It has worked perfectly for me since the day I bought it and I haven't had any freezing or overheating issues at all. The graphics are amazing and the console offers a great selection of games. I would recommend buying a Hard Drive for the console, i got my 20GB HDD from Microsoft for only $20 during the Microsoft Memory Upgrade program for core/arcade consoles to make room for the NXE update.

The product is an okay "box" but I would recommend the pro or the elite.
B.T.W. The current xbox 360 arcade picture for this product is currently a pro.. The arcade doesn't have the chrome trimming on the DISC HOLDER...

Able to afford this, two new games (Falbe 2 and Midnight Club:LA) the 256Mb memory unit is enough unless you want to download a lot, I had room for Doom, both game saves as well as some DLC for Rock Band (Getting soon though)

I'm not a Sony fanboy but damn, the Arcade is a joke! No HDD? No WiFi? No Bluetooth. Hm.. The other versions of the 360 are OK but this one is only good if you're not into online (but seriously, who doesn't want online?)

Now that the 360 has dropped in price what you get for your buck is a bit more fair. I bought at launch, and I can easily say at that time it was a ripoff.

I have all three current gen systems. This is my M.O.; brand loyalty is stupid, it's competition that drives innovation in gaming. Out of all three I favor the ps3 even though it lacks a strong library. That will eventually change.

Here's why I consider the 360 to be a mediocre piece of technology:

I've had to endure the RRoD four times over three systems. That's shameful considering I don't play for 8 hours every day. My system is well ventilated, kept free of dust and adult maintained. There's simply no excuse for such a high failure rate.

The WiFi adapter is $100, slightly less if you find it used. Sorry, but this should have been included.

5.1 Dolby Pro Logic is the best audio the 360 has to offer. Wow! Pro Logic II !! What is this, 1997?

The addition of hdmi was nice, but it seems tacked on. The colors are nowhere near as vivid compared to the ps3. Same game, same tv, identical cables, the 360 (while it still looks very good and hdmi does look better than component) does not look as good in my opinion.

No browser.

The HD is locked down, so you can't freely import and export media.

The HD is expensive! And strictly MS property. At least the ps3 will allow you to change your HD yourself and at a fraction of the cost.

Xbox Live... is a bit of a pain in the ass. I'd be happier with it if it didn't have ads all over the place -- I mean, it is a service we're all paying for, the customer should have some control over what they're forced to look at. I also don't like that they use a shady point system instead of just cash. Other than that, Live has their act together pretty nicely, but I can't pretend it doesn't have it's share of glitches, freezes and morons.

So I consider the hardware itself to be average. It does what it does fairly well, and it's very much a user-friendly system. However, it's already dated and combined with it's failure rate I would say that the best feature right now is that it's relatively inexpensive.

What can I say, it rapes the PS3 and Wii!

Kyo28 doesn't have an Arcade since the Arcade doesn't come with a HDD. I don't know what languange D00mer is speaking.


The Xbox 360 is plagued with hardware problems which comes in the form of a time bomb depending on how it is used/abused. M$ will not admit that they blew it with the implementation of a good concept and didn't even need to go to a 360 when the XB1 was perfectly adequate for most people. What you are getting over the XB1 is eye candy, 2x priced games and a payment plan of about $66/year for hardware. This calculates $200 for an Arcade box which will die in 3 years requiring a replacement. If it dies in less than 3 years, you get a refurb'ed replacement from M$. It may end up turning into a revolving door from your home to M$, but you don't have to buy another one. M$ assumed that an expensive home entertainment system would be treated like a stereo receiver and not like a kid's toy. They were wrong. Moving the box around with the disk spinning in the drive will gouge the game. Putting it on the carpet or in a cramped shelf will kill the airflow and cause the "Ring of Death". Even though the instructions say not to do this, how many people read the instructions or really follow all the precautions?

The original was overpriced for what you get, but the newly priced Arcade at $199 US is a great deal. If you want a true media center, get an Xbox1 with a 500GB HD and XBMC installed. That way, you can use the 512MB flash memory on the XB360 and not need a HDD until the prices for those drop also ($25 on clearance for the 20GB last month if you could find one).

Conclusion: the hardware is a good value(4) which would be excellent(5) if it lasted and the games are terribly overpriced as are the games for the PS3. The PS2 games are a very good value if gameplay is more important than eye candy. The Wii doesn't count because it's for little kids and parties.

Hope that helps and doesn't muddy up the waters.

I must admit that from the start, the 360 had a strong line-up of games, which brought me to buying one. There are definitely some good exclusives on the console.

However, I feel I paid way too much for what I get. It lacks built-in wifi, rechargeable controllers and the HDD is only 20GB. Worse even, the accessories are overpriced and you are stuck to buying only those and only MS's HDD will work.

Second point is that dreaded RROD. I've ran into this unfortunately once already and hope it won't happen again.

Basically, it has some good games but the hardware leaves much to be desired.

even atari 2600 ah better gfx!11111