underdawg's Full Review: Microsoft Xbox 360 Premium (20 GB) White Console
Story...or "Why My Expectations Were So #$@@#$ing High!"
I reserved an Xbox 360 back in July at Gamestop. I wasn't sure whether I'd actually want to buy one on the first day (since the reserve money can be used as store credit). I wasn't even sure when it was coming out; I just happened see something on TV about it the day before. I got caught up in the excitement and went to Gamestop the day it came out only to find out that they had reserved way too many and so didn't have nearly enough Xbox 360's for everyone who reserved one. When the employee explained this to me, this little kid came up to us and said, "I-I-Is this because they want to create d-d-d-emand for it?" Man, I so wanted to punch that kid in the face. Who did he think he was, John Keynes?
Anywhoo, Gamestop got some more stock right before Christmas (and they didn't even call me! I just happened to call them because I was going on vacation and wanted to know what would happen if it came in while I was on vacation), so I grabbed $450, drove to the mall, got my Xbox 360 and Madden 06, and drove back to my house. It took over 3 hours to do just that so by that time, you can bet my expectations were pretty damn high.
What It Claims It Will Do
The Xbox 360 likes to brag that it will "revolutionize gaming" and is a complete "media center" and all that garbage, but let me tell you, it's good at one thing: playing video games. If you really expect it to transform your life, man you're in for a disappointment.
Media Center, My @SS!
Take its MP3 playing capabilities, for instance. Sure, it's neat that you can connect your iPod or other MP3 player to it and you can play songs right of there, but for me it's pointless. If I want to listen to music, I'll play it through my computer speakers or my stereo, both of which sound better than my TV. I wanted to be able to copy music onto the hard drive and have some song play whenever I turned the Xbox on, but no, it can't do that. You can copy photos onto the Xbox 360 (only from digi-cams though, no iPod Photos) and set a picture as a background, which is cool I guess. You can download videos and stuff, but really, I find all of these extra features to be lacklustre.
So to reiterate: only buy an Xbox 360 if you want to play video games on it. Besides the ability to download pictures, the Xbox 360 is not much more of a "media center" than the original Xbox, unless you have a wireless home network, in which case I bet you can do more pointless stuff with the Box. My hacker friends' original Xbox's are much more customized than mine.
You will find the media features to be at best a neat extra and at worst, completely useless.
Hardware
Um...I know it has like 4 processors or something. Erm...it's akin to roughly top-of-the-line computer right now. I don't know the specifics except that it has an ATI card now instead of nVidia. Do you care? Me neither. Suffice it to say that it's powerful and it's not like the games have used anywhere close to its full potential yet, so let's move on to the next section...
Games
So, how do the games play? Well, right now I only own two games. It's kind of hard to get a lot when they cost $60 each! Madden 2006 looks great but not jawdropping great. That is, it looks a lot better than the Xbox version, and you really can't confuse the two with each other. However, to get the game done by launch time, those monopolists over at EA Sports cut many things like challenging plays, Owner mode, and minicamps. Oh, and the ability to change camera angles. Let's see, that was in place since...well, heck even Super Mario Bros had some camera tweaking ability! Also, the animations look kind of weird, I think.
Project Gotham Racing 3 seems like a great game, but alas, I don't like racing games. This is my little brother's game, but it looks wonderful, I'll tell you that much. It's also not as insanely difficult as PGR2; I can turn without always skidding in circles as I did in PGR2.
If you like FPS's, you'll probably like Perfect Dark Zero, and I've heard great things about the Call of Duty game. Unfortunately, FPS's aren't my thing. I like sports games, but Madden 2006 sucks so much, I've actually gone back to playing Madden 2004. NBA 2k6 and NBA Live 2006 apparently have both cut out certain features and stuff to get them out in time, so I'm not taking a $60 chance on those either. I can't wait for Top Spin 2 to come out though.
Like RPGs? Me too! Too bad for us, since there isn't a single RPG yet. I've looked at the upcoming games for 2006, and there doesn't seem to be great RPG coming out any time soon, so the PS2 remains the king of RPG's for now.
Therefore, for me, a sports and RPG fan, the launch lineup is a huge disappointment.
Controllers
I am sick of the documentation referring to the pretentiously named "Ring Of Light", but I'm obliged to talk about it here, I guess. Okay, the first thing to note is that the 360 controller is even sleeker than the S controller and the horribly-placed Black and White buttons are gone and replaced with two shoulder buttons. Personally, I would've just liked two extra trigger buttons but I guess Microsoft would never admit that the PS2 simply had better controller design.
If you buy the $400 package (which you should, Core Package is garbage), you get a wireless controller. Unlike the wireless controllers for the Xbox and whatnot, this doesn't even have a base to connect to the console. You just press the "Ring Of Light" (the Xbox logo button), and the console will assign you a controller number. Sometimes it's a little weird connecting the second controller I bought, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. You can also turn on and off the console with the controller as well as open and close the disc tray. Now if only it could put it and take out game discs, this would be a useful feature instead of a "Oh! Neat!" useless feature.
The controllers and their white paint look cheap but they're comfortable and I haven't experienced any lag or anything yet. You can connect 4 wireless controllers but only 2 wired controllers, so shell out the extra $10 and only buy wireless ones.
Click here if you want to read my complete review on the controller.
Core or Premium?
This is an easy question. For all you Moms and Dads and relatives out there, you don't want to buy the $300 Core Package because it's just plain stupid. It has no hard drive and and comes with a wired controller (you can connect 3 wired controllers or 4 wireless controllers at a time) but it does have wireless capabilties. It just doesn't come with a wireless controller (thanks xmaddudex for the clarification). The hard drive was the main selling point of the original Xbox and only the $400 Premium version has it, along with some extras. Ask anyone, the Premium is the only way to go.
Power Supply
That is the hugest power supply/cord thing I've ever seen in my life. Deyamm!
Freezing
My console has froze once so far. Will update if this becomes a problem. It is kind of weird that it froze with a brand new disc but hey, my original Xbox must've frozen 100 times by now.
Conclusion
Games looks much better than their Xbox counterparts but the difference is still not yet what I would call "revolutionary". If you're an FPS fan, I'd say you can't go wrong with buying one with Perfect Dark and Call of Duty and Halo 3 whenever that comes out. If you're not, I'd say you should wait.
The PS2 is still the king of RPG's, as I plan to eventually play Radiata Stories, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy 12 on it. RPG fans should stick to their PS2's.
In conclusion, if you like FPS's, go buy one right now. Otherwise, it's still not a bad idea to buy (as most games a year from now will come out for both the 360 and PS3), but prepare to be a little disappointed. I was.
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