7th Generation Rocked - Microsoft Hits it Big With Xbox 360

Pros: 720p/1080i HD, outstanding online, great selection of exclusive titles, decent price.

Cons: Not Blu Ray compatible, cost of Live.

Summary

Microsoft hit the 7th gen of consoles hard with the Xbox 360. Its improved Xbox Live and 720p/1080i compatibility makes it the best online system, and with a line of top-list games, it's hard to beat.

Introduction 
Microsoft's Xbox was a hit among gamers, aiming more on the mature level of gaming rather than the competition's focus on E - T rated games. The 360 pushed the competition further towards the mature audience, and improved its online capabilities far beyond that of Sony's (you get what you pay for), a great start to the 5th generation of consoles.

Features and Design 
The design of the 360 is a large improvement over the original, which seemed to anchor my house down in case of storms. Its sleeker, white design is nicer than the big black cinder block, and is much more practical for any entertainment center with its ability to go vertical and horizontal. Be careful not to exercise that ability during gameplay, it cost my buddy another copy of Call of Duty 4. Another part of it's design is its interchangeable faceplate, which I think is pretty pointless, but if you really want a different color to look at, it's a nice little feature.

Both wireless and wired controllers are usable for the system, which is quite a perk if you don't feel like charging batteries or buying new ones quite so often. These controllers are great; the elimination of the white and black buttons was a good move, and the introduction of the left and right bumpers brings it right up to perfection. The only problem I experienced is hitting the home button on accident while in the middle of an intense match. Xbox Home is easily navigable and offers lots of great pages, including the Xbox Live Arcade, trailers and previews, Netflix, and the most recent feature that allows you to create your own avatar and view others'. It is certainly a little more user friendly than the Playstation 3's home menu.

Microsoft's big hit: Xbox Live. If (roughly) 5 dollars a month is all it takes for a gamer to get fantastic online experience, I think I'd buy two. The only problem with the price though, is the $99.99 Wireless N Networking Adapter. What a bunch of crap, Microsoft, throw us a bone here. Sony gives you a free one! Plus free online service! Well, with the total 5 dollar monthly fee plus the 100 dollar adaptor, you better expect some great service. And that's exactly what you get. Easily navigable pages, friend lists and features, party chatting with your friends, game invites, messaging, game hopping, and dedicated servers. Xbox nailed it with their Live, and no console's is comparable.

The Xbox 360's hardware is great, even if it doesn't quite compare with the PS3's. The processing capability is top notch with 3 custom CPUs, each pushing 3.2GHz and a custom 500MHz, 10Mb ATI Graphics Card.

One mistake was the use of the DVD instead of the new Blu Ray, which could hold up to 50 GB of information on one disc! I'd pay to have that rather than all the downloadable content. Plus the Blu Ray is compatible with higher graphic settings.

But say, why get a 360 when I can get a revolutionary Wii, or a gorgeous Playstation 3? Because of two main reasons: Online and exclusive titles. The 360 surpasses both systems with it's Live (especially Nintendo's pathetic excuse for "online gameplay"). And the two competitors don't come close to the 360's titles, such as Gears of War and Halo. With the Wii's fixation on (awful) party games, and the PS3 having a higher price, you can see why the 360 is a good pick.

Technical Specifications 
CPU 
Custom IBM PowerPC-Based CPU 
3x 3.2 GHz cores 
128x VMX-128 registers per hardware thread 
3x VMX-128 vector units 
6x hardware threads 
1Mb L2 Cache

GPU 
Custom ATI Graphics Processor 
500 MHz 
10 MB embedded DRAM 
48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines Unified Shader Architecture 
16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X MSAA 
500 million triangles per second 
48 billion shader operations per second

Sound 
Multichannel surround sound output 
Support 48 KHz 16-bit audio 
32-bit audio processing 
over 256 audio channels

Memory 
512 MB GDDR3 RAM 
700 MHz DDR 
Unified memory architecture

System Bandwidth 
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth 
256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM 
21.6 GB/s front-side bus

System Floating Point Performance 
1 TFLOP

Storage 
20 GB hard drive (detachable and upgradeable)

I/O 
Support for up to 4 wireless game controllers 
2 memory unit slots 
3 USB 2.0 ports

Online 
Ethernet Port 
Wi-Fi Ready: 802.11 A, B and G 
Video Camera Ready

AV Output 
All games at 16:9, 720p and 1080i and anti-aliasing 
Standard definition and high def video output supported

Disc Media 
Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD 
Stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras, Windows XP PCs 
Rip music to Xbox 360 
Custom playlists in every game 
Windows Media Center Extender 
Interactive, full 3D visualizers

Ratings 
Graphics 9/10 
Audio 10/10 
Variety of Games 10/10 
Accessories 9/10 
Price 9/10