Microsoft Official Xbox 360 - Xbox Live Gold Membership Card > Reviews (72)

On purchasing an xbox 360 console you are given a free months xbox live gold membership which can be used once for each xbox live account that is created. However this of course only lasts for a month and after that initial month I was hooked and since then have bought and year's membership and love to play online with my friends over xbox live all the time!

What is Gold Membership?:

When you create an xbox live account on your xbox 360 there are several different things you have to do. You at first have to input your email address and password in order to verify the account. You then get to choose a gamertag to have - this is your special unique gaming name that you will be recognised as while playing on xbox live - mine is magicman142.
The final section on signing up is to choose the type of membership you want:
- Silver membership - You can have a friends list and manages this. You can also download things from the marketplace including demos, arcade games, pictures, etc (I will talk about this in more detail later). You can also send and receive text and voice messages. This level is free!
- Gold Membership - This is the premium account level which is the same as silver and also allows you to play all xbox games online with friends and players across the world. You also have a much more enhanced friends list and features including member feedback etc. This of course comes at a price which I will discuss later.

Why connect to xbox live?:

Xbox live in my opinion has to be the best thing that ever happened to xbox! Without xbox live this console would be just the same as every other one with good games and that's about it. However with xbox live - what having this membership will unlock - you can truly get the most out of your 360 console:

- Xbox live marketplace - with your membership you can get loads of free stuff from the marketplace including themes, demos etc and can also purchase microsoft points and purchase loads of cool stuff to play and do on xbox live:
xbox live marketplace.
The first thing you can buy is an xbox live arcade game. These are classic old style games whose prices range from 400 to 1200 points. Some of my personal favourites are:
- Worms (800 points)
- Uno (400 points)
- Track and Field (400 points)
You can even purchase extra content for these games, for example for worms you can get new levels and backgrounds.
You can also buy downloadable content for many xbox 360 games and these cost about 800 points (though prices will vary), and example would be Call of Duty 4 - where you purchase a new map pack of 4 new maps for online and off line play.
Other items to download from the games section of the marketplace includes gamer pictures and themes for you xbox - these prices are often below about 200, and again it varies from game to game.
Another new privelidge is being able to download old games from the original xbox, called Xbox Originals.
My preferred xbox originals are:
- Halo
- Black
- Burnout 3: Takedown
These cost 1200 points each.
Another area of the marketplace is the video and music marketplace where you can download music videos from a massive variety of singer from Michael Jackson to Robbie Williams.

Another new feature is the availability of movies to download for only a few hundred points. These can even be downloaded in HD.
These includes titles such as:
- I am Legend
- Cloverfield
- Braveheart
- Harry Potter films
and so on ( for a full list visit www.xbox.com)

- The best feature of xbox live has to be the ability to play loads of different games online and get the most out of these games. You can play with all your friends and create you own teams or leader boards as well as compare yourself to players across the world in all time leader boards of different games.
Most games can be really good offline but they become amazing once you start playing with them online!
For example I loved the campaign on Call Of Duty 4, but now can't stop playing online against loads of people and it is so great - if I didn't have my membership I wouldn't be able to do this.
Another example is the recently released Mercenaries 2 which involves loads of missions which can be very challenging, however I can now just go online and play with a friend who owns the game and we can work together and help each other out in finishing the game.

- On xbox live you can also have your very own friends list which with the gold membership shows you a list of your friends along with their gamertag, picture, catch line and you ca n then read information about them and compare your games with them and loads of other stuff. You can also see your own statistics about how other members find you - a good player or someone who leaves early?
You can also send messages, videos and voice messages to all your friends!

Price:

£34.99 from play.com for 12 months membership
£12.99 for 3 months (play.com) - which would work out at £51.96 for a year

In my view it is definitely better to go for the gold membership than the free silver as you get so much more and can of course play games online - one of the most important things about xbox live. It is also far more economical to purchase the full 12 months rather than the 3 months membership for the reasons shown above in the prices.

You can purchase the membership in several ways:
- Online from places such as play.com or Game and you will be sent the voucher code through your email account and then type this into the xbox.
- In store where you will receive a card and have to just scratch off to reveal the code.
- On the xbox - Using your credit card you can sign up for automatic renewal through the xbox dashboard!

Conclusion:

What are you waiting for now is the time to get your membership and start playing all your favourite games online with your friends and get all the other great features from the xbox live marketplace including games and demos and videos, etc. A one off payment can set you up for a whole year's worth of gaming!