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Xbox 360 4GB Console (Xbox360)
by Lighthouse66
Everybody knows the feeling; you're staring at that shiny black box and know that you just have to have it. That is how I felt when my sister had bought her XBOX 360 Console, I played on the games for hours and it was so much fun that I decided to invest in one myself.
Me and my partner are very competitive so I thought this would ... be the perfect addition to our home. As this has been out for a couple of years we got a package deal which is amazing and cost me £199 for the console, wireless remote, 4 games and the Kinect. It provides us with hours of fun and you can get games for roughly £10, so it won't break the bank.
The game is great for hours of family fun, it is great for all ages and can also improve fitness. You can connect to the internet for those who like to play on games such as COD but unfortunately I am not a gaming mad person, I bought this solely for entertainment purposes.
It is easy to set up, it took me and my partner around 10 minutes to set up and simple for people of all ages to use, it brings the family and couples together. I enjoy game nights with my friends and couldn't have spent my money on anything better.
Most consoles only have the wireless/wired controllers and the XBOX console with Kinect takes gaming to a whole new level. The console looks great on my TV cabinet, easy to use, not too many wires, easy set-up, noise level is low and I personally cannot fault the console.
You can buy all sorts of additional extras for this console and I would recommend this, it has so many uses and the memory is also brilliant, stores all of my games (And scores ready for my next competition) and I also use my console as a DVD player therefore no changing of wires around the back of the TV is required.
If you're considering buying a console then I would highly recommend the XBOX 360.
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Xbox 360 4GB Console (Xbox360)
by illusiveman
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When I bought this Product
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Around October 2011 I had been viewing trailers and game play videos for the game Forza Motorsport 4 and decided that I would buy myself one providing they weren't too expensive.
I saw that they were selling ... them for £149.99 in Argos and were also doing an offer where you got Forza 4 included for free which I thought was very reasonable as I'm sure that the game had only been out no longer than a month or two.
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My Experience / Features
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I bought this from Argos and started to set it up as soon as I got home, it was very easy to set up and took me through all the steps to connect it to my wireless network and set up an Xbox live profile.
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Storage
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This model of Xbox has eliminated the use of the plug in memory cards used in the previous versions of this console, it now offers up to 4gb of internal flash storage instead (although I believe you lose a little bit of space as it's reserved by the system) which offers plenty of storage to store your save files and one or two demos (depending on size).
As well as the internal flash memory there is a slot located on the side of the console for you to insert a hard drive which has been changed from the big plastic casing to a really thin black casing that just clips onto the hard drive (if you own an original hard drive you can remove it from the casing and buy the newer style case from eBay for around £5).
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Installing games
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To save wear and tear on the consoles internal components games can be installed to the hard drive which as well as reducing wear and tear it also quietens the console down when playing games as the disc doesn't need to be read so often (only on start up to verify the disk is real).
Most games take up a lot of space when installed so it would be a good idea to fit a larger hard drive when your gaming collection starts to expand.
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Touch sensitive buttons
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This console features touch panels in place of the power and eject buttons which can save a lot of time when switching the console on if you have difficulty pressing the buttons for any reason, the only annoying thing about this is that if you brush against the consoles buttons while moving it or anything close by it switches the console on (I counter this by having the console pushed further back so that this doesn't happen quite so often).
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Expandable storage
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An update released for the Xbox allowed certain flash drives to be configured by the console to be used as hard drive (although only up to 16gb and only certain files can be saved onto it), I find that some games still require a proper hard drive to access certain features.
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Summary
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Good Points:
*Hard drive easier to upgrade than original console
*Less risk of RROD
*Internal Flash Storage built in
Bad Points:
*No slots for memory cards
*Installing games takes a while
*Touch buttons are really sensitive
*Xbox live can be expensive (up to £40 for a 12 month sub)
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Overall Rating
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I have owned this console for just under two years and have so far not had a problem with it, I also owned an original style 360 and find this console a lot quieter than the old one so would recommend this to anyone that has an old style console and is looking to upgrade, I give this a 4 star rating (I would give it a 5 star if it hadn't been for the touch sensitive controls)
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Playstation Plus
by illusiveman
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When I bought this Product
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I have been using PlayStation Plus since I had a free trial in December 2012 and I have been a paid subscriber since then having found I save a lot of money with the free games I can download each ... month.
Subscriptions are available in either 3 months (around £10 - £13) or 12 months (around £30 - £37), I usually buy the PSN money required from a local gaming store such as GAME or over the internet via Amazon or even through the Playstation Store, I mainly buy them through the GAME website though as the code is available to view almost straight away (a few months ago it would have taken a few hours, it now appears to be instant).
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My Experience
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I first bought a PlayStation plus subscription from Amazon which I received through the post. The code came inside a PS3 style game case and contains the piece of card with the silver panel that needs to be scratched off to reveal the code.
Once the code has been revealed I then navigated to the PlayStation Network tab of the consoles XMB, I then clicked on the Account Management button and then finally clicked on the redeem code button where I could enter the 12 digit code I received.
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Instant Game Collection
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With PlayStation Plus you get an Instant Game Collection that allows you to choose from 10 free games to download per month, or 45 per year, the games available to choose from changes once a month to keep it fresh, as an example I have listed the content that is available to download this month, although Sine Mora isn't available to download until tomorrow (8th May) and Velocity Ultra HD isn't available to download until the 15th May.
Hitman Absolution, Catherine, Malicious, Sine Mora and Velocity Ultra HD are the current offerings available, there is also Zero Escape: Virtue's Last reward but this is only available until tomorrow (8th May), Thomas Was Alone is also still available but only until the 22nd May.
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Automatic Updates
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As a subscriber to PlayStation Plus this enables a feature known as Automatic Updates, this enables you to set a time (within a two hour period, I normally set it for 2-4 am as it doesn't usually wake me up) for the PS3 to switch itself on and check for updates, while it does this it also finishes any downloads you may have started (not downloads that are currently paused), it will also upload your saves to the cloud storage facility and synchronize any trophy information with the server.
It will also download updates for any games you have previously played, if you have recently acquired new games you can also insert the disk / launch the game and just cancel any updates it wants to install, the PS3 will then automatically update these games while auto updating which saves you time when you come to play them at a later time / date.
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Handy Features
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Included with a PlayStation Plus subscription is access to the Cloud Storage facility that allows you to backup your save files to the Cloud which could be a very useful if you're still using one of the original "phat" PS3s as they are known, as a plus point if you have automatic updates switched on the saves will be uploaded automatically so would give you one less thing to worry about if your console died.
Having a PS+ subscription also gives you additional discounts that aren't given to regular PSN members, for example Batman Arkham Asylum had a regular price of £15.99, it was discount to £7.99 and PS+ member received an extra 10% discount saving an extra 79p (£7.20).
There are certain games that will also allow you to download and try out the full game for up to one hour, this isn't great because it allows you to get more out of it than you would by playing a demo and not all games have demos available.
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Summary
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Good Points:
*Free Games
*Automatic Updates
*Extra Discounts
Bad Points:
*Only 3 month and 12 month subscriptions available
*Games can be as large as 20GB
*PS3 can be noisy while doing Auto Updates
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Overall Rating
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I have been a paid subscriber since January 2013 and have highly enjoyed my time as a PlayStation Plus subscriber. I have loads of games downloaded for free that are waiting for me to play when I get the chance and would highly recommend this to anyone as it can be an excellent way of saving money, I will be giving this a 5 star rating as I have highly enjoyed my experience.
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