Hi everyone

When looking back at the Xbox 360 until now I really can't see a reason for owning one.  I used to own a Xbox 360 until June of this year.  I got mine in April of 2006 with Oblivion.  Oblivion was a fun game, but the 360 had too many problems with overheating, not booting right all the time, game freezes, broken games coming out that the system was more of a headache then an entertainment experience.  I will break this down into sub parts much like I did with the Wii thoughts post.

ONE YEAR EARLY

Microsoft wanted to get out of the gates before the other two could saddle up.  Their strategy for coming out a year early was based on the PS2 domination factor, which they believed coming Sony's power play of a year early would ultimately be the reason for its massive install base. 

This strategy was flawed big time.  The fact is the system came out with many hardware defects from bad hard drives, bad cpu's, frying cpu's, power problems, overheating, ect...  When it came down to it, it was almost like the 360 was out as a beta machine and not the final product.  Microsoft also forgot to put in a HDMI interface in their next generation "high definition" console.  Also because microsoft refused to take risk, the HDDVD drive is now an eyesore external device.

ONLINE GAMING

Introducing the Xbox Live Service was a breakthrough for consoles and a burn through for consumers.  Micro transactions, Micro transactions, Micro transactions, seem to be what Xbox Live is all about.  Not only do you have to pay for expaned maps and so forth that should have been put in the game to begin with, but for themes you have to pay, for gamer pictures you have to pay.  I really don't get that at all.  The Gold service for Microsoft that allows you to play games online really isn't worth it.  It should be free.  I still don't see the difference between the Gold and Silver besides the one point I just mentioned.  Everytime something big happens, Silver members are promoted to Gold making the whole thing pointless to me.  Xbox Live Service really just simply allows developers to be lazy with making games, examples of broken games are:

Chromehounds:  Problems with game freezing
Dead Rising:  Hope you didn't want to read that text on SDTV
Test Drive Un:  Oh you wanted those online features to work.
Prey:  I knew we should have put map in the multiplayer

Although Prey saving grace is the announced free download of the maps, so atleast they atoned for what they did.

NO WELL KNOWN FRANCHISES

This one I really have a problem with, when it comes to Nintendo and Sony's platforms I can think of lots of franchises that I will like to play but I am really tired of only Halo.  If I remember the xbox platform has been around since 2001.  Its time to make more IP (Intellectical Properties).  I want more must have games to come out on the system.  Heck I want a must have game to come out on the system.  Microsoft did a bad job of selling me on why I should have the system.  I buy gaming consoles for games, not extra content.  To me regardless of the platform a game should be able to stand on its own with out any additional content.

Halo 3 comes out next year and gears of war looks promising, but one title isn't really enough.  Especially sense we are in second generation xbox 360 games now.

XBOX LIVE ARCADE

This was the one really good thing Microsoft did with the system.  Not only does it have games for casual gamers, but also additctive games that will keep hard core gamers happy too.  The ability to try before you buy is essentially the icing on the cake.  You can play the demo as many times as you want to as well.  The Vision Camera also allows the next level of online immersion to surface.  Truely Microsoft has done alot with the XBLA function.

I don't like the way retailers jack up the pricing for points.  I agree with the point structure for the most part, I also like the way many old games have a version of the game with newer HD graphics to really bring it into the new age, it always doesn't work right but its nice to see them putting effort into a HD focused system like that.

CONCLUSION

I really can't recommend the Xbox 360 to anyone.  It offers too little for too much money and has more problems with its hardware than it is worth.  Definately an improvement over the Xbox, but there isn't enough there to warrant its price point.  I would wait for a price drop on the high end package before bothering with this console.