On Xbox 360
I have always thought that Microsoft was not a good friend. A good friend does not make sure your computer grows slower every day. A good friend does not avoid you to use other software. A good friend does not create new operating systems that require upgrades every certain time. A good friend is not like Microsoft.
Since I like to have good friends I moved long time ago to Apple and their lovely shiny whitey devices. They feel cool, work and have the same performance throughout the years.
Suddenly, about a year ago (a bit less) Microsoft dropped the Xbox 360. I for once, felt interested in the machine, its prospects, its technology and more over its online capabilities (I had struggled with the complicated underworld of getting online to play games and abandoned the idea due to its complexity). I read about the machine going to be less powerful than competitors (aka Wii and PS3), about the shortness in stock (impossible to get one last Xmas and months after that) and some technical glitches the machine presented (as with every single new device, early adopters pay the duck!). So I waited and before the summer I got my own 360 and so far so good.
The machine is brilliant, stylist, works with HD TVs and the games so far are pretty good. Most importantly, you can play classics such as Galaga or Pac-Man. I would imagine that all of you reading this played any of those machines long time ago (I think I remembered asking for another 25ptas coin to try another time).
There are plenty of good ideas and stuff going on about the 360 (check out Major Nelson's blog) but there is one specific thing that called for my attention today: Looks like Msoft is opening up XNA (a sort of libraries for game programming) to all developers - wow I thought. I think is exceptional that the guys at Redmond have gone down this route. Congratulations, this is an entirely unexpected move.
You might wonder why am I talking about this here (no I am not paid by MSoft and this is just a first post of a pretty long series, I hope) but as you will see I have added my gamertag to the blog, so if anyone out there wanting to challenge me, you know where I am! I am looking for rivals!!!