X-Box Help/Advice please

mrsJef

Hi guys,

My 13 year old son has asked for an x-box for xmas but i dont really know what the difference is between them all!?!

I know some of it is to do with memorey size etc but what exactly does he need it for? He want to be able to play against his friends so i guess thats the 'live' feature? He'd like kinect but that wont be this year due to funds, so i can anyone please advise me on which model we should be looking at, is the extra memory worth the extra money, is there anything else we should be considering. BTW budget is £200 tops!

Many thanks
X

Rossy.

Well you could get the new 250gb slim model but it's £199.99

http://www.game.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/Xbox-360-250GB/~r349710/

That includes no games.

You could get him the same system above but with only 4gb of memory for £149.99

http://www.game.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/Xbox-360-4GB-Console/~r350682/

That also includes no games

This is the 4gb version with Starwars Force Unleashed game for £169.99

http://www.game.co.uk/Consoles/Xbox-360/Xbox-360-4GB-with-Star-Wars-The-Force-Unleashed-2/~r352253/

This is not a bad bundle for £159.99 but again offers the 4gb Xbox but includes 3 games

Check out the game website or store for more bundles.. To be fair all the bundles are not that much cop at the moment

JOHN1982

It's quite a tough decision to be honest, although your budget may make it a little more simple.

If your son is set on the brand new version of Xbox then they come with two sizes of storage; 4GB or 250GB. The 4GB version is around £140 and the 250GB is around £200.

If he's not set on the new version, and you can still get hold of a 'new' old version they come in 60GB and 120GB versions (prices massively vary.).

Now, here's where it get a little more complicated I'm afraid.

The older versions don't allow wireless internet access without an adaptor, which is £40. The new versions have wireless built in and for your son to play online against his friends he will need Xbox Live Gold. I would strongly, STRONGLY advise you to buy this in a 'gift card' form otherwise you'll have a huge hassle (as I did) trying to cancel it the following year. This costs £33 for the year on Amazon.

I think to be honest, your best bet would to buy your son the new 4GB version Xbox with the Xbox Live Gold for £173. Heck, you could even get him a game to play on it as well then! Ha ha!

(You're right to let the Kinetic slide this year, I'm pretty sure the prices will plummet soon enough!)

Hope this helps? If you need any more advice, let me know!

Links (replace hashes with w's!):
Xbox Live:
###.amazon.co.uk/Xbox-LIVE-Gold-12-Month-Membership/dp/B000B5KMSE/ref=amb_link_158247187_7?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=right-2&pf_rd_r=09QRXNZWJ5SBK98HNFGX&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=216519147&pf_rd_i=344189031

Xbox 4GB:
###.amazon.co.uk/Xbox-360-Console-Hard-Drive/dp/B003UTUBQG/ref=pd_ts_vg_h__1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames

JOHN1982

Rossy. wrote: »

This is not a bad bundle for £159.99 but again offers the 4gb Xbox but includes 3 games

Check out the game website or store for more bundles.. To be fair all the bundles are not that much cop at the moment

Just to concur with what Rossy says here, and to make a quick addition.

First, find out which game your son would like, or if you already know, look for a bundle with that game in.

If you can't find a bundle with the game you want, if you actually go into somewhere like Game, or another shop that allows exchanges or buys games and ask the staff which bundle would be best for you to look at to exchange the bundle games for the one you want.

To clarify what I mean, when I went to buy an Xbox I wanted one (expensive) game, but there were no bundles with it in. I spoke to the staff and she suggested that I buy a bundle with 3 other games in, pick 3 games with a good 'exchange rate' and then instantly swap them for the game I wanted. I did just this. Problem solved! :T

mrsJef

Thanks for the replies! I guess what i'm asking is is the extra memory worth the extra money?, the £200 is slightly flexible but not much so can stretch to say £220 but deffo no more than £230!


Thanks again it was so much easier when we bought the PS2-that was about 6 years ago! LOL.x

Rossy.

Well the 4gb xbox is more within your budget but if he wants to play online with his mates, download map packs and demos etc he will be extremely limited with the low amount of storage space.

I'd go for the 250gb one. I traded my Elite in for the new 250gb model and i've installed several games, added loads of map packs, added loads of music etc and still have 190gb free.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

I'd go with the 250GB too if you can stretch it. Once he's on-line, it'll only be a matter of days before he's downloading demos and once he wants extra content and map packs for games, the 4GB just won't do.

VintageToon

mrsJef wrote: »

Thanks for the replies! I guess what i'm asking is is the extra memory worth the extra money?, the £200 is slightly flexible but not much so can stretch to say £220 but deffo no more than £230!


Thanks again it was so much easier when we bought the PS2-that was about 6 years ago! LOL.x

Hey. I work(ed) at asda on the entertainment section. and for £200-220 you will be able to get a great deal. My advice is don't rush into buying anything yet. The nearer we get to christmas the more competative offers come.

What kind of gaming will your son be wanting to do on it? ask him. Because if he wants to game online (which is by far the best part about the xbox 360) then it's going to cost you that extra.

(£35 a year subscription to online then a wireless xbox router etc)

PM me if you need any more help.

DCFC79

If hes going to be downloading maps and stuff then no i wouldnt get the 4gb as its pretty pointless so defintely get the 250gb

Sebastian_Colt

There's plenty of second hand Xbox 360 games available for £5.00 to £10.00.

I personally found a hard drive useful for a few things.

1) Custom soundtracks (especially on Car racing games) is a feature I use a lot
2) It uses less electricity and is slightly quicker & quieter to run games off a harddrive rather than the disc. (they can be copied to the HD Drive but the disc is still needed for authentication unfortunately so you still have to get up and change the disc.
3) There's xbox live games to download
4) there's downloadable extras (sometimes these are free even) and require a modest amount of memory.
5) The expected selling price of the Hard drive on it's own is going to be more than the £55.00 / £50.00 difference in price so that is an incentive to buy the HD version if you ever think you might want a harddrive
6) The 240GB HD version has a glossy finish and is a little bit more spiffy perhaps.

Alternatively you can use USB memory sticks to save data on a 4gb console and it's internal memory - USB memory stick / and some memory cards (with an adaptor) up to 16gb are compatible and If I recall collectively the system will sense 3 at the same time.

You might like to look at a store like VERY they have voucher offers off a first order and some cash back is usually available at such place . What I did was sign up to very and use my first order voucher to buy 2 XBOX Gold vouchers and then sell the second one on ebay (they go for about £26.00 -£30.00 usually) so a year subscription was about half price that way after I sold the second one.

Either one is fine really and you can always buy a hard drive next year if you find you need one they are expected to cost more than £60.00 though.

mrsJef

Thanks to all who've replied. I think i've decided to see what offers come out in the next few weeks on the model with higher memory and just get him one game and the live subscription for now. Then he can save like crazy to buy more games himself!

Thanks again.x