Customer Reviews

Xbox 360 Pro Console 60GB with 2 Bonus Games

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

The Xbox 360 is currently the #2 best selling "next generation" (guess this should be the NOW generation) video game system, second only to the Wii from Nintendo.

For your money, if you are purchasing a system where you wish to play nearly all the great games from this generation and HD movie viewing via Blu Ray isn't on your to-do list, this is the system to buy. Dollar for dollar, compared to the PS3, you are saving a ton of money while still being able to play most all of the must haves. The only must have games that you will be missing out on are the PS3 exclusives, not many of which exist (in my opinion only).

The controller has a great feel and with a rechargeable battery, play time wirelessly is quite extensive. The only issue I have with the controller is that it doesn't come with the rechargeable battery in the box. With regular AA batteries play time is roughly 4-6 hours from my experience. You can get 3-5 times this with the rechargeable pack.

The expanded hard drive space, compared to the previous Pro model 360, is 3x as large. One thing to keep in mind, this system comes with some games and videos on the drive, so when you first start the system you will have about 45 gigs of space, despite it being a 60 GB drive. Removing this content will get you up to about 52 gigs of space. The other 8 gigs, as with the previous 20 gig system, is taken up with the system software and data cache. Getting more than 52 gigs is difficult at best.

That being said, for most gamers, this will be more than enough space. You will be able to save a ton of saved games and still have room for demos, movies and so on that you may want. If you are one of those people that likes to watch all kinds of digital content, then you may want to opt to purchase the Elite system for the 160 gig drive which should be more than enough for most of the content you may wish to watch. You can also plug in external hard drives and USB devices (USB memory sticks) in and watch content from there. You CANNOT save games or game content to an external drive.

System differences:

Arcade - 256 MB internal storage only, no hard drive, HAS HDMI output capability but HDMI cable is not included nor is the network cable. Standard Xbox AV cable is included (can do 1080p via component)

Pro - 60 GB hard drive, HAS HDMI output capability but HDMI is not included, network cable included. Standard Xbox AV cable is included (can do 1080p via component)

Elite - 120 GB hard drive, has HDMI cable and standard Xbox AV cable included.

FOR THOSE WITH OPTICAL AUDIO CONNECTIONS -

You may want to opt for the Elite if you use optical audio and want to use HDMI out. Microsoft has engineered the back of the system so that if you use the HDMI out option, the standard AV cable cannot be plugged in, which means you can't use optical output any longer. The ONLY way around this is to either hack your AV cable or purchase the over priced Xbox 360 HDMI AV pack. The cost is ~$50 and for only ~$50 more, if you purchase the Pro system, you can purchase the Elite with the larger hard drive instead.


Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones, included in this holiday bundle, currently sell for about $80 retail. That means you are getting an $80 value with this bundle for free. Whether you'll actually play the games or not, well that's a different story. If you wish to trade these games in at say, that popular haven for stolen systems and games, you're likely to only see an extremely limited amount of this $80 value given that this is 2 games in a single case that they know you are getting for "free" with your system.

Over all I enjoy the X-Box 360's games. Some must haves for my money would be:

Mass Effect
Gears of War 1 and 2
Halo 3
Call of Duty 4
Fallout 3

For those that think their system is too loud and too hot, the latest update to the X-Box 360's system software, the "New Xbox Experience" as it is called, you can copy games directly to the hard drive. You still need the game disc in the drive to start play, but the game runs entirely off the hard drive, which means the DVD-ROM barely spins up, making for a much quieter, much cooler (temperature wise) 360 experience. The only problem is that at ~8 GBs a disc, the 60 GB drive will tend to only allow 4-8 games to be installed this way. I install the games I'm playing the most to the hard drive and will delete them once I purchase games that take over from what I'm currently playing.


In the end, which system you buy comes down to one thing: what do you wish to do with your system?

If you wish to play games with people sitting with you physically in your house, the Wii may be the way to go (if only it weren't for all those party games)

If you wish to play all the latest games over the Internet with friends, pick up the 360.

If you wish to play some games but want to have the ability to watch movies in HD on discs, pick up the PS3.


Or, get the best of all worlds and buy all three.


**INTERESTED BUYERS NOTE**

If you are looking for a system with the new "Jasper" motherboard/GPU, your best bet is to go into a physical store and look for the tell tale signs (systems built in late October and onward should be Jasper based; the power supply should be a 12 volt supply, giving 150 watts of power). I bought the Holiday Bundle from Amazon and ended up with the Falcon chipset (still has the older, hotter GPU).
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Ok so unless you're a young child, Kung Fu Panda may not appeal to you. I haven't played it yet but am keeping it for my young niece and nephew. But I do believe the Lego game can be enjoyed by all ages. The Lego Star Wars game was very fun and a clever way to reproduce a movie with some extra latitude.

I had a 20GB 360 about a year ago. That thing would overheat (but not die) unless I had it in a vertical position, angled just right so most of the bottom was unsupported. I didn't have HD at the time and wasn't finding a lot of games that I like so I sold it. But now that I have a big screen HD, and many games have come out, I bought this holiday set. I probably would have bought the Lego game by itself so this was a treat.

I almost bought the Arcade version but knew that I'd need a hard drive for game demos and saves.

The two games are in the same case and I almost thought they weren't in the box! The game case is stored on the inside of one of the walls of box. I seriously thought I got shorted the games until I finally ripped the box apart more.

All in all this was a great purchase. I have the unit horizontal on a table with no heat issues at all. The power supply is orange/amber when not in use, which I thought meant something was wrong, but it just means standby.

If you're in the market for a new 360 you'd be almost nuts to pass this bundle up - much better than last years. The Marvel game had last-gen graphics and the racing game was forgettable. I can't wait to play Lego Indiana Jones!

I recently bought one of these Holiday Xbox 360 bundles and the most important thing I can tell you is that the console has worked perfectly for over a month now and stays cool the entire time I play it. Read the other reviews I have posted for the various Xbox 360's and you will see I was not in favor of buying one due to their horrible reliability. Though now I can say that after extensive use (Including several times when the console was in use for over 6 hours, playing some of the most demanding games the system has such as Gears of War and Dead Rising) the console stays cool(meaning slight warmth to the air coming out of the console) no matter how long I use it, and is much quieter then all the previous 360's I have owned. I can say without hesitation that if you or someone your buying for wants an Xbox 360 now is the time to buy. Please keep in mind this review only applies to the Holiday bundles, not the older models.

If you are looking for a Jasper 360. These are them! This site indicated that you should check the amps on the power supply stats. These XBOX 360's are the 12.1A jasper boards! Enjoy!

http://kotaku.com/5107093/get-close-maybe-too-close-to-a-jasper-360

Let me start off by saying that I have a Love/Hate relationship with the X-Box 360.
I LOVE the games that come out for it. Gears of War 2, GTA IV, The Darkness, Unreal III, Call Of Duty IV, Left for Dead, and Saints Row 2 are some of the best games I've ever played on a console.
I HATE having the system die on me every 6 months. I am an adult gamer (27yrs old). I play for a maximum of 2hrs at a time and I took very good care of my 360's, yet they've all died on me in less than a year. Microsoft extended their warranty ONLY if you get the Three Red Rings Of Death. Of the 3 X-Box 360's that have died on me....not one has given me the three rings. Instead, I get one red ring and an E74 error message. Which means I have to pay $100 to get it fixed and wait 1 month (sometimes 2) to get it repaired. Most electronics, from Blu Ray Players to HDTVs have a standard one year warranty. Not this one. With the 360 you have to pray that you get the Three Red Rings. If not you have to cough up $100. What's the difference between between one red light and three? Why should I have to pay for their product being defective?
The 3rd time this happened to me in less than 7 months. I said, no more. I refuse to give Microsoft any more money for a product with such a HIGH failure rate.
What upsets me the most is that I've put a lot of money into the 360. Buying the wireless adapter,memory cards, battery chargers, subscribing to X-Box live, and owning more than 30 games, but I can't afford to buy a new system every couple of months. This experience has pushed me to sell all my 360 games and buy a PlayStation 3.
Bottom line is....The games on the 360 are amazing. The console itself is junk. If you don't mind the strong possibility (I've had a 100% failure rate) of having to buy a new one every 7 to 12 months then by all means get an X-Box 360. If your on a tight budget, then you might want to look elsewhere.

Where to start? I've always played my cousins PS3 since it has come out all the good games warhawk/resistance/Cod4/MotorStorm etc. But I really liked the 360 since all the Star Wars games come out for it and most of the good RPG's Oblivion/FableII/Lego Star Wars etc. The game selection is just sheer brilliance so is the PS3 but the 360 has games that suit what I like playing much more.

I ordered from Amazon 10/19/08 and had a little bit of difficulty with UPS delivering my package so it is not fault of Amazon it got here today 10/23/08 when it was suppose to come 10/21/08. When I started unpacking the 360 i saw it was sealed in plastic ontop of a piece of cardboard. The box was big enough for the 360 to shake around though. Brings everything Amazon described and I'm actually happy Amazon is up to date with it's 360's my was manufactured on 9-11-08 may be a Jasper or Falcon whichever it is, It runs much quieter then the first 20GB 360 I bought off Ebay which was from 2006 horribly loud machine it RROD seconds when I unpacked it though I blame it being old pretty old and plain bad luck.

I've been playing Soul Calibur IV with my cousin and we are hooked. The 360 comes with 48.8GB free of space from it's advertised 60GB because of demos installed and such. It's VERY quiet when your not playing a game so you can play music and whatever without it overcoming the music that you have to raise the volume to cancel it out. Even then it's still un-noticeable unless you mute the TV but it's just a hummmmmmmm. So far I love the interface it's great but I personally prefer the PS3's a little bit more organized and simpler.

Controllers are fantastic much better feeling then PS3 controllers and have more weight to it which is a plus adds to it's durability. Though i have a small complaint with the Xbox360 ingame keyboard arranged in ABCDEFG instead of the traditional keyboard... if anyone knows how to change that comment please :). The 360 came with a 175Watt brick but that doesn't mean it can't *possibly* be a Jasper re-model if a computer only needs 125w doesn't mean the 175w/203w can't feed it. The Lego game is actually very fun and the Kungfu panda game reminds me of the old Spyro games on the PS2. I really recommend you buy the Xbox360 from Amazon if you are indeed looking out for one, you can be sure it's a recent model from September unlike other stores where you'd have to hunt for them.

Thanks for reading.

This is the Christmas 2008 bundle where 2 games are included for free. So compared to the same-priced box without the 2 games, so if you were going to buy one anyway, there was no reason not to get this bundle. After the holidays the free games disappeared and the console shipped for the same price without the 2 free games. Having this box doesn't imply anything much about the version of the hardward you actually get other than you can expect the hardware manufacture dates to probably be within Januaray 2008 to October 2008 which spans several revisions of varous components, preloaded xbox operating system (which updates when you connect it to the internet anyway), and even among revisions the actual components vary by manufacturing plant. But this box doesn't mean any specific newer or older version within that range because all existing stock in retail stores were updated to this bundle. Microsoft representatives simply went to all stores, opened all the existing boxes, added 2 games, and applied new stickers to convert them to bundles. So you can see how all existing stock can be this bundle. Then there were actual new boxes that shipped with the holiday bundle box art. You can tell the difference by whether there are stickers or not that tell about the 2 new games vs being printed directly on the box.

Don't let the console revisions scare you about older versions. The biggest thing to look for is at least get one with lower power consumption, I think it was the 175 Watt power supply which is in most 2008 versions. I actually much preferred the June 2008 revision over the August/September 2008 revision and choose an older box after buying and returning several. There could very easily be more updated versions by now, but I can only speak of the 2008 versions that I spent a considerable amount of time pouring through when I bought mine. My biggest problem was a high pitched noise that came from the power supply brick. I had to go through several purchases and returns until I finally got one that didn't make a high pitched noise. Some were far better or worse than others. My bottom line is that when not using the xbox, I don't want a constant high pitched noise in the background when doing other things like watching movies on my DVD player. Some people cannot hear electronics noise since the higher range goes as you get older. If you are one of those that can hear if a TV is on without looking when muted, then you'll hear this since it is far louder than the TV noise. After several purchases, I finally found a power brick that didn't make a noise. If you are stuck with one that makes a noise when off, you can put it on a power strip and turn the power off, but that isn't very convenient.

The XBox console makes a bit of noise while running, especially when a game is in the DVD tray and not installed on the hard drive. I highly recommend using the option to install the game to the hard drive and it loads faster and is much more quiet when running. When installed, I don't even notice the noise, but it certainly isn't quiet. Note that some console's DVD drives are noisier than others. But if you just install all games, it make virtually not difference. It also saves wear on the DVD drive which is one of the componentns likely to fail first.

At this point in late 2009 you can probably find several bundles available from the past years and this year. So first figure out how much a plain console costs without a bundle, then see what games you can get for free bundled with it at no additional cost, or maybe slight additional cost as long as it is still a value to get the games included. Then choose which games you want. The 2 games included here are good for children and casual gamers, maybe not hard core gamers. Personally, my wife really likes the lego games and we can play together. Kung Fu panda is more of a solo experience, but I found it entertaining to play through once as a casual gamer.

Beyond considering hardware version & bundles, regarding the console alone, I really like my console. There are plenty of games at reasonable prices that I like. It has never failed me once. But I do feel like they are lacking some quality control due to the number of consoles & purchased and returned due to noise or vibration issues until I settled on my final one which has been great since then. But if you are a hard core Playstation fan, then I wouldn't force an xbox on someone who doesn't want one. I'm sure Playstation is great and am not comparing the two. All I can say is I am very happy with my xbox.

Xbox 360 does a great job at delivering a superb gaming experience, however the intense amount of failure rate is there to spoil all the fun. Since its release in 2005, I've owned 2 consoles. The 1st one got the famous 3 Red Ring of Light problem, for which reason I repaired and sold. And the 2nd one - being less than a year old - got the No video, but sound failure (which is not covered by the Microsoft's extended warranty). It is said that approx 1 out of 3 consoles will face a hardware problem that will need to be fixed. In my personal opinion, If you are a heavy gamer that is 100% chance of getting this error. As I mentioned before, I'm on my second faulty console and of a group of more than 10 friends that I know, which own a 360 consolo, ALL of them have got a hardware issue. And if you think that after 3 years in the market, Microsoft has finally gotten it right... think again: a friend but a new console just about a month ago and got the RROD after two weeks of gaming. I'm not recommending not to buy this console, just think twice on what problems you are getting into. If you have any comments/questions, feel free to drop me a note at: oabetancourt@yahoo.com

The XBox 360 games are superior to all others BUT... what good are games when the system doesn't work. My system died from video failure after only 3 months of very gentle use. I probably logged less than 50 hours on the system and then it stopped working. I thought I was safe from the over heating problem with this newer system and that I don't play much, but then video failure hit. Do your research and decide if you can deal with this before buying. It is a huge investment for a console that may just decide to stop working.

I bought the Xbox 360 1 year ago yesterday and it died yesterday with the infamous red ring of death. I don't even use it to play games. I just use it as a Media Center extender and DVD player. It died playing a DVD. The case itself is just mildly warm. Disappointing. Now I have to spend time fixing this thing. At least it is still under warranty. It's nice when it works. * FOLLOW UP * Red Ring of Death is a warranty item beyond 1 yr. It is now working after not having it for only about a week and a half. Pretty good turn around. They added a 1 month subscription to XBox Live in the box. I don't use it but the gesture was nice. Given that this wasn't too bad an experience (and assuming it doesn't break again), I'd upgrade the stars to 4 stars **** if Amazon would let me.