Last night I did something I have very rarely done:

I played a game online.

I don't game all that often, and in my past experience those who usually game online are pretty serious about their gaming. In short, they are much better than I. This results in me getting my butt kicked time and again in the most embarrassing manner. It isn't that much fun.

That, along with having to sit there, figure out which games are open, which are not (I have had a couple of occasions where I was not-so-kindly asked to leave a server as it was "private", though not password protected), which are for clans, which are for anyone, etc. Unless you have specific people you play online with regularly, in my experience it is a rather unforgiving activity.

And let's not even consider the problems you can run into when gaming online that are caused by differences in the quality of the hardware for each person who is playing (how good is the hosting machine, etc.).

But last night was different. It was on my new XBOX 360.

My wife was kind enough to pick up for me the XBOX 360 Live kit, and everyone gets a free month of XBOX Live Gold. This is the membership level that allows you to play online against others. So, I decided to take advantage of that free month. Tossed Burnout: Revenge in to the console, selected XBOX Live, Quick Match, and then the Player Skill option. Instantly I was in a game with 5 other players who were about my skill level (ie. not expert ).

Played for about an hour online. Nary a problem. One guy dropped due to his connection, but other than that, the game was perfectly smooth. No, I didn't win, but I also didn't get totally crushed, and considering I have been playing Burnout: Revenge for, oh, 2 days, the matchmaking aspect worked perfectly.

And when you get right down to it, I can't help but think that XBOX Live is going to be what makes the difference in the next generation console battle between Microsoft and Sony. Sure, we don't know what Sony's online component is going to be yet, but Live is going to be tough to beat.

The ease of use is really the kicker. It just works. No guessing, no IP address hunting, no worries. Just select and go. Together with the option to download so much content (watched some movie trailers last night, there are tons of game demos, XBOX Live arcade, themes for the dashboard, etc.), XBOX Live makes all the difference.

In fact, I was so impressed that, despite the fact that I will have very limited time to play this coming year, I plan on purchasing a year's subscription to Live when my free trial runs out. Yes, it is that good.