Everything you need to know about xboxlive!

Click for the full breakdown! Unfortunately Microsoft went with a subscription based xbox live plan. But, at least they make it worth the cash, for the gold perks you receive. The 360 was built around the concept of xbox live and with good reason. Xbox live is the pinnacle of the online services. Sony is catching up, but is still far behind. Nintendo you must be joking. Nintendos’ online play doesn’t even get into the starting lineup.

what xbox live offers
As long as you have a 360 and a broadband connection you do have access to xbox live. What this service does offer is way above what the competition has out there.

So now that you are connected to xbox Live Market place what can you download? Try this on for size!

*Xboxlive service does REQUIRE a broadband connection (DSL/Cable)*

Subscription Silver or Gold
Well this is the burning question for 360 owners isn’t it? Keep it free and not be able to play multiplayer or spend the measly $50 a year and sport multiplayer abilities along with some other small perks. This is what we will be going over.

SILVEROkay, yes silver is free! But, what do you get with that? This is it, you get the bare bones xboxlive service meaning: You cannot video Chat, you can’t play multiplayer over xboxlive with your friends, and you get downloadable content a week, after the Gold members are already sporting the new goods. So what do you get? Everything else. You have access to everything all the xboxlive arcade games, all content download, movies/TV shows, voice chat. You name it you can download yes, game demos and trailers as well. But, that’s where it stops. You didn’t think you’d get everything for free did you?

Gold First off they sell 3 different gold subscription cards 1 month, 3 months and 12 months. The only difference between these cards are the length they are good for, and of course the amount you pay. So what comes with a gold subscription? The full xboxlive experience including: Access to all the xboxlive arcade games, downloadable content (a week before) silver gets it, Full online multiplayer gaming, voice chat and Video chat.

xboxlive Arcade games Of course this here is the biggest piece of the pie. There are well over 100+ xboxlive arcade games ready for your game playing pleasure. Some of the more top notch games available on this service are the following: Arkadian Warriors, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, Boogie Bunnies, Bomberman Live!, Tetris Splash, Sonic the Hedgehog 1&2, Pac-Man Championship Edition, Small Arms, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Smash TV, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Feeding Frenzy and many more. Xboxlive arcade games that are soon ready to be unleashed are: Feeding Frenzy 2, Pirates vs. Ninja Dodgeball, Radiant Silvergun, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD remix, Bionic Commando Rearmed, and Brain Challenge there are many more then that slated to come out and the list grows almost everyday!

xboxlive Arcade Hits Program
These are simply discounted xboxlive arcade games that have reached a certain sales mark and are now reduced in Microsoft points. This program will spur the sales of the more popular titles, while offering gamers an incentive to download them and expand their xboxlive arcade library.

xbox originals
This is a new program that has just recently started up. This also you to download select original xbox 1 titles to your hard drive to play them. Think of this as pure emulation. The problem with this is the games take up a lot of space on the hard drive. So if you only have the 20GB hard drive I would re-think about downloading one of these titles, yet alone multiple of these titles. Right now the current selections are the following:
Halo: combat evolved, Crimson Skies High road to revenge, Crash Bandicoot: the wrath of cortex, Fuzion Frenzy, Indigo Prophecy, Psychonauts, Fable, Burnout 3: Takedown, Black, Ninja Gaiden Black, Sid Meier’s Pirates. As you an see the selection is still quite small and for the most part unappealing in my opinion. So what titles are still working the system waiting for a future release? These titles are still reading for launch: Dead or Alive 3, Metal Arms: A Glitch in the system, Panzer Dragoon: Ortea. As you can see there are still some average games in development with more to come, but I don’t care too much for this section of Live Market place. I am sure there will still be many more AAA titles to be released, but until then it just hasn’t peaked my interest yet.

Movies/TV Shows this is huge, it is basically renting a movie without having to drive to your local movie rental store. I have used this many times and have always left a satisfied customer. The quality of the video is really good, and most movie versions also are available to download in High Def, which is always a nice option to have. There is also a very large and ever expanding movie list to select from. Some of the movies available for rental are: 3:10 to Yuma, Rush Hour 3, Hot Rod, Shoot EM Up, Mr. Woodcock, The Brave One, 300, Lilo and Stitch, Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little, Signs, Braveheart, there are also loads more ready for download at the press of a button.
The movies stay on your hard drive for 24hrs, after you press the play button. As long as you have not started the movie it will stay on your hard drive until you plan to view the movie. The same goes for the TV shows. There are also loads of them ready for download such as: Lost, Family guy, South Park, Sea lab, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Star Trek: Deep Space 9 etc there are also a ton of tv shows to select from for your viewing pleasure. In all there is over 300 movies available. In all there is 310 TV shows.

xbox live content pricing
You download things by the use of Microsoft points. Just about all of the content on xboxlive takes a certain amount of Microsoft points such as game expansion content, movies, TV shows, xboxlive arcade etc here is the breakdown.

Game Content Additional game content, to be added onto a full version of game already purchased games such as Halo3 Map packs, Mass Effect downloadable content, Picture packs etc. Game content will set you back any where from 50-1200 Microsoft points. Depending on how much content comes with the download.

xboxlive Arcade games downloading an xboxlive arcade game will set you back anywhere from about 200-1200 MS points. Believe me almost all the games are worth the price of admission.

Original xbox games These have a set price of 1200 points standard. That’s about $15 dollars.

Game Demos/Game Trailers It is free to download this type of content. There is no cost to the gamer.

Movies/TV Shows a regular TV show download will set you back 160 MS points while a HD TV show download will set you back 240 MS points. While movie downloads will set you back 240 for regular download and 360 MS points for an HD movie download.

Overall
If you have the 360 I fully recommend the xboxlive Gold service. I find it much easier to simply pay $50 and have the service for a full year, then having to keep renewing it. That comes out to less then $5 dollars a month, which shouldn’t strain the budget too much! For the price you pay and the content that gets opened up xboxlive service really is a must. This is what the 360 was made for so hope on and enjoy the ride. Xboxlive service is a must for the 360!