It started out as a typical Sunday drive in the video game universe. The speedometer was steady at 114 mph. We were driving the wrong way on the interstate. There were two or three cops on our tail.

Then the bounty on our head hit $50,000, the sirens and lights multiplied exponentially, and for the next 10 minutes it was as if O.J. were in the passenger seat.

Things quickly went from a "The Dukes of Hazzard" car chase to something from the last half hour of "The Blues Brothers." We glanced in the rearview mirror (hit the "Y" button, actually) and there was so much five-oh on our tail that we almost hit pause and dialed Matt Gonzalez to start plotting our legal defense.

That scenario of lawlessness, brought to you by Need for Speed: Most Wanted, was one of the rare transcendental feelings that occurred while playing the Xbox 360, a console with amazing technical potential that hasn't been fully realized by the first wave of games. And while hard-core video game enthusiasts should think about a second mortgage or calling that quick-cash number that Gary Coleman works for, there aren't quite enough "holy crap" moments yet to declare the 360 a must-buy for casual gamers.

Tests of more than a dozen launch titles show that most look fantastic but don't showcase the game-play advantages of the system. Many of the first Xbox 360 games play like much-better-looking versions of Xbox and PlayStation 2 titles, and some normally reliable video game franchises appear to have been rushed out.

There's definitely nothing like Halo, the revolutionary title that premiered with the original Xbox in 2001. But that's like saying there's nothing as good as "Citizen Kane" at the movies this holiday season; Halo was the kind of artistic leap forward that might not be replicated for the life of the system.

And on the positive side, there appear to be far more of the second-tier, good-but-not-great games than when the Xbox dropped.