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Should a person buy an Xbox 360?
I don't have any of the new consoles yet. I don't have a lot of time and I have plenty of games for my old consoles that I haven't finished yet. I like the games that have come out for the 360, but I'm a little concerned about the fail rate of the 360. Also, I'm concerned from what I read that many of my old Xbox games will simply not work.
What do you think? Should a person buy a 360?
What do you think? Should a person buy a 360?
Comments
If you play few games, you're probably better off with PC gaming at this point. There are a few solid games that are worth the money and time.
Now if you are looking to play a few games, PC is the way to go, but if you are planning to play a lot of games (or have specific games you want to play,) then console might be the way to go.
If they make Windows support Xbox games you get the problem of making pirating even easier, you'll lose control. You might also lose a bunch of console gamers because these do not want to purchase a PC that requires upgrading every so often. This last is a double edged sword though since you'll have PC gamers who won't go to the multi-platform console because they can't upgrade it and have over the top graphic performance.
Feel free to correct me if something has changed, or is changing that I'm not aware of.
Now, if a game is built on DirectX, but not on XNA, it would still be some work to port it to 360/XNA. It wouldn't be as much work as if you were porting a game built on another platform, but it would still require some work.
If a game isn't built on the Microsoft Platform of DirectX/XNA, porting it to XBox is just as much work as any other port.
Capcom did a smart thing in that they now develop their games on their own platform which is cross-platform.
One hidden feature I always take advantage of is the XBLA. If I have a group of friends over, and we're all bored, we'll all just pool in $2 each and buy something from the marketplace.
Overall, I say it's the best console on the market (although that's not really saying much). And Microsoft will fix your console if it breaks, so, if you're not playing too much anyway, you don't have to worry.
Although there are a bunch of rumblings about the new hardware update (It's codename is Jasper). You may be better off waiting until after the holiday rush.
As for backwards compatibility, it's decent, but not great. I noticed pretty bad slowdown in Jet Set Radio Future, but it kinda works. Halo plays great, though. XD
Look out for some sort of deal, which would most likely be on the Pro, which is what I think is best - 60 gigs and all you need from there is the wireless adapter and you`re online, which is the best part of a lot of games. Because they don`t sell that much, they tend to get deals on them. Here in my town, all the Pros we get are bundled already with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda, and we have a deal on ours that if you get it you get to choose from 1 of 5 games (they`re a list of fairly new and big hits) - therès others where you get other games, and so on and so forth.
For Blue-Ray I'll probably buy a separate player when their prices drop a blow 200 euros.
I haven't played any old xbox games.
I have the arcade version, and it's nice to have some room on your Xbox 360. If you're planning to play more than 20 (arcade/instaled/demo) games at once, you're better off with a bigger harddrive, but if you're only planning on playing 5 games at once, the arcade might just do it.
It has worked perfectly for me, but I haven't had it for very long.
The Xbox version you can buy from stores right now run cooler and are less likelier to break than the first versions.
What Gunter said is very true. There is some backwards compatability; from what I've heard, you get Live and download an emulator and then you can do it, and only with a set list.
There are a few things, but they're pretty easy to avoid, in my opinion: red lights are covered by Microsoft, and except for a few bad batches, most tend to be pretty damned good for how well they work. Just in case, look into in-store warranties for convience - for example, at my store, we offer instore warranty for a year so you don't have to contact Microsoft and bug them to send you stickers. It doesn't happen very often that we get returns either, except for a brief bad batch a few weeks ago - it happens.
Also, when playing, DO NOT put it on it's side. Lay it down flat. A simple bump - I've heard from anything as remote as someone walking around the house to actually physically tapping it - will create laser burn on the game. It's a perfect circle on the spot it was playing, all around the CD. Sometimes it will continue to work; most of the time, it won't. This is easily avoided by simply laying it on it's side.
Coolers are a good thing as well, if you like playing for a long time. They keep it from overheating. Another good thing are game warranties; I think the only time they may not be useful is for DS games.
Most of the extra stuff I just mentioned is kinda to optomize it and helpful tips, but I find that if you don't know jack about what you're doing, you might mess up, and it's no good.
Also, putting an XB3* in a cabinet with a lot of hot AV gear isn't a great idea, as is putting it on carpet.
*Does anyone think that looks like some guy in shades with an X shaved into his head doing the
Seriously.. Laser burn? Coolers are either unnecessary wastes of money, or else Microsoft made a defective product with insufficient built-in cooling. All they do is push air through, which the Xbox is already capable of doing. Game warranties are certainly not a good idea.