Should You Buy Factor: 2/5 - You are better off looking for a comparison sheet than a top 10 worst list for an opinion about buying any of the three systems. If you can only buy one console though, you're better off
waiting to see what all three will get you.
. The Price
Yes it 'costs less than the PS3', but $299 (for the core system) and $399 are still a heck of a lot over the $200 sweet spot. If you are looking for a cheap console the 360 is not it. If you want to push the system to its limit you will need an HDTV as well, which will cost you at minimum another 300 dollars. You may not need it, but not having it mostly defeats the point. Dead Rising has become somewhat infamous for assuming players had HD, and having unreadable text (they said they would fix it, but something else will come up eventually). Furthermore, games will set you roughly $10 above the equivalent current gen game.
Should You Buy Factor: 3/5 - If cost is a factor for you, then this is a reason not to buy. Regardless of what fans may say, down the line an HDTV will be needed to tap the full potential of this machine. As it doesn't need an HDTV Wii will cost the least of the big 3, but at the cost of power and graphics. However, it must be noted that this uses the Wii as a bottom level. In terms of next generation systems, the 360 can best be described as a medium cost machine.
. XBOX Live
I'm not knocking it, Live is an awesome service. I love the whole idea, and I makes the online experience seamlessly smooth.
But. Two big problems. Number 1: 'I PW3ND U NOOB!' 'I KICKED YOU A$$ LOSER!!" - If you haven't heard that at least once, I need to hang out with you on Live. There are too many people that use the anonymity of Live to trash talk to their inner six year old's content. Sony might get it better, but I doubt it. Nintendo looks (as far as I can tell from wi-fi) to have fixed the problem, but at the expense of friend codes.
Number 2: MicroPayments. The bane of gamers anywhere. Some readers may remember the fiasco with Oblivion's horse armor. In short, MicroPayment requires that you pay to download content for your shooting games. Not only does this
encourage price gouging, but pre-releasing as well. Pre-Releasing is releasing a game before it is finished and patching all the problems, or releasing a game with bare-bones and then releasing 'exclusive' content that was originally meant to be in the game, except now it costs you extra money. As of yet, only Nintendo has taken an official 'we frown on micropayments' stance.
Should You Buy Factor: 3/5 - You can avoid both of these problems fairly easily, so they shouldn't be too much of a factor. You simply don't buy MicroPayments. The trash talking may be a little more difficult to avoid, especially on an open chat, but finding private games can't be too hard. If you're buying for a kid..... go buy a Wii.
. 2 SKU's
When the XBOX came out, one of the lauded proponents of the system was the built in hard drive. Since every Xbox came with a drive, developers could build knowing that drive was there. This meant that the xbox, more than any other current gen system, was far and above in terms of raw speed. Publishers could depend on using fast access memory by downloading content to the drive. Furthermore, downloadable content is only available if you have a drive to download to! Hence the consternation when Microsoft released the core system without a hard-drive.
Should You Buy Factor: 3/5 This is a big knock against the 360, more for developers than anything, as they will not be able to be sure of gamers being able to download content. If you don't get a core you can get past the download problems though, and since the core can be outfitted with a hard-drive publishers may be willing to say: must have hard-drive to play.
. Lack of Japanese Games.
There are a large number of fighting games that can only come from our neighbors in the orient. Katamari, ico, and who knows what else would not be available if we did not have the ingenuity(craziness?) that is required to make games like that. The XBOX 360 seriously lacks those games at the moment, and dare I say it, permanently. The Japanese do NOT like the 360, and as such Japanese developers will NOT makes games for the 360 unless it will be a surefire hit in other countries.
Should You Buy Factor: 2(4)/5 - If you are wanting crazy/original/licensed games from japan, then the (4) refers to you. Wait for the PS3 since that is where most of Asian games are going to come from. If you aren't interested in JRPGS or the next 'Shadow of the Colossus', then this holds quite a bit less weight.
