It's Here

I told you I'd be looking for the 360 this week, but that I wasn't expecting too much. Well, like I expected the machine was sold out everywhere, with giant waiting lists in front of me. I signed up at one store where I happened to be #9 in line, but they had no word on when they'd be getting new systems and how many.

Back home I checked a few internet stores, and one all-purpose mail order service had a delivery time of '1 week'. Puzzled I contacted their Customer Support. If the machine was sold out all over the country, how the heck could they be so sure to have new systems by the end of the week? The girl on the other end of the line assured me that they had been sending out systems ever since the 360 launched, with virtually no shortages. Happily I order my 360, they told me they would call me a few days later to make an appointment on when and where to deliver the console.

Flash forward to this morning. I was alying a bit of Civilization IV when the phone rang. Not the mail ordering service, but the store I had ordered my 360 at. They had gotten new systems, 7 in total. Two people had not answered their phone for two days so I bumped up two places and I could pick up the last sytem right away. Quickly I canceled my order at the online service and went out in the freezing cold to get the system.

It was there. I snooped up PGR3, a few months of Live, a second wireless controller and some Marketplace Points and went home. I tell you, the feeling of having a new, state of the art toy is something that I'm always underestimating before I actually have it. The joy when I got it out of the box, noticed how it all smelled so fresh and brand new and the exciting moment of turning on the console for the first time....

Like everyone I spent a lot of time tinkering with the system settings and checking out what the box had to offer before actually playing a game. Hexic HD is surprisingly missing from the HDD (was this a limited offer, like the free remote?) but I made up for that by immediately getting Geometry Wars and Bejeweled.

Project Gotham 3 is a great experience. While it's a little underwhelming in terms of graphical prowess (OK, I don't have an HDTV) it plays like a dream, has some interesting twists and I was immediately captured by the quest to earn as many achievement points as possible. As you can see I haven't gotten really far yet....

So far it's great. It's downloading the Full Auto demo right now and I'll be checking out a few other demos in the coming days. I'll also be diving into the online mode of PGR3 and I hope to add some of you GS guys to my friends list. The gamertag is Mystikvm, feel free to add me.

Getting new systems is fun. Getting one while knowing half of the world wants it is even better.