Before I state what I think I want to make it clear that I do like my 360. It just has some really dumb problems.

So I got an Xbox 360 for christmas, When I turned it on I was pretty much blown away by the graphics. (My other two consoles are a wii and a PS2, as well as my graphically challenged computers.) But it didn't take long to figure out that the thing was designed to have the paid service along with it. I'm all for having good online features, but some of it is being pushed to far to make the 360 feel incomplete without it. Granted, as I just stated, the only online capable gaming devices I had up until that point didn't require any sort of fees beyond purchasing games, so that's probably part of it.

But I just don't understand why apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime and IE are locked behind this same paywall. And two of those already have price tags on their own. And my TV ​monitor is capable of running most of the same apps as the 360 (As are literally 90% of my internet capable devices.)

But, enough of the bad. So far I've had a blast shooting stuff up with my friends via Halo and gears of war. And even my small library of games has proven that it has quite a bit of value in it. So that alone proves that Gold is worth investing in, I just wish it wasn't crippled without it.