Empty Road

Yesterday B0log3r, REM, and I wne to the Xbox 360 Road Trip. This event first started requiring people to pre-register and this "VIP priority list" is suppose to have first access inside the bus. Here is the disclaimer...

Registering will give you priority access inside the bus over others who have not registered, however, registration will not guarantee you access inside the bus. Access is subject to availability of the bus on the day and numbers are limited. Microsoft reserves the right to close off registrations at any time. Please note the final admission to the bus each day is at 8.45 PM. The bus will hold 40 people at a time and each session on the bus will last for 15 min. You must register at least 1 day prior to the day you wish to attend the Roadtrip.

Good if there was plenty of people however, this was not the case on the day. We got there around 2-3pm and there was hardly any people queuing up.

The bus was impressive. They converted the outside of the bus to look roundish. The left hand side bus panel had 10 or so plasma screens on it. Problem is, you can't see anything on the screen because it is facing directly at the sun. Having the event during the daytime, you would have thought they are smart enough to turn the bus so the screen faces south or away from the sun.

When we got there, there was about a dozen cars parked around the bus. Most of it probably belong to the staff of Microsoft and Noel Leemings. Yes Noel Leemings staff was there giving away some paper with special discount offers when you pre-order your console pack. The offer includes discounts to games for the whole year and quadruple FlyBuys points.

>> Here's the side of the bus...yes there is something showing on the screens. Spot the Noel Leemings guy :)

We waited for about 10 minutes as they prepare the inside of the bus. Not sure why it wasn't prepared in the first place if the even ran from 9am-9pm. Perhaps they have BSOD problems and had to reboot.

To the right of the queue are two cars with plasma screens and Xbox 360s. This is where the non-VIP people is suppose to view the new consoles while they wait for access inside the bus. Of course as you can see, this doesn't matter. You can fit everyone waiting outside inside the bus. They said you can fit up to 40 people inside the bus. Well maybe when seated in seats. There are about 20 displays inside. So theoretically, you can have 40 players at any one time plus spectators.

Problem is (see above), there is hardly enough room to fit two people per display to fit anyone older than 11 yrs old and the games they feature above are all R16! What the?! Each display uses an LCD screen which was impressive.

The consoles are cased inside a clear plastic display with no venting so behind each display is an exhaust fan (above) to vent all the hot air out of the xbox units. Also inside the bus is 19 degrees C as indicated in the A/C controls. It was very cold. The three of us had to leave at least twice to warm ourselves up. We concluded that the A/C was not for the comfort of the visitors but to prevent the xbox 360 from overheating - one of the faults discovered so far by xbox 360 users overseas.

At the back of the bus there is in very impressive screen showing some video. The video was very pixelated :)

The reflection on the screen features a silhouette of ... how did they put it... the "sizzling Joanna Dark". Trust me...nothing sizzling there...We were all frozen. In fact, This guy chatting to her is one of the staff. Everyone was more focussed on playing the games. There was one time I saw "Dark" sitting in front of the bus reading Brass magazine.

What games did we play? Well there was Perfect Dark Zero which was quite good - controls take a bit of getting use to. There was also Quake 4 (ok), DOA 4 (ok - ernie would enjoy), Project Gotham 3 (nothing new), NFS MW, Kameo, Call of Duty 2, Fight Night, Some skateboard game, and a soccer game. The bus would have been a disappointment to kids as there are only 4 games for them to see.

Not everything is a disappointment though. They were giving away lanyards, caps (which looked gay), rubber bands, and tennis bands.

Anything free can brighten up your day. :)))

We stayed for a couple of hours. Got bored and my back was aching. The displays were not ergonomic. We also got real cold.

Overall, it was an ok but sub-standard experience. Wich they would give away more things like FREE XBOX 360s!!!!

I spoke to one of the staff and The turn out on friday wasn't so big. I was told they attracted about 200 people on friday at the domain. Well what do you expect I guess...parents are working and children are in school. When they get there, they'll find that most of the bus is R16 anyway.

I'll leave the rest of the comments to B0log3r if he's got any.