So to my surprise, I received an Xbox 360 bundle as an late Christmas gift from a friend a couple of days ago. First thing I picked up is Gears of War. What an amazing game! I love the intuitive cover system and seamless Xbox Live configuration. I sincerely wish Resistance had as much seamless integration with the online portion. I've only managed to play the campaign mode on co-op  and haven't done any pvp yet, but I will get to that tonight. The graphics is very good and the details are amazing, but if this is the best the Xbox 360 has to offer, I sincerely believe the PS3 will have much better looking games out by this time next year. If you own an Xbox 360, pick up Gears of War, you won't be dissappointed. But please, do yourself a favor and play it in HD, it will look like crap in SD.

Now onto my unbiased review of the 360 system itself. XBox live gold is truly a ripoff. That has to be my biggest pet peeve about the Xbox in general. Having to pay $7.99 per month just to be able to play games you own online is bogus. Resistance's multiplayer has a ranking system like the 360's, and SCEA doesn't charge you $8 a month to play it.

The Xbox has poor design, poor quality, and they prefer to charge you out the ass for accessories. Below is a numerical list of my issues with the 360.

2) Fan's too loud. The Xbox 360 makes waaaaaaaaay too much noise. Almost as loud as my desktop computer.

3) Flimsy microphone with poor sound quality. The microphone that comes with the Xbox is terrible. The sound quality absolutely stinks and reminds me of teamspeak on a crappy codec and 56k 4 years ago. The construction is very flimsy and it feels like it's going to break if you put any pressure on it. The headpiece isn't nearly loud enough and it constantly echos. If it's not echoing, then it will pick up the ambient noise of the other players. However, the saving grace would be how it plugs into the controller and is easily mutable even while playing a FPS.

4) Huge powerbrick. Unlike the PS3, the Xbox 360 powerbrick is located outside of the system and is HUGE. I've seen dogs smaller than the Xbox 360 powerbrick.

5) Pay more for wireless. So in order to utilize the Xbox 360 as a wireless hub, you have to purchase an additional antenna, instead of having it built in.

6) Controller operates on batteries. Microsoft must have some Energizer stock. The controller has the RUMBLE FEATURE AND OPERATES ON TWO AA BATTERIES!!!! Microsoft must think everything buys batteries by the truckload, because it won't take very long at all to burn out a set of batteries with rumble enabled. Which brings me to my next point.

7) Want a rechargable controller? Buy the rechargable battery pack, at an additional cost! How much more cost on accessories do you need to add to the Xbox?

8) No HD DVD capability. Want HD DVD? Buy the player for $200.

9) My Xbox 360 died on me. Yep, I got it two days ago and it died yesterday. I don't know what's wrong with it, but it just dropped dead in the middle of Gears of War and I haven't been able to revive it. Thankfully, the gift receipt was included so I'm going to exchange it and get myself either store credits or another one, depending on my mood.

That's not to say the Xbox 360 has no upsides to the PS3, it's just very few and far between. The Xbox 360 controller is MUCH more comfortable to use than the ps3 controller and it has rumble! It feels much more natural in a grown man's hands than the smaller PS3 counterpart. The Xbox 360 HDD is also easier to remove than the PS3 Hard Drive. It comes with component cables, saving you $60-70. Lastly it has a better library of games as of this moment.

In the end, if you were to compare value, I'd say the Sony PS3 comes out way on top. You get a much bigger HD, the ability to play high definition DVD, built in wireless hub function, rechargable controller, sleeker look, quieter operations, HDMI support, an extra USB jack, external memory slots compliant with standard memory cards of today, and just plain better technology built in. Xbox 360 may have a great library of games right now, but once the PS3 grows into itself, it will be a much better gaming system. Don't believe me? Get ready to eat your word when GT5 and MG4 comes out.