I would like to buy an xbox.

spacerobot

I would like to buy an xbox. I've been trying to save up for a while, and almost have enough. I guess I have a few questions:

I would like to get a game with it that I can play with my friends. They are telling me that I should pick up halo reach, since that's what they've been playing lately.

The Gamestop website advertises a Halo Reach Xbox 360 bundle for $360. http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=84532

The gamestop website also advertises a holiday Xbox 360 bundle, which includes Forza Motorsport 3 (I can't see myself playing that often), and Alan Wake (sounds interesting). The price for this bundle is $300. http://www.ebgames.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=88261

It seems to me that it would make sense to get the holiday bundle and then buy Halo Reach on top of my purchase for $60... so I would have the Xbox and 3 games for the same price as the Halo Reach bundle.

I've looked at the descriptions for both systems, and the only difference that I see is that one includes Halo Reach and costs $360, and the other includes Two different games for only $300. Am I missing something here? Is there any reason I should get the halo bundle over the holiday bundle?

Also, if I go for a 4gb model, I will save $100. Difference being I will not get 1 month free xbox live, and I will not get a headphone. Will the $100 price difference be worth the lack of hard drive, headset, and 1 month xbox live?

Thanks for your help!

Peen

You definitely definitely want a hard drive.

Willeth

Of those deals, get the $300 one. You're absolutely right about it being a better deal, and you can always trade-in Forza against Halo, or a Live subscription, or whatever, if you want.

The 4GB HDD in the newere 360s is not recognised by games as being a hard drive - it identifies as a memory card. This means that games that require a hard drive to function, such as GTA IV or Reach's online co-op mode, won't work. So don't get that.

MrDelish

Peen wrote: »

You definitely definitely want a hard drive bigger than 4 GB if you plan on buying games on Xbox Live Arcade, which you probably will.

I recommend buying Super Meat Boy and Splosion Man at the very least

Spoit

Also, check the black friday sites, since it's really not that far away now

spacerobot

Good to know about the hard drive.

Unfortunately I'm going to be traveling out of state during black Friday, and it would be very inconvenient to do black friday shopping and carry stuff with me.

Also, if you have any more suggestions for cool Xbox live arcade games, I'll write them down.

That's a great idea to trade in Forza. I'll probably end up doing that.

see317

spacerobot wrote: »

Good to know about the hard drive.

Unfortunately I'm going to be traveling out of state during black Friday, and it would be very inconvenient to do black friday shopping and carry stuff with me.

Also, if you have any more suggestions for cool Xbox live arcade games, I'll write them down.

That's a great idea to trade in Forza. I'll probably end up doing that.

If you're willing to spend a bit more money you could do black Friday shopping then ship stuff back to your place.

Also, Castle Crashers is a fun beat-em-up game. May not be your thing, but it entertains me.

Nylonathetep

Also you want to buy extra warranty. The red ring of death is very painful.. and Xbox is built to last only 3-4 years so you'll need to get one especially if you game heavily.

You also need a monthly subscription fee to play online...

I'm not much of an x-box fan myself.. but Nba2k11, Halo, Mass Effect, aren't too bad.

OSUJumpMan

just as a heads-up most of the leaked black-friday deals in the US have had 360 bundles for $199, so if you can wait 2 weeks, that'd probably be a good way to go and save alot of money.

Willeth

Nylonathetep wrote: »

Also you want to buy extra warranty. The red ring of death is very painful.. and Xbox is built to last only 3-4 years so you'll need to get one especially if you game heavily.

You also need a monthly subscription fee to play online...

I'm not much of an x-box fan myself.. but Nba2k11, Halo, Mass Effect, aren't too bad.

Scaremongering and not necessary. Microsoft's own warranty covers the red ring for three years and any fault for a year, there have been no problems reported with the new slim version, and if you want one later you can buy one then.

OnTheLastCastle

Yeah, don't get the added warranty. MS will cover the RR and E74 for quite awhile and they are not problems with the slim.

spacerobot

Stuff i've been reading says the new systems dont get the red ring? Thats just through customer comments though, so i dont know.

urahonky

RR can still occur, but it's very rare.

SirUltimos

That's technically true. It's still susceptible to the same problem, only it will beep now instead.

Cynic Jester

Go for the X360S. Just the difference in noise is a god send.

ashridah

Cynic Jester wrote: »

Go for the X360S. Just the difference in noise is a god send.

Particularly if you make sure its got a hard drive.

Protip: when you get any game, the first thing you should do is install it to the hard drive. Whack the game in, from the xbox dashboard, hit Y, then hit 'install to hard drive' and wait 5 minutes. The reduction in noise while playing from the disc drive, plus the drastically reduced opportunities for scratched disc is well worth it.

As for the red ring issue. It's certainly still possible. Electronics will eventually fail, particularly anything with moving parts added on to it, but if it was happening in anything like the same numbers, the media would have been all over it.

KalTorak

Yeah, there's no need for the extended warranty if you're worried about Red Rings/E74s - MS automatically gives you 3 years of coverage for those problems.

ashridah

KalTorak wrote: »

Yeah, there's no need for the extended warranty if you're worried about Red Rings/E74s - MS automatically gives you 3 years of coverage for those problems.

Actually, if you get a 360S, that's no longer the case, just so you know.

MrDelish

this is a pretty good thread for BF deals on the 360:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=372464&t=2321975

specifically, it has a few deals on the Slim 250GB:

$299.99 - 250GB Console + $50 GC - Toys R Us (plus TRU rewards will give 10% back ($30) in coupons)
$299.99 - 250GB Console + $50 GC - Millitary BX (Exchange)
$349.99 - 250GB Console + Forza 3, Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption - Sam's Club

MushroomStick

spacerobot wrote: »

Good to know about the hard drive.

Unfortunately I'm going to be traveling out of state during black Friday, and it would be very inconvenient to do black friday shopping and carry stuff with me.

Also, if you have any more suggestions for cool Xbox live arcade games, I'll write them down.

That's a great idea to trade in Forza. I'll probably end up doing that.

Just something to watch out for - Sometimes multiple bundled games in these package deals come all on the same disc.

Willeth

I've never seen them on the same disc, but I've seen them in the same case.

Siska

Borderlands is a good, goofy and funny FPS/RPG. Both multi-player and single player are loads of fun. One of my favorites. It's not as hard to play as most other FPS games as you character is pretty sturdy and don't die as easily.

a5ehren

MushroomStick wrote: »

spacerobot wrote: »

Good to know about the hard drive.

Unfortunately I'm going to be traveling out of state during black Friday, and it would be very inconvenient to do black friday shopping and carry stuff with me.

Also, if you have any more suggestions for cool Xbox live arcade games, I'll write them down.

That's a great idea to trade in Forza. I'll probably end up doing that.

Just something to watch out for - Sometimes multiple bundled games in these package deals come all on the same disc.

This year's bundle is a copy of Forza 3 and a download code for Alan Wake so it won't be quite as bad as the Forza 2/Marvel:UA bundle from a few years ago (was fun to get both of those for like $3 at Gamestop, though).

Willeth

If it's a download for Alan Wake, he'll definitely need a hard drive.

Zeon

Willeth wrote: »

If it's a download for Alan Wake, he'll definitely need a hard drive.

The one that comes with Alan Wake comes with a harddrive.

But yeah, a hard drive basically isnt even optional. And if you decide to cheap out now, the harddrives cost $texas. Im still using the 20 gig hard drive because i cheaped out originally, and i cant justify the money they ask for a 120 gig or 250 gig.

Willeth

I only upgraded because the guys I traded it in with allowed me to trade in my old one against the new one and transfer my data right there in the store. A 100GB upgrade for about £30.

MushroomStick

Willeth wrote: »

I only upgraded because the guys I traded it in with allowed me to trade in my old one against the new one and transfer my data right there in the store. A 100GB upgrade for about £30.

For today, that's a lot of money for only 100GB. For hard drive space in general I mean.

Willeth

Well, this was like two years ago, and yeah, it's still extortionate, but it's cheap for the proprietary ones that are guaranteed not to suddenly be locked out.

This was before they allowed USB support, though - now you can just whack as many 16GB USB devices in there as you like.

spacerobot

I picked up the 360 today. I decided against the black friday deals since shopping on black friday this year will be impossible for me.

I ended up getting the holiday bundle from gamestop. I thought about trading in Forza III, but I would only get 7 bucks for it. Who knows? I might even like it. I really liked Indy Heat on the NES, so maybe it's time to try another racing game 20 years later.

Alan Wake is the downloadable key, which is fine.

Is it possible to download any game to the hard drive? Can't people download games they borrowed to their x-box's hard drive and play any time they like?

Willeth

You can install the game to the hard drive to reduce load times and drive spinnery, but you still need the disc in to play.

Downloaded games from Live are tied to your Gamertag and console, and can either be played on that console by anyone or on another console only when your Gamertag is signed in.