Silent Fan Xbox

Silent Fan Xbox

Silent Fan Xbox

The Xbox 360 launched on November 22nd 2005, almost a full year before its rivals the Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii, but has Microsoft capitalized on its head start? This past November heralded the launch of both the Playstation 3 and the Wii, which has officially ushered in the next-generation console war. With one year of being the only next-generation console on the market, a years worth of games, and a solid fan-base, does the 360 have what it takes to retain its lead?

The Xbox 360 has a lot going for it. While the 360’s controller hasn’t changed too drastically as it retains the same amount of buttons and control sticks; the new design has vastly better button placement and a sleeker look. The black and white buttons, which were so annoyingly placed on the original Xbox, are now moved to above the trigger buttons, similar to the L1 and R1 buttons on the PS2 controller. The trigger buttons themselves were changed as well. Now they are pressure sensitive, which allows actions using those triggers to have different effects depending on how hard they are pressed. One completely new addition to the controller is the Xbox button located in the center of the controller. This new button allows the user to access system menus without shutting down the game. These menus allow you to look at player profiles, invite friends to games, check for online friends, return to the dashboard, and a number of other things.