Back in Black

Finally acknowledging what most would consider the worst kept "secret" in the industry, Microsoft officially unveiled it's spanking new Elite 360 today. What makes this edition elite? Why obviously the much cooler black cooler, you fools! But seriously, it comes with a much bigger 120 gig hard drive, an HDMI port along with an HDMI cable (which I'd like to note Sony was too cheap to include in their still significantly more expensive system). But oddly enough, no improvements to the hardware to make it run cooler or quieter. So what will all this run you? A not too-outrageous $480, but that seems to be enough of a difference to make MS not drop the price of their premium model anytime real soon. Now obviously, the 120 hard drive is the big deal for any current 360 owner, but at a fairly steep $179 suggested retail price, I'm guessing most current 360 owners will hold off on that until they absolutely have to upgrade, and quite frankly, unless you're incredibly lazy it's not that difficult to use USB 2.0 any external hard drive that already exists.

And the instant Sony response is of course that now their so-called superior console is only $20 more. Yeah, a console that claims graphic superiority it hasn't shown yet with a smaller hard drive. Let's also forget the fact that the 20 gig model is already all but dead in the water, with no retailer being dumb enough to order it.

And supposedly MS is claiming they have one more big announcement that they will reveal sometime during the course of the day tomorrow, which will most likely be about the long-awaited Halo 3 beta (you know, so people can use Crackdown for something besides a coaster), and it may even be officially up and running shortly after they announce it. If that's the case, I may see about renting me some Crackdown early tomorrow.

FREE GAME OF THE WEEK: Bubble Tanks