Console Wars Part II: 360
Posted by David Dawson on Sunday, November 30, 2008
In continuation of Console Wars, here's SandwichMerc on the 360:
Pros of the 360
While we can all agree that the infamous reputation among the gamer population of the 360's failure rate is earned, the pros of the 360 surpass that infamy. To start off, the selection for 360 games is simply MASSIVE. You have tons of exclusive blockbusters to choose from, Gears of War 1 and 2, Mass Effect, Halo 3, and many others. And if those don't appeal to you, the 360 still has hundreds of games, many of which are family friendly. The online service is well maintained, secure, and easy to use. It's various stores are updated everyday with new content, and multiplayer is stable at almost all times. If you don't like the idea of paying monthly, redeemable cards can be used to lengthen your subscription for up to a year. Easy to use and reliable, the online services provided by Microsoft are superb. Still a little unconvinced, afraid of the RROD? While this is reasonably, Microsoft is taking steps to prevent the RROD from happening. And in the mean time, the warranty covers the infamous hardware failure, so you don't spend a dime. Newer 360s have new chipsets that are less likely to kill your system when it overheats. I'd be lying if I said the PS3 was no better than the 360 hardware-wise, but the 360 has a massive and very active XBL community that plays almost any game you can think of online. And with the addition of the new Netflix application, you can stream entire movies, straight to your Xbox. No longer will you have to go the rental store everytime you are in the mood for a movie. Simply turn on your Xbox, and if you are connected to the internet, you can stream a movie from Netflix, for a cost of course, but not much. My closing statement will be price. The 360 is affordable, the arcade package only $199.99. If you are a casual gamer, pick this up, but most real gamers will want the premium or elite packages, which are in the 200-300$ range. The Premium comes with a 20GB hard drive, which can be upgraded to 60 or 120GB, and the Elite comes packaged with a 120GB. Both include a headset, internet cord, and HDMI cables if you have an HDTV. This is my argument of why you should buy a 360, whether for the great online, or the huge selection of games. The 360 caters to almost everyone.
Pros of the 360
While we can all agree that the infamous reputation among the gamer population of the 360's failure rate is earned, the pros of the 360 surpass that infamy. To start off, the selection for 360 games is simply MASSIVE. You have tons of exclusive blockbusters to choose from, Gears of War 1 and 2, Mass Effect, Halo 3, and many others. And if those don't appeal to you, the 360 still has hundreds of games, many of which are family friendly. The online service is well maintained, secure, and easy to use. It's various stores are updated everyday with new content, and multiplayer is stable at almost all times. If you don't like the idea of paying monthly, redeemable cards can be used to lengthen your subscription for up to a year. Easy to use and reliable, the online services provided by Microsoft are superb. Still a little unconvinced, afraid of the RROD? While this is reasonably, Microsoft is taking steps to prevent the RROD from happening. And in the mean time, the warranty covers the infamous hardware failure, so you don't spend a dime. Newer 360s have new chipsets that are less likely to kill your system when it overheats. I'd be lying if I said the PS3 was no better than the 360 hardware-wise, but the 360 has a massive and very active XBL community that plays almost any game you can think of online. And with the addition of the new Netflix application, you can stream entire movies, straight to your Xbox. No longer will you have to go the rental store everytime you are in the mood for a movie. Simply turn on your Xbox, and if you are connected to the internet, you can stream a movie from Netflix, for a cost of course, but not much. My closing statement will be price. The 360 is affordable, the arcade package only $199.99. If you are a casual gamer, pick this up, but most real gamers will want the premium or elite packages, which are in the 200-300$ range. The Premium comes with a 20GB hard drive, which can be upgraded to 60 or 120GB, and the Elite comes packaged with a 120GB. Both include a headset, internet cord, and HDMI cables if you have an HDTV. This is my argument of why you should buy a 360, whether for the great online, or the huge selection of games. The 360 caters to almost everyone.