I was really slow in joining the online revolution of gaming, in fact I'm still lagging behind (and not just because my internet is poor) but I have found Xbox live to be an excellent service and provided relatively cheaply. Having played games for years but always living in the middle of the back of beyond I was often resigned to playing single player games, or games I could enjoy with family members. The purchase of Mario Kart Wii was the first taste of proper online gaming I'd had and I loved it, it was smooth, it was sleek and it was brilliantly fun and exciting, the Wii it seemed had finally delivered on some of it's promise. Then I tried Smash Bros. Online and got no where at all, it was a night mare that wouldn't even let me connect to the servers, sham I thought, this was stupid, how can one game be so amazing online and yet the next one won't even load? Oh well back to Mario Kart.

This then allows you a “gold subscription” allowing you to play online, of course the thing I wanted to do and the whole reason behind paying for the card. It also entitles you to use the Marketplace, in which you buy points with real money to buy additional content for games, ranging from the excellent things like whole new sections of games (GTA4 content is said to be brilliant) to poxy little things like new uniforms, or a few new characters. In fact theirs even games available on it (that's where I stopped looking as I'd be certain to buy something else) much like the Wii's Virtual Console system (again not looked at it for fear of spending more money).

The system also includes a messaging system though you'll probably want to shell out on the mini keyboard and microphone to make the most of it. The ability to add friends, see what their up to and compare how well you've done in a game to how well they've done in the same game (if you both have it of course). Although this is all nice and friendly I can't say I've really been that bothered about it, my friend list resembles something seen at the birthday party of BNP leader Nick Griffin (I meant empty...not full of racists) and as the few people on there seem to have none of the games I do it's a bit of a pointless feature for me.

Overall a good service with a depth that I'll never fully explore but it does depend heavily on your internet as to whether you'll get the most from it. At £35 for a year it's cheap if you get to use it, though if you go the whole hog and need to get the adaptor, then the keyboard and a microphone and a camera and the downloadable content it will add up. For the pure gamers it's great fun and something I wish I'd gotten on the original Xbox all those years back. One final note however, your enjoyment of the system WILL depend on what games you have, the older games in the series (in my case Tony Hawk American Wasteland) are significantly harder to get online matches due to the fact no one plays them any more, whilst newer games have many more people online playing them. This has to be thought about perhaps when paying for the service.