Why I'm not buying an Xbox 360 *yet*




What is small, white and sounds like a helicopter?

In the rush to produce this modern marvel of a games console, Microsoft overlooked its role as a high fidelity piece of home entertainment equipment.
If the 360 is to take pride of place in the home theatre then it needs to act accordingly as other home theatre equipment does, that is, its auxiliary noise should not be upstaging its other aural qualities. The DVD drive is so offensive that it simply can't be tolerated for any satisfactory duration. This will no doubt change over time as different manufacturers will provide different drives to the production line. Microsoft will most probably not actively seek to remedy this, it will be down to pure chance that a new quiet drive enters production.



Nevermind the quality, feel the width

This is of course a given. New hardware is always going to be problematic and issues will arise and some on the cutting edge will naturally get...cut.
Having owned a launch Xbox which is now on the scrapheap, I'm not so happy to jump in (no pun intended). Even the v1.1 Xbox's were far more reliable than the v1.0's. Given the climate of stressed production that a world wide launch causes, conditions aren't exactly optimum as far as quality control goes. The console will be a far more hardy beast once production is on top of demand and early mistakes are learned and rectified.



You are not my PAL

The price of being a PAL gamer has been costly in the past. Technology has now moved beyond most of the old technical issues that have plagued PAL gamers since consoles first started interfacing with TV's. And the time it takes to get most games down here has been dramatically improved in many cases, but is it enough? Well no, not really. Game prices are in danger of seriously taking the piss. $120-$130 for a game? I won't pay it. I haven't broken $99 for a single game and I'm damned if I'm going to start doing so. Petrol might cost an arm and a leg and I'll have to grin and bare it, but I can choose where I buy my games and at what price.

All it takes is for one killer game to get a six month delay and all hope of ever catching the rest of the Live community up is out the window. Worst case scenario is that a game can be a complete no-show locally.

U.S. consoles are a little hard to come by at the moment and combined with the quality issue explained above, aswell as the issue with a suitable solution to the power supply problem (step down transformers are not what I would call a suitable solution), it makes it all a bit of a mission at the moment.

The Asian 360 may offer a viable solution as it comes with a 220volt power supply and the games are cheaper than from any other region. But then again, the bottom could fall out of that market and I know what it is like to own a console (Japanese Xbox) that has a sparse and expensive software selection.



The world is my oyster, but I can't break the shell

The 360's strength lies in its online abilities, but sadly out of the control of Microsoft, is the state of ADSL in NZ. Often, online gaming on a console, which relies on peer to peer connections, is a miserable experience.

Distance might be a factor that is never overcome, but there are so many ways that the service could be better. Instead, I have noticed a steady decline in the quality of my ADSL gaming experience over the last couple of years.

Without Live, the console is like Samson without his hair. Compelling single player titles will need to play a much bigger part than they did with the Xbox platform, even more so if I'm forced to turn my back on online gaming and cancel my Live account. I don't mind taking a beating on Live because I suck, but having my connection take a constant beating because the service sucks is a complete killjoy.



White is the new Black

Well at least when Apple did it, it was. Monkey see, monkey do.
White might be ok for ipods, but it doesn't do it for me on consoles and controllers. Its not particularly subtle to have a bright white appliance sitting amongst all the black or silver AV gear. Faceplates might go someways to covering the facade, but most of them are tacky additions that don't enhance the console in anyway and unless you are sitting square on to the face, you've still got those bright side panels glaring at you.

Limited edition consoles are something to cherish, they are rare and desirable. A 360 with a rare faceplate is nothing more than a common console wearing a mask, as soon as that mask is removed, its mediocrity is revealed. Lets see some true limited edition 360's with the full side panel and controller treatment, please.



Give me back my Credit card

Xbox Live on the original Xbox required a credit card, that's fine, no big deal. 360 however, is completely optional, you can signup for a gold account and use prepaid subscriptions to buy points and further subscription periods. That is, of course, only if you are new to Live. Yes, it seems that once Microsoft gets your credit card, they won't let go. You cannot remove your credit card details from your Live account.

The problem is that I have two Live gold accounts, one for primary use and one for when guests come over. If I was to let these accounts lapse, I would lose my gamer tags for good. But if they had of been created on a 360, then they would simply become silver accounts which I could reactivate to gold status at my leisure. Sadly, my guest account is not likely to be renewed at the end of the year. No fair.



Abandonment issues

I've got a whole heap of Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube games that are in an unfinished/unplayed state. This has a kind of deja'vu feeling to it, cause something similar happened when I moved from PS1 to PS2. All my good intentions of finishing off my PS1 games went out the window once the shiny 'next-gen' took ahold of me. I'll be hoping I'm a bit more sensible about it this time and stick it out with the old titles that I have invested money into (at this rate, time won't be a problem), but I'd rather not tempt fate and regret it later (again).