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x-box 360, opinions please
Angel177
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
so I'm coming into a little cash and am thinking of picking up an elite, for the 120gb memory more than anything, but i have a few questions, which of course the friggin monkeys who work at my best buy and futureshop cannot answer...sigh so i turn to the talented pool of knowlage that is the help and advice forum...:winky:
so the biggies are
how fast will a wireless controller eat batterys? is it better to just drop the cash on a charge and play...
what are THE games to have? gta4 obviously...
what is the best way to have wireless? or is it better to go wired? is live worth it?
vertical or horizontal?
extended warranty? worth it or not since microsoft do the repairs?
thanks to all who answer
so the biggies are
how fast will a wireless controller eat batterys? is it better to just drop the cash on a charge and play...
what are THE games to have? gta4 obviously...
what is the best way to have wireless? or is it better to go wired? is live worth it?
vertical or horizontal?
extended warranty? worth it or not since microsoft do the repairs?
thanks to all who answer
Angel177 on
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Games... Mass Effect Oh God So Good. Get the DLC too. Crackdown is awesome sandbox fun. GTA4, yep. Halo 3 is a short but fun campaign, especially co-op over live. Rockstar Table Tennis is cheap and great for beer + housemate fun. Viva Pinata is a fun time waster. Bioshock. Orange Box. Ninja Gaiden 2 when it lands, oh my yes. Lots of the arcade titles are fun. Condemned if you'd like to get your horror on.
I don't pay for Live anymore, because I don't play multiplayer often enough. I can still download demos, arcade games, buy DLC, message my friends list, etc, etc. I just pay for a month of the service if I get my hands on a new game I want to use. Some games also come with complimentary months (usually the big ones like Halo 3, GTA4 etc).
I do vertical, I think it looks nicer. I don't really think it matters although others will show you diagrams with airflow arrows and try to convince you otherwise.
Mine was a launch console and it's red-ringed randomly twice, both were covered by the 3-year red-ring warranty. Haven't had any further problems since the second repair (about a year ago).
I like the multiplayer games so I have Rock band, Halo 3, Crackdown, pretty much a selling point for me is if it does something on Live I pick it up. I have bought way more arcade titles than I thought I would so thats been a really big positive in my eyes.
I love live, and honestly its an expense I don't notice (even though I probably should).
I have had mine setting in both positions and never had a problem really from the way it sat.
The drive in mine died, while it was under warranty, but it could have very well been considered my fault, they replaced it/gave me a new console/ something for free. I would recommend the warranty just cause it never hurts to be safe ya know.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I don't have a cheap solution to wireless, but I have an awesome one! I use my airport express as a WDS to connect my 360 to. That's what I use to stream my music through itunes so it's a pretty useful little hub for me.
Wired is probably better if possible, but wireless works... you either need to buy the $80ish adapter (or I believe the original xbox one which might be found cheaper? though i'm not sure on that) or figure out some way to do a wired connection to something (e.g. pc, router, etc). Live is absolutely worth it if you want to play multiplayer games, and totally not worth it otherwise (everything useful is free except for online play)
Horizontal if only because there's less of a risk of it falling over and scratching the disk, but that's a minor thing, it probably doesn't matter too much
I'd still say yes on the extended warranty, though if you can buy it with a credit card (AmEx?) that extends it for a year you'll probably be fine now that it's at 1 year everything/3 years red ring. My personal opinion is that the extended one from microsoft themselves might be the best, though that's more because I've been annoyed by dealing with MicroCenter and Gamestop before. The extended warranty that I got was for a trade-in only after MS's expires, so for the first year (/3) I'm dealing with MS anyway
as for games, Mass Effect, Bioshock, COD4, and Halo3 pretty nicely hits the FPS/kinda shooter/kinda RPG highlights... otherwise it depends on your tastes, the Live Arcade has a ton of great puzzle games
Oh, and like someone else said, unless you're planning on downloading a crapton of stuff (i.e., movies or numerous full-size original xbox games), the 120 gb is probably unnecessary. Arcade games & saves take up negligible amounts, and most DLC isn't that big
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I agree. And use the extra money saved to buy a wireless adapter and the charge and play kit if you want.
I was looking into the possibility of using an old wireless router and repurposing it by installing third-party firmware on it to save money on the official xbox wireless adaptor, but got lazy and just bought one. There are options, including having the xbox located somewhere that you can just plug it directly into your modem, but the wireless adapter is easy, if expensive.
The play and charge kit will pay for itself in time, although the battery life is impressive. I think my first set of non-rechargeable batteries lasted at least a month and I've used the play and charge kit once since then.
Also, nobody mentioned Dead Rising yet. Or Assassin's Creed. Great games.
Horizontal- won't fall over!
The only other game I've played a lot was Ace Combat 6.
GTA IV is better than expected. Much Better, evenwhen you consider all the Hype.
I'm not on-line.
The official Wifi adapter is $100 unless you find it on sale somewhere. No other USB wifi dongle will work on the 360. Otherwise you'll need a wireless bridge. You can either buy one or make one.
Battery usage depends on the game. Either get a set of rechargeable batteries that you can replace over time & use in other items or get the play & charge kit. I have a Wii as well so I went with rechargeable, you'll need 4 per controller if you play long term like my brother and I do. We game for 8 hours or more on our days off. So we kill one set and pop the other in. Or buy a wired 360 controller if it doesn't matter to you.
thanks for everything so far its been a big help.
I don't recall if it has a bigger hard drive, but newer premiums do have HDMI anyway. Plus, pretty much any new Premium at this point will have the new Falcon chipset, while some of the Halo ones still floating around may not.
my friend got the elite, and there really isnt any discernable difference between it and my premium. the only reason i can see getting one is if you're going be downloading a metric tonne of stuff onto it or if you save way too obsessively. the bragging rights are definitely there, though for me i'd rather use the extra cash for another game or extra controller. but it's all up to you and what you want to do.
i have two wireless controllers (with just batteries). wireless play is now an addiction of mine and i loathe using wired controllers, they are nothing more than a hinderance imho. when i played assassin's creed and gears of war (why has nobody mentioned GoW yet?) heavily, i could generally log around 20 hours of play total on them before i had to swap batteries. if 20 hours is a regular number you'll be clocking then i would definitely invest in the charge and play, you'll save in the long run.
My "wired better than wireless rule" is waived in the case of 360/Wii controllers -- I've never had trouble with either, and wireless is very convenient for consoling.
Also, nobody's mentioned Rez HD -- the One True XBLA Game.
I mean, there's ways to sync it up easy, but mine were constantly going out of whack. Literally, I had to recalibrate almost every time I played. And, of course, whenever I took my XBox to a buddy's place. So now I just stick with the included component cables.
EDIT: My first set of batteries in my wireless controller laster for four months. I'm playing way more now that I have Mass Effect, Gears of War and just picked up Eternal Sonata and Dead Rising, but still. They lasted through Halo 3, Viva Pinata, Forza 2 and Rock Band (Whenever I had a singer, that is).
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
so what is everyone else's set up for wireless? who dropped the big money? was it worth it?
also ok, orange box or burnout paradise?
Orange Box.
Also, I don't have the wireless adapter, but I've used one, and the lag was noticeable to me. It's not a very good adapter. Your best bet would either be running cat 5, or using a wireless router as a bridge if you absolutely HAVE to go wireless.
Except TF2 but we'll gloss over that.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
What? The premium and elite have the same graphical output, assuming they both have HDMI. You don't need their expensive ass cable too, you can get an HDMI cable for cheap at monoprice. The only thing to be aware of is that if you want optical out for sound but HDMI for video, you'll need to take off the plastic casing of the Xbox AV adapter so both will fit at the same time.
I have the wireless adapter for it and it's been solid, I haven't noticed any lag playing Halo 3 or TF2. There was some slight lag on Overlord but I chalk that up to the game or the host.
There are technical issues with this as detailed elsewhere in H/A.
And the Premium and elite both come with component cables in-box.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
The beauty of the official recharger for the 360 controller is that it allows it to function as a wired controller while charging too, so it's the best of both worlds really.
No it doesn't. It's a wireless controller with a wire connected to it. It still communicates to the console wirelessly when charging.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I don't understand how they did it, but they did. I'd wager they musta shipped it out before receiving my broken box, but who knows. (Should be mentioned I only live about 2 hours from the service center, your mileage my vary.)
In terms of games, GTA4 is obviously the big one on live right now. Halo 3 is still keeping its player base fairly high but does seem to be dwindling with the mass of other great games out right now. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is pretty fun as well, if you're into strategic shooters.
I can't really comment on the elite vs pro side of things 'cause I've only ever had a pro, but I have no complaints about it. Although, DO NOT let store drones convince you that you need to buy new cables to get true HD picture or whatever. If you want to use HDMI and buy a pro, go to monoprice or find reasonably priced cables in a b&m, but under no circumstances should you be buying component cables for your 360. They have apparently been trying to push these, and should be cockpunched for down right lying to customers.
Well yeah, but, I mean, the point I was making was that you can play with it plugged in if your batteries run out rather than having to stick it on a recharge cradle for a few hours and go out and get a life. The wire is along enough to still be able to sit on your couch and game. So in that respect,
thanks to all for the advice so far!
If you're tech-savvy and willing to do some extra work, you could use a DD-WRT-compatible router in bridge mode, bridging it to your existing router. There are other open source firmwares out there (e.g. Tomato), but DD-WRT is the one I'm familiar with. I've seen a router capable of running DD-WRT for ~$65, a LinkSys WRT54GL to be specific. The L in the model name is very important, it indicates the unit runs Linux-based firmware and thus flashable with DD-WRT. A router in bridge mode would also let you connect additional wired devices (up to 4) into your wireless network for no additional money. If I were in your situation, that's how I'd approach the problem anyway.