Xbox 360

Microsoft now introduces the next generation games console “Xbox 360”; fusing games, entertainment, community, information and innovation all together. It will be launching it this November in Europe, Japan, and North America. Xbox 360 is a video game system that places you at the center of the entertainment experience.

San Francisco and Japan joined hand to craft a stylish system that conveys the very essence of Xbox 360; while wrapping powerful technology in a sophisticated exterior. The Xbox 360 has changed the looks and sounds of games. With Xbox 360, marathon worlds are alive with detail. Animated characters displaying depth of emotions bringing more exciting responses and introducing you with a new and unique experience. All Xbox 360 is label at 720p and 1080i resolution in 16:9 widescreen for smooth, movie-like graphics and multi-channel enclose sound.

The Xbox 360 takes you to an incredible world of entertainment. The Xbox 360 has the most dazzling games and the most powerful as well as intelligent technology. It gives you access to the most compelling games you want to play, people of your choice to play with, watching and enjoying digital music, photos, videos and all the experiences you ever longed for. It fully engages you in an extensive, dramatic, and lifelike gaming experience where no boundaries to the possibilities and imagination are. The Xbox 360 proves that the next generation is here as its games can be experienced in HD, Also you can stream HD television and movies straight from your Windows Media Center Edition PC to your Xbox 360.

The Xbox 360 lets you personalize your own unique system and experience. You can change the appearance of your console by interchangeable Xbox 360 Faces; it's easy and fun to do. Switch on your system to download character skins, premium levels, and more in the Xbox Live Marketplace to customize the look and feel of the Xbox Gamer Guide and Xbox System Guide with unique skins. From sleek and sophisticated to fun and funky, pick the faces and skins that explain your personality or mood.

The Xbox Gamer Guide, available at a touch of the Xbox Guide Button is your instant gateway that connects you to games, friends, music, movies, and downloadable stuff. The glowing Ring of Light and Xbox Guide Button visually connect you to your games, digital media, and the world of Xbox Live, the first global, unified online console games service. In addition, the Xbox Guide Button lets you turn the system on and off without ever leaving it.

Plug your Xbox 360 into the broadband connection and get instant access to Xbox Live Silver.

Build your profile, your gamer card and your gamer tag; talk with others using voice chat, and access Xbox Live Marketplace without any extra cost. You can also experience the exciting world of multiplayer online gaming where you can play who you want with Intelligent Matchmaking by upgrade to Xbox Live Gold. It provides access to an vast selection of games, video chat and video messaging.

Review of Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC:

Earlier the Star Wars: Battlefront I for PC enabled its fans to battle through missions and settings pulled straight from the movies. After considering the huge number of requests from their fans, LucasArts and Pandemic now presents ‘Star Wars: Battlefront II for PC’ this holiday season. In order to increase the game's playability and enjoyment, many modifications and upgrades have been made in the Star Wars Battlefront II.

Star Wars: Battlefront II chases away the old Battlefront storyline. Battlefront II is based on a first-person story which follows Darth Vader's elite 501^st Legion of Storm Troopers and is inspired from various books, like Timothy Zahn's and other publications - from the start and through the rest of the movie's storyline satisfying the restless hearts of many hardcore fans.

The new Battlefront II has many new missions and online battles structured in it. Now you just don’t have to destroy and hold a power generator to win online. There is much more than that. Although the continuation in the Star Wars Battlefront II does not raze the exhilaration initiate in the first team-based game to be set in the Star Wars Universe. It contains over twenty different maps, twelve of them land based and on different planets, and eight at various space-based locations. In engages the players constantly in a fight. The objective of that fight is the control of capture points. Players reach the ultimate goal by following various maps. Each map is laid out so that the players can easily strategize a way to achieve the objective. It gives you the full control of both the infantry figures and the war vehicles. Best of all, it provides the players with an attractive objective. It enables you to jump between piloting different types of ships, including TIE Fighters, X-Wings, and a number of other famous Star Wars vessels during the space battles.

Battlefront II also allows you to form boarding parties with your friends and use them to take down an enemy's spacecraft. Or you could simply fight dog fights as per your wish. Both the land and space-based vehicles will have a real upgraded and super fast speed and maneuverability. Moreover, it supports 16 players for PS2, 32 for X-box, and 64 for PC users for online play.
Players can choose one of two different strategies. Those players who enjoy face-to-face combat can employ a series of dogfights as a way to conquer the enemy forces. The vehicles participating in these dogfights could be star destroyers, frigates, or even smaller, flea-like fighters. The game players are free to use any combination of those vehicles that they choose An alternate strategy, one that requires a bit less fighting, involves the use of subterfuge. The player who has chosen this strategy must sneak onto an enemy craft and destroy it from the inside. Battlefront II increases the excitement of this subterfuge by creating ships that are scaled to appear very much like the real thing.

If one is very well skilled at subterfuge, one can even steal fighters. This really adds to the fun of Battlefront II. The one drawback to the game Battlefront II is the fact that it has a limited number of figure types. Players control only pilots and marines. If a fighter needs to be repaired, then the pilot has to repair it himself.

Another complaint expressed by some Battlefront II players is that all of the maps lead to similar multiplayer matches. What changes is the planet over which the battle takes place. And there are 24 different possible battles scenes, 24 different possible planets, including Mustafor, Utapau and Coruscant.

So, if a team of players, or if a single player, is very good at strategizing how to capture points, what do such individuals get as a reward. In Battlefront II the reward for gaining a certain number of points is the chance to have one player as the hero. The number of heroes is limited by the restriction of one hero per side per match. The hero is not that much more powerful than the other characters, but the enemy needs to unite if it wants to succeed at defeating the hero.

Xbox 360 Hard Drive

According to J. Allard the Xbox 360 guru, the decision to sell the Xbox in two configurations is pro consumer in regards to the Xbox 360 hard drive issue. It allows consumers to decide whether or not the hard drive is worth the extra cost.

Allard stated “You buy the Xbox 360 Core system, you can build up to the premium system and you won’t be left out of anything along the way,” showing that consumers have a better choice since those choosing to buy the core system can then decide if and when they would purchase the Xbox 360 hard drive.

The flexibility offered by having a choice of purchasing the Xbox 360 hard drive or adding it on at a later date is not normally associated with the consumer electronics market and shows Microsoft’s commitment to providing it’s customers a choice according to Allard.

Allard said “Consumers like choice, and it’s a very pro-consumer move on our part to say, ‘We’ve got two configurations of system that’ll be launching in Europe and if they’re not right, we have the flexibility to go and change it.”

All of the Xbox 360 games will be playable without the Xbox 360 hard drive. This promises the gamers who purchased just the core system will not be limited in the games that they play because of no Xbox 360 hard drive.

The Xbox 360 hard drive will contain pre-loaded specialized content. This content will be included in both the Xbox 360 Premium pack and the Xbox 360 hard drives that are purchased separately. The included content will include gamer content tiles which will allow gamers to personalize their Gamer Card by selecting one of the tiles to show as their icon when browsing Xbox Live. The custom sound track lets consumers test the Xbox 360’s audio capabilities. The video included on the Xbox 360 hard drive includes a track on “The Making of Xbox 360”. This will give people some insight on how this console was made and also showing off the video capabilities. The arcade game Hexic will give you and idea of the type of arcade games that will be available on Xbox Live. Hexic is created by Alexy Pajitnov, the original creator of Tetris. You know, one of the greatest games of all times. This game is very addictive and will keep you busy for the first two hours, before you even slip the first disk into the console.

Over all the content of the Xbox 360 hard drive is to give the consumer an understanding of what the capabilities of the game system are.

Part of the decision to offer consumers a choice of hard drive or no hard drive came because Microsoft was not willing to bear the costs of the hard drive as they did in 2001 with the Xbox. They had lost $4 billion on the original Xbox console.

Since Microsoft demands that games be able to play without a hard drive there are many game developers who are unhappy. This unhappiness is related to issues with streaming and caching. Allard tried to balance that problem out by stating. “from the developer point of view you have the best tools and the commitment of the most well-resourced company in the world going worldwide with this product and saying that we want to grow the audience. So that seems like a win for developers”.

But to many industry analysts and most hard core gamers, this hard drive issue is just a promotion ploy from Microsoft. A way to say the Xbox 360 only costs $300.00 when in reality the only package worth purchasing is $400.00. This is because to do any type of online functions or to save games you need to have either a hard drive or 64 MB memory card that can be purchased for $40.00. So if you purchase the core system you will eventually need to spend as much as or more than the Xbox 360 Premier Package. This makes the core system cost savings non existent or at the very least significantly less.

Xbox 360 hard drive or no hard drive the choice is yours but in all reality there is no choice. This may be why Microsoft predicts over 50% of the first launch consoles are the Xbox 360 Premier system.