Well yes, in the sense that so many of them have been overheating that Microsoft has been forced to admit to a design flaw that may cause any unit to malfunction. But mine hasn't, so far, although it's in a well-ventilated position in a non-smoking environment. The new elite edition (and probably any subsequent regular units they release) should be free of the hardware issues that have bugged the console so far, and that's really the only bar to me advising you, if you have any liking for games and/or digital media, to go out and get one.
For £250 or so it's superb value. The quality of the HD output is a joy to behold; I finally bought a new telly when I plugged it in to my old one that I'd had for nearly ten years and a game wouldn't run because it required a screen with a refresh rate of 60Hz and this relic wouldn't go one wavelength over 50Hz. On my new 26" Polaroid TV (a bit of a bargain itself at only £300 from Curry's) it looks fabulous. There is a growing library of decent games to suit most tastes, and a lot of old xbox games are supported too, so if you are willing to buy second hand (and you should be) you have dozens if not hundreds of titles to choose from.
Personally, I'm enjoying Gears of War, which actually deserved the hype it received when it came out. I'm a self-confessed video game player, but in case you missed it, earth has been invaded by aliens, you're the one man who can lead the counter-assault, blah blah blah. It's not the tale, it's the teller; the plot is standard sci-fi fodder but the delivery is awesome; it's the closest game to deserving the title "cinematic" that I've ever seen on a console, and looks better than all but the latest generation of PC titles. It's hectic, challenging, and addictive; after an initial learning curve if you've only ever played shooters with a mouse and keyboard (or have never played one at all) so need to get used to the two thumbsticks etc., it's also very playable and great fun.
Nor is this the only title I've been impressed by. Top Spin 2 tennis looks like it will keep sucking me back in, as does Fight Night Round 3. The latter in particular is visually impressive; the punches make you want to wince when they land. But both games look like they've got a lot of replay value because of their tactical depth; neither is the kind of game you really 'finish'. You can get literally years of fun out of a good sports sim, particularly ones that allow two players like these do. Of course if you want to use xbox live you can play online too; I don't bother because of all the idiot 13 year olds. Of course they'll beat me, but they'll call me names while they're doing it and I can't be arsed, frankly; I'd rather play with family or friends than get the abuse.
But even if you don't play games at all the thing has it's uses, assuming you already own a PC with XP or Vista. Through the xbox interface, which is very well designed (possibly the best Microsoft interface I've ever used, in fact), you can get to all your mp3s (and have a full-screen visualisation running on the TV, which is impressive), and all your photos, also in fullscreen. I looked at some of the photos taken on our recent honeymoon in Paris which were still on the laptop and they stood up very well; my wife looked almost as radiant as she does in real life (was that okay, honey?) while I was viewing from the across the room on the sofa. It will even stream video, although not in divx format; there's no technical reason for this, it's just Micro$oft protecting their .wmv format which no-one wants to use. And if you want to buy an extra external drive it will even play HD video discs. You can even use it as an instant messenger as well though text input via the remote would be clunky, like texting from a mobile phone; better to get an add-on wireless keyboard if available.
The one frustration was that I couldn't get the media sharing going from my desktop (even though the Zune software package on the PC could see the Xbox and I opened the right incoming and outgoing TCP and UDP ports in the firewall), and I couldn't work out why. But it would work from the laptop, which runs XP Media Centre Edition, not XP Pro like the desktop; perhaps that was a factor. I haven't been able to test with a Vista machine yet but as that has the Media Centre app built in (on Home Premium and Ultimate, anyway), I suspect it would be pretty trouble free. Also word in praise of the controllers themselves; they are very ergonomic, and I can use them for quite long periods without my hands getting sore, which isn't something I've always been able to say about gamepads in the past. Plus the wireless link from the controllers to the xbox is very stable so long as the batteries are full, very important in an intense gaming session.
So, overall, this new version really is a big step forward from the original xbox which I also owned a second-hand version of but never played much even though it seemed fairly sturdy. I partly neglected the original console because my PC kicked it's backside thoroughly when it came to gaming; but on a good widescreen HD-TV with today's games, that really isn't the case any more. The PC is pulling ahead visually again already with the new DirectX 10 standard from Microsoft, but the xbox 360 is still going to be competitive with it for several years to come, and anyway it now clearly comes into the category of 'good enough' so far as the graphics are concerned; the screenshots for GTA IV look fabulous. Overall, the thing is great fun. Buy one. Remember, every time you do, Microsoft loses money :-)
