Don't own a 360 but wanna try it out?
 

My local arcade is beta testing one of these machines that let you play on an X-Box 360 for a limited time. Apparently it's not intended for arcades, but rather they're to be used on College campuses. At first I thought the machine was a ripoff since you pay one dollar for ten minutes of gameplay, but then I realized why this is a good idea. If you don't own an X-Box 360 and just want to try out one of the games, this machine allows you to do it without having to buy or rent a console and the game. Instead, you pay a buck (or a few bucks) and gain access to a full game for a limited time. Also, this machine is supposed to be able to connect to X-Box Live, so I guess some people might find a use for it even if they do own a 360 and don't mind spending some cash.

The machine at my arcade had four different games on it: DoA4, Hollow Tube, Crimson Skies, and some racing game (Gran Turismo?). I was mostly interested in checking out DoA4 where I found that I had enough time to experiment a bit in Sparring mode and then check out Story Mode. Afterwards I talked a bit to the lady who runs the place about how some games probably worked better on this system than others. DoA4 was kind of obvious since it's an arcade game, but also because of the simple fact that there aren't many menus. With Halo 2, on the other hand, if you want to do multiplayer with friends then you have to spend part of your time going through menus to set up a game.

I guess that explains why this machine is not intended for arcades, but I still think certain games work a little better in this situation. Say you and a friend want to play a fighting game, you can both put down money for some time and not have to worry about knocking each other off when you win. Depending on how you play, you could probably save some money this way.

Anyway, the company that makes this thing is called FragIsle International, and unfortunately their website is blank "due to preliminary negotiations". The lady at the arcade also mentioned Sony, so perhaps they're going to try putting multiple consoles in these things. Definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Why do that? Many toy stores have a running Xbox 360 there with some kind of Demo DVD inside. I played a demo of Call of Duty, a game I forgot that name of and Project Gotham Racing (I think) and realised the Xbox 360 just looks great.

Yeah man, just drive to Walmart.

If they're to be used on college campuses, MS should think again about that fee. Game companies bring free demos to college campuses many times during one academic year. Also, it's likely that a college student at least knows a friend of a friend who owns an Xbox 360 and would let them try it out for free.

Hmm, it said "Content removed due to preliminary negotiations" when I clicked on the link.

Anyway, I would agree with the other posters here in that I can just run to Best Buy, Walmart, Target, etc. and try the demos there for free to see if I like it or not. I tried the Call of Duty 2 demo, and was pretty impressed by it (but I already have the PC version).

I'm mostly waiting for either the price to come down, or more games on the system before I make that plunge myself. The lack of RPG's on the system is a turn off for me (why should I get Oblivion for Xbox 360 when I can buy the PC version? No, I'm not being sarcastic, is the Xbox 360 version better than the PC in any way?) And I don't know anyone that's made that plunge yet either (mostly because they couldn't find one, and aren't in the mood to get one atm now that it's more readily available).

Ha! There's already a free Xbox 360 on my campus with unlimited play time. However most of the nerds there don't bathe and stink up the joint.

Because the FragIsle's machine isn't loaded with demos, it's running full games. IMO those store kiosks are only good for showing off a console's appearence and basic features.

Shops over here tend to have full games in their display consoles as it happens. I have to agree with everyone else though, this looks like a pretty pointless idea.

Also, Gran Turismo is Sony only, it was probably one of those god awful Project Gotham games.

Full games that really don't appeal to people that much. Why not make one of the very limited selection of four games...popular?

Same here, except we only have a regular Xbox at the moment (I wouldn't be surprised if we got an Xbox 360 sometime soon, though). All you have to do is give the Rec Center your student ID and then they'll give you the Xbox and one controller (all your friends have to do is trade in their IDs for the other controllers).

But yeah, this does seem kind of silly. It reminds me of this one place at a mall here in town where you have to pay like $10 for an hour's worth of play of any console of your choosing. This place seems better though, because at least you get to choose from more than one console, and since they have the real ones you have a nice selection of games to choose from as well. Pretty nice setup too, with comfortable chairs and couches to sit on, big screen TVs for the multiplayer matches, tables full of gaming magazines all around. If I had actually had the time back when I went there, I probably would have tried it out.

But you'd only have to go thirty times before you had the cash for your own 360. I don't know too many games you can't squeeze thirty hours of fun out of.

Well, I was mainly comparing it to the machine in the first post. Compared to that, I think this is much better, but overall I don't think either of them are that good in the long run (like you said, by the time you actually finish a game, you probably could have bought the system by then). But for the sole purpose of trying it out, I think this would work much better.

This probably isn't the best way to decide ont he purchase of a system. Let's face it as gamers we pretty much know whether we want to invest in a system or not. This is especially true for a college campus when a friend of a friend is almost sure to have one.

I will conceede that this could be a good idea to test whether or not you want to buy a certain game. Cheaper than a rental, quicker than a trip to a game store 10 to 20 minutes of play will usually be enough for most gamers to determine whether they want to invest in a title or not.

As I said in the original post, the machine is being beta tested. Though I'm pretty sure Halo 2 is reasonably popular with the crowd MS is trying to appeal to.

It's not exactly an awesome advert for the 360 though is it? You kow, being an Xbox1 game and all...