This weekend I borrowed the Xbox 360 we have at work to bring home and check out in the 'familiy environment'.

In general, the experience has been positive. Easy hook up and smooth start-up had the girls playing within minutes. They have been playing Project Gotham Racing and Kameo. They love the co-op mode of Kameo.

In HD, the Xbox 360 truly shines. The images are spectacular to even non-gamers. The general interface is responsive and easy to navigate. Overall, I am impressed with how good the complete package is.

The one drawback is the controller. After the girls went to bed, I played Call of Duty 2. I have the game on PC and am a generally competitive player of FPS games. Trying to learn the controls was difficult but eventually I began to start racking up the kills.

That said, I think that the fact that Microsfot does not allow a keyboard and mouse for FPS games is a crime. Even if I 'mastered' the controller, it would still not come close to the precision and responsiveness of keyboard & mouse.

The Xbox 360 is a highly specialized PC and there are no technical issues in allowing keyboard/mouse control. The issue is termed 'the level playing field'. Evidently it is recognized that keyboard/mouse control in FPS is better than controllers and that to make sure there is a level playing field, they refuse to allow keyboards and mice.

That, IMHO, is a silly plan. Saying 'We know our controller sucks, but we insist you all suck equally at the lowest common denominator'. I mean really. After a few months of release, a third party vendor made a keyboard/mouse adapter for the original Xbox. Why can't Microsoft simply enable keyboard & mouse and save all the pain.