The Xbox 360 (Microsoft Xbox 360 Pro System)

Member Name: Fiver29

Product:	Microsoft Xbox 360 Pro System
Date:	01/08/09 (41 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for games and films

Disadvantages: Problems with early consoles and RROD

The Xbox 360 is Microsoft's current gaming system, depending on whether you believe the rumours or not, it's soon to be taken over by the Xbox 720. I've never actually seen any official announcements from Microsoft, so for now the Xbox 360 is still the on top.

We've had the 360 for about 18 months now, and although we had one console which suffered from the 'Red Ring of Death' (where all the error lights on the front go red and the Xbox dies), it was replaced by Gamestation with a brand new console, and so far we've had no problems with this one.

What can the 360 do? Well obviously it's main function is as a games console. There are a huge variety of games for the 360, but the vast majority are fighting and shooting games, for younger children and the more feminine type, the choice is very limited. As long as you have an HD Ready TV you can play your games in HD, either via the HDMI socket, or using the component cable.

But the console isn't just for games, it's also a multimedia centre. So you can watch DVD's on the console, unfortunately because Microsoft decided to back HD DVD rather than Blu Ray, you can't watch DVD's in High Definition. You can however download HD films from the Xbox Marketplace (for a price of course), so you can watch in high definition that way.

The 360 also allows you to connect a USB device and play music and show photos from the device, these can also be copied over to the 360 hard drive. You can also connect to the 360 with your PC or laptop using Windows Media Centre, and your standard networking equipment.

I am really glad we bought the 360, not only has it given myself and my children hours of fun playing games, but we also use it as our main DVD player for the main TV in the house. I actually find it quite fascinating that the 360 can remember a disc, so if you watch a film half way thorough, then take out the disc and play a game. Then go back to watching the film, it'll start again at the exact spot you stopped watching, which is very handy indeed. The only thing I don't like about using it as a DVD player is that the wireless controllers turn themselves off after they haven't been used for a while. So if you want to pause the film, you have to wait until the controller connects to the 360 before you can stop it.

It's also very handy that the hard drive pops off quickly, then my son can take the drive to his friends and I can get my TV back!

I recently filled in a survey about new additions to the 360, whilst I'm not sure that I can say exactly what they are, if they come to fruition the 360 will blow the Wii out of the water.

Another addition to the 360 will be the ability to watch BT Vision and pay per view Sky in the Autumn of 2009.

Summary: .