Great value next-gen console. (Microsoft Xbox 360)

Member Name: f1ndl0w

Product:	Microsoft Xbox 360
Date:	09/04/09 (22 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relatively cheap and good selection of games.

Disadvantages: Quite noisy and get's pretty hot.

I received the 60GB Pro version for Christmas 2009, I'm not much of a gamer but found that my old PS2 was in need of an upgrade. I received a package that included a few free games and additional wireless controller, all in all pretty good value for money.
The console itself and the games are excellent; the graphics power being hugely impressive over that of the previous generation consoles, and having a nice interface (NXE) all adds to the experience.
The core function of the Xbox is obviously games, having a huge catalogue of virtually every genre I was very impressed, it has very quick loading times, and all seem to run smoothly even at full 1080p resolutions, which must be somewhat demanding on the console itself.
Although for most what makes the 360 is Xbox Live, the online platform. Included with the system is a free 1 month trial of the Gold subscription, offering all of the benefits, which automatically downgrades to Silver after the time period. I must agree that this is a very good and hassle free system for online games, using it regularly during the first month, if I used the console more I would quite happily pay for it, although it would be nice if Microsoft could offer some sort of downgrade for less frequent users, i.e. so many hours free per month with the Silver subscription.
In addition to the gaming the Xbox can act as a media hub, capable of streaming music/videos/photos from your computer, being a Mac user I had to purchase some third party software to get this working, but once set up it was all trouble free and video quality was excellent. Despite this I find that the Xbox's DVD playback is far from desirable, from a short distance it appears that there is little done to the image in order to enhance it before it's thrown to your screen, considering the computing power of the console it would be nice if there were upscaling features, even if it was something you had to pay for, as it would remove the need for a further box under the TV.
In late 2008 Microsoft released a firmware upgrade, which included the New Xbox Experience (NXE), available for all Xbox owners for free this was a great overhaul from the old interface. My console did not come with this installed, but the upgrade was simple, once I was connected to Xbox live the console detected the upgrade and offered to download it for me. Having only used the old interface for a short time I can't really give an in-depth comparison, although to me all changes seemed to be for the better, offering an overall more pleasing interface. Despite this I thought that the introduction of Wii-like Avatar's was a step too far, I didn't want to spend hours making a virtual me, so it would be nice if they could have disabled those features.
For me one of the main things that let's the console down is the Noise and Heat which it generates, in a quiet environment the sound from the fans is quite worrying, and can easily be heard above a TV whose volume is low, my Xbox is kept in a cupboard, so the noise can be drowned out by closing the doors on it, although then this means the system isn't properly cooled, so in the end I just turn up the volume and enjoy the game!
Finally I think something that should be mentioned is that the Xbox looks significantly better on HD displays. I know that sounds obvious, but in many games, especially racing, the small on screen instruments can become difficult to see on a standard definition set, to an extent this is the developers fault for not detecting the screen resolution and making them larger, but I think that this is a point worth mentioning, if nothing else use it as an excuse to splash out on a nice new TV!

Summary: Great if you want HD gaming on a budget.