Should You Buy the Xbox 360?

By Japhy Grant

Bill Gates continues his quest to turn your television into his bitch with the Xbox 360. So, does the new system add up? Yes, but should you buy it? Not just yet.

WHEN TO BUY

Video game systems are like children. When they're first born, they mainly cry a lot and keep you up at night. If you're thinking about getting an X360 for Christmas, think again. Microsoft has produced a limited quantity of units and the prices are going to be astronomical. This isn't so much a devious trick as it is a way to satisfy the hard-core gamers without disappointing everyone else. The truth of the matter is the Xbox 360 will have only 18 games at launch. All the really cool games will come out in Q1 of 2006. As much as I want you all to spend your lives glued to the TV, I recommend holding off until late January before buying the system. You'll have a wider selection of games and there's always the chance the system will have some glitch that needs to be fixed; the extra month will give the boys of Redmond time to figure it out.

WHO SHOULD BUY

While the Xbox 360 may get off to a soft start, the hardware has the chops for both serious gamers and casual enthusiasts. If you own the current Xbox, this is a must-have upgrade. With three symmetrical Intel Xenon cores, each one running at 3.2 GHz, a custom graphics chip capable of rendering 500 million triangles per second, 512 MiB of RAM, integrated networking and the ability to customize your box with snap-on plates, the system is the proverbial 300-pound gorilla of gaming hardware. The CPU and graphics processor have a theoretical combined speed of one teraflop, a unit of computing power once reserved for Star Trek episodes. In short, this is one cool beast. With Nintendo and Sony both upgrading their systems later this year, just about everyone will be buying a new system and unless you're a kid (Nintendo) or you can't live without the latest version of Final Fantasy (Sony), the Xbox has the perfect combination of muscle and the support of game developers.

WHICH ONE TO GET

Because this is Microsoft, the new Xbox 360 launch has to be confusing. The system will ship in two separate flavors -- the "standard" and a "core system." This is all hogwash. The core system really is the standard version and gets you a controller, box, AV cables and a trial membership to Xbox Live. For 100 bones more you can get the "standard" version, which includes a detachable 20 gig hard drive, wireless remotes, gold membership on Xbox Live and other sundry goodies. It's really a toss up, but opting for the core system isn't going to make you miss out on anything.

The Xbox 360 launched in the United States on Nov. 22 and retails for $399.99. The Core System retails for $299.99

Next Month: A School for Gamers.

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