When I first got my 360, I posted quick impressions after spending a bit of time on Gears and a few other games. Initially I was underwhelmed and tagged the 360 a 7/10. Mr. Stick asked me what I thought about it now, 6 months later, and I am answering his question in a new thread...
Why did I say 7/10? Before I bought m 360, I had a gamecube and PS2. Admittedly, some of the late PS2 and late Cube games like RE4 were graphically very, very good. I kept hearing how Gears of War was graphically amazing. Coming from RE4 very recently I expected something that gave real life film a run for it's money but when I first popped it in, I was rather disappointed. The problem is not that Gears ISN'T graphically a great game -- it is quite impressive... The problem is that my expectations were VERY unrealistic. I was expecting a level of graphical quality which was simply impossible on the hardware and probably only possible on a $2500+ dedicated gaming PC. Once I got into the frame of mind what IS possible on next gen hardware, I realize that was rather foolish in my assumptions. Also note that I had not tried any of the online stuff yet when I posted that initial impression so that part was not factored in.
So, here is a quick synopsis.
Hardware Quality -- Admittedly, I had a DVD fail and had to have a new unit. They sent me a new unit with the new "fixes" to the GPU and such. If Microsoft hadn't owned up to the growing hardware problem I would say they deserve a 4 or 5 out of 10, but with the new fixes, I'd give it a 8/10 or so but only because they have extended the warranty for 3 years so I'm balancing out the risk of future failure with the fact that I'm good for 3 years... The controller is the best (dual analog) I've ever used and that includes the Sixaxis. The wireless works flawlessly and the battery life is actually quite a bit better than I had expected. Overall the quality of all the Microsoft peripherals I own are top notch.... I will also add that the 20 gig hard drive is a little small. At first I thought it was fine, but there are so many demos that come out that I want them all. There is no way to fit them all on a 20 gig drive... That's not something I would deduct points for, however, as game saves are far from huge and having more demos than I can possibly store is a GOOD thing in my book.
Game selection -- 9/10 -- There are simply way more games to play than I can possibly purchase. I just took major advantage of the Toys R Us buy 2 get 1 free and yet there are still more coming... admittedly some are multiplat, but I can have the exclusives I'm interested in and all the multi plats, too. I'd give it 10 if there were a few more family oriented titles but sadly, there are not... I know Microsoft is trying, though, as there have been a few good ones as of late and a few more on the horizon.
Online system -- 9.5/10 -- I don't play multiplayer games so this just covers Xbox Live Arcade... There are a whole bunch of pick-up-and-play games that are just awesome... I've purchased about a dozen or so titles and there are a bunch more I like, but just don't have the time... A lot of folks knock the titles on XBLA -- especially given the fact that they are limited to 50 megabytes. In the end, I'm happy that this limit is in place. When I think arcade games, I think of 15-30 minutes of mindless gameplay and time to move along. Epic games belong on DVD as I'm not into downloading big files all the time.
Xbox Live Marketplace -- I only use the marketplace for demos since I think the video content is way overpriced and entirely too limited in how long you get to "keep" a movie to watch... The demos just keep coming... I'd give this one a 10 for sure. The quantity and quality of demos is second to none. Better than anything I've ever done on the PC. Microsoft does a great job of checking the demos for issues before going out and it shows. If I had to rate the movies/videos portion, I'd give it a 5/10 tops.... I'm not much of a movie/TV person anyway, so it's really not fair for me to be the judge of this area of the console.
Overall package. I got the premium and it had everything I needed -- headset, component video cable for standard OR high definition, hard drive, wireless controller, etc. The only thing that irritated me was the lack of integrated wifi. I hooked it up throuh a play-link cat 5 connection for 20 bucks, though, so no real biggie. I ding it 2 points for that omission, though, because it is important and is included in the other two competitors.
Overall, I'm very, very happy with my 360. Though not a mathematical average, I'd probably give it an overall 9/10 and is a testament to what a gaming machine should be. If you "read between the lines" of my review, you'll find that I rate the areas of the sytem highest that have to do with GAMING. That's what I bought it for -- games -- and in that, it excels. I will say to any future gamer that wants into the 360 experience to consider the bigger hard drive version. There is so much downloadable content that you can most certainly fill it to the rim pretty quickly.
I'm not going to take a swipe at any other console in this thread and I would respectfully ask that you do the same. I have all the consoles except the PS3 but that WILL change soon. I expect to have one no later than early next year.
Also bear in mind that I have been gaming a long time and have owned a whole bunch of consoles.... ps1, saturn, dreamcast, 3do, jaguar, game gear, genesis, snes, nes, various atari, and so on. I feel at this point I have played enough consoles and games to know a great console when I see one.
I hate trolls.
Systems I currently own: 360, PS3, Wii, DS Lite (2)
Systems I've owned: PS2, PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn, 3DO, Genesis, Gamecube, N64, SNES, NES, GBA, GB, C64, Amiga, Atari 2600 and 5200, Sega Game Gear, Vectrex, Intellivision, Pong. Yes, Pong.
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