A Newbies Guide to Xbox 360

By GameCaps

Games systems used to be simple--plug into TV, put in game cartirage, power on...and occasionally spend several minutes plugging dust out and putting it in at just the right angle! Today game systems are more than game systems--they are multi-media powerhouses. In the case of Xbox 360, it is a full on computer.

This guide will help you get the most out of your Xbox 360 and everything that's built into it--from adjusting parental settings to changing the way it looks.

GameCaps Walkthroughs was started as a way of bringing cheap, reliable, and informative game walkthroughs and system profiles. Our library is growing more every month.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Apr 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301067459

Book preview

GameCaps Presents

A Newbies Guide to Xbox 360

By BookCaps Study Guides/Golgotha Press

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

Published at SmashWords

Introduction

Since its release way back in 2005, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has come to define a generation of video games and the people who love them. In the same way that Nintendo owned the 80s, the 2000s will forever be linked with this already-legendary machine. Unlike your Super Nintendo, however, the Xbox 360 won’t be gathering dust in your parents’ closet anytime soon. It’s still powerful, capable of things its original designers never even envisioned.

Whether you’re entirely new to Xbox 360, or you’ve outgrown gaming in favor of grown-up responsibilities, there’s a lot more to the device than you may have previously thought. Sure, there are an absolutely astounding number of game titles to play, but there are also movies and television shows to watch, and dozens of apps to download that can extend the life of your Xbox 360 into the distant future. In short, there has never been a better (or cheaper!) time to get your hands on an Xbox 360.

This guide will teach you everything you need to know to turn your Xbox 360 into the hub of your living room entertainment world. From navigating the updated dashboard to setting up a Media Center network, we’ll show you how to get more out of your Xbox 360 than ever before.

Ready to get started? Let’s do it!

Part One: Getting Started With Xbox 360

More Than a Gaming Platform: The Xbox 360 today

As we begin to enter the 8th generation of video game consoles, it’s easy to think of the Xbox 360, The PlayStation 3, and the Wii as aging relics of a soon-to-be forgotten era. As far as the Xbox 360 is concerned, nothing could be further from the truth. While it’s true that, despite the relative failure of the Wii U in the marketplace, there will soon be a PlayStation 4 and an (as yet) unnamed successor to the Xbox 360 in stores all across the way, it would be a mistake to think of the Xbox 360 as outdated. The device was so far ahead of its time that we’re only just now catching up now.

If you’re asking yourself Why get an Xbox 360 now? the answer is clear. Regardless of its age, the Xbox 360 is a powerful machine that can be bought cheaply from a variety of sources. The length of time the machine has been on the market actually works in your favor: they’ve worked out all the bugs, and done everything possible to keep their installed base of users happy. There are tons of accessories, add-ons, and (of course) a gigantic library of games available for the machine, which means it will stay well-supported for many years to come.

There are, as of this writing, around 1000 games available for the Xbox 360, including the ever-popular Halo franchise, an Xbox exclusive. Almost 8 years after its initial release, new games are still released on a weekly basis, and that will continue for at least another few years.

There are, after all, somewhere in the neighborhood