Microsoft Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition

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*Summary*
Microsoft have done extremely well with this console. Upon realizing that Halo 3 was going to be the same killer app (see first line) that the first Halo was for the orginal xbox they combined that foresight with the realization that they needed to both bridge the gap between 20g non-HDMI premium & the expensive HDMI ready 120g Elite.

The Halo console includes Halo branding and customised design with the ...
...of 360s rushed out by microsoft to beat Sony & Nintendo to the current gen console release mostly suffer from the Red Ring of Death, but the Halo 3 edition is less likely to suffer from this as it was released at a later time.

Good luck and hope to see you in a Halo 3 ranked slayer online - my gamer tag is the same as my Ciao tag!! :D

*Extras summary*
Halo 3 Special Edition Console
Halo 3 Special Edition ... more

The Halo 3 game is the XBOX 360's main killer application (a game so desired that people will buy the console to play it...like me)

*INTRO** You can skip to the review if you like but I feel the intro is necessary :)

I was never an XBOX fan. For the ten years I had been adamant that SONY were the kings of the consoles. I have a PS1, PS2 & PSP but the price of the PS3 meant I would have to wait until an armed robbery of the royal mint took place to help pay for it - which was all being carefully planned on scrap paper during my lunch hours at work. Until one day a colleague invited me round to his house warming party to get drunk and play lots of computer games (we're geeks - this is what parties are like for us, OK!). He turned on his 360 Premium and we plugged away at Gears of War & Dead Rising! It is here at this point in my life that my love for SONY expired, said robbery never happened and Bill Gates' empire steamed into my life! Pushing the engagement to my lovely fiancee to the limit!!!!

The next time I visited his house - after the afore mentioned 'light seeing' - my friend handed me a controller and we again killed some Locust on GOW. He then mentioned that Halo 3 was to be released in Autumn. ''What?'' I asked. He sighed and cracked out his original xbox (360s can't emulate the original's performance too well) and put in Halo: Combat Evolved. I can't remember much after that but the next 2 months basically went like this - I THINK I went to work and I THINK I saw my fiancee but all I can remember really is countless hours plugging away on Halo 1 & 2 - replaying and replaying.

I awoke in a daze with my fiancee wiping my sweating forehead! Drunk with love (or just plain crazy) she decided that the only medicine for my Halo addiction was to fight fire with fire and buy me the Halo 3 Special Edition 360 console for my birthday...I paid half and got it 10 days early :D

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**Review**

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*Gerneral info*
Stripped down the Halo console is basically a 'pimped' combination of the Premium & Elite 360 trims. Combining the essential 20g HDD included in the premium package with the HDMI port included in the elite package. The price - as expected - sits happily between the cost of the premium & elite.

I didn't buy this console for the Halo 3 trim, I didn't buy this console for the HDMI port, I didn't buy this console for the HDD. I'm a complete geek and bought it because of all three! As well as the above the package came with exclusive Halo 3 content - 2 codes allow you to download UNSC Military themes & Halo 3 gamer pictures from xbox live market place.

We managed to pick up the Halo 3 console package for £249 from Gamestation with Limited Edition (Metal Tin) Halo 3 game included in the price. Since buying this console the price (console only) has returned to £279 (Feb/Mar '08) with the retailers who still have stock. Bought separately the console & game will cost in excess of £320.

*Everyday use*
We use this console on a 32'' BUSH LCD16TV via the HDMI input. The reason we bought the TV was to run HD consoles and movies (as mentioned on the BUSH TV review). The two work extremely well together. We initially enjoyed the picture quality of games and movies through the component connection - which is extremely clear - until one day we bought the HDMI cable. The picture was immediately sharper and the sound clearer! We then decided to do a little experiment just to make sure that it was all possible and our minds weren't just making it seem clearer (see next section). At first of course all I was doing was playing Halo 3 until stupid o' clock in the morning and sleeping through work, all the while my relationship with my fiancee was taking a beating due to this new engagement. I have since though sorted myself out - so to speak - and realised that even though this is the best creation in the history of the world that my fiancee is the most important thing in my life. We started to both play about with the console and now we use it is for everything!!

We use it our as our main DVD player, HiFi, MSN messenger. we don't watch TV much but we watch a lot of films and both play in bands and this one box under the TV which cost so much provides us with hours of chill-out entertainment from solo & online games, movies, music, chatting to friends. It has become an indispensable piece of furniture. Our music is stored on there, we can rent movies from xbox live marketplace...everything!! Amazing! We enjoy this console as a family, not just as a reclusive geek :)

*The experiment*
We hefted out the old 32'' Phillips tube TV (no slouch - top trim in it's day and still in perfect working order in the bedroom) and connected the above mentioned friend's Premium trim 360 via component cable whilst I switched on the Halo edition via HDMI to HD TV. We then connected the 2 systems through our router and started a LAN Halo 3 battle with 2 players on each. we placed the TVs opposite each other so the players on one TV couldn't see the other...after the first match we changed position...OH MY GOD!! I went from the HDTV to the tube TV. All I can say is this - Imagine you go to the optician and you get laser eye surgery and you walk outside and you an see everything! vivid colours, so much clarity and detail and then at the end of the day you go to bed. Upon waking up - to your dismay - your eyes have been secretly swapped back to your old eyes and even worse you're part deaf!! You can't make out simple lighting effects, clear lines and details merge into one brown blob, the noise is muffled and scratchy...and you decide you want to end you life. Such is the greatness of this console via HDMI this was how I felt when switching to the tube TV.

*Summary*
Microsoft have done extremely well with this console. Upon realizing that Halo 3 was going to be the same killer app (see first line) that the first Halo was for the orginal xbox they combined that foresight with the realization that they needed to both bridge the gap between 20g non-HDMI premium & the expensive HDMI ready 120g Elite.

The Halo console includes Halo branding and customised design with the Elite's HDMI port (NB. the premium consoles have now started to be manufactured with HDMI ports) and the premium's smaller 20g HDD.

The only let down is that you have to buy your own HDMI cable but you can pick these up for £2 on eBay - we did.

ALSO!! Great news is that the first batch of 360s rushed out by microsoft to beat Sony & Nintendo to the current gen console release mostly suffer from the Red Ring of Death, but the Halo 3 edition is less likely to suffer from this as it was released at a later time.

Good luck and hope to see you in a Halo 3 ranked slayer online - my gamer tag is the same as my Ciao tag!! :D

*Extras summary*
Halo 3 Special Edition Console
Halo 3 Special Edition Wireless Controller
Halo 3 Special Edition 20GB Hard Drive
Halo 3 Special Edition Wired Headset
Halo 3 Special Edition Gamer Pics and Theme (Exclusive download via Xbox LIVE)
Component HD AV Cable
Ethernet Cable
HDMI Port
Play & Charge Kit

*Tech Specs*
MS Windows XP Media Center compatible
12x DVD-ROM
IBM Gekko PowerPC 3 cores 3.2 GHz Processor

Floating Point Performance: 1000 GFLOPS
Memory: RAM 512 MB // GDDR3 SDRAM - Integrated
Cache Memory: 1 MB
HDD Capacity: 20 GB

Video Output: ATI Xbox 360 - 256-bit - 2D/3D graphics acceleration
Fill Rate: 500 million triangles/sec
Video Memory Installed: 10 MB - Integrated
Max Resolution (external): 1920 x 1080

Sound Output: 16-bit / Surround Sound
Max Sample Rate: 48 KHz

Game pad: Wireless
Connections: 1x HDMI port, 1 x AV cable port, 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x Ethernet (RJ-45)
Expansion Slots Total: 2 x Memory

Included Accessories
Xbox Live headset, Wireless controller, Component HD AV cable, Ethernet network cable, 20GB external hard drive, SCART adapter 

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