NEW YORK â?? The buzz started six months ago.
There's Bill Gates on the cover of Time magazine in May, with a glowing green-and-white machine. "Inside Bill's New Xbox" it screamed.

Since then, the Xbox 360 â?? a sequel to Microsoft's Xbox video-game unit â?? has been the subject of breathless profiles, splashy television ads and Internet gossip.

The first shipments, due Tuesday, are already sold out. Analysts are calling it this year's hot holiday gift.

Don't believe the hype â?? and don't buy the Xbox 360.

Oh, it's an amazing console, don't get us wrong. Plugged into a high-definition television set with a booming sound system, it's amazing, a wonderland of sights and music.

But that's the part of the problem. To get the full Xbox 360 experience, you need to spend hundreds â?? perhaps thousands â?? of dollars. All that for a machine that won't play the hot games this season, like "Star Wars: Battlefront II" and "50 Cent: Bulletproof."

Save your cash, and skip the frenzy. Here are five reasons you should say "game over" to the Xbox 360:

Price â?? The Xbox 360 comes in two versions: the hard drive-less "core" system for $299 and the premium package for $399. But those who buy the lower-cost version are in for a surprise â?? they won't be able to play any of the Xbox games they already own.

"A lot of parents who go out and buy the $300 system, because they can't afford the $400 system, will have kids who aren't going to able to play 'Halo' or 'Halo 2' because backwards compatibility is going to be on the hard drive," says Brian D. Crecente, editor of kotaku.com, a gaming news blog.

Lack of games â?? Microsoft has announced there will be 200 backwards-compatible games (including "Forza Motorsport" and "Halo 2"), but only 19 launch titles for the 360. Only a handful are exclusives.

And popular new games, like "50 Cent: Bulletproof" and "The Warriors," won't play on the 360 at all.

Douglass Perry, editor in chief of the Xbox channel on IGN, says, "If you can wait, the second wave of games [due next year] are going to give developers the chance to really show us next-generation gaming in the truest sense."

No competition â?? Sure, you could rush out and drop hundreds on the 360, but we have no idea what the next-gen PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution are going to be capable of doing. Both of those systems are due next year, and will surely spark a mini-price war with the Xbox 360.

Hidden costs â?? Right now, the Xbox 360's stunning graphics ability is its biggest selling point, but to take advantage of it, you'll need to invest in a high-definition TV â?? tacking on an extra couple hundred bucks, at least.

"We've all heard Microsoft basically saying that if you want to get an HDTV, the 360 is going to be the thing that makes you go out and get one," Crecente says. "Most of us dismissed that, but I swear, it's like they designed the 360 to make your TV look bad if you don't have HDTV."

And if you add peripherals, such as the ability to play games over the Internet, the Xbox 360 costs nearly $600!

Older consoles are not dead yet â?? Both the original Xbox and the PS2 are selling for $149, with the GameCube coming in at a mere $99 â?? in all cases, a complete steal compared to the Xbox 360.

You could take the money you saved and put it towards buying all the systems, plus a whole bunch of great games like "The Warriors."

Although he's a firm believer in the Xbox 360, Perry says, "If you buy a PS2 or an Xbox now, you're buying a system at the end of its lifespan, when some of the best games are showing up."


Wasn't planning on buying it anyways...

*blinks* Okay, while I don't plan on getting the 360 anytime soon, I just have one thing to say about that article.

When the HELL was 50 Cent: Bulletproof consider a hot, popular game? The mind boogles.

Okay not all people think that the games look bad on a normal T.V. Secondly the premium edition of the 360 (400$) comes with every peripheral you need. Also the games are better than you think. My friend won the Mountain Dew 360 giveaway and I got to play Kame: Elements of Power and NFSMW and they are both spectacular looking and playing. Also when WAS 50 Cent: Bulletproof a hot game. Lastly, the 360 is backwards compatible with the original X-Box games.

I wasn`t going to buy the 360 anyway (I`ll wait for ps3, since it`s the most likely to get the biggest number of Super Robot Taisen games) but......... 50 cent: bulletproof a hot game ._.?

Going to have to wait for PS3 and Revolution first.

50 is releasing on PS2, might as well throw that out the window as well, LONG LIVE NINTENDO!

Wow alot of people dont liek 50. Anyways I think you should just save your money. Wait till the price drops. Thats what Im doing.

Haha wow, i am just guessing here but i bet that some of you havnt even played the 50 cent game. just because it has 50 cent in it, a celebrity, doesnt mean its ganna suck. it could have awsome gameplay or a great storyline. you shouldnt judge a book by its cover. you should try before you make comments :)

haha wow, i am just guessing here but i bet that some of you havnt even played the 50 cent game. just because it has 50 cent in it, a celebrity, doesnt mean its ganna suck. it could have awsome gameplay or a great storyline. you shouldnt judge a book by its cover. you should try before you make comments :)

Now, I'm not wondering how 50: Bullet Proof is became a hot game because it has a celebrity in it. I guess it's a habit of mine to think that most things with his ugly mug on the wrapper/box is not going to be to my liking. (And no, I don't generally dislike rap. Just the most of the recent pile of crap that come out on the air waves, with 50 Cent's "work" at the top of my list)

As a rough rule of thumb, games based off of movies, celebrities, tv shows and the like are usually not going to be great, and so I generally stay away from them.


I call 'em how I see 'em. Screw trying it out first.

Someone payed off the editor to plug in "50 Cent: Bulletproof" >>

Funny how there's a thread to endorse Xbox360 and one here to tell you not to buy it.

As for me, I don't really plan to buy any NextGen consoles until all of them are released. By that time, I'll have a good idea of which is good and which is bad.

Eh, there's always bound to be critics against the XBox 360. Besides, They did mention that XBox 360 Core is strictly for people who only wants to play XBox 360 games. Remember, not everyone has the original XBox so they won't have the games so they won't need the extra 20 GB HD anyway. If people want to add the HD at a later date if they bought the Core system, then they can still buy it and add it. It's not like Microsoft tricked people. I'll wait till the PS3 comes out and compare which to buy first and the other second.

Nice comments on the 360 there. Nothing bad but i think these people put up a great point about the 360, using the bad points of the console. It's up the the customer's choice to buy the system or not and to buy the outside acessories to enchance their gaming experience. I'm not a fan of 360 because the lack of games they have for that system. (Dead or Alive , Halo 1-2 , the only games i play on xbox) I'm waiting on and Revolution and PS3 because of the RPG games that is releasing for the console. It's a bad thing that 360 is being release early because now Japan can see the capability of the 360 Console and see the limits of it. During that time PS3 and Revolution is going to transcend the 360 and make it to the top of next generation systems, am i wrong? What's said is that Revolution will definately be made for back to back compatibility, meaning Game cube games will work. ( haven't heard the word for ps3 yet ) Anyways getting the 360 isn't really a bad choice in my point of view, the games they have for it is also decent. Dead or Alive 4 and Call of Duty will be greatest hits for that console.

I'm with ya but i do think the 360 is overhyped because its the first next-gen to come out, but i'll wait till the ps3 comes out.

Now, I'm not wondering how 50: Bullet Proof is became a hot game because it has a celebrity in it. I guess it's a habit of mine to think that most things with his ugly mug on the wrapper/box is not going to be to my liking. (And no, I don't generally dislike rap. Just the most of the recent pile of crap that come out on the air waves, with 50 Cent's "work" at the top of my list)

As a rough rule of thumb, games based off of movies, celebrities, tv shows and the like are usually not going to be great, and so I generally stay away from them.


I call 'em how I see 'em. Screw trying it out first.

Hehehe... when Longbow started the sentence with "... won't play hot games" I was thinking of games along the line of MGS4 or RE. But 50 cent: Bulletproof?

And I agree with EternityMemory, Most games with celebs in em are, m ost of the time, crappy

If you actually took that article seriously then ..well...what can i say...you're taking advice from someone who knows JACK about video games. The fact that he even MENTIONS Star Wars: Battlefront II" and "50 Cent: Bulletproof as the hot games this year??!! well take that as a clue that this reporter knows absolutely nothing when it comes to gaming and is just trying to creat drama with this horrible story. I'm sorry but its total garbage.