Review- Xbox 360

brix — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:35:22 +0000

A few days ago, I bought an Xbox 360 from Gamestop, and about 5 games. First of all, the packaging is very nice, with the box easy to open without destroying it and the contents protected, but not in a clamshell or sealed plastic bag.

Anyway, clams aside, the system is easy to set up. If you have your TV near your router, you’re in luck. The Xbox 360 has a networking cable included, but no built-in wifi; you have to buy that for another $60-$100 depending on where you go. It is straightforward to set up offline, and if you decide to go online, Xbox LIVE is around $10 per month if you pay monthly, and $50 for 13 months. Payment methods are credit cards and Xbox LIVE cards sold at most stores that sell video games. Online is mostly lag-free if you have a decent broadband connection. The games are great, the system is powerful, the Xbox Live party system is awesome, and with the exception of few (lot) of idiots on XBL, very fun to play. It works with Windows vista and 7 for the HD video and music streaming over the network. On the XBL Marketplace you can buy games, movies, music, videos, expansion packs, and a bunch of other stuff for relatively low prices using a credit card or Microsoft points, which are about 1.2 cent each, so its $20 for 1600 points. XBL is the main selling point here, because the PS3 is more powerful, but lots of new things are coming out all the time, like Project Natal, which is basically the Wii with better graphics and no controller.

I’m looking forward to Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2, as are who knows how many other people. The games I recommend right now, though, are Halo 3, COD4, Burnout paradise, and (if you’re into RPGs) Fallout 3.

The XB360 is a great system, and Microsoft recently dropped the price on the Elite (the black one) to $300, the Pro to $250, and the Arcade (which has only 1 controller and no hard drive) to $200, which is what it was at before. If you’re looking to upgrade from that old Xbox or PS2 without waiting for the next generation consoles, the Xbox 360 is a good option. Also, Microsoft released windows 7 today.

UPDATE- After over a year of having my xbox, it’s still running strong and there are tons great games. Microsoft recently released a patch to allow usb flash drives (up to 16gb) to be used as memory cards, which lets you have a lot more stuff on it for a lot less money, as a 16gb drive is $40 and the 512MB card is $30. There was also a recently released 250GB hard drive, and I may actually buy one soon-I only have 2gb left on my 60 gig hdd.

Review-Flight Simulator X- Acceleration

brix — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:22:59 +0000

Microsoft finally released an official add on for Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe DVD! The Microsoft Flight Simulator X Acceleration Expansion Pack adds major functionality such as 3 new planes-the AgustaWestland EH-101 Heavy Lift helicopter, a race-modded WWII P-51 Mustang , and, An F/A-18E Hornet. It adds 39 missions, new scenery, direct x 10 compatibility, new multiplayer functionality, and more Red Bull and Reno air races.

The part that I consider the best is the new ai carriers that you can land on with an F-18. You can then taxi to one of the four catapults and take off again. Of course, 3 of the missions are tutorials to the new feature, and yet others are practice.

One problem, though, is the fact that it remaps about 15 controls to new ones, so you have to relearn the key commands or in the case that they are mapped to your joystick/gamepad, just remap the new ones.

The system requirements are a bit higher due to some cool new effects, so i’ll post them here.

Processor-2.0 ghz single core or 1.0 ghz dual core
Hard Drive space- 4 Gb+
RAM- 1 GB
Video Card- DirectX 9 or 10 compliant card-128 mb+ Video ram-Shader model 1.1+
Operating system- Windows XP sp2 or Vista(all versions-SP1 recomended )
Other- Audio card.

Bricks and Bots » Reviews

Review- Xbox 360

Review-Flight Simulator X- Acceleration