Newbie to gaming needs advice...please!!

silverpuma

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Hi, As almost everyone knows by now sainsburys are selling the 360 arcade tomorrow for £99 (thats if its not all a false internet rummour rotfl:).

I've bought a wii for my 8 yr old for christmas and though I'm not a gamer so far during these past 49 year:D perhaps the £99 carrot is worth a go.

My questions are:

1. Can I buy 360 games and use as normal?

2. Does it have a hardrive and do I need one if I'm not going to be playing online?

3. What do I lose with an arcade compared to the next more expensive xbox 360?

So with me new to gaming and not interested in online gaming (is this called xbox live) would a 360 arcade for £99 be a wise buy......or should I buy a 20g PS3 so I can have a blu-ray player even if the gaming side of things just does not work for me?

Thanks in advnce for bearing with me and my very basic questions.....:smashin:
 
Hi, As almost everyone knows by now sainsburys are selling the 360 arcade tomorrow for £99 (thats if its not all a false internet rummour rotfl:).

I've bought a wii for my 8 yr old for christmas and though I'm not a gamer so far during these past 49 year:D perhaps the £99 carrot is worth a go.

My questions are:

1. Can I buy 360 games and use as normal?

2. Does it have a hardrive and do I need one if I'm not going to be playing online?

3. What do I lose with an arcade compared to the next more expensive xbox 360?

So with me new to gaming and not interested in online gaming (is this called xbox live) would a 360 arcade for £99 be a wise buy......or should I buy a 20g PS3 so I can have a blu-ray player even if the gaming side of things just does not work for me?

Thanks in advnce for bearing with me and my very basic questions.....:smashin:

Ok, first things first. The 99 quid Xbox is a barebones package, most significant accessory missing is a hard drive. Typical savegame files can fit on XBOX memory cards so you could get away without one however.......with Downloadable content growing in popularity and movie downloads, extra game multiplayer maps I think everyone should at least have a 20GB hard drive. You'll be wanting a wireless controller which wont come with the 99 quid package either plus then you will have to pick out some games which will cost more cash.
If you are quite casual in regard to your gaming then maybe a PS3 would be a more complete package/soloution for you. After all you would get the added bonus of blueray playback which is stunning on a Full HDTV. 80% of the games available on the Xbox are also available on the PS3 plus you will get a 80GB hard drive as standard IIRC.
Personally though I think the Xbox is a far superior machine. The games catalogue is second to none, the LIVE subscription does cost £25 a year at best compared to Sony's free PSN but it is far more polished and functional system. Pair this with the community here and you have a ton of friendly peeps ready to play games online with you.
I think next generation gaming has something to offer everyone regardless of age, from sports sims to intergalatic adventures (if thats your thing :p ) once i have my cinema screen down and surround sound up I have the perfect toy to beat the credit crunch :D
 
Thanks Hillskill for a very helpful summary, just the sort of answer I was hoping for.

Mmmh with the bluray on the PS3 I had thought that this would be the one I'd buy in a year or so. But and I'm surprised at this (as I love all things Sony:)) the more I read reviews the more I am drawn to the 360 as a gaming machine. But.....then at present I'm not a gamer so perhaps the 360 will be a dust collector?

Another thought is after reading your post is perhaps I should not let the £99 sway me too much as probably a 20g 360 (if I don't wait for a PS3) with the wireless controller would be a better mid term buy for the extra few £?

Ahhhhhh decisions decisions, still undecided so I muse for a day or so and read some more and then .....???????

Thanks again for taking the time to replay and add some good points to my thinking.

One last thing, I'd like to have a entertainment system for my 42" plasma so I'm going to read more about this today. For example will the 360 or ps3 allow me to connect to the web with a wireless keyboard or do I need more accessories? Also is there a standalone addon to the 360 so I could watch bluray films?:confused: :lease:
 
Thanks Hillskill for a very helpful summary, just the sort of answer I was hoping for.

Mmmh with the bluray on the PS3 I had thought that this would be the one I'd buy in a year or so. But and I'm surprised at this (as I love all things Sony:)) the more I read reviews the more I am drawn to the 360 as a gaming machine. But.....then at present I'm not a gamer so perhaps the 360 will be a dust collector?

Another thought is after reading your post is perhaps I should not let the £99 sway me too much as probably a 20g 360 (if I don't wait for a PS3) with the wireless controller would be a better mid term buy for the extra few £?

Ahhhhhh decisions decisions, still undecided so I muse for a day or so and read some more and then .....???????

Thanks again for taking the time to replay and add some good points to my thinking.

One last thing, I'd like to have a entertainment system for my 42" plasma so I'm going to read more about this today. For example will the 360 or ps3 allow me to connect to the web with a wireless keyboard or do I need more accessories? Also is there a standalone addon to the 360 so I could watch bluray films?:confused: :lease:


Again, both consoles will act as media streamers. A fave feature of mine is setting up a MP3 playlist on my pc and then on my xbox replacing all in game music with that specific playlist. Xbox has the added feature of acting as a media centre extender if you already have MC software on your PC. I personally avoid Media centre and share my files using Media player 11, My xbox see everything straight away and has no issues playin 90% of my media.

There are only rumours at this stage regarding Xbox being given a Blue ray drive or add on. My gut feeling is that they will never make the technology compatible, Microsoft would rather push there Movie download service than get into bed with Sony.

I took a break from Gaming for about a decade, now that I'm engaged I would rather be at home than lording it up with my mates every other night. Add in the fact that I have a nice setup at home now and a massive back catalogue of games to get through I really think there is something for everyone in modern gaming.
 
I'm pretty sure even the arcade comes with a wireless controller (see http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x/xbox360arcadesystem/) and memory card now so maybe it might work for you.

That way you can check out if it's for you first, as already mentioned you can save game stuff to the memory unit, I personally don't really download much, the odd demo etc but nothing major. I guess it's a convenience to me more than a necessity.

In any event you can pick up a 20GB hdd for £19.99 from Curry's now anyway so if you decide you do want one it won't break tha bank but then I do believe it's go more and more towards online content so the 120GB may be useful in the future, which I would say is a considered purchase

I would suggest a rechargable battery pack mind but this will not come with any unit. I personally have the dual station charger but it was worth the cash for me and my housemates, nothing more annoying than rocking up to find the batteries dead.

I also believe all consoles now have a HDMI but I could be wrong.

I think you lose very little by buying the arcade if you really are not sure if it's for you, especially seems a PS3 will more than double your expenditure

Hope this helps
 

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