I always said that I'd never buy an Xbox. My friends would tell you that my Xbox rants were seemingly never ending. I hated them and I would always be a PS3 girl. Well, now I have an Xbox too.
The only reason that I decided to ignore the catastrophic fail-rate of the console is because I've managed to get my hands on a rather rare RPG that was never ported to PS3 in europe. So I bit the bullet and bought a 250GB 360 slim. So, was I right to rant so much about them, or has my mind been changed?
After owning it for around three weeks I can still say that there are more Con's than Pro's, but I'm still giving a fair review :P
The Design
Not too bad, though finger prints are in-escapable because of the shiny plastic shell, just like with the first gen PS3'S. It's useful that it stands comfortably when verticle, a downfall of the PS3 at least without a stand. Still, despite having THREE ventilation grills (one on either side and one on top), the console still gets hot at the bottom after a short amount of time and stays cool at the top. Mine stands vertically on a hard, flat surface, as does my PS3, so I don't see why the ventilation should be so unbalanced if it is perfectly acceptable to stand it upright.
The touch-sensitive buttons, while they do make cool swishy sounds, are a little impractical. Not so much the power button, but eject button. While reaching for something close to the console, I accidentally knocked the button very very slightly and it opened the disc-tray, costing me half an hours worth of field training. Most annoying with big RPG'S :/
However, I do find the ma-hoo-sive power charger to be rather useful as, supposedly, It allows the console to stay on for an extra two minutes after a powercut. But I'm not sure how much use that really is if the tele has gone off?
Finally, I find it extremely annoying that every time you unplug the console, or switch it off at the main, the date and time of the system reset it self. In my case to 2005. I'm not sure why it can't save such a small amount of information and yet it can save an entirely edited avatar and all your gaming files after a mains switch off?
Design Rating - 6/10
The Interface
I actually really like the Xbox interface. Everything is big, obvious and easy to use and it's very easy to navigate :P
Interface Rating - 10/10
Xbox Live
I'm afraid that I can't offer my opinion on this one. I have no intention of paying 30-40 pounds a year just to play online multiplayer, but thats my choice. I know that you pay for the quality, as it apparently outstrips the PS3's online capabilities, but I'm not prepared to pay for it.
The Controllers
Yet another money-making aspect of the Xbox. I brought a spare controller with my console, and while the one I bought charges it's own battery pack from the console, the one that came in the box runs off batteries. Now, I did get some duracells with it, but they cost a bomb to buy after that at like 5 quid per pack, and everyone I'm sure prefers duracell to most other battery brands.
My point here, is that if the extra controllers that are sold separately are able to charge from the usb port on the console, then why not make them standard issue? If you're caught mid battle or mid mission and your batteries go and you don't have anymore, what can you do?
Anyway, the controllers aren't as bad to use as I thought. I've found them quite similar to the Nintendo GameCube controllers that I used to/ still use alot. And they seem to have slimmed them down to match the console. Always a plus.
Controller Rating - 4/10
Well, that pretty much sums it up. It's a bit better than I expected but not as great as everyone seems to say it is. I've given it a good chance and a fair review. I enjoy playing it (though I think thats more the fantastic RPG than the console) but there are alot of impractical aspects about it on the whole. I think I will always prefer a good PS3 =)
Overall Console Rating 6/10
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