Well I finally took the plunge and bought a slightly used 360. A relative had their machine get the RoD during the Halo 3 beta, and could not miss out on that last week of play. So for a few hundred dollars I got a pro and a handful of old games. A reasonable bargain. After all it lets me sell off my old Xbox which was a gift, and I could sell off a few of the games I got. So I actually got it for the price of a Wii maybe even less. That made the price acceptable. The unit on shelves for retail is still too pricey for me so the bargain was very critical to my purchase.
I already have a Wii, and thought it would be nice to give a side by side comparison of the machines. For those who want a inpartial appraisal. Let me state clearly I am not abandoning one console for the other. I will still be buying games for my Wii. I will probably buy games for the 360 also. Thankfully I can borrow games from my relative that will save a lot of pressure on my wallet. There are also games I dearly want to play on both consoles.
The online plan
Last night I finally installed my live. Let me give due respect to Microsoft for the technology. All hail the mighty ethernet cord which came with the unit. Additional respect for the length of the cord, long cords are better cords. I have yet to get online with my Wii. There is no wireless in my house, and we have cable. Easier to drill another hole in the house. That said a cord option should have come with the Wii. I love plug and play technology. The instillation took all of three minutes. With no additional cost.
Registration was a lengthy process. Mostly due to my being a informed consumer. I actually read the terms of use. Nice to know I did not sign my soul over to anyone. Further more it is nice to know my rights. Try to read the terms when you sign up for a service. Without that I would have been through in under ten minutes. Had I the use of a keyboard it would have taken less then three. Time to pick a handle. I like to stick with my handles nice to carry any reputation with you. Who the hell registered Opaquescum. I have used that handle for like ten years. Hell thats the header in my email. Oh well spilled milk and all. Might aswell use Dodece nobody will copy that one. A second of fear and I am in.
The marketplace is pretty easy to negotiate. Unfortunately everything is so expensive. The free things are nice but I never had a problem playing demos when they came with magazines. I have no problem finding trailers on my PC either. I get the uneasy feeling that I am getting swindled on the the TV and movies. I have a netflix membership. Straight up I get the things I want to watch cheaper a lot cheaper. This is download and I am spending two dollars for a fourty minute television show? Nice to see the selection is good I love anime, but once again the rates are ridiculous. The price is not worth what you are getting. I still impulsed a couple episodes of Crusade to check out the service. Machine locked up after the first episode. That scared me so I bought another thankfully no problem.
The arcade sounds like a great feature, and its the only feature I can compare against the Wii. I really wanted to get onto the virtual console. Was just waiting to get a PC with wireless support. I had no intention of spending money I did not have to spend. I suppose thats where I will end up getting downloadable games. The arcade is pretty pathetic. While the prices seem reasonable. The selection leaves a lot to be desired. I wanted to see more and better games. Nintendo has a lot more games on their virtual console, and many of those are very good games. Even though I understand the prices are a bit steep.
I would say the download side of the equation actually favors the Wii. The media on Xbox live is sadly overpriced. There is no ignoring that it is not offering what can be got elsewhere for a margin of the prices they are charging. The arcade is a fart in the wind compared to the virtual console. More games, better game, and more variety of games could go so far. I was actually shocked, but the media side of Xbox live is actually a consumer money pit, and there is very little value to be found. I still like the ease of installation and use, but what good is getting there.
I would also like to have had an explanation of the merits of the plans. Microsoft sure as hell did not give me one. Perhaps it was in the instruction manual. Perhaps my relative lost it. What I do know is Microsoft did not really explain that to me. What will I get for eight dollars a month? Do I need the gold membership to play games online. Does the plan give me any special perks. I understand the Wii is free to play online. Not sure what exactly I am paying for. I was under the impression that Microsoft does not use servers that the consoles themselves run the gaming service.
There are two plans silver and gold. I have no clue what either of these plans actually do specifically. One is free and premium I gather. I assume the silver plan gives you something since you have to go through a drawn out registration. I would hate to think think you have to go through registration just to get downloaded patches. Initial thoughts I am on a gold membership this first month, but I have no idea what the value is or if it is basically required to play online. I asked my relative, but he has never used the silver plan so he is clueless. Anyway this is a big problem. I felt overwhelmed and confused. I need to know what I am paying for exactly.
Once again I have to say the Wii even though I have not tried out the online service. I understand that it is a free service. I am completely ignorant to the online service from Microsoft. They put me in a plan free for a month, and I have no clue what the hell I am getting. I have no clue as to why it is worth almost a hundred dollars a year. Perhaps it is worth it, but how can I know unless they tell me. I would atleast have liked some downloadable educational material.
The browser or dashboard of both systems were not a real issue. Sure the Wii has ease, but at a quick glance you can see many more options are provided by Microsoft. The learning curve did not seem all that steep it is pretty straight forward. I think I can get more value here then with the Wii channels. I could see the fun in tooling around with the settings, gamerscores, and profiles. Profiles are better the Miis in my oppinion. Perhaps I am jaded but Charlie Brown looking avatars do not thrill me. I have played online far too long. I give this one to Microsoft. I like the feal, and it doesn't come across as tacked on.
The technology of both Machines seems pretty straight forward. Both are easy to set up. Ignoring the online difference I mentioned earlier. The 360 actually has fewer parts then I expected. Hell it has fewer buttons to fiddle with. I like the control afforded by the controller. I think it is cool I can open the tray with the controller. I like the fact that I can turn the machine off with the controller. I like the headset. I was a little worried about the hard drive. However since deleting data is so easy I suppose I will only ever have to remove it if I get ambitious. Both are user friendly. The greater options make the 360 the clear winner though. The machine is just cool.
The controllers I understand the Wii mote, and I understand the dual analog. I have used them both extensively. They have their own strengths and the weaknesses. I would love to see features from both incorporated into the other. That said in a purely ergonomic stand point the 360 is nicer on the hands even if the controls are more complex. I also like having more freedom with how I play. Most people do not appreciate that with the Wii you get locked into a box. You can move your box but you have to adjust. For instance if you move closer to the television. You have to change how far you move the stick. Then there is the issue of cord twisting. The Wiimote has a lot of potential, but for right now it is very problematic. Nothing game breaking, but the 360 controller is just a tad bit easier on an experienced gamer. The Wiimote has made too many sacrafices, and the nunchuk needs to be bigger period. I want to grip that thing.
Games are subjective, and people like different games. That being said there are games I want to play on both consoles. I will be fortunate in that respect. However for the purposes of comparing. I have to bring up two valid points. The games on the 360 definately look better in the graphics area. Perhaps Wii games will look better in time, but for right now the games on the 360 look a lot better. That is not a major issue in my book. Gameplay has always been a bigger factor for me. However pretty is always nice to have around. The second thing is something I do not like that the Wii seems to have a lot of. The Wii is is slow loader. First it takes time to load up on the wii menu. Then on some games you have to wait an additional amount of time to load up the game itself. This is annoying having to wait two or three minutes to get in the game. I noticed it on Red Steal, Godfather, Scarface, and a small amount in Zelda. I have faith that Nintendo will keep the load time on their first party games down. However third party developers have socked me with them. So far I have yet to find a 360 game that is a slow loader. Hell I like the fact that I go to the game first without going through a menu. Seriously there is no excuse now for games to take two minutes to load up. There are technology issues at work in the Wii.
Since I touched on graphics. I must touch on sound. Not the sound everyone is thinking of though. The Xbox simply roars. Let me put it this way the sound concerned and scared me. Hell it still does scare me. Especially since I know about the ring of death. I have done my best to keep it ventilated. However it does impact gameplay. You have to jack up the volume to drown out the roar. You start to phase the sound out of your perceptions, but you still have to jack up the volume. The Wii makes noise, and the clicking can be annoying, but it can't hold a candle to the 360. This is a definate downer. Well atleast it sounds like it is powerful.
The issue of reliability is a big issue for everyone. However I have had a few issues with the reliability of the Wii. I have had the machine lock up a few times on me, and I have had disc errors. Once a warning asked me to remove a disc only to not allow me to eject the offending disc. I am used to console quirks I just unplugged the machine. Which allowed me to turn the power on and quickly eject the disc. The problem was a small oil smudge. Like I said the 360 has also already locked up on me once. So I can attest to both machines having problems. I am unsure as to which has the most problems. Should know that in a few months.
Obviously there are a lot of first impressions here. While I have had a lot of experience with one machine I have very little with the other. I tried to keep it to what an initial user might experience. These things are what struck me about the two consoles. These are my initial thoughts. I thought it was a good idea to share them now before they fade. Once you get used to something the faults can fade, and you find it harder to see it the way you did the first time. This is a good chance to see how a Wii user experiences a 360 for the first time.
