Microsoft Xbox 360

Microsoft has revealed its new console, the Xbox 360. As can be seen from the picture opposite, the console is smaller, curvy and more stylish than the console before it, with the addition of being able to stand vertically or horizontally. The Xbox 360 can also be customised using a variety of faceplates to suit your style or furniture.

As can be seen from the specs, the Xbox 360 boasts a custom-built IBM PowerPC CPU running at 3.2GHz with memory at 512MB RAM. The graphics chip is a custom-built ATI chip capable of advanced antialiasing and shader effects. This means that the Xbox 360 will have the processing power to deliver true 720p and 1080i wide-screen HDTV images for all of its games - slightly less than what the PS3 can achieve but considerably better than the Wii.

Microsoft have continued and improved their Xbox Live feature, being available in silver and gold tiers, with the addition of a new feature: Xbox Live Marketplace where users can access a multitude of demos, maps, skins etc. for download. These are available for the Silver Membership, which is free, however, to play online Gold Membership is required, which comes at an additional cost (around £35 a year). This would seem a little unreasonable when you see that the PlayStation and PC online features are free. On the other hand, Microsoft have pumped a lot of investment into Xbox: Live and feel that they have justified its price. In addition, Xbox: Live is considered by most users as superior to its competitors - all the servers are provided by Microsoft, which means its almost guaranteed to be lag free. In addition, they have successfully integrated voice chat (which is also available on the PS3 but with varying success, and the PC with third-party applications).

Microsoft later announced the ability to stream or download HD movies (at an additional cost per movie). Xbox: Live also provides access to Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm. And lastly, all these features will be accessible via Kinect, i.e. you don't even have to touch anything!

Another interesting feature of the Xbox 360 is the Media Center Extender where you can stream video, audio and photos from networked PCs running Windows Media Center Edition. Also media can be streamed from portable music players, digital cameras, and Windows XP PCs.

Currently the Xbox 360 retails for around £200. You can buy your system with a range of different hard drive capacities - its necessity is up for scrutiny but is a useful addition for caching etc.

The Xbox 360 uses the main gaming format, HD-DVD technology compared to the slightly more advanced Bluray technology (BD-ROM) used in the PS3. The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with the top Xbox games.

November 2010 saw the release of Kinect for Xbox 360, Microsoft's version of a motion control system. What makes it different from its competitors, as well as what was mentioned previously, is that it gives the user entire control of games (new games compatible with Kinect only) through body movements and/or voice commands. These can be used in fighting games where the game can pick up each punch and kick of the user, or a 'virtual reality' game where you can interact with a character on screen. As with all of the new motion control systems, its what the games can deliver, not just how good the technology is. Kinect looks to be ahead of the game in terms of technology but the games need to be of high standard to compete with the Wii and PS3.

The Xbox 360 as with its predecessor will prove to be a worthy competitor to its Sony counterpart. As long as Microsoft deliver on games like the Xbox-only exclusives and the highly promising Kinect, there is no reason why the Xbox 360 can't be the best console this year, next and beyond.