XBox 360 Unveiled!

As many of you are aware by now Microsoft officially took the wraps off their new XBox console yesterday on MTV. I didn't get to see the show, but from what I heard it was unimpressive in terms of actual information. However, this doesn't surprise me because Microsoft's marketing department's aim was more for the casual gamers than the hardcore crowd. For the rest of us, we'll get our meat and potatos from E3 next week most likely.

That being said, a lot of the media speculation was wrong about the new console and I'm glad it was. Just goes to show how much stock you can put into internet rumors, which is to say none. So most of the rumors I had gathered from various internet sources turned out to be bunk. But here's what we know for now, the Xbox 360:

• Will come in only one version that will ship with a 20GB detachable harddrive.
• Will be able to stream music, pictures, and movies from a PC over a network.
• Will have wireless controllers as a standard.
• Will have mandatory 720p resolution for all games.
• Will have two levels of XBox Live, Silver and Gold.
• Will not have WebTV or DVR functionality.

Unfortunately Microsoft didn't give any details on whether it would be backwards compatible or not. I believe that the hardware is powerful enough to emulate the original XBox. I've heard a range of reasons on what the problem may be ranging from technical difficulties to licensing issues. Who knows, let's keep our fingers crossed that they say something about this at E3.

It's shaping up to look like a pretty amazing console. I can see myself getting one of these as soon as it comes out. And if I'm overseas at the time I'm just going to have to recruit someone to stand in line for me. It will be mine...oh, yes, it will be mine!