I’ve come to a decision. It’s one I’ve not made entirely lightly, but it’s made all the same.
Up until now, all of the PCs I’ve built for myself have been gaming-quality PCs. They typically last about three years or so, and when I upgrade it tends to be a large upgrade consisting of CPU, memory, motherboard, hard disk, and video card. That kind of upgrade isn’t really cheap. However, more and more, I’ve been finding myself playing my Xbox 360 far more than I have my PC. Gaming on my PC is becoming much less of a priority, to the point where I think the next machine I buy will probably be a Mac Mini or something similar, and the two 320 GB hard drives I have in my main PC now will just be put in enclosures and used as external USB 2.0 drives.
As for why I’m migrating to the Xbox 360… well, the fact that it has more games I want to play like Mortal Kombat: Armageddon and Gears of War is certainly a factor. There are a couple of other factors as well. For one thing, unless I want to run long cables, the 360 has a better display/sound setup. My PC has a 19″ LCD monitor and a four speaker/one subwoofer system. The 360 is in my entertainment center, and as such is hooked up to my 27″ LCD HDTV and my Dolby Digital 5.1 home theater receiver. Also, the 360 itself cost far less than a gaming-quality PC, and has a longer shelf-life, so to speak. Finally… with the 360, I don’t have to futz with installing into Windows and dealing with system requirements and the like.
So, what games am I looking forward to for the 360? Well, the three that come to mind right now are Command & Conquer 3, Unreal Tournament 3, and John Woo’s Stranglehold. I’ll probably pick up a few games on Xbox Live Arcade when the time comes. For now, though, I’m going to stick with the games I’ve got, especially with online Gears of War. I’m having fun, and that’s really all that matters. :-)