Xbox 360 Gaming System- a Mom and Wife's View

The Microsoft Xbox 360 is a great gaming system, whether you are a serious player, a part-time player, or a child. Between graphics and ability, the Xbox360 is one of the best on the market. It is more affordable that the PS3 and just as good, if not better. Here, I will tell you the true low-down.

I am not a gamer. I really am not. I play occasionally, but usually from boredom. I do have a gamer husband and three gamer sons. We own or have owned the Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Sony PSP, multiple versions of Gameboy, a Super Nintendo and a Nintendo DS. My husband and kids are SERIOUS. When my husband suggested an Xbox 360, I nearly took his head off. I CAN be bought, however, and so we began searching for one.

When I heard $400, I nearly had a massive coronary. However, like I mentioned, I CAN be bought. The Xbox 360 comes in two versions, the premium and the core. The difference (besides $100) is one, the hard drive, the premium comes with a 20 GB, the core is upgradable, and the premium comes with a wireless controller as well as the headset and the Xbox Live silver membership. Gold membership is a trial. The core does not include the hard drive (you do not need it just to play games), but does include a wired controller. The hard drive to upgrade is near $100. The premium comes with an ethernet cable and an HD cable. Taking all of this into consideration, we bought the premium.

We bought an extra controller, but the wireless controllers are $50, so we opted for the second controller to be wired for about $10 less. We also bought Xbox Live, which allows my husband to play against other people all over the world, right from our living room. Games run anywhere between $30 and $70. There are also several optional accessories that we did not get, remotes, chargers for the wireless, better headsets, steering wheels for car games, as well as multiple faceplates, as the faceplate of the Xbox 360 is customizable.

One thing I thought to be odd about the system was that it sits upright. The Playstation 2 can, but we never did it, so it took a little getting used to to see the Xbox 360 standing up. It will also play DVD's and my husband has it connected to the computer so it will play any songs on our computer, even while playing games. The graphics, which are in high definition, are awesome. Sometimes during a game it really feels like you are there. Occasionally, I have come into the room while my husband or kids have been playing a sports game and had to watch a moment to see if they were playing or if it was a real game on tv.

The Xbox 360 has been enjoyed by everyone in the house. I truly think we made the right decision by buying it.