I bought the Xbox 360 Sling Bag from Best Buy on Wednesday.  I thought it would be a cool little shoulder bag that my 360 could ride in while I showed it off during Thanksgiving.  Big mistake.

I was in a rush Thursday to pack up for the drive to see my family and quickly packed my 360 and all the accessories into the bag.   First of all, while the bag does look darn cool, it has nowhere near the amount of space that the XB-40 Xbox Carrying Case has (that big black shoulder bag that most of us use.)  The main compartment is supposed to hold the 360 and the power supply brick, but there is barely enough room for them; they can’t fit side by side and so you have to stack one on top of the other—not very safe and a great opportunity to scratch/dent/crack your 360 with that huge brick.  The controller compartment is just big enough to hold 2 wireless controllers and only has a Velcro strip to keep them in the bag, no zipper or flap.  The accessory compartment is big enough to hold memory cards, a remote and a headset but still, it is a little too snug.  The game compartment on the outside of the bag looks cool, but there is nothing inside to separate your game disks (no sleeves like in a CD case,) and you are forced to just put your stack of games into the compartment with nothing to keep them safe except for a little bit of foam lining on the outside.

The biggest design flaw was the shoulder strap.  The shoulder strap connects to the bag via two chrome-plated clips that you can depress to detach the strap.  Now, why in the world they would design a detachable strap on a shoulder bag with no other handles defies all logic.  It makes absolutely no sense unless, maybe, P-21 (the makers of the bag) wanted you to flog yourself with the strap for being such a tool for buying the thing.

In retrospect I should have tested the strap first like I do with all my bags (console bags, laptop bags, backpacks, whatever, I usually test them) but I was in a hurry.  The first time I hefted the full bag over my shoulder, the chrome-plated clips came apart and it sent my Xbox 360 crashing to the hardwood floor. 

After a good 15 minutes of loud cursing I checked my 360—no visible damage.  I checked the Sling Bag straps.  I snapped them into place and gave a fairly light tug on them.  The clips came apart easily.  The bag was utterly useless.

I didn’t get a chance to check if my 360 was still working until a few hours later.  It seems to be working fine, and hopefully the accursed P-21 Xbox 360 Sling Bag didn’t any cause any stealth damage to the internal components.

I don’t know if my particular bag was defective and the straps on the other bags were okay, but I don’t care.  It’s going back to Best Buy.  It looks cool but the combination of the lack of space, the irrationally detachable shoulder strap, and the horrific near-death of my 360 earns a big “F” from me and a warning to everyone else to look for a more suitable and dependable carrying case for your shiny new console.

After Notydredz's scouting of a Xbox 360 Kiosk at one of our local Walmarts, I managed to pull myself away from a session of World Of Warcraft with the wifey to check it out with Notydredz and Zoo3. After a quick drive down a few darkened, rain-soaked streets we were there.

When we arrived some guy had his grubby paws all over the controller, and we watched as he was attempting to play the T-Rex level of the King Kong demo. The combination of 3 dudes standing behind him, breathing down his neck while his g/f watched on in mock-interest was too much for him, and the guy broke under pressure and ran in the middle of the demo after like 10 seconds of total play-time.

And there it was. A 360 controller right there in front of me, alone, crying out for comfort and a warm embrace. I stepped up.

The game looked great. The quality of the lighting and the textures were striking. The first thing you noticed right off the bat was the lack of a GUI on the screen, with only context-sensitive commands popping up from time to time. This lended itself well to a cinematic and realistic feel, but it was a bit awkward at first; because you had a lack of obvious visual cues like diminishing health bars, it was initially hard to tell what results were caused by your actions. But I have never been a Kong fan, and there wasn't enough here to compel me to pick it up at launch.

Since Notydredz had a lot of time with the kiosk, Zoo3 and I ended up tag-teaming the rest of the 360 demos. At this point the failure of the kiosk design became obvious. The low placement of the 360 controller, combined with the ridiculously high placement of the TV, made your neck hurt like hell within the first few minutes of playing. Granted, I'm relatively short but Zoo3 walks like a giant among men, and it even bothered him. Seriously, even mutant half-human, half-giraffes would be trying to play one of these 360 kiosks, rubbing their long necks with monstrous hoof-hands, b1tching.

Kameo was the gem of the bunch. It positively dripped with polish. Looked great, played great, sounded great...at least the demo did. Its the only 360 launch game that doesn't feel like a half-hearted attempt at a next-gen game. It may not have totally blown me away, but it was great fun.

Call of Duty 2 was like an old pair of shoes. You've worn them for a long time and so you pretty much know how they feel before you slip them on. The same dramatic WWII battles, frentic firefights, guys dying all around you that you've played in the past. It looked really good but again, nothing too spectacular. Even so, CoD 2 would make a great game to pick up at launch.

Hexic was okay. I could see myself loading it up for a game or two if I only had a 15-20 minutes to play something. Without the constant threat of visible falling blocks like in Tetris or Lumines, it doesn't have quite the level of excitement as those games...it's more of a Bejweled in that respect.

It was great to see the 360 up close. I didn't see the huge brick of a power supply that everyone is talking about, but I did spend a minute feeling up the 360 controller. It feels smaller than the original Xbox's S-controller which I was dissapointed with. The new trigger buttons are a bit small. I actually forgot they were there until I started playing CoD2....that will take some getting used to. And unless you hermetically seal your white, white 360 controllers in some sort of space-age plastic wrap they are going to get grimy no matter how meticulously clean you are.

The neck pain was too much for us and we had to leave...and really, besides the game demos there was nothing else to see. Zoo3 was very prudent in providing us with a bottle of hand sanitizer--I'm sure that kiosk controller had the avian flu or some other equally nasty bug on it.

Overall I was happy with the 360 kiosk. It didn't really change my opinions on everything, but it did make me wish for November 22nd to get here quick.