My first thoughts on my Xbox360

[Cus_de_Sparta65]

Just got my XBox360 a week ago on tues and my new PS3 slim came the day after and I have to say the PS3 has been on for around one hour while the XBox has been getting hammered. I am not saying it is a better console than the PS3, far from it in fact.
I have just been enjoying the Sky player and Gears of War and the cheapo HD-DVD's I have been buying way too much.

If they ever got round to putting a web browser on it (and fixing the noisy disk drive) it would be the perfect machine.
I think another factor why I have not been bothering with the PS3 is the novelty factor of having a different console after all the years of having Playstations in my house.

I was waiting for Heavy Rain for a long time but it has taken second place to GOW and that has really surprised me I can tell you.

So I am glad I finally got myself a XBox360 after all this time and am now a fully paid up XBox fan and PS3 fan.
Still can't see me getting in to the Wii though

[Grey M@a]

Just got my XBox360 a week ago on tues and my new PS3 slim came the day after and I have to say the PS3 has been on for around one hour while the XBox has been getting hammered. I am not saying it is a better console than the PS3, far from it in fact.
I have just been enjoying the Sky player and Gears of War and the cheapo HD-DVD's I have been buying way too much.

If they ever got round to putting a web browser on it (and fixing the noisy disk drive) it would be the perfect machine.
I think another factor why I have not been bothering with the PS3 is the novelty factor of having a different console after all the years of having Playstations in my house.

I was waiting for Heavy Rain for a long time but it has taken second place to GOW and that has really surprised me I can tell you.

So I am glad I finally got myself a XBox360 after all this time and am now a fully paid up XBox fan and PS3 fan.
Still can't see me getting in to the Wii though

The cure for that noisey drive issue! Install the games to the HD, play the game till you finish it and then delete from the HD Stops the drive being used at all bar a few seconds to check you actually have the disc

[Cus_de_Sparta65]

The cure for that noisey drive issue! Install the games to the HD, play the game till you finish it and then delete from the HD Stops the drive being used at all bar a few seconds to check you actually have the disc

OMG I never knew you could do that. What a amazing difference it makes as now it is the way a entertainment system should shound.

I only have a 20GB HDD just now so I might be installing and uninstalling a good few times until I upgrade to a larger hard drive but thanks for the tip

[unreal]

OMG I never knew you could do that. What a amazing difference it makes as now it is the way a entertainment system should shound.

I only have a 20GB HDD just now so I might be installing and uninstalling a good few times until I upgrade to a larger hard drive but thanks for the tip

Some games aren't so bad with DVD noise, but games that constantly load textures etc (most games with the Unreal 3 engine) are horrible as its always reading quite intensively, so it's always a good idea to install those to the HDD - GoW in your case. You'll find everything loads faster too.

I'm on a 20gb HDD too but I only really play one or two games at once - so usually one of em gets the install guaranteed - usually the one I'm playing the most.

[Grey M@a]

OMG I never knew you could do that. What a amazing difference it makes as now it is the way a entertainment system should shound.

I only have a 20GB HDD just now so I might be installing and uninstalling a good few times until I upgrade to a larger hard drive but thanks for the tip

Not a problem, I have a 120gb HD on mine, upgraded from the 60gb to the 120 a while back and I still install and uninstall as many as I can lol I tend to leave the most played online games installed, then just install a game till its completed then delete it. Most of the installed games are from the live arcade, buy far to many arcade games xD

[snail]

Especially now you can use a usb drive as an extra storage, just dump all your themes, save files and downloads onto that and use your xbox HDD as your game storage.

They should just make a TB drive and stop ripping us off with the prices for the 120GB

[Avenger1324]

Having had my 360 for almost 3 years I can confirm that they do use different DVD drives, with some being considerably quieter than others. But in all cases installing a game to the HDD will reduce the noise while playing games.

I also have the 20GB HDD, and while it was fine to begin with (before game installs) it is now showing its limitations. I do want to upgrade to a larger size, though official ones are too expensive for the capacity, and DIY runs the potential risk of a ban if MS can detect it.

They did recently release an update which allows for the use of USB sticks (up to 16GB) which will help. Game installs by the way vary in size from 3-6.8GB, though most games released in the last couple of years use up the full 6.8GB.

[Lord Midas]

Xbox 360 rocks. But recently my 20GB Pro failed to read games discs. All other discs were fine (dvd, cd).

So I bought a Super Elite with the 250GB drive. It's awesome again, and I can now install all my played games on there without problems. Loads of arcade and about 6 retails games and still have about 180GB free

Happy days!!

[GT-R]

How do you install a game to the hard drive?

[Stephen C]

How do you install a game to the hard drive?

On the dashboard in the My Xbox section where you usually start the game from, hit Y and you can install it from there.

[GT-R]

On the dashboard where you usually start the game from, hit Y and you can install it from there.

Does this cut loading times as well? Thanks

[Stephen C]

Depends on the game, some titles are best run from disc and some from the hard drive.

For example, Halo Multiplayer is best run direct from disc where as Halo ODST is best run from installation. They're the only two I know that actually specify installing or not in-game or in the manual.

[WelshGuy]

It usually only cuts seconds from loading times, but playing a game with many, e.g Fable or Oblivion, it can really help in the long run

[CrazyMonkey]

Well congratulations Now myself on the other hand... i perfer the 360 because i can play 'dodgy' content..

Now you may all say this is bad, but you arent the ones currently sat playing HALO:Reach

[macfanuk]

I bought my Xbox 360 just before last Christmas and it got hammered for a couple of weeks playing forza 3 and NFS Shift but after that, I just completely lost interest. Dunno what it is about me. If it was upto me I'd sell the thing but my fiance wont let me (even though she never uses it anyway).

It's just a shame it's too noisy to use as a media centre.

[Lord Midas]

I use mine as a media centre, streaming movies from my PC. The volume of the film more that masks the noise of the Xbox.
Plus, it's not that noisy. It's only really noisy when it's playing from the DVD drive.