Advantages: Online multiplayer, priviledges downloads Disadvantages: Price a little daunting at first, additional hardware required, PS3 online is free
What is Xbox Live:
Xbox Live is the online service for players of the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.
Xbox Live Silver is free to all users and gives some limited facilities. With a Silver account you can accumulate a reputation by achieving goals within games. These are own on your Gamercard and allow other users to see how experienced a gamer you are. With a Silver account, you can also download game demos, trailers, and event videos. Some games have the ability to upload performance based stats like lap times etc. to online leaderboards.
Xbox Live Gold is a pay-for subscription, approx £35 to £40 pound a year. Gold gives you all the benefits of Silver, however you have access to marketplace items days, and sometimes weeks before the rest. The biggest benefit of purchasing a Gold subscription is that it opens up the full ...
Advantages: Online gaming, good value, networking Disadvantages: Some lag, temptation to spend more money on extras
Xbox Live is good value compared to some other online subscriptions e.g. World of Warcradt or Everquest as with these you pay everymonth just for one game, whereas with xbox live you only pay once to go online with pretty much all your games.
You then get tempted, however, to pay for extra online contect such as extra levels, characters, backdrops for your xbox live dashboard, arcade games etc. etc.
So it's never as cheap as it seems!
The service on xbox live is good and it's rare to have connection issues so gameplat online tends to be smooth. Occasionally you may shoot at someone only to find they already moved- lag is rare but does happen and can be annoying.
The range of games that can be played online is excellent, and isn't just shooting and fighting! Guitar hero plays online brilliantly with options for guitar battles ...
Advantages: Superb experience Disadvantages: Its not free
Introduction
Xbox live is the name of the Microsofts online service for the Xbox 360. This service gives you access to a vast array of content, some of it free, and some of it at a price.
There are 2 types of membership available, namely Gold and Silver. Silver is a free membership which is available to all Xbox owners. Silver allows you access to most promotional video and feature content via the 360 dashboard but does not allow you to play games online.
So what is so special then about Xbox live? The Playstation Network is free, the Wii gives free access to its limited catalogue of online games and seeing as the Silver Xbox Live is also free, why bother paying what seems like a high amount for the Gold membership. These were my own personal sentiments when I first bought my Xbox. Coming from the Wii, I was horrified when ...
