Jan 31, 2010 10:20 AM
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Back in my days in the UK, I was fascinated to find grown.
men discussing games. My initial reaction to men discussing games like Ninja Gaiden and Halo was: Sad; but a few months into my stay I realised that gaming was perhaps the biggest stress reliever. When I finally bought myself a gaming console, it was the Xbox 360. The only other option that got close was the PS3
(the Wii just does not have the muscle in terms of FLOPs).
The Xbox 360 premium edition came with a controller, a 60 GB.
HDD and a RJ 45 cable. The console also came with a one ear headphone and mike that can be plugged into the controller to be used for voice chat. Taking into consideration I paid nearly 200 pounds for the console, the absence of an additional wireless controller was disappointing. I had to pay an additional 50 pounds for the wireless controller and another 30 pounds for a second gaming controller.
Installing the Xbox 360 was as easy as making apple pie(not that I can make apple pie). Just plug the correct cables and the Xbox comes on.
I had to read the manual for the controllers to figure out how they would connect to the Xbox 360, after that it was all fun and games. The wireless controller for cable free internet surfing was equally easy to install and once I had plugged it in, all I had to do was input the settings for the network.
The Xbox 360 gaming controllers are hardly revolutionary in the placement of the two joysticks and gaming buttons, almost all gaming consoles(apart from the Wii) have a similar layout. Unlike the PS3 however, the joysticks are more prominent and raised making it easier to use the joy sticks.
The two paddles are well placed; the only button difficult to access is the back button, as some games like Mass Effect use this too. Needless to say, more than a few hours of continuous gaming will cause your hands to go painfully stiff(something that happens with all controllers irrespective of the game being played).
All in all, the Xbox 360’s gaming controllers are easy to use, the battery life is irrelevant if you are using a play and charge kit as I do. In fact, I have never used the regular AA battery based system ever, so I am not in a position to state how long the battery lasts running purely on AA batteries.
The console is sleek and can be used both vertically and horizontally. Although the manual said that the console should ideally be used horizontally, I have seen too many people using the console vertically, and I too use it the same way, as it save a lot of space. The downside of using the console vertically is that one has to be careful when inserting DVDs.
In terms of features, the console will play DVDs with the correct region code i.e. my UK Xbox 360 will not play Indian DVDs(come on Microsoft, is the world not enough?). The Xbox 360 does not play VCDs either, something that I find a little disappointing. There is software available that can force the Xbox 360 to play VCDs but it involves ‘modding’ the Xbox something.
I am not willing to do(I love my console too much to let foreign hands violate its pristine condition).
The Xbox 360 has one massive plus point over the PS3 in that it can be used as a Media Extender. In a nutshell, I have managed to network
the Xbox 360 using Windows Media Centre and I can now play videos directly from my laptop to my TV via the Xbox 360(Kudos to Microsoft for sorting that one out).
After a firmware update, I can now install games onto the consoles hard drive to reduce load times and improve the game play(the DVD still has to be in the drive though), something that adds immensely to the game playing experience. In a nutshell, the console is feature packed if you know how to use the console.
The Xbox 360 can output full HD at 30 Fps to my 50” LG
Plasma TV, and the games are a joy. I have a wide variety of games at my disposal from Fifa 09 to Halo 3 and I feel that Halo 3 is the best Xbox 360 game that I played so far. I don’t have the luxury of having both consoles so I can take snapshots and compare them, but I am pretty confident that the Xbox 360 can match the PS3 in computing strength and graphics quality.
There is a wide range of games available for the Xbox 360 and there is never a dearth of games to play. My only complaint is the cost of the games, a new Xbox 360 game like Mass Effect 2 can set you back 2500 Rupees which is very high. If Microsoft wants to make the console popular it has to look into cutting game costs by collaborating with game developers.
If you have money and time to spare, the Xbox 360 is perhaps
the best thing you can buy for gaming.
