The Xbox 360 has been released! Microsoft's anticipated next generation console is now out for Aussie gamers after a several month lag period after the release in the Rest of the World. Fortunately we get a slightly better pick of launch titles with games like Oblivion and Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter.

"Xbox 360 will make more money on day one than iPod, Harry Potter books, the Lord of the Rings movies, or ticket sales for U2. Put simply this is set to be the biggest Australian entertainment launch of all time," said McLean.

The games line-up for Xbox 360 is the largest for any console launch in history with 21 games available from $99.95. In addition to these games, 18 arcade style games will be available for download via Xbox Live. A wide selection of accessories is also on offer, allowing consumers to customise and enhance their gaming experience.

If you're one of the early adopters, let us know what you think.

iv decided to wait a few months till it drops in price.

i cant believe its so expensive in aus. im in japan at the moment and its about 38,000 yen, which exchanges to about 450 bucks... so i looked on the au website and its like 650! what the hell. wheres that extra cash going. I'd buy one here, but then it would be all in japanese and crap. i could flash it but who knows about all that stuff yet?

im interested in GR:AW and oblivion. it will look 10000 times better than my pc anyway. and i was thinking 450 was a pretty sweet price, but then i saw the website, 650!!! man its just too expensive.

It's pretty simple economics dude, almost all electronics are signficantly more expensive here than japan and then you've got the whole low Japanese uptake on the original xbox to take into account.

It's not much more or less expensive than previous console launches and it's looking increasinly likely that the PS3 will be even higher.

I dont think you're right about the electronics being cheaper here. There's some that are cheaper but on the whole its much the same. I was looking for a nice cheap digital camera the other day but couldnt find one that was cheap enough. I was kind of shocked at how expensive they were.
Alcohol on the other hand.... cheap as chips.

Oblivion is f***ing excellent, graphics are brilliant same with the gameplay.

Just had a quick bash of Geometry Wars, pretty cool :)

I dont think you're right about the electronics being cheaper here

I found that in Japan too; I don't know if it was just because I was in the sucker tourist districts like Akihabra but I didn't think electronics were that much cheaper.

nah its not just the tourist places. even gamecube is more expensive here than aus.

So what's the verdict on pgr and burnout ?

I think Oblivion is a bit overrated. The combat is still s***ty and any kind of collision detection, or just the way things move is s***.

Geometry wars is good
Kameo is good
Haven't played much of Ghost Recon yet.

I saw a demo station in Target the other day, but it was switched off, so until I actually have hands on with it, I think I'll steer clear.

Expensive??

I paid $650 for the original Xbox when it came out in Aussie only to have the price drop to $400 two weeks later... I got the two games + controller refund but this time I'll be waiting...

sadly you'll probably be waiting until the PS3 is about to be released and they get into some next gen price fights

Got oblivion, burnout, ghost recon and pgr3.
They are all awesome.
Ghost recon i got purely on hype and i had no idea what it was all about, turns out it rocks :)

I LOVE IT!!!!! However just to let every1 no i am on box No. 2 as the one I picked up at 12:01am Thursday died at 11:26am Thursday. After playing thru the first 3 levels of GRAW until 2:20am I hit the sack, when I got back on the box at 9am to play some PDZ the frame rate dropped to 10fps then the audio stammered then both audio and picture froze - the only solution was a hard reset. After several attempts at the level with the same issue I went back to GRAW, same issue. 3 phone calls to Microsoft and 2 trips to EB's later I had a new box that hasn't missed a beat. The 1080i looks awesome!! I love the dashboard layout, and the improved LIVE service.

All in all great value for money - especially when I took all my game + console receipts into EB's to get them to match the JB Hi-Fi launch day sale (console $619 ALL games $75) with the $150 back i got 2 extra games!!!

ours was glitching and crashing on pgr3, getting the f***ing thing replaced too. gg MS

their f***ing phone support sux. 'whats a glitch?' *shakes head*

last edited by phatmike at 17:02:17 24/Mar/06

Tell em a glitch in the xbox is like seeing a deja vu.

their f***ing phone support sux. 'whats a glitch?' *shakes head*

Hey man my like xbox is glitching and stuff man, fix it!

Stupid slow arse xbox live download speed, sigh.

Stupid slow arse xbox live download speed, sigh.

Agreed, very f*&%&# Slow.

But all aside xbox 360 pwns very happy with the $649 hole in my wallet, worth every cent whats the retail on a x1900 alone $900? , imho with a vga 15 pin d-sub cable + projector or htdv it very impressive.

last edited by 0z at 23:31:30 24/Mar/06

Does it come with digital audio input (optical) straight out of the box? Or do I have to buy a $40 add-on like the Xbox?

Does it come with digital audio input (optical) straight out of the box? Or do I have to buy a $40 add-on like the Xbox?

It does comes with the spdif optical out put with the Gold pack pharcyde. 8-)

last edited by 0z at 01:27:37 25/Mar/06

yeah i gotta admit xbox360 looks totally awesome. really high spec stuff! gr:aw is something that looks like its gonna get me back into online shooters... i dont know if thats a good thing or a bad thing. right now i have no time to burn but once i do, i think im gonna pick one of these babies up. the only question is, what games are on the close horizon? anything totally awesome?

xbox 360 is a great system and live works so well its how online gaming should be setup easy and the best thing everything works

the downloading demos does suck but im sure it will be fixed intime but for 650 its cheap i coudnt buy a PC that could play games like this also when its on a projector it looks so nice

coudnt buy a PC that could play games like this also when its on a projector it looks so nice

Agreed, for $780 ive spent so far on mine and you get a media steaming soultion hdtv (1080i) /dvd (480P) gaming system it was that or get upgrade, cost wise lets see new pci express mobo (nf4 sli) $280+, 2x7900GTX $1600+, Opty 165 dual core $500....

an xbox360 FX card seems to look like a ATI 1900 spec wise but whats really going to rock is when they start pulling all the power out of the system all the release titles are trying were going to see some unquie titles with all this power

and even still the xbox still amazing me at what that can do it based around a geforce 3 ti i know people with these cards and they GO WHAT MY CARD DOESNT EVEN RUN THAT fast

i spose it comes down to that for PC video card company want us to upgrade so the power in some of these cards never really get tapped out where a cosole there basicly designed for every amp of power

What coherent praise.