Microsoft Xbox 360

Currently, every review on the Xbox 360 seems to be either 2 lines long, in awful English or copied from other sources. None of these efforts do this excellent console justice so I am going to attempt to write a review which will enable you to make a valued judgement about whether this console is for you or not.

Introduction

The Xbox 360 console is Microsoft’s follow up to the original Xbox which hardly pulled up any trees. Released in November 2005, the 360 quickly became a worldwide hit. The main reason for this was that Microsoft were able to build up their market share a full 12 months before Sony released the Playstation 3. Since its release Microsoft has continuously added extra content to the console including its magnificent Xbox Live Service in order to keep one step ahead of Sony.

Different Versions

There are currently 3 different versions of the Xbox 360. All of these are able to play every single Xbox game ever released but with the higher spec models you get a lot of extras which, as the console matures will be essential items to futureproof the console. All 3 versions allow for HD gaming via the HDMI port which give you amazing looking content.

Arcade

This is the baby of the family. The Arcade version is perfect for novice gamers who are finding out what the Xbox 360 console is all about. The Arcade comes with wired controllers and a 256Mb memory module. The Arcade does not come with a hard disk drive which means that playing online via Xbox Live is not possible on most games due to the amount of disk space required to save games and extra content. A hard disk can be added at a later time but if you think you might want to go down this path then I would recommend giving the Arcade a miss and moving on to the Premium.

Premium

Microsoft are currently phasing out the Premium console but currently, this is the best selling version of the 360. This console is white, like the arcade but boasts a 60Gb hard disk drive and comes with wireless controllers as standard. Originally the Premium came with a 20Gb hard disk so if someone offers you one of these, kindly decline as it will be very old stock and will be more susceptible to breakdown.

Elite

This is where Microsoft would like all their gamers to be. The Elite is the newest of the Xbox family and has been given a nice shiny black shell as if to convey its superiority. In real terms however, the only difference between the Elite and the Premium is that the Elite comes with a 120Gb hard disk drive. Up until recently, it also came with the HDMI cable but for reasons only Microsoft can explain, they stopped supplying this, meaning that you would have to buy this yourself or make do with the composite HD cable which comes as standard across the range.

In the box

Whichever version of the console you decide to go for, the contents in the box are going to be the same with the exception of wired controllers for the Arcade and wireless for the other 2 versions.

The main item in the box is obviously the console itself. This fills a good 75% of the box and is expertly wrapped so as to avoid any kind of damage in transit. The console ships with just one controller , this will be the same colour as the console although there is nothing to stop you using black controllers on the white console and visa versa. Continuing the gaming theme, you also get a headset to allow you to communicate with fellow players while online or friends in a normal private chat. The headset plugs directly into your controller, meaning that you could actually buy extra headsets for each controller should you wish to although for this to work all users will need their own Xbox Live account.

The power supply comes in two parts. The part which connects to the mains has a big power block on the other end, there is then a separate cable which connects from this into the back of the Xbox.

The final component in the box is the composite display cable. This cable can either be set to SD for older TV’s or composite HD for newer TV’s. Regardless of which setting you choose, this cable will always fit into a scart socket on your TV. Although the composite HD is better quality than the normal SD picture, it is not a patch on proper HD so I would recommend getting an HDMI cable, should your TV support it.

The setup of this console is really easy and, allowing time for unwrapping all the components, you should be up and running with a picture on your screen within 15 minutes.

Setting up

Once you have a display on the screen, there is still a bit of setting up to do. In order to identify different users on your console, you need to create individual gamertags. A gamer tag is what will identify you to friends and other in-game players whilst online. If you already have a gamertag from a previous Xbox or you have a Games for Windows Live account, you can recover these settings onto any other Xbox in the world. You would only do this if you had bought a new Xbox or you wanted to use your account at a friends house. It is worth mentioning that you may only have one Xbox where the gamertag is live, by recovering this onto one Xbox, disables it on any others where it may be active. I found this out to my cost when trying to transfer my gamertag to my sons Xbox. Although this worked fine, it disabled the account on my Xbox, meaning I then had to recover the account back onto my Xbox when I needed to use it again.

If you are totally new to the Xbox then you can create your gamertag from scratch. As well as your gamertag, you can also create an avatar to represent you, much like a Mii on the Wii, this avatar will be how other Xbox members see you when browsing your profile. If you are setting up an account for the first time, you will be given one months free access to Xbox Live gold so that you can explore its potential before purchasing it in future.

Size

The Xbox 360 is a beast and completely dwarfs the Wii in its appearance. Weighing 3.5kg (the Wii is 2kg) and being 309 mm long, 83mm high and 258 mm deep (all these sizes assume the console is laid flat although it can be used on its side), you need to pretty much devote an entire shelf in your TV cabinet to the console. When I first opened the box and saw the Xbox, it did surprise me as to how big the console was compared to my Wii. The Xbox however, is known for generating a lot of heat so it needs all the extra space to circulate the air in an attempt to stop it from overheating.

Dashboard

It is all very well having high tech hardware and mindblowing specifications but if the user interface is terrible, people are going to get frustrated with the system. The Xbox 360 dashboard is probably one of the easiest, intuitive interfaces you could find. It is split down into different sections, each giving their own unique content.

My Xbox.

This section shows you what game you currently have in your disk drive, this can be loaded from here. You can also see a list of the last 4 games you have played and get access to any game or movie you may have downloaded from the Xbox Marketplace. If you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can stream audio and video from your PC to your Xbox. Whilst this sounds good, in my experience, this takes an age to synchronise and when it is finally ready, video playback is jerky. If you do want to try this out though, My Xbox is the place to do it.

Spotlight / Insight

These 2 sections are very similar and offer features on up and coming titles as well as special offers on downloadable content. Articles in these sections vary from on screen text to actual streamed video of gamer interviews or footage of games. Although these are not essential to the Xbox experience, I do find myself watching this content at least once a week.

Game / Video Marketplace

The marketplace is an area where you can buy extra content for a game or actually rent a movie for 24 hours which is then streamed to your console. Any content bought from the marketplace is bought using Microsoft points as its currency rather than actual money. Personally I don’t like this method as I think its complicated to work out how much you are are paying for things. It would be much simpler if you could buy individual items by credit card.

Membership types

There are two types of membership type for the Xbox. These are namely Silver and Gold. I am not going to go into any detail about these here as I have a full review on the merits of these membership types elsewhere on this site. If you haven’t read (and rated) this review yet, I’d appreciate it if you would take a look after finishing this one.

Red ring of death

If you have done any research into the history of the Xbox 360, you will no doubt have heard about the Red Ring of Death or RROD as it is commonly known. In fact, if you were to read the broken English, scammer reviews I talked about in my opening paragraph, you would be lead to think that the RROD was the only thing an Xbox ever did. In older Xbox consoles the RROD was a common occurrence after many uses, a technical flaw in the design of the console meant that certain components were overheating and it was the wear and tear from this which caused the console to break. This would then light up all four quadrants on the front of the console in red as a measure to communicate to the user that there was a problem. Microsoft to their credit acknowledged this fault and to this day, they will repair any console displaying these symptoms free of charge.
Newer consoles tend not to suffer from these issues due to a change of power supply. Although nobody can guarantee the problem is 100% fixed, the likelihood of getting the RROD on a console bought in the last 12-18 months is very much reduced.

Game Library

Most games that come out on the Xbox also come out on the Playstation 3. There are however a few exceptions which in my opinion, make the Xbox a more exciting proposition. Forza 3 is the most realistic driving simulation you will ever find, you can drive anything from your bog standard city cars right up to formula one style cars. These cars are supposed to handle exactly as they would in real life making for a very exciting game.

Grand Theft Auto IV actually came out on both the Xbox and the Playstation however the Xbox is the only place where you can play the extra chapters of the story. The Lost and Damned came out in April 2009 as a downloadable extra for 360 owners who already had purchased GTA4 and it was released on disk in October 2009 along with the Ballad of Gay Tony, again exclusively on Xbox. Although the PS3 also has its own exclusive content, it is not in the same league as the licenses acquired by Microsoft.

There are other titles that are Xbox exclusives but these 2 are in my opinion the biggest ones to be released in recent months.

Accessories

As with all consoles you can go over the top with accessories. There are some that I would describe as being essential purchases however.

The Xbox doesn’t come with wifi built in for reasons only known to Microsoft. To get the best out of Xbox Live, you really do need to purchase a wireless network adapter. Although you can bridge a connection to your PC or use other unsupported methods, I have found this adapter to be a great buy. For more information on this, please read my review on the adapter.

As the controllers are wireless, inevitably they are going to run out of battery juice. If you were buying AA batteries every couple of weeks, it is soon going to become an expensive game. With this in mind, Microsoft have released rechargeable battery packs that can be charged whilst playing. These cost about £12 and take roughly 6 hours to charge while you are playing. Personally I prefer an offline charger. I paid £20 for mine which takes 2 to 3 hours to fully charge but you cannot use the controller whilst it is charging.

The future

The future of the Xbox is very exciting. Microsoft have announced that there are no plans to replace the current 360 within the next 4 years or so. Instead, they are going to develop a new way of playing games around the current system. The next generation of gaming will actually involve they player becoming part of the game, a little bit like the Wii but far more advanced. Project Natal (the codename for the work in progress project) not only recognises a single movement like the Wii but recognises movement from 43 parts of the body meaning that your entire body now becomes part of the game. Add to this voice recognition and even face recognition for accessing your account amongst other things and its obvious to see why Natal is going to be the next big thing in gaming. Originally, this was due out around Easter 2010 but this has now slipped until the Autumn. Microsoft really do need to get this out for Christmas as I have a feeling that this could be the present to have next Christmas already. Although no price has been set, it is rumoured that this will cost around £200 so even though Microsoft are not releasing a new console for a while, you will still have to pay the equivalent of one to own this much talked about device.

Downsides

Even the most brilliant of consoles do have their downsides. On turning the Xbox on for the first time your first thought will be how noisy it is. Compared to the Wii and PS3 there is no denying that this is by far the most noisy console. This is something that you will soon get used too however and it wont spoil your enjoyment one little bit.

As already mentioned, wifi is not standard on these consoles, I do think Microsoft are taking the goodwill of customers to the limit with this decision, especially as much of the Xbox’s marketing and selling points are geared to Xbox Live.

Verdict

My friends had tried to convince me to buy an Xbox for a good 12 months before I actually took the plunge. I had always used the argument that I was happy with the Wii and that the Xbox just had fancy graphics. When I finally bought my Xbox, I saw that I was far wide of the mark. Sure, the graphics are amazing, especially in HD but the gameplay is second to none. I am not one of these who gets into the habit of saying ‘my console is better than yours’. In fact, I think the Xbox and the Wii complement each other nicely as they both offer games for completely different audiences. With the imminent arrival of Natal, I think the Xbox could start to threaten the Wii’s uniqueness but that can only be good for gaming in the future. Personally, I would steer clear of the Xbox Arcade version unless you really are at the top of your budget, the Premium and Elite versions offer far better value for money and are essential if you want to take your console online. Games on the Xbox are almost identical in look, feel, and quality as those on the Playstation 3. Where the Xbox gets its plaudits is for the online play where it is streets ahead of anything seen up to now. A console that can attract almost a quarter of a million gamers online, playing the same game at any one time (Modern Warfare 2 just after Christmas) surely must have something going for it.

If I were in to games whether it be an occasional player or a dedicated gamer, the Xbox 360 would be the console I’d go for every time. I’d go for the Elite version, only because the Premium is being phased out and the Elite currently offers some good bundles for around the £200 mark. Bear in mind though that to play online, you are going to need to add another £60-70 on top of this price for your wireless adapter and/or your Xbox Live membership. When all is said and done, once you are all set up and playing with this console, you’ll love it, I can almost 100% guarantee that.

Thanks for taking the time to read my review. I hope I’ve inspired you to have a go with this console. If so, please feel free to rate my other Xbox accessories reviews if you haven’t already done so. If you have already read these, then there are plenty of others for you to choose from!