Xbox 360 Slim

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 6:41 pm

Well I went and bought the new Xbox 360 Slim this morning at Best Buy, since my old one barely read disk and put off more heat than my PS3, cable box and TV combined it seemed. Anyways...

Pros -

1. Very nice design, they kept it simple but answered basically every flaw of the original Xbox. Both top and bottom of the case are vented heavily, and the side has a direct vent to the CPU fan..its nice.

2. Played Assassins Creed 2 for about 20 minutes and the system never got as loud as the old one, specifically during disk read.

3. Its 5 years overdue but they finally added built-in wireless. The gaming world was baffled when even the $250 Wii had it but the Xbox never did, even after several hardware revisions and new SKU's.

4. The overall quality of the cables is better. The new power plug to the xbox is a MUCH better and solid connection, its very similar to female RCA jacks. The power brick is smaller and lighter as well.

5. 250GB harddrive is always nice. My PS3 has the 250gb also and I can see somebody filling these up rather quickly if they fully utilize all the features of the consoles.

6. The controller came with DURACELL BATTERIES! This is probably the greatest achievement of any US electronic manufacturer. It totally overshadowed the controller itself.

Cons -

1. Price, $300 for a 5 year old console is overboard. They did lower the price of all the existing models by $50, but this thing could have been priced at $250 by now given profit margins after 5 years.

2. While the QUALITY of the cables has improved, the cables included...not so much. They no longer include an ethernet cable nor composite R/G/B video cables. Instead they took the PS3 route and give you component RCA for standard definition, despite the fact that HDTV's have VASTLY increased in marketshare since the Xbox launched. A true WTF decision.

3. The package quality also cut alot of corners. There seemed to be no "QA of QC" going on, as my Xbox had a bunch of fingerprints on it (the unit is now glossy black instead of flat white), whereas my PS3 was pristine when I pulled it out of the box. They packaging in general seemed to be quickly throw together. No risk of damage though.

Overall, I say this is a really good upgrade/revision despite being about 3 years overdue. Sony wasted very little time redoing the PS3 to answer its faults with the PS3 Slim, M$ just sat on there hands and filled warranties. If you dont have an Xbox and are thinking of one, get the the Slim, dont save the $50 and get the Elite...spend it. And if you have an older model this is worth the $300 if you have the money, the original is worth ~$100 on a trade-in at Gamestop.

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 8:14 pm

Spathotan wrote:

3. Its 5 years overdue but they finally added built-in wireless. The gaming world was baffled when even the $250 Wii had it but the Xbox never did, even after several hardware revisions and new SKU's.

I wasn't baffled. It was a pure and simple cash grab. All Xbox peripherals are completely overpriced, so Microsoft could charge an insane amount for a $20 Wi-Fi adapter, and since you can't use any third-party components with it, you're forced to pay it.

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 8:51 pm

Yea, that wireless adapter was $90 at one point.

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 9:56 pm

Does this mean the price on the wireless adapter will drop? That would be sweet Smile

Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2010 10:00 pm

It's one of the reasons I went with the PS3. I was initially scared off by the price, but Sony made a compelling argument that when you added in all the accessories that you would need - which all came standard on the PS3 - the 360 actually ended up being more.

I also really liked the fact you could use any 2.5" SATA drive in the PS3, so it was dirt cheap to upgrade to a bigger drive later on, something you STILL can't do in the 360.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:21 am

TheFixer wrote:

It's one of the reasons I went with the PS3. I was initially scared off by the price, but Sony made a compelling argument that when you added in all the accessories that you would need - which all came standard on the PS3 - the 360 actually ended up being more.

I also really liked the fact you could use any 2.5" SATA drive in the PS3, so it was dirt cheap to upgrade to a bigger drive later on, something you STILL can't do in the 360.

I guess buying a PS3 for the cheaper accessory costs. Certainly no one bought one for the exclusives...

I wish this slim version came out a few years earlier, though. Not too many gamers still need one at this point. I'd rather wait a little bit for news of the next system.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 5:05 am

The new systems wont be around until 2012-2013 at the earliest, and thats Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony's original plan was to stretch the PS3 out to at least 2014, but that has probably changed now due to the very poor sales in the first year or so, ontop of the absurd development cost on the cell processor and the system hardware itself. They will probably never recieve dividends off the PS3 and will have to just cut their losses.

Kinect has extended the 360's lifespan, at least that is their plan. The launch of the new model 360 is to coinciede with that. Nintendo will probably have their new system out first, Satoru Iwata hinted about it in an E3 interview that they have been working on it.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 5:59 am

Bluray beat out HDDVD because of the PS3. If the PS3 fails in everything else, Sony finally winning a format war has made the PS3 worth it.

Best Buy is pretty bad about taping and reselling returned merchandise. If there are figure prints all over it, whoever bought it before you had dirty hands.

Can the 360 do anything other than play games?

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:32 am

Meparch wrote:

Bluray beat out HDDVD because of the PS3. If the PS3 fails in everything else, Sony finally winning a format war has made the PS3 worth it.

Best Buy is pretty bad about taping and reselling returned merchandise. If there are figure prints all over it, whoever bought it before you had dirty hands.

Can the 360 do anything other than play games?

PS3 and BluRay is a win/win, but only for the consumer. The inclusion of BluRay in early PS3's meant that Sony are never likely to recoup their investment in the console, largely because in the early days of PS3 Sony still had the arrogance to think that because it was Sony, because it was the PS brand every motherfucker on the planet would buy it regardless of what competition was out there.

Thankfully MS and Nintendo had other ideas, both initially targeted different ends of the market, MS with the H4RDC04R!!! Nintendo with under 5's and grandmothers and Sony's influence started to slide. The upshot of this was that it gave every developer that had been dicked by Sony in the past (and Sony LURVED dicking their 3rd party devs) the chance to give Sony the finger and go and make cool shit on other platforms, mostly 360 thanks to everyone's complete disregard of the Wii for almost 2 years.

I should add despite all this, Sony to their credit have got their act together, and while I think kinect will have a much broader appeal than Move, Move is more complimentary to the userbase the PS3 already has than Kinect is to the average 360 owner.

I've previously owned a PS3, for 3 months, it left the box twice. I'm planning to get another later in the year and I fully expect it to become my gaming machine of choice.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 9:41 am

Spathotan wrote:

The new systems wont be around until 2012-2013 at the earliest, and thats Microsoft and Nintendo. Sony's original plan was to stretch the PS3 out to at least 2014, but that has probably changed now due to the very poor sales in the first year or so, ontop of the absurd development cost on the cell processor and the system hardware itself. They will probably never recieve dividends off the PS3 and will have to just cut their losses.

Kinect has extended the 360's lifespan, at least that is their plan. The launch of the new model 360 is to coinciede with that. Nintendo will probably have their new system out first, Satoru Iwata hinted about it in an E3 interview that they have been working on it.

I wouldn't bet on any next gen console system coming out anytime before 2015, except for maybe Nintendo. MS and Sony don't have the money to develop them right now, and it would take 3-5 years of development to make a new console system.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:55 pm

Meparch wrote:

Best Buy is pretty bad about taping and reselling returned merchandise. If there are figure prints all over it, whoever bought it before you had dirty hands.

You know I thought about that myself, but the box itself was pristine and untampered. None of the accessory bags had been opened, nothing was missing or out of place, and if the tape holding the box closed had been removed there would have been tears in the box art/paper. Ontop of the fact that nobody would have even had a chance to return it since I bought it the day it went on sale.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 7:07 pm

TheFixer wrote:

Spathotan wrote:

3. Its 5 years overdue but they finally added built-in wireless. The gaming world was baffled when even the $250 Wii had it but the Xbox never did, even after several hardware revisions and new SKU's.

I wasn't baffled. It was a pure and simple cash grab. All Xbox peripherals are completely overpriced, so Microsoft could charge an insane amount for a $20 Wi-Fi adapter, and since you can't use any third-party components with it, you're forced to pay it.

Untrue. I used a link sys wireless adapter just fine.

Oh and blurry didn't win due to the ps3, but the exclusive agreements from the movie studios that blu had. There was simply too few studios releasing reds.

Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2010 8:57 pm

Actually it was about even between HDDVD and Bluray before Sony made its huge bid, or bribes. At one time I believe HDDVD had a slight edge in number of titles out there. Sony used the leverage of greater bluray player install base, thanks to the PS3, and flat out bribes to get a couple more studios to switch from HDDVD to bluray. Those bribes would have been shrugged off or had to been much higher if HDDVD had the larger install base, which it did if one were just counting straight players at the time. PS3 thrown into the mix and Sony had the ammo they needed to win. Those royalties off every blue player and disk in time will make the PS3 a huge success for sony. Direct PS3 revenue may be laughable compared to its total cost but don't think bluray winning out in the end doesn't make it all worthwhile.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:36 am

6% of homes had blu-ray players in them a year ago -which is roughly three years after the PS3 launched. So, personally, I (along with the rest of America) don't really give a shit who "won", because I still buy DVDs. By the time that percentage gets to a level where it's actually a common household device, I'll probably be downloading all of my movies directly.

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 3:45 pm

Protip;

Don't move the Xbox Slim while the CD is in motion. It will TOTALLY destroy your disc.

[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2010 8:13 pm

Meparch wrote:

Actually it was about even between HDDVD and Bluray before Sony made its huge bid, or bribes. At one time I believe HDDVD had a slight edge in number of titles out there. Sony used the leverage of greater bluray player install base, thanks to the PS3, and flat out bribes to get a couple more studios to switch from HDDVD to bluray. Those bribes would have been shrugged off or had to been much higher if HDDVD had the larger install base, which it did if one were just counting straight players at the time. PS3 thrown into the mix and Sony had the ammo they needed to win. Those royalties off every blue player and disk in time will make the PS3 a huge success for sony. Direct PS3 revenue may be laughable compared to its total cost but don't think bluray winning out in the end doesn't make it all worthwhile.

You are not factoring in that Sony owns a portion of the film industry. So their partnerships ended up making over 2/3rds of the films being released blu only, then when paired with only one major studio red only, it was a lost cause.

There was actually more hddvd players out there selling for as low as $99. The ps3 was barely a blip in the end. It was the fact that all Sony films, all Disney, fox and warner's films would only be blu, and Universal announcing they were canceling making red, that was the deathblow.

Sony wasn't going to get betamaxed again. This time they had the studio backing.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 12:20 am

Baphometslayer wrote:

Protip;

Don't move the Xbox Slim while the CD is in motion. It will TOTALLY destroy your disc.

[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Only a dumbshit would do that in the first place. The original 360 will do the same thing, so will the PS2 and any other tray-loading dvd/cd player. Slot loaders actually secure the disk, with a tray loader the disk just lays there.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 1:36 am

Spathotan wrote:

Baphometslayer wrote:

Protip;

Don't move the Xbox Slim while the CD is in motion. It will TOTALLY destroy your disc.

[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Only a dumbshit would do that in the first place. The original 360 will do the same thing, so will the PS2 and any other tray-loading dvd/cd player. Slot loaders actually secure the disk, with a tray loader the disk just lays there.

Well, that is true. But everyone has known for awhile that a small Styrofoam spacer will keep the disc from getting scratched. Just kinda thought Microsoft would have caught on and made it a little more "move" resistant.

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:42 am

Baphometslayer wrote:

Spathotan wrote:

Baphometslayer wrote:

Protip;

Don't move the Xbox Slim while the CD is in motion. It will TOTALLY destroy your disc.

[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdOjzuJByXg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Only a dumbshit would do that in the first place. The original 360 will do the same thing, so will the PS2 and any other tray-loading dvd/cd player. Slot loaders actually secure the disk, with a tray loader the disk just lays there.

Well, that is true. But everyone has known for awhile that a small Styrofoam spacer will keep the disc from getting scratched. Just kinda thought Microsoft would have caught on and made it a little more "move" resistant.

Using a tray is an obvious cost cutting manuver. Explainable with the original 360, but they could have easily put a slot loader on this new one.