360 Comes to Life...

I have long been an avid gamer. Starting from the days of playing Tetris on a local made ‘video game’; to spending innumerable summer vacations and late nights glued to my PC; to console gaming on the XBOX 360 today. When I first got the 360, it was because I was tired of staring at amazing game titles in stores, only to find out my 2 year old laptop had absolutely no chance of supporting them. And since I don’t use the laptop for much it did not justify spending a couple grand or more on a gaming machine.
So the 360 it was. And I was real glad to be able to play all the latest games on my 20” CRT television. I did have a little difficulty reading some of the font but the overall experience was great. Till now.
What changed was I gifted myself a 32” Sony Hi-Definition LCD television. After getting it home and fiddling around with the wiring and setup, I switched it on and just sat staring at how good it looked. And then I connected the 360, changed the settings to HDMI, adjusted the screen size and such other technicalities and finally inserted the NFS Most Wanted disc. And it started with a display that said, ‘EA HD’. And suddenly I felt like I had stumbled upon a portal that leads to this parallel universe. That only select people have had the privilege to access. All of a sudden there were sharper textures, crisp graphics and an unreal sense of reality! Everything looked so different that I began to wonder whether it was the same game I had already played. For the first time, I actually paused the race to admire the scenery! And about 5 minutes into my first race I had goose pimples all over. It may sound overtly exaggerated but I was actually staring open mouthed at the screen. The transition from a SD tube TV to a HD LCD TV is almost equivalent to a person used to the silent movie era getting a glimpse of the Matrix. Yes, it is that good!

I’m not promoting products here, but for all gamers out there, the 360-HD combination is something that I would recommend you save up for and spoil yourself with. I’m sure there will be a point when you will sigh and sit back with a silly grin on your face that just won’t go away. And just that one moment makes it all worth it!