They've Arrived... Sorta

My Xbox 360 and PSP came today! But by came, I mean that I had to go pick them up from UPS's Rochester facility. Long story short, the address on the box was slightly wrong so they couldn't deliver it. Thankfully, though, I finally have both of them in my hands.

I know I'm a little bit behind in the techno-gadgetry department, but I'm really impressed by both the 360 and PSP so far. The 360 came with both a wireless and wired controller, the hard drive, and Call of Duty 2. I popped in Call of Duty 2 and played through the first mission. It was pretty freaking sweet. It's not leaps and bounds ahead of the Xbox, but playing the games in high def is killer. Sure, I've been playing my Xbox in high def (I sprung for the high def cables on both systems), but the 360 is so much more sharp.

With a wired and wireless controller I expected them to function slightly differently since my wireless Xbox controller can be laggy at times in comparison to my wired controllers, but I had absolutely no problem at all with the 360's wireless controller. The only accessory I'm not looking forward to eventually buying is the $100 wireless card. It doesn't look like any other 3rd party is going to develop a version soon, so I'll have to throw down the cash eventually.

The main reason I wanted a 360 was to stream all of my music and movies on my computer to my television. Without the wireless card, this feature obviously hasn't been tested, but I did plug in my external USB hard drive that contains a backup of all my media and the 360 picked it up perfectly and let me start playing music from it in no time flat. Now if the streaming works, those two features will be worth the price of admission to the 360 world.

The PSP I bought on a whim with the 360 because the person selling it only wanted another $100 for the PSP. Considering they cost $200 or more in game stores, I thought it was a steal. Besides, it'll give me something to do while I'm flying for business trips. That and I can transfer the tv shows I've recorded on my computer to the Memory Stick and play them while I'm on the go.

I didn't expect the PSP to be quite as cool as it is. The screen is so sharp and clear that it almost made my jaw drop. Then again, it also might be because the last portable system I played was Sega's Game Gear. I booted up Untold Legends (the first game I bought for it) and started playing. The games, graphics wise, are about as good as Playstation games, if not slightly better, which amazes me. Again, probably because I played the Game Gear last.

What will be hours of fun without costing any money (even though it might be slightly in the illegal department) is playing old NES, SNES, and Genesis games on it. The person who I purchased it from left on emulators for those three systems along with some of the classic games. I spent probably 15 minutes reliving my childhood while playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2.

So with all of this new-fangled technology in my hands, I feel extra geeky. But I felt like it was almost time for me to nerd out and get some new tech, especially with the job upgrade I could treat myself, right? And I had some birthday money to spend. Thank goodness I don't have kids yet or I'd be fighting them for my toys!