.:join the dark side:.
i’m not an xbox360 fanboy or anything, but geez…really…microsoft has stepped it up pretty hardcore over the last couple of years. despite some hardware issues, i’d venture to say that, for the money, they have the best thing going.
i know there are probably 5000 ‘top xx# of reasons to buy a 360′ out there…but you know you can trust good ol’ uncle andrew’s opinion on this stuff, seeing that i am pretty awesome and all. here are the only reasons you’ll need to go ahead and buy one…
1. games, games and more games: if you went out and bought a 360 right this very second and you wanted to buy 10 absolutely amazing games, you could do that…no problem. that’s impressive. bioshock, gears of war, the orange box (halflife 2), the elder scrolls, forza 2, guitar hero 2/3, viva pinata, halo 3, ghost recon and virtua fighter 5. that doesn’t count the amazing xbox live arcade games that are pretty execeptional. lumines, puzzle quest, geometry wars, bugs, and pacman are some of them that are worth every penny, and range in price from about $6-$12.00.
and coming out: assassin’s creed, call of duty 4, rock band, mass effect, GTA4 (with exclusive episodic content slated for the future…)…the list goes on…
2. xbox live: pay $49.99 for the year, and that gets you access to online play with other live members, downloadable game content updates, HD movies, HD tv series shows, xbox live arcade and chat. microsoft has worked very hard to make an excellent piece of home entertainment equipment and not just a console. sure, nintendo has their own thing, but it’s slow and pretty limited. sure, sony has their own thing, but it’s in it’s fledgling stages, so not a lot of stuff is available.
3. optional HD-DVD player: i view ‘optional’ as a good thing. first off, you’re not forced into having something that may not end up being the standard (read sony’s blue-ray player in the PS3). and while it certainly seems that blue-ray is the direction things are going, microsoft left their options open. for those of you that absolutely must be on the bleeding edge, you can do that by purchasing the external drive. and for those of us that tend to be a little more cautious, we can wait until that battle is fought and finished and then make the right purchase.
4. price: wow, do you EVER get so much more bang for your buck with this thing, especially with the release of the new arcade version of the console. it feels like they have an xbox package that is right for everyone out there. you could go out and buy an xbox 360 for $279 and be just fine. that’s $30.00 more than the wii, and you get a hell of a lot more machine. for $70 more, you’d get a 20 gig hard drive and HDMI outputs. and if you’re really into it, for $449, you can get one with a black finish, 120 gig hard drive, and HDMI outputs. and because of their 2 year head start on the competition, they now have a pretty decent library of ‘value priced’ games, such as ghost recon 2, call of duty 2, viva pinata, kameo, and perfect dark zero to name a few.
5. future IPTV functionality: what this does is turn you 360 into a competitor for cable or satellite. within the next year, you’ll be able to watch regular television programming from you console. and you’ll DVR functionality as well. while pricing hasn’t been rolled out yet, it’ll be offered through your local tv service provider, so you can expect it to be on par…if not a little less than…cable or satellite.
i’ve given sony every opportunity to sell me a conole over the last year, and they’ve screwed it up every time. the price is WAY too high, blue-ray player and cool cell processor or not. hardware is just a hunk of garbage if there isn’t good enough content to make it a compelling enough purchase. and the wii…well, i bought one of those in the winter, and within a couple months i sold it. it was fun and cool to have, but i don’t think i’m really the target audience for it. i like games with a litte more depth. i also don’t play a lot of games with people much. and while the wii certainly encourages the social aspect of gaming as well as involvement from those that wouldn’t necessarily consider themselves gamers (that’s pretty darn admirable, by the way), it’s just not that interesting for me to have around. i love mario, zelda and metroid as much as the next guy…but it’s time to move onward and upward…
so there you have it. if you don’t have one, ask santa for it this holiday. you definitely will not be disappointed…
