As good as it gets (Part 2)

Friends with benefits?

Despite the gloom and doom, all is not lost. Our savior comes in the form of the Xbox Live Friends List. Although limited to 100 people, this list serves as your go to guide to good people, great times, and magnificent games. The ease at which you can effortlessly widely distribute voice messages, organize custom games, and distribute clan messages is unparalleled. Turning on your Xbox 360 becomes comparable to opening up a surprise package from Fed Ex, you never know who or what it has in store for you. It is a genuine thrill to see 10-16 of your good buddies online, and organize an impromptu custom match of Halo 2 or Project Gotham Racing. 24/7 you have the opportunity of having your own LAN party with your pal’s at the click of a button, now that is service.

In many ways’s the experience can be even better than a LAN party. I personally am finding myself extraordinarily spoiled by the ability to stream music from my PC to my Xbox 360 and fight my friends in Dead or Alive 4 to the beat of my own custom soundtracks. There really is nothing like performing an epic reversal for the win while rocking to Pearl Jam(insert favorite group here). Add in the ability to send and receive text messages, voice messages, private chat requests, and game invites while in a multiplayer or single player game, and you’ve got one huge enchilada’s with sour cream and guacamole on top. In the eternal words of Penny Arcade , the meal served here is simply exuberant.

Pacman’s Grave

To add to this delicious ice cream sundae, we turn to Xbox Live’s own Supermall, the Xbox Live Marketplace and it’s little brother, the Xbox Live Arcade. I will be the first to admit, nostalgia can be a cruel mistress. Often times it hoodwinks your brain into faulty logic about the quality of certain unnamed titles. On the other hand it can serve as an enjoyable snack of delectable treats. Xbox Live Arcade offers a wide array of card games (multiplayer!), puzzle games, action games (some featuring co-op I might add), and a smattering of other classics. On the whole they are very well produced affairs, and provide a welcomed break from some of the more involved and complicated games offered on the market today.

However if complexity is your cup of tea, the market place is the place to be. I can’t say enough about how much I’ve enjoyed viewing game trailers, game previews, demo’s, movie trailers, and music videos on my television as opposed to my computer screen. The single best part about this feature is the ability to show my friends easily what the heck it is I’m excited about, without waiting for the computer to boot up and find which website it was that had the particular content I wanted. None of that foolishness here, it’s simply turn on the box and click on videos. Love it, want more of it. The demo’s are especially of note here. On the last generation Xbox I played a grand total of two demos, one of which was Ninja Gaiden which I specifically paid money for (Magazine package), and the other was Star Wars Battlefront which came with my Star Wars boxed set. Guess what, I bought those games solely based on the fact that I really enjoyed their demo’s. In fact Ninja Gaiden wasn’t particularly on my radar, but when the demo dropped I spent and ungodly amount of time laboriously learning every trick and maneuver that the game could provide. At some point, I lost track of things and thought I was a ninja, but that is besides the point. Demo’s are an excellent resource for putting you on the fence of a game you might not have cared much about, or pushing you off the fence of those you were excited about. Game trailers, music videos, and the like are really just icing an already impressive cake.

Multiplayer Evolved?

If one were to take a casual stroll in to the future, you can see a few trends developing that are for lack of a better term…Liquid Awesome.

-Online Co-op for the entirety of the Single Player Experience (Crackdown, Gears of War, Too Human)

-The ability to join your friends in said games at any time, i.e in the middle of the level perhaps. I wish I could say that twice. The ability to join your friends in said games AT ANY TIME…there I did it. Great Scott!!!!

-Massively Multiplayer Online RPG’s and FPS’s . This will add a nice dynamic and change of pace to the sometimes over to quick experience of many multiplayer games.

-Coin op classics with multiplayer. Seriously people, Golden Axe with co-op? Need I say anymore?

Peanut butter and Jelly time

At the end of the day, Microsoft has built an extrodinary service with a few bugs to work out of it’s system. The community has exited it’s infancy stage and is experiencing the accompanying growing pains. I believe the future of connected consoles remains bright with it’s leader firmly positioned way in the front of the pack. Like a peanut butter sandwich Xbox Live is a curious blend of delicious sweetness and sweaty nuts.