Xbox - advice please

Marty_J

I'm surprised to discover that the Xbox 360 is better for older males.

My 10 year old daughter seems to enjoy playing mine. :rolleyes:

(vyle, I wish I could click "thanks" a few more times for you)

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

trets77 wrote: »

......don't skimp by buying the Arcade version , you will only need to add the other bits like a Hard drive and wireless adaptor later . also the Elite version comes with HDMI as standard ( big big plus)

Just to add that if you do go for the cheaper Arcade model, it does have an HDMI connection, just like the Elite. The Arcade model only comes with a composite cable though.

With the recent price drop of the Elite, they also dropped the inclusion of the HDMI lead. Not a major problem as the leads are cheap nowadays.

DCFC79

Is the xbox 360 what all his friends have,

TEDDYRUKSPIN

The kid wants a xbox, so get him a xbox. Although he is 9 years old, make sure you do not get him the games with a specific rating. Games now have a rating to state the correct age to play it eg 18 - 18yrs and over.

The machine he wants is a xbox360. As he is 9 years old, in less than 4 years, he will want the latest machine anyway.

You have two options:

(1) get him the cheap xbox360 arcade £120rrp - this does not include a harddrive. What this means, if he wants to save his progression in a game, he will need a memory card - usually supplied. Secondly, if he goes on xboxlive - the internet, he might want to download films, games etc but at a cost. If he does, he will need the other model.

(2) Xbox360 elite. £185rrp. This is the full package. The top model. With everything or most things included. If money is not an issue you should look at this.

To stop you getting ripped off and the fact you might need advice on games etc. I would suggest you to pop into gamestation or game uk. You find these everywhere. They usually sell the machine with a number of games. I brought mine in gamestation and they can actually give you a decent price.

If you are confident in what you are buying, try tesco or asda. Asda do sell games on the cheap and I tend to buy them there when I can't be bothered buying online.

http://www.gamestation.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/_/N-1z13fwiZ1z13fwm?platform=14600

http://www.game.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/_/N-1z13fvgZ1z13mmv?platform=33400

vyle

Also check metacritic before buying a game. It'll show a collection of reviews for most games and can help you avoid any missteps, like buying licensed movie games just because he liked the movie.

Ivrytwr3

vyle wrote: »

To add to what others said, the 360 has games, rather than a catalogue of awful waggleware.



Games don't need to be 'child friendly'...as I shall detail below:

Blah Blah Blah waffle waffle waffle

.

I was actually talking about the look of the games. XBox is more gritty and aimed at older gamers, whereas the PS2/3 the graphics are a bit more cartoony!!

There's also the XBox Live thing, where you have to PAY!!! YES PAY!! to play online games. PS2 you don't.

And yes, i had a C64 too, awesome days!!!

bosseyed

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

I was actually talking about the look of the games. XBox is more gritty and aimed at older gamers, whereas the PS2/3 the graphics are a bit more cartoony!!

There's also the XBox Live thing, where you have to PAY!!! YES PAY!! to play online games. PS2 you don't.

Not sure I understand that comment really - as mentioned above, PS3 and Xbox 360 have pretty much an identical catalogue of games. There is the odd decent exclusive for each console (eg Drakes Fortune 1 &2 on PS3, the awesome Left 4 dead games on 360) but generally the PS3 suffers from low quality ports (most new games are developed natively for 360 then ported to PS3) with slightly worse graphical fidelity and often a lower framerate than the 360 version.

PS2 is last generation hardware, so graphics are often more 'cartoony' through necessity. Theres plenty of games available to suit younger gamers on 360 - the Lego games, Mini Ninjas - hundreds.

And yes you have to pay to get onto Xbox Live which isn't ideal, but as a service it works very well and there is a ton of stuff on there from films, to full games, to demos, to arcade games that can be downloaded.

So get the kid a 360! It will serve him well for a while I'd have thought. And as above if you can stump up for the Elite then great, if not just get the preimum with the Hard Drive included. Depending what TV you'll be connecting to, bear in mind the 360 now no longer comes with and HDMi cable in the box.

joshm_2

Hello, I have had an arcade for a year and think it's fine (ok, EXCELLENT!).

The Arcade comes with a memory card that plugs in to the front that allows you to save game statuses etc.

All xbox variants come with Silver membership and a month's free Gold membership. The silver membership allows you to download demos for games, buy stuff from Arcade (a lot of good content on here, useually cheaper than buying a high-street game, plus also add-ons like new maps for current games). The Gold membership allows you to play with others online. You can actually get three months free Gold membership out of the box if you are prepared to start from scratch once a month (i.e. three one month memberships are included). You can get year-long xbox gold memberships for about 30 pounds online, or buy from stores at a slightly higher price.

If you want to download content from xbox live arcade then you will need a hard drive. you can get a 20GB hard drive for about 20 quid now (shop around) - I have one and it does me just fine. But, if you can afford it then I agree that it's more economically viable to get an Elite on day one, especially since it's got so much cheaper recently.

One word of warning: to connect to the internet without buying more hardware, you will need to plug the xbox into your broadband router directly using a cable. If you want to go wireless, you will need something like the wireless network adapter which is quite expensive (about 40 quid?). I use homeplugs to get round this problem.

elfen

Game have a good deal on the Elite, £199 and two games free (think one is Forsa and one is a Halo/Gears of War/COD -type RPG shoot em up. Which a 9 year old would probably enjoy, in all honesty. It's getting to play guns!

I'm a girl, and I adore my Xbox. I used to have a PS2, but upgraded when I could (it's second hand, but decent second hand) I have plenty of games (I mainly play RPG/Guitar Hero - now that is a good game for having fun on ) but not all of the games I play are really violent. You can get most second hand games at pretty good prices, again I know GAME have knocked a bit off a ton of theirs (was in there today and picked up two I wanted for 25 quid - RE5 was 15 so I'm pleased and OH will play it - if he doesn't get it, I'll pick him up Forza for Xmas)

joshm, what's a homeplug? I refuse to pay SIXTY quid for a flipping adaptor...if you know another way, please let me know..

Marty_J

elfen wrote: »

joshm, what's a homeplug? I refuse to pay SIXTY quid for a flipping adaptor...if you know another way, please let me know..

They're £45 on Amazon.