Wii vs. Xbox360

Four days ago I bought an Xbox 360 specifically for the insane discount it got in Europe (€200 for the Pro model, down from €270) and for Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2. Since neither of those games are out yet, I resorted to Xbox Live Arcade games (downloadable games) and second-hand classics on eBay such as Halo 3 and Burnout Paradise.

Things that I really notice about the Xbox:

• Demos and trials. For almost EVERY game, you can first download a demo/trial version to see if it's any good. The Burnout Paradise demo is extremely convincing, for example.


• The 60GB hard drive. The Wii doesn't have one.


• The headset. On a whim, I plugged it in during a game of Carcasonne and almost jumped out of the seat when my '..hello?' was quickly answered by a very British 'hay'.


• Achievements are great fun!


• The Xbox 360 crashed twice in two days. Not sure if this is a ventilation issue, there is no indication of why it crashes after rebooting. For comparison, my Wii has crashed twice, in two years (not counting the proof-of-concept Opera/Youtube/Flash exploit I tried once). This is not good.