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I'm ranting about Xbox Live again. Why? cos yesterday me and Hani met up online at some late hour (since he got his 360 his sleep pattern has practically been reversed), and decided to have a go at some Pro Evo 6 (I know I know!).

Anyone who remembers me will know that I am not generally a fine of sport games, except a few exceptions (eg Tennis, and Speedball if you can count that in :p). So with reluctance I got PES6 and we tried it out last night. And man what a night! We were both really shit at it, but game after game we started learning the tricks and ended up scoring some great goals!

But what's really amazing about it is its great online function. For the majority of our PC gaming Hani has had problems with higher than average pings (cos of UAE-UK links), and has had to put up with some mild lag on Quake. Amazingly, every game we've tried on Live has no lag whatsoever, except now and then like normally expected. I have no clue how Table Tennis manages to keep us playing at blazing speeds all the time. With PES6, the first 30 seconds of every game we played chops up a bit (I presume it's syncing and calculating what it needs to compensate) and then we're playing EXACTLY as if we're on the same machine, or on a LAN.

Best thing is, whenever a goal is scored it is replayed from 2 angles, and then the scorer has about 1 minute to manually control the replay, including slow-mo, reverse, camera control etc etc. And this shows on both players' machines! So for that sweet post-goal one minute, you have the opportunity to really annoy and charge-up your opponent, by showing him the goal over and over again. Sweet.

Of course, all of this is with lag-free voice chat throughout the whole game. It really is amazing how MS got the Live servers so good.

I say again, those that are considering getting a console (or have recently settling in .eu *cough* india *cough*) I seriously recommend a 360. Get it and relive the golden oldie days were gaming was simple, and fun.

Finally, here's a video of something I was hoping would happen way back here: a 4 player Command and Conquer 3 skirmish, on Live, with full video/voice chat while the game's playing :) I can't wait for other games to have video conferencing built in (imagine it in football or tennis games or anything really, seeing your foe as you battle!). Good times are a-coming!