buying a second hand XBOX - Advice please!

angelfire

Hiya,

I'm wanting to buy my boyfriend a second hand xbox for his birthday and could do with some pointers really as I've no idea about them - (the last games on a computer a played were 'Frogger' and 'Great Giana Sisters' on the Commodore 64)!

Anyway I've looked on ebay and there's loads, some with games, some without, some that say they're modified, there's even some funky crystal ones that I quite like the look of!

Is there anything I should avoid? what games are good? what controls should it come with? How will I recognise a good deal?!

Please help or he'll end up with the funky crystal one with a barbie game or something!

Thanks in advance

Dee

Hillfly

Hi,

Personally i don't like the look of the crystal ones - get a black one 1 reckon.

Make sure it has an orginal controller.
Some good games include Halo 2 & Pro evolution soccer 5 (and a zillion others).

If you have broadband then i'd reccomend you get him an xbox live starter kit too - which has a headset and a years subscription. This way he'll be able to play games online and chat to the other players as he plays.

You can get new xbox for about £90 so don't overpay on ebay!

wolfman

Is he a techie type?

I'd personally go for the bare minimum, then mod it. I'd also be able to buy the games I want rather than pay extra for a bundle of games where some I may not want.

Also as mentioned above, get a Microsoft controller. The Controller S is generally better than the rather large original MS controller, although that'll come down to preference.

You should be able to pick one up for £50-60.

Top games worth looking out for are:
- Halo 1 & 2
- Ninja Gaiden
- Pro Evo 5
- Fable
- Chronicles Of Riddick
- Dead Or Alive 3
- Project Gotham Racing 2
- Any of the Need For Speed games

Ninja Gaiden, Riddick and Fable were my fav's.

brummybloke

dont know if this is still the case but modified (chipped ) x boxes were not able to play online gaming as my friend found out, he ended up having to get 2 x boxes, one for 'those' games and one for the online gaming

Hillfly

In case you are wondering what 'Mod it' means you can modify your console by adding modchips, hard drives etc etc which allow you to play games from other sources than an original cd E.g the hard drive.

If he's not techie then just stick to a standard machine - modded machines sometimes have greater wear and tear on the laser as they have been used with non original discs which strains the laser.

wolfman

brummybloke wrote:

dont know if this is still the case but modified (chipped ) x boxes were not able to play online gaming as my friend found out, he ended up having to get 2 x boxes, one for 'those' games and one for the online gaming

No, that got sorted with more modern chips. And you can unblock yourself anyway. There's also a soft-mod out (no chip required), not read much about it though.

The best part of a modded Xbox, is the homebrew software. You can turn it into a great media center (with Xbox Media Center). I don't play games on mine (got a 360) but still use it loads for playing music, watching dvd's, divx's etc... viewing photo's in the living room. It's even setup as an ftp and web server.

Lob_Rockster

I personally looked for chipped/modified xboxes when buying second-hand.
I ended up with a decent one with 160Gb disk fitted and 10 games for around 100 quid.

I of course then updated the software on it to include the Media Center and other software....it's an excellent home entertainment system beyond a simple gaming machine in this manner. Multi-region DVD? Yep.

If you decide to go the other way, consider that games like Halo, Project Gotham and other older titles can be had for pocket change now - they're tops £10 a game.

Extra controllers and the DVD remote are nice-to-haves too.

Best games must be IMO Halo, Need for Speed, Project Gotham, any footy game - basically games in this list http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=search&searchtype=XBOX&searchstring=classic&page=search have sold enough copies to become cheaper...

executiverocker

i got mine second hand from gamestation, £70 including 1 controller and 4 games from the 4 for £20 range

lizastar

I recently bought 2nd hand (traded in) x box, plus 2 controllers & plug in thing which allows you to watch DVDs on xbox for £60 in Game. Also collected points for purchase on sons Game card which gives him discount on future game purchases. They also have a large selection on pre-owned games-£5/10. Good luck!

SiMaster

Has he asked for an Xbox, make sure he's not gonna be grumpy that he got an Xbox and not an Xbox 360 (the new one).

angelfire

Ok, it was down to two - one green console with a few games and a steering wheel, which looked good cos he loves driving games, but it sounded well used.

The one I went for was a crystal one with just two games that's only had four hours of play on it. it cost £56. I figured one thats only been used for 4 hours would be next to new...

Does this sound ok? I could always put it back on ebay if it's not...?!