Xbox 360 Buyer's Guide

Just bought an Xbox 360 and wondering, "What now?" We've got all the answers for you.
1/21/2009 6:14 PM | 3 Comments | Page 1 of 4

Congratulations, savvy consumer, on your very wise, very savvy purchase!

As a game journalist, I have to "work" with the PlayStation 3 and with the Nintendo Wii. But whenever I have a spare moment, it's the Xbox 360 that typically gets my attention. Why so?

I like Xbox Live. I don't do a whole lot of online gaming, but I do like seeing who's online, who's offline, who's playing what, what Achievements people have unlocked, what's available for download via Xbox Live Arcade, who's watching a movie (Gus is, usually), etc. The genius of Xbox Live is that it allows me to feel connected -- to someone, to something -- even when I'm just sitting alone in my living room in my underpants and playing games solo.

I also appreciate the range of games that are available for the 360. Despite the PS3's purported power, it's the 360's version of a multiplatform title that typically looks and plays the best, to my mind.

Pros:

• Tons of games from which to choose


• Pretty to look at


• Despite competition from Sony and Nintendo, Xbox Live is still the best online service in the business.

Cons:

• Known to "red-ring" on occasion


• Noisy; runs hot; brick-like power plug


• Xbox Live Gold Membership costs $50 per year.

History

The Xbox 360 has been in stores since 2005. It's produced by Microsoft (all together now: Boo!). But to its credit, Microsoft seemed to learn a lot from the mistakes it made with the original Xbox, which was its first foray into console gaming.

Looks

The Xbox 360 is much more sleek and sophisticated-looking than the obnoxiously massive original, and blends nicely with the other electronics equipment in your living room. It's available in two colors -- white or matte black -- but there have been limited-edition Xbox 360s, including a Halo 3 Special Edition. In general, unless you have the Halo 3 edition, your friends won't say, "Oh, I see you have a videogame machine. Look at you, you pathetic man-boy, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" whenever they come over. By the way, if your friends actually say things like this, you shouldn't be friends with them anyway. Jerks.

Infamous for...

The so-called "Red Ring of Death." The earliest generations of the Xbox 360 unfortunately suffered from a ridiculously high failure rate. When hardware would fail, the ring of green light(s) on the front of the 360 would suddenly turn red. (In the name of full disclosure, I've had two retail 360s go to 360 heaven.) Microsoft addressed this issue in two ways. One, they reworked the specs on later generations of 360s, greatly reducing the failure rate. And two, they developed a consumer-friendly repair program that made it relatively easy for consumers to get their faulty 360s repaired or replaced.

You should know that the red rings still do occur on occasion. Pray you don't suffer one. Trust me, it's very traumatizing. You have to put the 360 into a tiny cardboard coffin and ship it to Texas, where a Wall-E will eventually find it hundreds of years from now.