The dashboard and live marketplace work as splendidly as I anticipated. There are still a few no-brainers they seem to have left out, such as prioritizing tiny downloads over huge ones, or simply reordering the queue manually. Cancelling a download also does not clear the downloaded flag. Silly really.
Live Arcade is undoubtedly a good venue for many traditionally "shareware" types, and the retro of course. Still, there can be a certain lack of production quality in some of the titles... whether it be menu design or the demo's limits (*cough*eclipse*), and I hope it doesn't reach the point where they believe the Live audience will swallow anything. I don't find it tasteful that most arcade demos lord the achievements over your head. I can appreciate the addiction, but it's just dirty pool.
I won't be owning a 360 soon, although as I mentioned I do own some games. It's just a matter of when, and whether the price is right. I'm simply happy to at last have a respectably adorned gamertag.
Other brief impressions:
- - Playing without a headset is best when all other players speak a foreign language anyway.
- - Dead Rising is not for the meek or weak of skill, stomach or eyesight.
- - N3 is Dynasty Warriors without the historical overhead.
- - 20 Gigabytes is no where near enough hard drive space.