Xbox 360 Quicky

($299.99- Core System; $399.99- Premium System; xbox.com)

Chances are you still don’t have an Xbox 360, unless you plunked almost $400 down last Spring on a pre-order, camped outside a Best Buy with the other jobless nuts, or mugged a sleep-deprived jobless nut of theirs.

And because you may have to wait until 2006 to play Microsoft’s monster of a machine, the question may be growing stronger every day: is this system really worth your money?

Xbox Live, the fantastic online service that was pioneered in the days of the original Xbox, makes up about half of the experience of the 360. Being connected at all times displaying an up-to-the-moment “Gamerscore” gives players a persistent presence for all the gaming public to see. The Xbox Live Marketplace adds a lot to the next-generation experience by being able to download music, movie trailers, game upgrades, and even classic arcade games to the system with the push of a button.

So if players are not online with a broadband connection, spending the money on the system short-changes them by leaps and bounds- this is a system that’s meant to have you connected to the world, even if you’re not playing them directly.

Though there is no “Halo”-like, must-have game for the system right now, the launch games show the potential for the future. By the time the PS3 launches, the 360 will be into its 2^nd or 3^rd generation of games, and then you’ll start to see the sparks fly.

Oh, and please don’t waste your money on the cheaper, but hard drive-less “Core” system- you’ll end up needing the HDD to play old Xbox games and download new ones.