The XBox 360 - from a girls Point of View! (Microsoft Xbox 360)

Member Name: loopylis

Product:	Microsoft Xbox 360
Date:	07/11/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great game film, tons of features

Disadvantages: Games and accessories expensive

I do often self proclaim myself as an X Box widow, I can lose my husband for hours once he is on his! But, lately, I have discovered that, actually, I can girl it up a bit too! It took a while, as I was always a PS2 kinda girl, and the difference in the controllers and the way you control gameplay put me off as I found it difficult to manouevre.

So, what is it? The Xbox 360 is, primarily, a games console. But, this is not the same as the original Xbox. The Xbox 360 can also be hooked up to the internet, which enables you to play games against people from all over the world. To be able to play online, you need to have an Xbox Live membership on your account, these are available in 3 month or 12 month memberships. This also enables you to hook up to your MSN. Choose your username, hooked up to an email address, and this becomes your gamer tag, enabling you to add friends and for people to find you.

You can create an avatar for your profile, this shows up for others to see and on your dash board.

You can buy points. These enable you to buy add ons for games, purchase demos and some full games, and to buy extrass to glam up your avatar.

When you turn the XBox on, you go to your dashboard. From here there is access to so many different things. You can go to your proifel to view and edit, you can search for friends, or send messages to the ones you have. If you have the earpiece, you can even talk directly to your friends.
There are the game, video and music marketplaces. You can download demos, and games, pictures and more in these, sometimes free, sometimes you will need to pay with points.
From here, you can also hook your XBox up to your pc, and transfer your photos and music over.
Recently, the SkyPlayer has been added, which means you can hook the XBox up to your Sky ID and watch some programs. There has been a huge demand for this since its release, and as yet we are still unable to connect so Im unsure of exactly what you can view on it.

Game play is simple. Just pop in your disc, and the game will either load automatically, or you can choose to start the game from your dashboard.
I have to admit, Im not a techy person, but I am yet to see a game where I havent been impressed with the quality of the games, a few of them have graphics so good you have to remind yourself that its actually a computer game.

Like I said at the start, I wasnt very much into this console. My husband has had his for a year now, and apart from family games, like Viva Pináta party games that we play with the kids, or Lips which is something a group of us can do, I havent really played on it, until the last week. The buttons on these controllers, and the controls themselves, made it awkward for me, as I am used to the Playstation controllers, and this last week I have been accustomising myself to the XBox, and just about have the hang of the controls, and can work my way round the XBox pretty well myself now.

There are lots of accessories for the XBox, we have games that we have plug in dance mats for, and hubby wants a steering wheel for his driving games. Trouble is these, plus games, can get pretty expensive.

I want to girlify the XBox, have hunted down for myself a nice pink controller, and, although the range of more 'girly' or family friendly games is limited, thgey are bringing more out. We have the Lips game, that comes with 2 microphonesl, which we play as a family or when our friends come round, the HSM3 dance mat, and the Viva Pináta games. There are lots of games available on Disney or Pixar film, for example, Ratatouille, or Up, which I would assume will be quite child friendly. I have recently found myself playing the CSI games, which have been a tad gory, but for me, who isnt keen on war games, or fighting games, its quite easy going, and nice to unlock plenty of achievment points on!

You can buy Xboxes with different sized memories, you can get the Arcade, which retails at around £140 ish, and has a 256MB memory unit. The Premium*, which has a 20GB memory unit and retails at around £190, and the Elite, which has 120GB memory unit, and retails for around £200 (*please see note at foot of review!!)
You can very often find some good bundles if you shop around which will come with a game or two and some accessories.

All in all, the XBox is a very good console, and attractive looking too, and as a bonus, its also a DVD player, so my TV unitlooks neater without having an extra DVD player on there! As long as more family orientated games are released, and something for the ladies too, I dont think we will ever go back to a Playstation console again.

*I have just been told they no longer do the Premium, although you are still able to purchase one from Amazon.co.uk, today, 7.11.09

Summary: Brilliant console