XBOX help needed

sjpkgp

Everybody - thank you so much for your responses, some great advice, and even the debates have helped me understand there is unsuitable stuff to be aware of and how to set it so this doesn't happen. We have gone for the argos deal of £119 for the arcade plus 3 free games (scene it, live in the movies and forza racing). I got a tenner off (pre-xmas voucher) and quidco, so about £108. He has got to buy memory for it now, which is going to be necessary cost, but he is happy with the 3 games package for starters. We have all been playing the racing and live in the movies already, and they are great. At the moment, it is plugged into a telly (pleased to see it did not need an aerial (don't laugh at me for this, but the sega used to need one) but we can plug into our broadband router directly (ie wired) as one poster suggested, mainly because wifi is a bit touch and go in our house despite n router and all of the tests done (we live right on the seafront with thick walls and it is just not great). Apparently you can use these with a monitor as long as you get a conversion cable also. Thanks for the recs also on the play and charge kit - we have got rechargeable batteries so we can manage without. I am quite glad we have gone for this staged approach while we got used to it a) console & games to play b) memory to save them etc then c) link to live to start enjoying it to the full. I think the Xbox is far better (so far) than the WII which we bought when they were very expensive and the kids have hardly bothered with. It is like a games console cemetery in this house, but this latest addition has got us all playing. Again, many thanks for the posts, you have really helped us.
Sal xx

pitkin2020

when you consider buy a hdd take a look ebay, there is some really good priced hard drives on there, obviously give the seller a once over

b33r

sjpkgp wrote: »

(scene it, live in the movies and forza racing)

Good choice of games for some family fun! Glad you are liking the console.

pitkin2020 wrote: »

when you consider buy a hdd take a look ebay, there is some really good priced hard drives on there, obviously give the seller a once over

I would be extra careful with ones off ebay unless it's a shop seller etc. as non offical ones can get you banned off xbox live as Microsoft stopped allowing 3rd party ones. (EDIT: Actually on doing a bit more reading it is just the memory cards they have stopped but they certainly can detect 3rd party hard drives so there will be nothing to stop them banning them in the future) This is about the best deal I can find for one from a retailer. 60Gb and it comes with an ethernet cable, headset, and 3 month XBox Live Gold prepaid card.

pitkin2020

b33r wrote: »

Good choice of games for some family fun! Glad you are liking the console.



I would be extra careful with ones off ebay unless it's a shop seller etc. as non offical ones can get you banned off xbox live as Microsoft stopped allowing 3rd party ones. (EDIT: Actually on doing a bit more reading it is just the memory cards they have stopped but they certainly can detect 3rd party hard drives so there will be nothing to stop them banning them in the future) This is about the best deal I can find for one from a retailer. 60Gb and it comes with an ethernet cable, headset, and 3 month XBox Live Gold prepaid card.

do you own an xbox 360??
As for non official one i think you will find it wont get you banned, but it will not work, at the moment, but the third party makers are taking microsoft to court over this.

b33r

pitkin2020 wrote: »

do you own an xbox 360??
As for non official one i think you will find it wont get you banned, but it will not work, at the moment, but the third party makers are taking microsoft to court over this.

Erm yes, why do you ask? If it was because I didn't know the exact details of the unoffical memory stuff it's because I own an Elite so have never had to buy a memory card or another hard drive. I thought the fact that there could be problems it was worth warning the OP about. Yes I apologise, it will not get you banned but would certainly be a waste of money. Assuming Microsoft would ban you for it is I think fair as it wouldn't exactly be out of character for them would it?!

pitkin2020

my post wasn't an intention to start an argument i was merely asking, sorry if you took it to be any other way.
Microsoft need taking down a peg or two in my opinion and hope this year sony have a drastic price cut on the PS3, once it drops below the £200 mark it will wipe the floor with the xbox in the sales. When you compare the machine specs the PS3 is by far the more powerful machine, the trouble is they released it too late and the 360 got a good footing on the market, as everyone who wants to play online wants to play with there friends, and a lot of people bought a 360 within the first year of its release

b33r

pitkin2020 wrote: »

my post wasn't an intention to start an argument i was merely asking, sorry if you took it to be any other way.
Microsoft need taking down a peg or two in my opinion and hope this year sony have a drastic price cut on the PS3, once it drops below the £200 mark it will wipe the floor with the xbox in the sales. When you compare the machine specs the PS3 is by far the more powerful machine, the trouble is they released it too late and the 360 got a good footing on the market, as everyone who wants to play online wants to play with there friends, and a lot of people bought a 360 within the first year of its release

I did sorry, the double question marks, thought you were being obtuse.

I own both consoles actually and agree that as a piece of hardware the PS3 is fantastic, the interface though, oh dear, such an after thought. If Sony just put a bit of effort in to actually finishing it it would definately be the better console but they always seem to have a good idea then do it half arsed, like home, or the PSN network (although that has got better), the marketplace and interacting with friends to name a few. Not to mention the fact they put such an awesome processor in the thing but then don't dig deep enough in to their pockets to get game companies to actually use it to it's potential. By the time they pull their finger out we will be on to the next console generation and it will start again.

pitkin2020

b33r wrote: »

I did sorry, the double question marks, thought you were being obtuse.

I own both consoles actually and agree that as a piece of hardware the PS3 is fantastic, the interface though, oh dear, such an after thought. If Sony just put a bit of effort in to actually finishing it it would definately be the better console but they always seem to have a good idea then do it half arsed, like home, or the PSN network (although that has got better), the marketplace and interacting with friends to name a few. Not to mention the fact they put such an awesome processor in the thing but then don't dig deep enough in to their pockets to get game companies to actually use it to it's potential. By the time they pull their finger out we will be on to the next console generation and it will start again.

soz i usualy do double question marks, dunno why

The thing is the PS3 is relatively untapped at the moment and most developers are saying this, the 360 games are already at the limit of what they can do game wise due to the size limit of DL disks, where as the PS3 disks being bluray can take a lot more data and currently this full potential isnt being used. If you compare the consoles side by side (spec wise) the ps3 is classed as next gen compared with the 360. I think if microsoft had followed the bluray route instead of the HD route i'd see a console with another 5 years life left, personally i think micorsoft will release its next gen console within 2-3 years even though they say 5 years. We are also going to start seeing more 2 disk games as developers will be forced to either cut back or expand to continue making great games

jamesb1239

Just as a quick note regarding memory, I only have the Arcade with 256mb memory and I have at leat 7 gamesaves on there and its still at 230 something mb, gamesaves take up hardly anything and who says you need to keep the gamesave forever?

I got the Arcade a few months ago from Game for £129.99 and that came with Lego Batman and Pure and also an extra wireless controller and it is more than sufficient for playing games, and to be honest i have no intention to ever play xbox live (although i would get banned as soon as i connected :rotfl:) I just dont see the point of it, surely if i want to play against someone i can just get OH or a friend to play against me.

jamesb1239

pitkin2020 wrote: »

my post wasn't an intention to start an argument i was merely asking, sorry if you took it to be any other way.
Microsoft need taking down a peg or two in my opinion and hope this year sony have a drastic price cut on the PS3, once it drops below the £200 mark it will wipe the floor with the xbox in the sales. When you compare the machine specs the PS3 is by far the more powerful machine, the trouble is they released it too late and the 360 got a good footing on the market, as everyone who wants to play online wants to play with there friends, and a lot of people bought a 360 within the first year of its release

The reason that the PS3 hasnt really come down in price is that Sony actually make a loss on every console sold.

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20091215232901_Sony_Still_Sells_PlayStation_3_at_a_Loss_Analysis.html