Xbox 360

THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
You need to hand it to Microsoft. They came into the gaming world with no knowledge. Into a world ruled by Sony. And they almost went the way of the Dreamcast. However, thanks to Halo and some more better games, they hung in there. Now they are back, and better than ever! In almost every way, they fixed what was wrong with the Xbox and made the things that were good about it better. So how did they do? Find out.

The console itself has a white base color, giving it a simplistic look that works. It is also much smaller than the original Xbox. Though the 360 is sexy and good looking enough to eat, there is one problem: the cords are freakin' huge! Ever heard of the "power brick"? The power brick is the power adapter for the 360 that has the size and actual weight of a brick. And not just the power cord but all the cords are freakin' huge. Though the 360 is indeed smaller, the cords get in the way a lot.

However, the huge cords means that the system itself is great! Right? You bet your ass it is! The 360 comes with a 3 core processor, each working at 3.2Ghz. Top of the line people. Everything else is top of the line too: memory, graphics card, good amount of RAM. The works. The outcome? Beautiful graphics are produced and we have yet to reach the full potential of the 360. It's just warming up.

What makes the 360 truly shine is what made it shine before: Xbox Live. You know how I said they fixed all the bad and improved the good? Well the Xbox Live has improved by a great amount. You can go to the marketplace and purchase downloads for your dashboard, you can download trailers and demos, and you can even buy games from the Arcade! Granted, these games are as huge as regular games, but they are just as good and fun to do when there are no games out right. All sorts of games can be purchased from old school games Gauntlet to brand spankin' new games like Geometry Wars (my favorite). However, there is more to it than that! Yes, there is. You know what I can do? I can watch Anchorman on DVD and chat with my friend, who is playing Call of Duty 2 at the moment. The list can go on what Xbox Live has and it is still expanding!

Finally, there is the controller. If you remember the frankenstein of controls, you'll remember the first Xbox controller. That thing was uncomfortable, heavy, and big as hell, earning the title as worst controller ever. However, the 360 has changed and now has earned the title as the best controller ever! What did Microsoft do? They took the Type S controller, made it smaller, turned the Black and White buttons into two triggers, which get rid of the need to reach. It feels so very light and at the same time it feels so very stronger and sturdy. The wireless feature also gives you great control and eliminates cords for good. The battery life lasts a damn long time too. This controller rocks, hands down.

So the Xbox 360 rocks. It excels in so many areas that the Xbox didn't. However, there are some negatives to this console. The decision to not use HD-DVD format makes game storage on disks smaller. Also, the decision to have the developers develop games on the fact that everyone may not has a hard drive kills it for the rest of us. Besides those things, the Xbox 360 is an awesome machine that is to not be passed up.

THE BAD:

SUMMARY:
It's one of the most if not THE most anticipated item ever in history. It produced campout lines of longing gamers both through 2nd and 3rd shipment across retailers everywhere. This is the XBOX 360.

It's the first console to come standard with the latest in digital Component Cables. Which have upped the graphics in games significantly. Taking gaming into the next generation. With much more potential than it's ancestor and muscle of the last generation, the XBOX, the graphics are expected to exceed by far, which it has. The resolution potential is much greater. You can now see detail which is much more sharp.

The games are as realistic as they come. With a more powerful graphics processor you can see it in the color and light and swear you'll half-think it's real.

The backwards compatibility works fine but is a very horrid implementation. They should have just had a totally separate emulator just for the XBOX instead. Just like PS1's was on the PS2. The whole trying to literally enable games to work while still on an XBOX360 emulator makes no sense and just really makes things more hard on us. Thing is quite sloppy too. Sometimes slows down the unit and sometimes not all features are available like some XBOX games work but not it's XBOX Live capabilities. And we need to wait for some games to become available. Screw that! Honestly if you still have an XBOX, play your XBOX games on that rather than the 360.

The mic also really sucks. The voice quality is really poor. Sometimes when its messaging in XBOX games, people can't even hear you at all.

The Dashboard chat is a nifty feature. You can talk with one other person over XBOX Live while dowing anything as long as your XBOX360 is on and you are logged online. What really sucks is it's only one on one chats. No more party-sized chats like the XBOX Dashboard. However that could change overtime since it is fully upgrdable.

The marketplace and XBOX Live arcade is solid enough to add to this console's value. Features some rather fun downloadable games to play and some features to decorate your XBOX360 dashboard and your profile with. Also a much much more convenient place to download demos and play them right away. More convenient than ever before. Great way to take games you might be interested for a spin.

Accessories are top quality too. An unmatched quality controller that kinda reminds me of the Deamcast controller which BTW was my favorite controller ever. All the buttons are positioned perfectly this time. The wireless and plug and play feature makes the experience much more convenient now.

The Operating System is more flexible this time which makes the conole allow itself to self improve overtime. First of which will be a Camera feature to be added.

The games for the XBOX360 aren't much now but you've got games like Call of Duty 2, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing which squeeze in a pretty good amount demonstration of what the console is truly capable of. And you can bet you'll all be seeing more of that. All that being just the infant generation of games, you can imagine the quality of the games that are going to come out of the XBOX360 in the coming years.

The Achievement Point system is another ingenious system they added. No sure they seem like just points. But as always ranks/points/etc always a provokative factor to games. I found myself motivated to complete my games more with this points system.

If you have an HDTV and a surround sound system, the XBOX360 should give them a pretty good workout. You haven't experienced your HDTV and Digital Surround sound system to it's fullest potential until you let them take on the XBOX360.