You can rip CD’s onto a 360 hard drive and actually play the music while playing a game, or even replace the soundtrack with your own music in some games.
You can link your Xbox with the PC for entertainment purposes, meaning you can watch videos, listen to music, browse through pictures that are on your PC with the help of either the latest WMP or Zune’s software.
And with the recent partnership with Netflix, you can instantly stream movies from Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” selection onto your 360.
As far as the system itself, the system generally runs fairly quiet, unless it starts to overheat. Just make sure the system is well ventilated.
The controllers, I feel, are ideal for FPS’s due to the off-axis analog sticks. They’re very durable and you shouldn’t have to worry about buttons or sticks failing until you’ve had them for more than a year of heavy use.
From what I understand, although the PS has free online play, Xbox Live is better. Either better experience, better support, or whatever else. I’m simply going off of hearsay testimony. You have multiple options with Xbox Live. You can get a free Silver account, which will give you access to online play to some games, post and view in Leaderboards, as well as have a full friend’s list and be able to send messages and chat with friends on-line. With the Gold account, you’ll have unlimited on-line play and access to more content. And the price for a gold account is constantly getting cheaper and cheaper it seems. Wal-mart recently had the 13-month Gold account cards for $30. Or you can easily get the start-up kit for $70, which includes the 1-year (or 13 months, can’t remember which), a headset, the messenger kit, and a copy of Project Gotham Racing 4.
As far as game selection goes, it seems the 360 has a much larger selection and a larger variety of games. If it comes down to a dead even tie before this point, then the exclusives or just scope of selection for each system should be the deciding factor. Personally, I have no interest in any of the PS3 exclusives or any of its extra bells and whistles, so that’s why getting a PS3 is simply out of the question for me. However, I cannot say the same for you.