be able to wait until January in order to get my hands on a next gen version of College Hoops 2K7. Sure, other 360 games such as Gears of War and the prospect of playing Halo 3 influenced my purchase, but I'm a huge fan of the College Hoops series and even though the NCAA basketball season is just getting underway, I want it now. Secondly, I purchased an HDTV about a month ago and while playing SOCOM and games on Xbox in progressive scan has been great, I'd yet to see anything running in true HD (720p). Now that I've played games in 720p, it's tough to go back, except for Bully and the occasional online game of SOCOM. Lastly, Micro Center, a small electronics retail chain, is offering a $100 rebate on the Xbox 360 and I'm lucky enough to have a store just about an hour from where I am in Cleveland. That's what ultimately pushed me over the edge. $300 for the premium bundle is certainly an appealing price point and gives me $200 of change to spend on games and such that I wouldn't have if I had chosen to wait for a PS3.

So now that I've had my 360 for a weekend I can say that I'm very impressed with the console overall. The Xbox Live Marketplace and the user-friendly nature of the console in general have really impressed me and although I dismissed achievements as being a useless feature in the past, I now find myself playing NCAA Football 07 at times just to earn points. If anyone has a 360, feel free to send a friend invite to yogi burr, just about every variation of snowcow was taken on Live, and I'll see you around.