One of the neat things about the XBOX 360 is that you can download game demos and play them (you might have been able to do this using the original XBOX but I never did). Anyhow, I've already downloaded a couple of demos, Kameo and Need for Speed Most Wanted. Both files are quite large, the Need for Speed one is over 900 MBytes. I managed to get them down over a few days because you don't have to download the files all at once, you can resume a download at any time. Kameo is very cute, but it looks a bit confusing for me.

I was initially unimpressed with Need for Speed. I thought I detected quite a bit of judder to the frame rate and the first thing I tried, a standard race, was rather boring. However, the second thing I tried, an all out police chase, was a hoot. I've never actually been chased by the police but the feeling was very real. The thing that made it wonderful was the police radio chatter, you can hear the chase coming together and being coordinated around you. At one point I rammed a truck to get away, only to hear the police driver behind me exclaim "He's sideswiped a vehicle!". The environment is huge and complex, with plenty of  places to shake off your pursuers and the game has definitely moved from a ho-hum into a might buy for me. It is a port of a game which is also available on PS2 and original XBOX and so I'm not convinced that it makes the best use of the XBOX 360 hardware. But it is fun. If you have a 360 with a hard drive and a broadband you really should download the demo and see what you think.

Update: I've played a bit more of this, and I like it even more as a result. Crashing police roadblocks is wonderful. I'm wondering if this is going to give me anti-social tendencies...