XB 360The console market it opening up big in India and Microsoft has tried to up the tempo with the very enthusiastic Diwali release of their XBOX 360. It is the first console to be released in the seventh generation of game consoles and will compete against Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii. I was caught in between this discussion of what all to look before going in for the XB360 or settle for the existing available consoles – XB/PS2. Here were the basic questions that Gom came up with

  1. Price :)
  2. Whether it’s the one with the hard-disk or the basic model
  3. Does it have a mod-chip?
  4. Where did you buy it from?
  5. How much do the games cost?

 

Okay so here’s the background. Why to go for the XB 360 in the first place?? The main reason to go for an XBox is coz the mod-chips were not available for the XB 360. Also, the fact that most games available for the XB360, were also available for the XBOX. But slowly there’s a shift towards exclusive XB 360 titles. For e.g. PC Games like F.E.A.R are only being ported to the X360. That and the availability of the life-saving mod-chip for the 360 changed my plans towards buying a 360. So basically with the XB360, one can be pretty sure that my gaming life will be bliss for the next 3-4 years.

But the concern is that the new mod chip for X360 hasn’t been tested and would be worth waiting for some time coz it usually goes through a coupla rounds of updates!!! So according to one expert (Dinesh) it would be wise to wait till Feb/March before going in for that. Either that or you could change the mod chip when the new update is available.

 

Now word of caution – One of the guys went in for the hardware modified XB360 but found that backward compatibility sadly didn’t work. He downloaded the update and ran it. But still it still didn’t play pirated Xbox games. However he hadn’t tried original XB games. That might work. It’s known that Backward Compatibility is achieved through software emulation of the original Xbox. Updated emulation profiles can be obtained through Xbox Live, by burning a CD with profiles downloaded from Xbox.com, or by ordering an update disc from Microsoft.

 

This brings us back to the answers to the question asked in the beginning of this post. This was what came out of the discussion:

  1. Can get it for as cheap as 22k or 27k with 10 titles. (Have to pay another 1k for a step down transformer as the unit came with an 110V power supply.)
  2. Go for one with the hard disc. The without the hard disc is apparently as good as useless.
  3. Unless your rich relative has left you lotta cash when he kicked the bucket, go for the one with the mod chip. Original games are expensive. But be careful when buying. Check if the unit is hard ware modified as there are also software modified XB360’s for sale and they don’t support all titles. BE VERY CAREFUL!
  4. Every city has an electronic street (home of grey market products). Try that but make sure you go with some one who knows the place.
  5. Right now the games are sold at 130-180. Its bound to come down in the coming months.

 List of Xbox 360 games   So Game On mates ;) !