Also thrown in are wireless controllers; gone are the days of tripping over controller cables strewn all over the floor.

There is also 720p and 1080i resolution support for all games. Another good thing is the 360 console is 802.11 A/B/G Wi-fi ready, offering wireless connectivity, although the downside is the adapter is sold separately.

Technical aspects aside, the console is everything it is hyped up to be. Using the games Dead or Alive 3 (for Xbox) and Dead or Alive 4 (for the 360) as a base of comparison (since both are reportedly optimised for their respective consoles), we ran both machines through their paces.

The graphics on the 360 are incredible. The images are crisper and amazingly sharper than those on the previous console.

Colour contrast and brightness are also at a higher level, with colours literally popping out of the screen.

The differences between the two consoles could be immediately seen, with Team Ninja's splash screen of a stormy sea.

The 360's multicore chip and custom ATI graphics chip easily coped with the graphics-intensive needs of DOA4. While playing DOA4, the characters displayed far more fluid and organic movement with smoother edging due to an obviously higher polygon count.

This was not even on a high-definition television, either; my consoles were hooked up to a 19-inch LCD Viewsonic computer monitor via a VGA switch box. On an HDTV, the images are even more incredible. Although there is no digital sound and the output still comes via standard RCA jacks, the tonal quality is far better and clearer then before, even though the 5.1 sound is produced via software as opposed to hardware.

The expanded online marketplace is also a nice addition for gamers who can download demos for free, and retro games for a small fee. There is also the free long-distance phone conferencing with friends who also have Xboxes.

All in all, the 360 is everything that it is touted to be.