Greetings all!
I've just recently managed to acquire my second console of this generation (my first being a PS3).
A close friend of mine purchased an Xbox 360 roughly 2-3 months after launch in Europe. It's had some minor disk-reading errors, random freezes and noise problems recently, (I'll discuss that later) so he decided to splash down some money and purchase a new one.
Recently, while visiting his house, he generously offered me his old console -plus some accessories- entirely for free.
An Xbox 360, 1 wireless controller, a headset, and a copy of Halo 3.
(He also gave me a lend of Bioshock and COD4).
Needless to say, I humbly accepted the offer, as any self-respecting gamer would.
When no ruse was forthcoming, I threw the thing into the back of my car on friday night. I went to the pub later, so ended up completely forgetting about it. Then on Sunday morning, after waking up, I suddenly remembered its existence.
Gleefully, I took the console inside and promptly installed it.
First things first: When you've owned a PS3 for over a year, and have had no other console running in the house for that length of time, the sudden fan noise when I turned the 360 on came as a bit of a shock.
I listened to the console running for a short period of time, shrugged, and considered that while it is indeed louder then my PS3, I could live with it.
Then I put in the copy of Halo 3.
:shocked face:
I'm now inclined to believe that my 360 is loud even by a noisy 360's standards. Hell, I might even have the loudest 360 known to man under my television set. It sounds like one of those portable hand hovers, or even one of those miniature toy helicopters taking off. (That’s no exaggeration) All contained in the confined space of my living room. It's just ridiculous.
But hey, the things free! And it’s been around for a while (There’s a date of January 2006 on the back of the console.)
I had some initial problems syncing the wireless controller but, after skimming quickly through the console manual, I had it up and running without a problem.
The "blades" setup of the 360 dashboard seems easy to navigate, but certainly not leaps or bounds ahead of the PS3's XMB as many posters would lead you to believe. Both are, in my opinion, equally workable and user-friendly.
The 360 controller is fine. I've used one before so there was no "getting used to it" stage. I like it.
I played some Halo 3 online (amazingly, my old Xbox live account still has a month left in it, so I transferred it to the 360) and offline. It was very so-so and too much like its predecessor for my liking.
Bioshock on the other hand, is a completely different story. It's immersive, visually it's very appealing, and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it. (I don’t want to post any spoilers, but I have to mention that the opening crash sequence at the beginning and the following scene is just incredible).
I’m enjoying my new gift quite a lot. I probably won’t be buying any multiplatform games for the console -given that in its current state and age, it could conceivably breakdown at pretty much any point in time- But I’ll be keeping an eye on future exclusives.
Fable 2 is certainly on my wish list as I really enjoyed the first game. (It’s about the only RPG I’ve ever managed to get sucked into and fully complete). I’m not too impressed with the graphics shown recently for the title, but the fact that you can play co-op seals the deal for me.
I’ve also watched some early trailers for Alan Wake and that too looks like a very promising title.
I’m not a big fan of Gears or Halo so I probably won’t be getting any new titles for my 360 for a while yet.
I was wondering though if some 360 owners on Vgchartz might be able to recommend some decent Xbox Live Arcade games?
Edit: I’d also like to ask if it’s possible to download a demo while playing online at the same time? I started to download the NG2 demo, but then when I went to play some COD4 online a message appeared telling me “NG2 download operation has stopped”.
