By: Blake

Microsoft came out with the XBox 360’s new user interface which added a new dimension to gaming. The ability to put games on your hard drive. This may not sound like much at first, but it has eliminated several annoyances that gamers go through when playing games. The ability to put games on your hard drive reduces wear on your game discs, heat produced from the system and load time.

Before I put games on my hard drive I would have problems with the system randomly freezing. This can get very annoying especially when playing a game like Oblivion or Fallout 3. I would find my self saving very frequently in anticipation of the system freezing. Every time my XBox decided to start making strange noises I would stop what I was doing and save the game. I also noticed that it got very hot. My friend actually told me about saving the games to the hard drive when I was complaining about my bipolar XBox. I told him that my XBox also has a destructive personality. It likes to damage my games while it goes on it’s tantrums. My friend told me that saving the games to the hard drive would also solve this problem and the XBox would last longer because there aren’t as many moving parts while playing a saved game.

I gave it a try and it seems to be the cure all for my sickly XBox. I have noticed that the system runs much quieter, the load time is less and it I haven’t had it freeze yet. Also my XBox doesn’t get hot like it used to. Before it would get very hot and I got a fan that hooks on to the back of it, but I found out online that these fans can melt if your system gets too hot. If you are using a fan that is not certified by Microsoft then a melted fan to your XBox can void your warranty.

There is one downside though. Saving an entire game to your hard drive takes a lot of memory. If you plan on saving several games to your XBox I would recommend upgrading your storage if you have the original 20 gb hdd. Unfortunately the game disk is still required to play the game, but this is how they keep people from getting the game for free by borrowing it from a friend or renting it from a store and saving it to their hard drive.

Over all I think that any game should be put on the hard drive. It preserves the game and takes away the strain on the system. Ultimately it makes the XBox last longer. It was a great idea and I recommend that everyone try it.