Gloomy but 360

Like a certain friend said, maintaining a daily blog isn’t that easy. One has to have a certain propensity toward completely tasks at hand the day it happened, or more concisely, the day it’s due.

Let’s see how much of a back log I have already created. I missed last Thursday (11/17); Friday (11/18) I’ve wrote on the next day (11/19). As for the Sunday (11/20) and Monday (11/21), again, no entry. It seems I have “created” somewhat of a conundrum. Do I write of the past, or simply, let it go? I guess for the time being, I’ll simply catch up on what I can and leave the rest to my procrastinating self. Which can only mean…

The past few days the weather has been quite gloomy. It seems that either the sun doesn’t exist, or if it does, it only shines out grey rays. Regardless, today is a day worth remembering in video gaming history. Xbox 360 has launched, and despite the short supply, it seems (at least to me from what I gathered on various message boards), that it is something really neat. From its physical appearance, to its dashboard, and to the games, next-gen gaming is here, now. The power brick is huge by the way.

Thing that I have noticed regarding this launch is that bundles seem to have been forced upon buyers, again. I recall back in the days when I picked up my Xbox at EBGames that I too, had to buy a bundle. I remember getting DOA3 and Halo, as well as two controllers, plus of course, the console itself. I remember hefting that huge bag in the mall, getting some Chinese food to eat in the food court, and lugging the whole darn thing back to my place.

I can also remember the glee and excitement of opening the package, seeing my, yes, my Xbox for the first time. It was a mix feeling of “darn, I spent quite a bit of dough” and “it better be worth it”; and then I powered it up. It was worth it; when I put DOA3 into the console, the graphics were simply mind-blowing. I played through it a bit, but went for the main course. Little did I, or did the gaming community know that “Halo” would be the one game to rule them all. I played that game into the wee hours of the night, fully immersed in the universe that rocked my world.

Enough about old times, though. This time around, with Microsoft establishing itself as a player in the console market, not to mention the king of online console gaming. Picking up an Xbox 360 during the launch window isn’t as easy as was getting an Xbox, which was like basically going into the store two, three days after launch, and walking away with one. No line, no fuss.

Supply was short, possibly due to a worldwide launch. Or simply production hasn’t reached that critical point to meet the demand of such a enthusiastic base. There might be even the possibility of an artificial scarcity being created, to create hype and further entice potential customers; that Xbox 360, is the “it” thing. But I doubt the later. Regardless, lots of gamer won’t be getting it now, but later.

One search on Ebay provides the ridiculous notion of how badly people want one. Prices of auctions have reached thousands, and scams of all sorts are ever present. I guess this is a study of supply and demand, right here.

However, I won’t be picking one up anytime soon. Out of the two packages offered, Premium and Core, I will definitely choose the Premium (if it is still called that when I purchase mine), but the timing of such a buy would be after I major-pass all my preliminaries, when I can then fully enjoy such a purchase. Oh yeah, not to mention getting an HDTV. Hopefully, Halo 3 would be on the horizon, and there would be enough quality titles to tide my wait until that day.