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My first Xbox360! Possibly!
EmperorSeth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well, this Christmas, I'm finally reaching the point where dredged up PS2 games and the Wii trickle (...heh,) is not able to sustain me. I'm not 100% positive, but I think I'm going to get an XBox360, making it my first Microsoft console.
I'm torn, though, and had some questions.
1: Just how is the red ring of death situation at this point? I don't want to put up with that crap from a console; it's bad enough I have a PC. I heard it was getting better a lot, but they've been saying that for well over a year.
2: I don't have an HDTV, I won't get one for Christmas, and I'm not buying one any time soon. Given the year that I've had, a new console is a foolish expense, but a gamer is a gamer. How tolerable is the 360 with a standard projection screen? One of the reasons I'm not even considering a PS3 is that I was told it's much less old-tv friendly (the other reasons being a lack of backwards compatibility, the console cost, and just less games I want.)
3: What "build" should I get? The $200 one they're advertising, or is the lack of features on that one insufficient?
4: Finally, there are the games. Don't worry about getting me the newest titles, since I have years of cheaper backlog titles to start on that I'm guessing are value-priced by now. And I won't get games like Gears of War 2 or Halo 3 without playing the originals. I am caught up on series that started on earlier, non-Microsoft consoles, though. I tend to like more single-player games than multiplayer, but I'm open. And not too many of the longer, more complex games at first. I like to work on those one at a time, and I'm already planning to get Persona 4 for the Christmas period. The only games you don't need to worry about are Orange Box and Bioshock. I already got Portal for my PC, which is the only part I really care about for the former, and the latter's my first game to get already.
5: What are the Internet options? Is the pay Live the only one? I don't see myself playing many online matches at first, but I definately want at least achievements and DLC like games (Pacman, Braid, and especially Rez.)
I'm torn, though, and had some questions.
1: Just how is the red ring of death situation at this point? I don't want to put up with that crap from a console; it's bad enough I have a PC. I heard it was getting better a lot, but they've been saying that for well over a year.
2: I don't have an HDTV, I won't get one for Christmas, and I'm not buying one any time soon. Given the year that I've had, a new console is a foolish expense, but a gamer is a gamer. How tolerable is the 360 with a standard projection screen? One of the reasons I'm not even considering a PS3 is that I was told it's much less old-tv friendly (the other reasons being a lack of backwards compatibility, the console cost, and just less games I want.)
3: What "build" should I get? The $200 one they're advertising, or is the lack of features on that one insufficient?
4: Finally, there are the games. Don't worry about getting me the newest titles, since I have years of cheaper backlog titles to start on that I'm guessing are value-priced by now. And I won't get games like Gears of War 2 or Halo 3 without playing the originals. I am caught up on series that started on earlier, non-Microsoft consoles, though. I tend to like more single-player games than multiplayer, but I'm open. And not too many of the longer, more complex games at first. I like to work on those one at a time, and I'm already planning to get Persona 4 for the Christmas period. The only games you don't need to worry about are Orange Box and Bioshock. I already got Portal for my PC, which is the only part I really care about for the former, and the latter's my first game to get already.
5: What are the Internet options? Is the pay Live the only one? I don't see myself playing many online matches at first, but I definately want at least achievements and DLC like games (Pacman, Braid, and especially Rez.)
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
EmperorSeth on
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2) I used my 360 on a normal tv for a while and barring just a small handful of games everything worked fine. The games that had problems just made it so the font was kind of hard to read but not that major.
3) The 200 dollar 360 is not a good deal because you NEED a hard drive. There is no question about it with the 360 you absolutely need one. So my advice would be to get one with a hard drive.
4) There is a metric ton of awesome games that can be gotten on the cheap. Dead Rising, Earth Defense Force, Crackdown, and so many others are all in the 10-20$ dollar range and oh so awesome.
5) The basics of xbox live like achievements and friends are all free for anyone who has a 360. The only thing you have to pay for is actually playing online or if you want to buy games like Braid and stuff.
I've had my 360 for a while now and honestly I like it a lot theres a lot of really great games and the online stuff is as good as you are going to get with out a pc.
I never asked for this!
2. For the most part the 360 is pretty friendly with SDTVs, but there are a few games that were designed specifically with HDTVs in mind and can be sort of difficult to play on an SDTV - Dead Rising is one of the more obvious examples.
3. The $200 "Arcade" model works fine, but you should remember that it doesn't come with a Hard Drive or a headset (if you were planning on using one on any online games). I actually picked up an "Arcade" model off of Amazon along with the Live Kit (includes 60GB HDD, Headset, and 3 Months of Live Gold)for $250 because Amazon was selling the Live Kit for half off (It normally retails for $100). Also of note, the newer Arcade units are almost all on the "Jasper" models, which are quieter than previous versions and have a smaller 150W power supply. I think the previous ones were 175W.
4. Two Words: Goozex Account.
5. Paying for Live (Gold) is the only way to get multiplayer and is the only way to watch Netflix on your 360 (If you have a Netflix account). DLC, Downloadable games, friend lists, and messaging comes with all accounts, even the free silver ones. Achievements are built into the games and system and work even if your 360 isn't connected to the internet.
2. Most games will look find on an SDTV. I played the 360 on an SDTV for a few months before switching to HDTV. There are some games (Dead Rising and Banjo-Kazooie: N&B come to mind) that will have text that is almost impossible to read on an SDTV, but gameplay-wise, things will be fine.
3. The $200 Arcade model doesn't come with a hard drive (r a memory card if I'm not mistaken), so you'll instantly need to buy something to save to. A 20 GB hard drive costs $100. The current 60GB model costs $100 more than the Arcade. I'd say it's a no-brainer to spend the extra hundred and get a nice, big hard drive. You'll get a couple okay Arcade titles with the lower-priced model, buuuutt....hard drive.
4. If you liked the Banjo-Kazooie titles back in the day, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts is a brand new game that is priced pretty low (the other day, Amazon was selling it for $25 bucks). Older games obviously include the original Gears, Halo, and Halo 2. I think Dead Rising, Crackdown, and Assassin's Creed are all good games. Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4 might not be priced too low, but they're also quite good. GTA IV is still full price, but it's excellent.
5. Silver accounts can hook up to the internet without having to pay. The only downside is that you can't play online. However, it seems like Microsoft is doing more and more to make gold accounts more appealing (Marketplace discounts, Netflix streaming).
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
|PSN Tag: Omeks_R7
|Rock Band: Profile|DLC Collection
Don't get the elite its totally not worth the money.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Not bad advice, though Microsoft is supposedly phasing out the memory card on the Arcade and giving it 256M of internal memory instead, very very soon. Just so the OP is aware.
I'll agree that unless you plan to go absolutely bonkers with downloaded movies that the Elite is a waste of money.
The new $300 Pro model has a 60 GB hard drive anyway, which is plenty of space for bonkers-induced downloading. It just makes the Elite look like an even bigger waste.
|Xbox Live Tag: Omeks
|PSN Tag: Omeks_R7
|Rock Band: Profile|DLC Collection
In any case, yeah, the Arcade didn't seem to be that good of an idea, unless you got the Live Starter pack with it.
So Arcade is the $200 one with no hard drive, Pro is the $300 one with a 60 gig hard drive, and Elite costs way more than those two and offers no real reason to do so. Good to know. I'll have to at least give Halo a try, I know, so that's in the list eventually, along with Gears. I definately want Mass Effect once my days of school, dating, and Television-based demons are over. Any other downloadable games I must have outside of the three I mentioned? I have a Wii, so Megaman 9's been taken care of.
I don't have a problem using it on my SDTV - yeah, it's not as pretty as it could be, but there are only a couple games that are unreadable (/glares at dead rising)
Re cables: the Pro comes with component cables as well, which some newer SDTV's will also use (and it's slightly but significantly better); if your TV has an S-video input, you can buy a separate cable that will output that (again, slightly but noticeably better). Otherwise, yeah, they all come with composite (red/yellow/white)
Comparison image blatantly stolen from amazon:
Elite is $400 with a 120 GB hard drive, comes with an HDMI cable, and is black. That's it.
These are the Jasper units.
If I were going to buy a 360 this very weekend, I'd make sure to buy a Core Jasper unit, and then head on over to Circuit City and buy the 20gb/controller for 40$ combo.
Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars and Puzzle Quest spring to mind. The three you picked are fantastic.
i'm not trying to change your mind or anything, a 360's a good choice, but just to clarify: the only old tv's the ps3 is in any way unfriendly towards are ancient hd-crt's which only support 1080i. admittedly there are some downloadable games which rely on high resolutions (mainly the pixeljunk series), but otherwise it works on an sd set fine
As for your projector screen: do you mean a TV with a projection mechanism, or literally a projector and a screen? If it's the latter, there's a good chance it has a VGA input. You can buy a VGA cable for your 360 (like $40 for the official MS cable, or $7.50 on Monoprice) and enjoy a better-quality picture than composite.
I would not recommend getting a refurbed 20 GB hard drive, no matter what you do. You can now install games to the hard drive, and considering that 360s are prone to disc-read errors and are louder than a 747 with a disc in the drive, I think this is a very useful feature, and all but demands a larger hard drive than the 20 GB, which only gives you about 13 gigs after all the system cache stuff is subtracted. Which leaves you with maybe one or two installs, depending on how many demos and Arcade games you download. If you get an Arcade, look for a larger hard drive on eBay. You can get a used 120 GB drive for $80, and the hard drives rarely fail. You can get a really sweet deal this way (wish I'd done that, actually).
If you want to use a wireless network to go online, make sure to buy a DD-WRT compatible router (you can google up a list of them). The official wireless adapter is a waste of money. There's a decent Linksys router that's DD-WRT enabled right out of the box; all you need to do is configure it on your PC, then hook it to your 360, have it detect your wireless network, type in your key, and you're good to go. Otherwise, just use some CAT-5 to hook your 360 directly to your modem.
For Arcade games, I know I would recommend Castlevania: SOTN, if you haven't played it before and like Metroid-type platforming, or are feeling nostalgic. It's still a really good game (and almost all the Achievements are fairly easy to get).
I know this seems like a lot of stuff, but this is really all I know about the 360. :P Good luck!
I would disagree with the diatribe against 20gb hard drives. This is coming from someone who uses his system mostly for XBLA and Rock Band and despite that has no desire thus far to upgrade. My Falcon chipset is plenty quiet, I've never had any trouble with DREs, and shaving a few seconds off of load times doesn't mean much to me. To each his own. If you can spend the money, $70 for 40gb may be worth it for you, but then again that $70 could go a long ways towards building up a library of older titles and XBLA games.
If you want wireless, though, a DD-WRT router is the way to go. No question.
It's not the improved load times (though that is nice) so much as the vastly reduced noise levels that make me love installs. I find myself doing it a lot for key games that sound like Mack trucks barreling into china shops in my DVD tray. That said, for the ultimately cheap-ass (such as myself), it's not that hard to just keep swapping out a 7-gig-sized empty space on the hard drive, and this is coming from someone who's also a Rock Band/XBLA whore. I had to delete a few XBLA games but it's nothing I can't redownload later. And the installs are usually really fast, only 10-15 minutes or so.
2. The games look fine on standard def, but be prepared to be unable to read text in some games. I had to really squint to read Dead Rising's text, and GTA4's map icons are very hard to distinguish. And this was all on a large CRT. Now that I have a high def TV, I wouldn't go back though.
For reals, I wouldn't bother with a 360 or ps3 until I fixed that "problem". (I realize everyone is different) I'd rather play on a small $200 HD monitor than use a SD set.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
Correct me if I am wrong, but isnt the Elite the only model with HDMI port? If you're planning on getting a HDTV (albeit down the road) this may be something you wish to consider.
"Normal" models do support HD of course, just not HDMI to my knowledge.
I'm pretty sure that while the original core model had no HDMI, all current models do.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
This is a fact.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
That would be hardly something to expect of an employee. Jaspers, for instance, have only been seen out in the wild since late September/Early October. For 95% of the public, a 360 is a 360. But I digress.
So, tips. Do not put your 360 in an enclosed area. Make sure it has plenty of airflow all around it.
Keep your system horrizontal. One of the primary air intakes is on the side that would be flat to the ground if you had the system vertical with only a slight elevation caused by the pads. Not good.
And, at any rate, if your system is flat it is less likely to move when on and you are less likely to have useless discs with burned rings in them.
Make sure your system isn't on carpet.
Try to keep the area as clean and dust free as possible.
And don't fucking buy a cooler/fan attachment.
You are awesome. I'm giving my old Pro to my dad (mainly for Netflix and the odd flight sim) for Christmas and you just saved me a ton of searching for a refurbed 20gig on the cheap.
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
I haven't confirmed it myself, but someone said you can see through the small cardboard "windows" on the box where the serial number is printed it might be possible to see the 12.1A somewhere on the box.
I personally can confirm this works though you have to use your finger to push the Xbox a little to the right to see the 12.1.
SDTV: I played several games on my 360 before getting an HDTV, and they looked fine. These included Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, and PGR3. Still a noticeable improvement over the last generation, graphically. Of course, they look even better now, and online play is a lot easier when your targets are larger and your field of view wider.
SKUs: The new one with the 60gig drive seems like the best deal unless you find some solution that involves a used HDD or a blowout sale on a specific model.
This stood out to me as '360 has backwards compatibility' which is technically true, but absolutely horribly false. I love my 360, but I'm still angry that I can't play most of my favorite oXbox games on it. There is an online list for all backwards compatible games, but again, this is a horrible lie. Those on the list technically work, but many will be unplayable. Make sure you get first hand information on any titles that are important to you. However, happily, Halo and Halo2 do work fine as far as I know.
If you were already aware or don't care, please don't mind me.
Never tried it myself.
No. You can read off them but not write to them.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Man that's two kinds of donkey poo poo.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!