Xbox Live--Way Cool
I bought an Xbox wireless adapter a few days ago--yeah, they do make them, isn't that cool? Anyway, after setting it up I realized that my copy of NHL Rivals 2004 (and maybe others as well) came with a two month trial for Xbox live, so I set it up. I was very impressed. Here are a few things I liked:
1. The quality and responsiveness were awesome. I only experienced lag once when playing NHL Rivals on Xbox, and it went away after one guy got dropped. I remember playing NHL 93 hockey (I think it was that version) over a phone line *years* ago on a friend's Sega, but the experience sucked. Anyway, his mom got pissed because he racked up a $100+ phone bill. I think he ended up grounded. I wonder how that's going.
2. They have headsets that let you talk while playing. Although I don't have one yet, it was pretty cool to hear other people. Lots of profanity, but I guess I'm used to that $#!^ already. Anyway, it's nice to have it coming from someone else for once.
3. I played Counter-Strike for a few minutes before going to bed. It's a lot of fun, reminding me of the old days of Quake 2 in the dorm room (which can run on the .NET Framework). Needless to say, it took my around three hours to fall asleep. Once I did, however, I had about thirty frags before I woke up.
4. Occassionally my ego gets bloated from beating the computer. Going online always corrects that.
5. I finally have enough budget to support a realistic video game habit. I think Xbox Live is something like $6/month, which is a fraction of my broadband rate. All I have to do now is figure out how to expense it as a cost-of-work :-)
Has anyone else played much Xbox online? What games do you recommend?
If not, check out http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/default.htm.