High-Def Jam

We spent some time playing with Microsoft's Xbox 360, which went on sale this past Tuesday. The first of the next generation of videogame consoles, the high-def-ready 360 is an impressive feat of technological Darwinism (and lotsa intelligent design), doubling as a multimedia hub capable of handling music, photos, and DVDs. As is often the case, the launch titles are a mixed bag. A few games, including Peter Jackson's King Kong and the WWII-themed Call of Duty 2, look great (you can practically smell the gunpowder when playing on an HDTV set); others seem more Xbox 1.5 than 2.0. But we loved the new controllers and the enhancements to Microsoft's already solid online gaming service. B With HDTV: B+