Questions about the Xbox 360

[wantedSpidy]

Sorry for my noobish questions, but now that I have consolidated all my computing machines into one travel laptop, I need a gaming console.

I'm considering the XBox 360.

Questions:
- Is this a horrible time to buy?
- The console will be connected via HDMI to a 16:9 monitor, does the output resolution depend on the game? or on the console?
- Why the FCK are games so expensive? New ones, almost a 3rd of the price of the console .. really?
- Common ways to score deals?
- Is it ok buying used? Or do these things start giving problems in a couple of years?
- Found a deal for a new sealed one (via the student promo) for $150, grab it ASAP?

 

[Sonikku]

1-I'm not really sure if this is a horrible time to buy or not. Traditionally, most consoles cease to be top end after 5 years. But something different happened this generation and it's lasting longer then normal. I'd guess the 360 successor will be announced next year and will go into production the year after that, so I'd wadger you have a least 2 years left of the 360 having games developed for it, if not more. With that said, they're ruled out a price cut a few days ago. So it's not going to be cheaper tomorrow.

2-Microsoft requires all games to support 720p natively, abit with some tiny exceptions like in halo 3 where it's a bit lower upscaled to that resolution. You can certainly have your 360 output your games in 1080p in the console settings, just bear in mind that that's all upscaled and the commanding majority of your games are getting rendered at 720p.

3- I disagree with the notion that games are expensive as hell these days, but to each their own. It just seems to me a copy of the legend of zelda ran you 50 bucks in the 80's and a copy of twilight princess ran you the same 50 dollars two decades later. In that time inflation has gone up enormously, minimum wage has doubled, and the costs involved in created ultra high detailed 3D games and models has increased, compared to the simple 2D sprites of the olden days. If anything, they're cheaper in modern times. So much so that many companies are starting to go out of business.

-The silm models seem ok for the most part. The fan doesn't spin very fast so as to be quiet, and makes the chip run very hot after only ten minutes of use. But, they seem ok enough if you want to save some money on used. I would not dare buy a used white chasis 360 however, not even a Jasper. They're all failing now. If you simply must save a few bucks, buy an older model from one of the ebay sellers with rock solid feedback that sells them by the dozens with 1 year warranties.

-A studen promo to get one for $150? With or without the harddrive? If you're a student you can get one for free with a with a $700 computer atm. But without more information I couldn't say about the $150 one. on the off chance it's the cheap one, you'll have to buy the HDD separate. $40 for a generic 250g one with the Slim closure on Amazon for 130 for the official microsoft one.

 

[wantedSpidy]

Its $150 for the 4GB slim edition (BNIB). I was thinking if I need the HDD, I can get one for cheaper myself later on and add it. (like you said for $40)

 

[DaveSimmons]

Sony just cut the PS3 cost to $250 so MS may be dropping prices soon to match that.

If you don't need to buy a game the week it comes out you can find older titles for $5-15 new, not just used. Get Crackdown 1 for starters.

Remember that you need Live Gold at $40/year to play online with the 360, and it's also needed to watch Netflix ( + Netflix's own charge).

Used titles may be missing features, including online play, and you may need to pay $10 to get the missing feature. Companies have started doing this to cut down on used sales.

 

[Dankk]

IMO, I think now is a good time to buy. Yes, a new Xbox will be out in 3 years or so, but if you buy a 360 now, you can get a brand new one for very cheap, and it will be a revised model so it's very reliable, and there is already a huge library waiting for you to pick from. I say go for it. It will still last for a long time, and even after the Xbox 720 or whatever comes out, plenty of people will still be playing their 360s.

 

[Qbah]

The PS Vita seems like a great gaming device. Should be out early next year I guess? I'd go that way (since you seem to be a mobile person - why else go with a laptop?). I wouldn't buy the Xbox now (and I have one!), it's almost over for it IMO.

And a lot of games are 720p, but there are many many sub-720p... from the top of my head - Alan Wake (960x54x-something lol), all Halo games, all CoD games, GTA IV, Tomb Raider games, Oblivion, Prototype and plenty more. You can probably count 1080p games on one hand

However, if you don't care about graphics, sure - grab a console. Though I'd actually go with a PS3. It has better exclusive games IMO.

 

[wantedSpidy]

I didn't realize I need to pay $40/yr for live gold on the xbox. Luckily the hurricane has postponed my craigslist meetup with the seller, so I can investigate some more.

Does the ps3 have a similar charge?

 

[digiram]

IMO, I think now is a good time to buy. Yes, a new Xbox will be out in 3 years or so, but if you buy a 360 now, you can get a brand new one for very cheap, and it will be a revised model so it's very reliable, and there is already a huge library waiting for you to pick from. I say go for it. It will still last for a long time, and even after the Xbox 720 or whatever comes out, plenty of people will still be playing their 360s.

Agreed

 

[American Gunner]

I didn't realize I need to pay $40/yr for live gold on the xbox. Luckily the hurricane has postponed my craigslist meetup with the seller, so I can investigate some more.

Does the ps3 have a similar charge?

Just to access the online and netflix and stuff like that, no PS3 doesn't charge. There is a PS+ that charges, but you won't really need it.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Horrible time? Yes and no. They could possibly have a new one next year (and the Wii U is supposed to come out next spring). There's some big games still coming out for it though (this fall in fact) so that with the games that have come out for it already should offer plenty of gaming. Plus, seems like places run special promotions where you trade in the previous console towards a new one and get a decent discount.

The 360 can scale its output so that's not a big deal at all. It'll scale to 1080p fine. Very few games are rendered at that resolution, but its not too bad. I'd expect the next gen of consoles to aim for 1080p rendering.

For $150 its not too bad, and even there is a price drop it very likely won't be below that. I'm not sure that Microsoft is going to do a price drop, they seem to value bundles more, and they've already done that somewhat (in Canada they offered 5 popular games for free, and I believe some places have dropped the price of the Kinect bundle).

Buying used is iffy, really depends on what version. If its the most recent one then it'd be fine, but I'd be iffy about the ones prior to it. It should be easy to differentiate the newest version looks considerably different.

Like mentioned you'll pay to play online. See if you can score a cheap 12 month card somewhere, that can cut the cost for it in half.

Eh, guess it depends on how you value games. Many people get months of play time out of some of them so $60 isn't bad. Its a bit much for me as I don't really get that much value out of games any more, but there's a lot of older games that you should be able to snag for cheap to tide you over. Really you should almost never have to pay $60 as a lot of places run promotions for like $10-20 off a new popular game.

Really, either the PS3 or 360 will be decent. I prefer most things about the 360, but the PS3 you'll get a Blu-Ray player and some exclusives that are pretty good. PS3 online isn't atrocious but its not as good as the 360.

 

[Dankk]

They could possibly have a new one next year

Possibly, but extremely unlikely. Yes, The WiiU, is coming out next year, but Nintendo is off doing their own thing. Both Sony and Microsoft have decided to extent the lifespan of their consoles way beyond the usual ~5 years. They won't be releasing simultaneously with the WiiU, that's for sure. Sony even said they wanted the PS3 to last for 10 years I think. So my bet is on 2013 at the earliest for the next Xbox, and possibly even later for PS4.

 

[frumply]

Wasn't the student promo the console only? W/ the 100 off Kinect version deals as of late I suspect you can get better deals @ BF if you can wait that long. Either way, I would not buy consoles this gen used unless it's an absolute steal. And if you're planning on doing multiplayer w/ friends I'd buy whichever console your buddies have and play more of.

As for the other stuff... Games are not more expensive now. Considering how much the dollar's devalued and inflation and all, you're looking at cheaper games than ever, esp. considering how much money's going into them. This is the main reason why you won't see new consoles w/in the next year or so, aside from the WiiU -- devs aren't going to be able to recoup costs for development unless they're making games with choice names like 'Call of' or 'Battlefield'. Heck, the latter might even be a stretch nowadays.

 

[American Gunner]

I agree with frumply. Do any of your friends play consoles? If so, that might need to be a factor in your decision.

 

[Sonikku]

http://www.amazon.com/250G-Hard-Disk.../ref=pd_cp_e_0

It seems it's up $4 from a couple days ago, but even at 44 it's still significantly cheaper then Microsoft's version. The only thing you lose is compatibility to play Xbox1 games. If you can get the slim for 150, I'd say go for it. Besides, a price cut isn't coming for a while in my opinion. Microsoft has outsold sony 12 times out of the last 13 months and even in the face of a Sony price cut, Microsoft came out and said they aren't lowering the price.

 

[wantedSpidy]

I'm pretty much sold on the Xbox now. My craigslist contact sold it to someone else cuz I was stalling him, so now I'm back again looking for deals.

There is a newegg promo the 4GB slim + kinect package + $50 GC for 300. Thinking about getting that.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ the standard price for that package is supposed to be $249 soon based on an ad scan at ... Engadget? (I forget).

If you can wait 3 months you should be able to save at least $50 over that or get a couple of extra games, by getting a Black Friday deal.

 

[wantedSpidy]

and I just found this!
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/24573/New-Xbox-360-Bundle-Hits-Canada/

 

[Sonikku]

If it's the 4g slim and kinect that you want, Walmart's ad is selling that bundle for 250.

EDIT: Scratch that. Best Buy is selling the 250G xbox 360 for 300 next week with a $75 gift certificate. Use it to get the games and accessories you would have been buying anyway and that drops the price of a 250g Xbox to 225!

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302286

 

[American Gunner]

and I just found this!
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/24573/New-Xbox-360-Bundle-Hits-Canada/

That's a good deal.

 

[wantedSpidy]

So I guess I'll just evaluate all the new deals coming up!

Another question: With every game do I have the option of copying the game over to the HDD, and then running it off the HDD??

 

[darkswordsman17]

Possibly, but extremely unlikely. Yes, The WiiU, is coming out next year, but Nintendo is off doing their own thing. Both Sony and Microsoft have decided to extent the lifespan of their consoles way beyond the usual ~5 years. They won't be releasing simultaneously with the WiiU, that's for sure. Sony even said they wanted the PS3 to last for 10 years I think. So my bet is on 2013 at the earliest for the next Xbox, and possibly even later for PS4.

I wouldn't say extremely unlikely. Last year they were hiring more people to help with the development of their next system. The 360 will have been out for 6 years and next year would be 7. They could show it off at E3 and have it out for Christmas like they did with the 360. There have been quite a bit of rumors that Sony is really pushing development of their next console too. I believe there was even a rumor that Sony was aiming to launch close to Nintendo, which I don't see happening. I do expect we'll see both make announcements to take the thunder out of the Wii U though.

I'm pretty sure Sony means 10 year lifespan like how the PS2 has been made for 10+ years now. They're not meaning they won't have a new console, just that they can still make the PS3 for a decade. Plus, Sony has said they're starting to make big changes in how they consider gaming systems.

The 360 and PS3 are really starting to get long in the tooth. They're not terrible, but both sorely need updates. Sony has extra incentive with the PS3 hacking (where they'll have to make major changes to the hardware anyway to resolve it). I think they were both waiting for Nintendo to play their hand first and now that they did, we'll see both Microsoft and Sony move pretty quickly.

 

[darkswordsman17]

So I guess I'll just evaluate all the new deals coming up!

Another question: With every game do I have the option of copying the game over to the HDD, and then running it off the HDD??

Yeah. That's one thing I really liked about the 360. Also its pretty fast about it takes like 10 minutes or so to rip it to the HDD. You just have to keep the disc in the tray but that's not a big deal. Helped out a lot with the older systems and their loud disc drives too.

It was pretty easy to get about $100 off any of the consoles last year (assuming you don't mind say a Wal-Mart gift card or something like that). I would say if you can get a decent deal on new or see someone on craigslist selling a 360 Slim bundle for a good price then go for it.