I read the most recent Microsoft Press Release: Xbox 360 Powers All-New Nissan URGE Concept Car. Now I have to apologize to Microsoft because I am thinking it means what it says … that a car is ACTUALLY powered by the 360 … so I am thinking blue screen as you merge onto a busy highway. The Release doesn’t however (fortunately?) mean what it says. What it means is that the 360 is installed in the car and when parked you can use the vehicles controls (steering, brake, gas) to control the game console as you race through the game “Project Gotham Racing® 3”. I guess that is a neat enough concept (although I cannot imagine it being a good value). The problem however is that you wind up playing it on a 7″ LCD screen. Nothing like taking away the realism. If you want to have it real, then pop up the front hood and display a wide screen tv in front of the driver! Now that would be gaming of the arcade variety. Anyway, this will give whole new meaning to running to the corner store …

This article was posted on Wednesday, December 28th, 2005 at 1:23 pm