Don’t dare tell Microsoft that patience is a virtue. Instead of waiting until 2006 to launch a new console like hardware competitors Sony and Nintendo, Bill Gates’ gaming crew will be the first out of the next-gen gates when it releases Xbox 360 on November 22. And in case you didn’t know already, you’ll have two different packages to choose from: a $300, bare-bones core unit that comes with the basic console and controller, or the premium bundle that—for an extra 100 smackers—includes a hard drive, a wireless controller, and a few other welcome accessories (Microsoft expects more demand for the deluxe bundle and will produce more of those). On the games front, the first-person shoot-em-up Perfect Dark Zero (which keeps looking better—see pg. 64), Project Gotham Racing 3, and a handful of EA Sports titles will lead the 360 charge.

But enough about the early days of the console—you probably want to know about the returns you’ll see on this $300 or $400 investment in 2006 and beyond. The console maker recently unveiled some future 360-exclusive titles, including the sci-fi role-playing game Mass Effect from Jade Empire maker BioWare, the god-versus-machines action game Too Human, and the Grand Theft Auto–esque Crackdown, while the monster-filled shooter Gears of War showed us once again just how good the system’s games can look. Peter Moore, the corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing for Xbox, also tells us that RPG heavyweight Square Enix, which never supported the company’s first console, is readying more than just the massively multiplayer Final Fantasy XI for 360. (“Yes, some things are coming,” Moore says.) And what about that little game called...oh yeah, Halo 3? Well, the only news concerning Master Chief’s next outing came from Chief Xbox Officer Robbie Bach, who told the IDG news service that the first-person shooter would ship “when it’s ready,” not necessarily in time to combat the PlayStation 3 launch (which Gates said in Time magazine last May). So can these newly announced games help fill the big Halo void? Turn the page....

Splinter Cell 4

Poor Sam Fisher—the gray-haired spy veteran just can’t get a year off, as Ubisoft recently announced that Splinter Cell 4 will sneak its way onto the Xbox 360 (in addition to the current-gen consoles) sometime next spring. A short teaser trailer confirmed that this upcoming edition in the stealth-action series will include both an offline solo campaign and online play. It showed footage of what looked like Splinter Cell’s innovative “spy versus mercs” multiplayer mode; the segment featured a spy scampering along a building’s girders, a merc (who dons a futuristic-looking faceguard) patrolling below, and a scuffle between the two. Pretty standard stuff, but then the trailer ended with the phrase, “You have no idea what’s coming.” Sam gets killed? You play as his daughter? A massively multiplayer online mode? What could it be?

Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Electronic Gaming Monthly.