Xbox 360
 

Need some advice from anybody who knows about Xbox for somebody who has no interest in the games market ( ie ME :D )

We have an about to be 11yr old who with a combination of some Christmas money and birthday money can buy an Xbox 360 bundle.

Question is what advantage would he get ( bearing in mind his age ) from spending an extra £40 buying the 60gb version than he would the standard pack

Re: Xbox 360
 

This is summat i have always wanted to know too, because my son wants a xbox for his birthday and im confused with the different ones ya can buy.....example...whats the elite one?, I think thats the black one:rolleyes:

Re: Xbox 360
 

My lads got an xbox bundle with no hard drive.. I ahve now bought them a hard drive to put in it (40 quid).. 20gb is enough

Without a hard drive its hard to play online games.. otherwise not found much use for it so far.

Re: Xbox 360
 

I studied this before Christmas and went for the Arcade version because we have a Wii if my daughter wants to play online (and me). If you only want to play games in your house and not go online go for the Arcade version the memory is big enough unless you're thinking of buying 100 games for it, then spend what you saved on a second handset.

Re: Xbox 360
 

i best expand on this... first game he tried was proevo9 online and it said you must download the game updates or you wont be able to play others with the updates.. this was about 150MB and took a big chunk of memory

if games need updating he will need more room.

also you can download addons for games... daughters has the game "lips" for it and she can download more toons to the HD

Re: Xbox 360
 

Unlikely he will get much chance to be online as that will require us to be present and we really try to avoid his bedroom for health & safety reasons :D

Re: Xbox 360
 

why do you need to be present if all he is doing is playing online? Is there a browser or chat built in?

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No idea what you can and can't do online, but as soon as online is mentioned parental control automatically kicks in :)

Re: Xbox 360
 

Dave, in all honesty, go for the one with the 60gb hard-drive. For the extra £40 it's well worth it. The new Dashboard (frontpage you could call it) for the XBox now allows you to install games, which although you still need the disk in the drive, does cut down on drive activity and the noise levels (XBoxes are notoriously noisy).

The XBox also has a very good Live! section and an ever increasing download choice (you'd need a hard-drive to save the content comfortably) which can be accessed with no subscription, but it's with a Gold account that the XBox really comes alive.

I own both a PS3 and a 360 and I wouldn't consider an XBox without a hard-drive.

(Panther - the Elite is basically a normal XBox, but black and with a 120gb hard-drive. It used to be the only one with a HDMI socket, but all of the new stock ones will have HDMI too now).

Re: Xbox 360
 

My lads have a Playstation 2, PSP, DS, Wii and xbox360, they have been online with the ps2 and its pants... they reckon the xbox is the best of the lot for online..

But unlike the playstation thats free online.. the xbox is gonna cost me 4 or 5 quid a month when the trial runs out.

Re: Xbox 360
 

I still say if you're not intending going online the Arcade version is the one for you.

The Wii is good for online Mario Kart don't you agree Jimbo?

Re: Xbox 360
 

Quick Q re HD movie downloads, how much are they, whats teh choice like etc?

for example, if someone was choosing whether to blow 150 quid on a blu ray player and ~15 a month on Lovefilm but may watch 3-4 films one month but maybe only 1 or 2 another. Or would a XBOX and just downloading them as and when be better value? IS teh choice good enough or is it a restricted selection?

Re: Xbox 360
 

Well after all the help and advice we were at the mercy of the gamestation shop as a chunk of his money was in vouchers. The standard bundles on offer were poor and the first assistant we asked basically said 'tough thats all we have' Her who must be obeyed then had a word with the manager and he put a bundle together with a hard drive 360, the entertainment pack and FIfa 08, he wouldn't run to Fifa 09 :D

One lad very happy in his room where he might surface from sometime next week :)

Thanks for all the help and advice.

Re: Xbox 360
 

Live! on the Xbox is the best online experience. Although I've had no problems with PSN for the PS3, Live! does run faultlessly and there's more on there too.

If you have a look around, you can get 13 month Gold memberships for about £27, which is less than the month-by-month price.

Here's a link to a 12 month one for £25 -
12 month xbox 360 live gold subscription/membership code

Re: Xbox 360
 

Anyone seen around in the christmas sales for any cheap xbox 360 bundels? Im after the hardrive too

Re: Xbox 360
 

nice one... currently on a 1 mth trial but theres never been any doubt that its gonna be full time... prob sign up for that... ta :)

Re: Xbox 360
 

A number of people on other forums have bought one of those and received the code with no problems at all, so it's all legitimate. You don't receive the actual card, just an email with the code, but that's all you need and helps to keep the costs down. I bought a 13 month code about 2 months ago and it cost me £23.99, but the prices are changing all the time.

The one in the link is the cheapest around at the moment, but a week ago there was a 12 month subscription going for £16!! You just have to be vigilant and very fast. :D

Re: Xbox 360
 

I have had XBL since it was released in the UK & I won't be without it.
At one time we had 5 accounts running in the house.

It's loads of fun, fun, fun.

I prefer first person shooter games :uzi: & the advantage of XBL is that unlike the offline versions, where you always know what the AI characters are going to do & where they will be, on XBL you can be watching an area and al of a sudden (slaps back of head) you get taken out from behind KBAM!

The banter can be a right laugh, however there can often be problems with the annoying Americans, especially the younger ones.
They don't often come on until later in the evening though.
Restrictions can be imposed with the family settings sol I'm told but I have never used them.

I would love a larger hard drive, I have the sd 20gb one & it's no good with the new dashboard as I already have loads of levels etc on it so do not have enough room to copy a whole game onto. It's a pity that you can only use the MS ones (unless you hack it).

PS3? spit!

Re: Xbox 360
 

Just to back this up for Kipax benefit! I used Play.com Trade to get one of these last night (£33) and it came this morning by e-mail. The seller I got it from actually has it cheaper (£30) on their website Instant Live Codes - www.instantlivecodes.com | #1 Source for Instant Xbox Live Subscriptions - Sold more Xbox Live Codes than any other seller!, presumably this is because of play.com commission.

Re: Xbox 360
 

no difference at all between the stuff hardware wise

the biggest differences are the hdmi output and the hard-drive sizes. get a hard drive one as chances are you will be eventually going online with them and the free stuff is quite common for alot of the older games.

the arcade one in my opinion is a bit of a joke really.

Re: Xbox 360
 

When ya buy a Xbox 360 with 60gb, you get a HD cable, whats the difference in picture wise if i buy a HDMI cable???

Re: Xbox 360
 

You don't get a HD cable with the 60gb console.

If you want to get HD output from the 360 (and you have a HD display), then you need either a HDMI cable, or a component cable. Some people claim that there's no difference between the 2, but I use HDMI for simplicity.

Using a HDMI cable means that both picture and sound are 'transmitted' through the same cable, plus the resolution of the picture is maximised (up to 1080p).

In a nutshell, using your own HDMI cable will increase the quality of the picture over the supplied cable.

Re: Xbox 360
 

Anyone with xbox live feel free to add me my gamertag is CoG Pulse .

Excellent choice on the 360 ;)

Re: Xbox 360
 

nick - there's a gamertags thread on the gaming forum

Re: Xbox 360
 

Well i must be seeing things then, because iv got one:o

Also sys on here too.
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hardware/comparisontable.htm

Re: Xbox 360
 

you get a hd av component cable which isnt the same as the hdmi cable you get with the elite.

Re: Xbox 360
 

Thats why I asked what the difference between em both, now i know ill invest in a HDMI cable too;)

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you get one of these with all 360's

http://img.alibaba.com/photo/5084067...D_AV_Cable.jpg

but with the elite you also get a hdmi one

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/i...lite%20063.jpg

+

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/i...lite%20062.jpg

Re: Xbox 360
 

Not with the arcade version
Xbox.com | Which Console for You?

or has that changed now?

Re: Xbox 360
 

seems like this is what you get with an arcade

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...mL._SS500_.jpg

this is the 60gb one

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image...d4c3e110.L.jpg

this is the elite version

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image...3ad2b110.L.jpg

Re: Xbox 360
 

When you said 'HD cable' I assumed you meant HDMI, as most people call the cable you have a component cable.

Thanks for your appreciation of my information anyway.

Re: Xbox 360
 

The cable that came with mine has the component connectors, a wired SCART plug on it but also a HD one too.
Although it's bigger than the current HDMI connector.

I'm not likely to find a TV with it on in the shops these days :(