Gadgets and gizmos

The new 60GB version of the Xbox 360 and the price reduction for the Core (Arcade) version of the machine that has no hard drive will hit shops this Friday in the UK. The releases have been highly anticipated and, as expected, the price of the Premium package including the upgraded 60GB hard drive (rather than the 20GB drive you currently get) will remain the same at £200 although a couple of websites are offering it cheaper at £180.

The Arcade Xbox 360 package does not include any hard drive and instead offers a next to useless 256MB memory card. To go online and use Xbox Live you need to have the hard drive and the memory card really won’t hold that much. However, this bare bones version will be reduced in price to £160.

There has been no updates and altered pricing plan for the Elite, which features a 120GB hard drive but costs a mighty £250, which is a lot extra for the few benefits you receive (although we wouldn’t suggest using gloss, you could always try some home brew modding to give your 360 the appeaance of being Elite.)