I just remembered that I never posted about this. Back on August 23, 2006 my local Toys R Us received a shipment of Xbox Live Cameras. I had called the previous 2 days to see if they had any after reading that another location broke the street date. Then on the 23rd the woman said, "Hold on we just got a shipment in and let me see if we have any." She came back and said, "I have this Xbox Live Vision camera thing, is that it?" So I hung up and rushed to Toys R Us on my way to work and bought two of them. As she rung them up I looked and noticed they only had three left (so they only received five).

Be sure to click below to read the Review.

So, it turns out that I bought the Xbox 360 late last night. I read a few days ago that Wal-Mart was going to release a lot of 360s on New Year's day at mid-night. I called three local ones in town and they had no idea how many they were getting, but they would sell them at 12:01 am on Jan. 01, 2006.

Well, apparently spending New Year's isn't very fun or romantic (just kidding), so I had to wait until 3:00 am and figured no one would have any by then. At 3 am I called all three local Wal-Marts and all they had left over were the core systems. So I called a store about 35 minutes away and they said they had some. We showed promptly at 3:30 am and snagged one of the last two they had in stock. After browsing the games I selected Project Gotham Racing 3. Words can barely describe how good PGR3 looks, just unbelievable. I haven't had the chance to hook it up to an HDTV, but the next time I visit my parents, you can bet it will be hooked up to the 60" Grand Wega (drool).

As Stndrddc posted earlier, the current rumor for the Xbox 360 release date is November 4, 2005. There have also been unconfirmed reports that it will cost $299.99 with games such as Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 costing $59.99.

OH, and after surfing the net, I found an interesting picture.

The Retail Box

The price isn't all that surprising as other game consoles were released around this price in the past. As manufacturing costs rise to make and develop games, so does the price tag. Expect to see most, if not all, games to be around $60. There have been other reports that the PS3 will not be cheap (maybe $399 or even $499?)

A little slip-up on one of Microsoft's partner sites has revealed the release date for the Xbox360, November 4, 2005. I assume this is for us in the US but no confirmation yet. Since Ryo and I recently moved into an apartment we will be broke for a while, so feel free to donate all your pocket change towards our Xbox360 funds.

Update: Ryo has set up a Paypal donation address. Check out the sidebar to the left.

On the GameStop website, they show Halo 3 as being released around June 2006 here in the US.

Microsoft originally stated that they will release Halo 3 around the launch of the Playstation 3 and Sony stated that the PS3 should launch around mid 2006. It is possible that GameStop is basing the release date off what M$ has said about competing with the launch of the PS3.

We will keep you updated as news develops.

"Now that it's been announced at E3, I can finally reveal that the Xbox 360 feature I work on is... Xbox backwards compatibility!

Xbox backwards compatibility is a unique project in so many ways, and I feel very fortunate to get to work on it. I'm sure it will be the hardest technical challenge of my career -- I can't imagine what could possibly top it in terms of sheer technical difficulty."

Read more on Michael Brundage's blog and at Teamxbox

Don't forget that tonight on MTV Microsoft will reveal the Xbox 360 at 8:30pm CST.

Sorry for the lack of updates, Stndrddc and I moved into an apartment and we just got hooked up to the internet.

Engadget has released more leaked pictures of the Xbox 360. The first picture shows the system, xb live headset, and the camera. The second picture is a close-up view of the controller.

Compared to previous pictures, the controller is starting to shape-up. They also have a picture of the Xbox 360 Windows Media Remote Control.

Source: Engadget

This is said to be the actual, final design model for the Xbox 360. I certaintly hope this is true. The design is so original, yet very professional looking. If this is in fact the final model, I will be getting one, no doubt about it.

Source: Engadget

The first Xbox 360 ad has been aired to the public. It's a commercial for the MTV debute for the Xbox 360 on Thursday, May 12 at 8:30 CST. I will be watching that for sure. Check it out here

On another note, I have recieved 3 new PSP games for my birthday; Wipeout Pure, Lumines, and Mercury. I will try to post a review for each in the near future.