Today hailed the arrival of Microsoft's new shop, uh, I mean, entertainment experience "Game Room".

The feature was announced a few months back now with a simple premise: Bring arcades into the home.

Completely bypassing the real issue of arcade culture in western society disappearing, Microsoft aims to bring gamers together by allowing them to play golden oldies from Konami and Intellivision with each other.

Of course the option is there to play by yourself, but we are only touching the surface here.

Firstly lets talk pricing - PART 1. The base download / software is free. Thats right FREE! The software is about 300mb for Xbox and 420mb for PC. Games are included also, 2 game packs, about 20+ games, FREE! BUT...

Pricing - PART 2. Each game avaliable in the arcade can be played one off for 40 Microsoft points, Full games can be baught for unlimited play for about 240 Microsoft points and finally, the FULL full game. This version is about 420 Microsoft points and allows you to play the game on both the PC and XBox clients. Then lets get into decorations / props for your personal arcade which to my knowledge are 40 Microsoft points each.

With pricing covered lets talk coss platform gaming. The client is avaliable for PC and Xbox. One uses Xbox LIVE and the other uses Games for Windows LIVE.

Now, lets get down to business. Initially you are presented with a bright, colourful and loud room. This room has several smaller rooms attatched to it, each of which holds about 8 games (represented ACCURATELY as their repective arcade machines).

You can scan through these in realtime 3D and select one to play on. Simple really. Very clean, very neat, very cool. The sounds and sights of the room fills your senses with an almost nostalgia fuelled sense, but not quite. Something about the artificially replicated ambiance doesnt quite sound like teh real thing, but is quite similar regardless.

Lets talk menus. What can I say, they are quite smooth, and very pleasing on the eye. And other graphics such as avatar animations, models, props and environments look well detailed, and function appropiately.

The selection of games avaliable is vast, but may not be enough to rope in a younger audience. Including such greats as Battletoads, Street Fighter etc may be great additions in the future (or so I Hope).

Overall, the whole thing is a pleasant experience, certainly will be fun for the achievement hunters and definately worth checking out!

It was officially released today so go now!