Microsoft's Hardware 2007-04-20 03:25:53 - Written by Ralph
		As the state of console gaming has shifted, so have our opinions and hopes for future hardware and games. While usually the loudest of Microsoft's 360 fans here at 10ThumbsUp, I've had a bit of a change of heart lately.  Let's start with the wireless headset that we reviewed below. While it sounded fairly good in initial testing when the review was written... further experimentation proved that the item is essentially broken. Bad range, loss of signal, and unfortunte sound quality issues mar a design that looks and feels great. But why even mention that? If it doesn't work, it is crap. From what I understand about recent iterations or lots of this unit, they are much improved. But I can't review what I don't have, and sneaking improvements into the design of something that is so deeply flawed does not remove the flaws of the one that I have. I should have sent this in during the 90 day warranty. Final score: 4 out of 10 until Microsoft has a recall. Xbox 360 controller. Nearly perfect in every way. I love the feel, the look, the control and "play" of the sticks, the push of the buttons. The D-pad is the worst first party attempt at such a means of control that I've ever used in the history of the  D-pad. How can something be 90° off from the intended direction, repeatedly? Inexcusable. I find it hard to recommend this having spent so much time with a controller that in part does not freakin' control. Final score: 5 out of 10 until Microsoft has a recall. Xbox 360 Rechargeable Plug n'  Play kit. Worked great for a year, then died horribly. If I recall these are fairly cheap, but comparing the luxury of playing while charging vs buying a couple extra Energizer rechargeable batteries plugged into the wall... the bunny wins. Final Score: 8 out of 10. The bunny gets 10. Xbox 360 Console. Awesome. LIVE rocks, these are the game titles that I want to be playing, pretty good interface for the dashboard, and continual improvement. Beautiful to look at, and runs like a dream... until it doesn't. There is a time when I would have given this unit a 9 or 10 out of 10, but that was when it worked. Sending mine back under warranty and getting another console that broke pretty much destroyed my impression of the system. If I can't play the games I want to play because my console is awaiting its coffin, I can't give it a good review. Final Score: 4 out of 10 until Microsoft has a recall. Xbox360 Steering Wheel. Seriously, this is the best product that Microsoft has out there right now from a peripheral standpoint. It looks nice, it works fantastic... I'm just not sure why they bothered with the battery charger/"wireless" feature. You've already got a power cord and a kind of phone cord that connects the pedals to the 360... who cares about another cord? Anyways... I love this thing so far, but should probably put some additional time into some driving games before I speak too highly of it. So Far Review: 9 out of 10. I know what you're thinking: Good Lord, he hates the 360 now! No, actually I still very much enjoy everything about the 360 when it works. And I'm also finding out that there simply isn't a perfect console company out there. Disappointments in the way Sony runs its gaming division have led me away from them, and while I congratulate Nintendo on marketing the Wii and coming out on top (for now...) you'd be hard pressed to find something that has hit the store shelves in the entire last quarter that is interesting for more than a play or two. No, I'm still a huge fan of a working Xbox360. I'm just not a fan of Microsoft.

old crap

		360 Wireless Headset: First Impressions 2006-11-04 12:46:14 - Written by Ralph
		Sometimes I revert to being one of those guys where I see the worst in humanity, and assume that a late merging car, a stereo blasting neighbor,  or an 11 item grocery buyer in the 10 item lane are not coincidences or accidents, but conspiracy of the highest order. I tend to recount those tales the same way an overzealous detective might describe a psychopath's modus operandi over an old crime scene; finding additional meaning where there shouldn't be. I was one of those guys at Gamestop on Friday when I confirmed to the clerk there that yes, I had in fact pre-ordered a wireless headset for the 360. His face fell. I saw it. Later on I announced that I was pretty damn sure I had taken the last wireless headset, and that the clerk had wanted one. I'd been carrying this story with me during dinner after picking up the item, and waited for the privacy of the drive home to spin it. My wife shot me down immediately,  and to be honest I was expecting her to do so in such a way that made me realize just how far outside of reality I can get while being overly analytical. But she brought focus to that clerk's facial expression in a moment flat, making me completely re-think that point in time. She said, "I think he was just disappointed that he couldn't give you the 'You should have pre-ordered it' speech." I beamed with pride: She nailed it. So how is the headset? At home, I let it sit there and charge up its batteries while I simultaneously increased my expectations. When it was finally ready to test, I did the first thing that came to mind... I sent my friend ResidentEvil36 (AKA ResidntEvil and "Res" below) a voice message. I played it back to myself and heard my own voice, but I also heard a garbled electronic hum in the background. My immediate reaction was that this accessory was not going to be worth the money, and that no matter how hard I tried to justify having bought it, I was going to be disappointed. This feeling was doubled when I talked to Res in a private chat. For about ten minutes the two of us talked back and forth expressing our disappointment; he too had purchased one. That entire time I was thinking "Plus, this doesn't even sound like Res." It took until minute eleven for me to realize what is probably obvious to all of you. I had never heard his real voice. His voice wasn't a flat, compressed sound like some of those tinny singers from the 1920's... THIS is his voice, and yes, a little bit of undulating static. Why the interference? I'm not sure, but I'm also not sure it matters. Much like early CD's had warnings about the perfection of the signal revealing flaws in the original recordings, the wireless headset gives what I believe to be closer to the whole signal. And so it doesn't sound as clean; but it sounds more like a human. About the headset itself, I was disappointed in one particular aspect of it, and that is that it comes with two ear loops marked "S" and "M" for Small and Medium. There is no Large; but that would have been nice. The Medium is just a tiny bit tight against my old guy ears. Otherwise it is pretty nice. We had significantly less "are you there?" moments than I thought we would, and the range seemed not too bad (although further testing is definitely in order.) I'll keep messing with it and post more information in our forums; from what I've heard there are a range of experiences out there already, both good and bad. If you give one a go, don't judge it on that first ten minutes. Wait a little bit and test it out a couple different ways. In the same way that my wife's comment changed my perception of the clerk's face, that eleventh minute changed my perception of the headset. It's pretty awesome.

fossilized crap

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