So you may have read from my previous review on Ps2 that yes I was a huge playstation fan, I had my original console PS1 for 5 years and my PS2 for over 10, I also bought the slim version. So when Xbox 360 came out I wanted it to fail. When I went over my friend s house to play it I found the controller particularly difficult, compared to the simple PS controller (a master stroke of sonys part as Id heard they were looking to change it) So it fair to say I didnt like it.

As the years (2007 to present) went on I saw a bigger and better array of games come out, whee as ive noticed that playstations game choice seems to have limited itself more, I think they have more exclusive titles then xbox, but I think microsoft publish more genres then ps. My brother bought his xbox a couple of years ago and gave it to me a year ago as he no longer played it. And I have to say as I had gotten used to the controller through constantly playing Gear of war 1 and 2 with him, this console has surpassed my expectations.

ok so onto the technical stuff: It comes typically in three version (although there are many other sub packages now that add on bits of hardward onto these main three) They are;
The arcade version- I have this,you get 256mb internal storage, but no HDMI cable (costs about £15 seperately) only AV, and ive found that 256mb starage is enough for me, 1 wireless controller, and all the usuals like xbox live, but you dont get gold membership or anything like that.

The 20MB verison, get HDMI cable, and bigger harddrive, silve rmembership xbox live, 1 wireless controller, headset, face plate

Finally the elite 60gb version, with all of the above and gold membership, wireless modem (there is also now a 250gb version for people that want to store lots of games and related items....full connetaility, and its wireless modem)

I have the arcade, and Ive used he online games purchase feature (the games library)already to purchase golden axe, a classic, and the first level of ace combat 6, which I am a big fan of. You need points to do this, which you can purchase from a retailer or get awarded for from specific online multiplayer games missions.
I just use the AV cable at the moment, I have aHD tv, so I really will need to buy a HDMI cable to see things the way god intended.

The game selection is emmense now, at first it was slow going. Amazon have a great -future releases- section that lets ou look at videos and stills from upcoming games.
Id say microsoft have less exclusive releases hen PS, but they do have the gears of war franchise and other games like Deus ex are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved with these consoles.
But I have noticed that PS3 games are cheaper second hand , because i think there are not so many of them so the sellers on xbox 360 have the monopoly and keep prices inflated together, limiting competition- hey its a sellers market now.

Cost, when this first released I abjected to paying £400 for one, ps went one further at £450- ridiculous. But PS had blu ray and again I abject to sony wanting to force people into bluray. I digres...the cost for an arcade version is £170, even the 60 gb version is only £190, worth it rather then buying the hardgig drive seperately as this cost more then the £20 difference.

You can have the usual online community, profile and avatar, all that...you can play online gaming and some games now , like Modern warfare, black ops have there own online game exclusivity,like the 5 new maps released on black ops, only accessible to those who play together on the net. Other games like asasins creed brotherhood have been developed specifically with this feature in mind, so the multiplayer feature is awesome, and I feel that if I play it arcade style (i.e on my own) im no really getting the most from it. Shame, because im a bit of a technophobe in this regard and it limits my enjoyment for this console.

One of the other benefits is that the xbox kinnect has just been released- this was one market and feature I thought microsoft could exploit from the nintendo wii , I dont know how good the games are on the kinnect compared to the wii tough - sorry.

OK so bad points, its quite noisy on start up , the fan assist cooling is a bit hard working.
And so onto the 'ring of fire' problem, when this console released, if yu had a tech fault, 1 section of the green halo went red, there are 3, if you got 3, a complete red ring, your console was buggered to use atech term. Microsoft offers a 3 yr warrenty for this to fix, but its still inconvenient to lose your console for weeks.

The thing is, it can still happen to new models and hasnt been totally fixed yet. When PS2 came out the first models had an overheating problem, the an was insuffiently weak for the temperature. But Sony fixed this problem by the 2nd year of release so the prob was limited to only the first customers , and sony offered warrenty too. Why have microsoft taken their time about this. But I have to say I hear about this problem allot less now.