Xbox 360's Controller: A Review

The Xbox 360 has improved many things over its predecessor, the original Xbox. We now have better graphics, more memory, and the hardware is stable, and of course one of the Xbox's biggest flaws had been corrected, the controller. We all remember how bulky those huge black hunks of plastic were and with the 360 we get small sleek controllers that defiantly fit the gamer's needs. The new controllers are smaller, have integrated hardware that allows for easy operation of the Xbox 360 and the microphone attachment, and the whole controller is wireless!

With time all technology gets smaller, just like cell phones and computers the Xbox follows that trend shrinking their controller to almost half the size of the original controller that we all had for the first system. With this new controller we can easily grip it and play, accessing all the buttons easily. Even if you have very small hands it's easy to handle where as before you had to be an adult male weighing 200 lbs and be 6'0 or taller just to wrap your hands around the beast (well maybe not that bad, but you get the idea) children, adults, men and woman will find the sleek new design of the Xbox 360 controllers very appealing.

The integrated hardware with the new controllers is an amazing thing. No longer do you have to walk over to your consul and push the power button in order to start it up, with a touch of a button on the controller your revved up and ready for gaming. In the center of the new controllers there is a large button with the Xbox logo on it, by pressing this button you can turn your consul on and off as well as the controller. It's a nice feature, although not amazing, it just allows us some convenience, and the true genius is the microphone system. Before we had to deal with three pieces of equipment to work the microphone headset combination. First we had to plug into a special adapter, then plug that into the controller, then in a few weeks our headsets were broke, or disabled because one or more problems with the hookup had occurred, but no longer. Now you just plug the headset into the controller and go, plus the newer headsets, just like the controllers are much more durable.

Wireless controllers are great however they can be a double edged sword. With the first Xbox we had cords running everywhere, just like with any gaming system, and the wireless controllers had little adapters that plugged into the controller ports, but if you lost those or they became damaged then your wireless controller was useless. The Xbox 360 has integrated wireless technology, so there are no adaptors, or tricks to using the controllers, just turn them on and play, and the range they have is awesome. You can play a game from en entirely different room of your home, the only limitation is your eyesight. Now for the bad news, you will go through batteries like crazy, of course that's the price you pay for convenience. The controllers are not terrible about battery consumption, but if you're in the middle of an online game and the batteries go out, then you could be in trouble.

Microsoft has always tried to keep its consumers on the cutting edge of technology, and they don't disappoint, even on their gaming consuls. The Xbox 360 was the first next gen gaming system that had these features and the way it's all packaged together is really well thought out. Everything that needed improving about the original controllers was done. The size was way to large, so it shrunk, the adapters for your headsets were too cumbersome, so it's all integrated. Gamers from all over the world will be immensely pleased with the new look of the Xbox 360's controller.