Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

I've always been fascinated with gaming. I've had an Atari console when it came out, playing Pac Man and Space Invaders. Aside from the several Game and Watch screens that I had, I also had several Nintendo Family Computers in which Mario and Luigi were made famous. Then Sony came out with Playstation which brought in the Final Fantasy Series and Metal Gear. But that was then and now what I have is the Big Black Console called Xbox. I love my Xbox. It's been 2 years since I got mine from the Philippines (though the unit was bought and brought from Hongkong) and had a 120 GB harddrive installed to it. Not only do I use the console for gaming but also for playing all media files that we want to watch on the big TV; JPG, AVI, MPG, MP3, RMVB, WMV, MOV, DAT for VCDs, and even our DVDs. You can even transfer the files from your PC/Laptop directly to the Xbox through ethernet connection. The only thing missing is for it to be a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) so we can copy TV show from our satellite feed directly to the Xbox harddisk. We've brought it to most of the hotels we've stayed in just for Xiane to be able to watch her cartoons and keep her happy. It's one of the first thing that I set up when moving to a new place (we've moved 6 times this year including our long hotel stays). So far, paying roughly US$380 for the console with 120GB has been worth it. Microsoft has just launched its new Xbox, named Xbox 360 for whatever reason. A Core version (Console, Composite AV plus wired controller) would set you back for 299 while the Premium System (Console, wireless controller, headset, ethernet cable, Component HD cable, and 20GB hard drive) would cost you US$399. That is if you can find one. He he he. People who were lucky enough to get one had sold theirs thru ebay, earning almost twice the amount of what they paid for. That's what hype makes people do, spend an unbelievable amount of money for that item or service. I have a friend who is not really a gamer but was fed the hype. He now is too excited to get an Xbox 360 just because he knows a lot of other people buying it. Amazon and other online retailers have them on their sites but most likely, your orders would arrive January or even February of 2006! But people are still ordering and other have been trying to track down those elusive boxes. Others have even resorted to stealing! I'm not sure why MS would hype the launch of their next gen console only to have limited numbers available to those who want it. A marketing ploy to salivate those who want it? Or, looking it at the other way, it might mean that they released so little for people to serve as product testers for the 360. A lot of owners have been complaining about errors, hangs, disc reading errors and disc scratching. MS says it's just 3% of 360 owners but I'm not too sure. Personally, I would not buy one just yet. I don't want to be a guinea pig for MS. I'd probably buy one after a year or two after 3-4 stable firmware versions have come out. Besides, my old yet trusty Xbox hasn't given me a problem in 2 years of use and abuse. Plus I can almost do anything the Xbox 360 can do (except play those not-so next gen games and output to HD) and more. I'm not in for the hype...which is good, so I can start saving for the High Definition TV that I'm going to buy once I decide to buy my 360! He he he he...