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Is an xbox 360 worth purchasing?

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Hi, I have always been a PC gamer, and currently have a rather high end system (quad core, 4 gb ram, and a good gpu), and i was wondering if a 360 console would be worth purchasing.

To be honest I have noticed more downsides of it, such as:
- paid multiplayer (the yearly cards)
- i heard many bad things about the overheating issues.
- quite expensive games
-it looks to be redundant to what my pc offers.
- i bought a 360 controller and playd couple pc games, 3rd person perspective ones play well, shooters....cant beat a mouse/keyboard.

Good....

- most ppl that i know are hyped about modern warfare 2, and are ready to get "office matches going"
- ...netflix? (which are really also streamable on the pc)

I heard good things about the 360 from my colleges at work, but to be honest their "mentality", and lack of pc gaming knowledge does put me off a bit, since they state the 360 has better graphics...and i did go threw many game comparison screanshots...and I could not agree.

If i would get it i planned to connect it to a 1680x1050 resolution 22inch monitor (the one that i use for the pc)

and i think the total would cost me about 450ish (elite 360 + yearly online fee + vga cable adapter + modern warfare 2 game....(since there is no game bundled with the 360...or atleast games worth playing)

Would appreciate any response.

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I take it you mean dollars ?, if so or even not get the modern warfare edition of the console, you get a custom sprayed edition of the console, 2 black controllers, a copy of MW2 and a 250gb harddrive which is only available with the special edition console(although i think there is a another special edition console coming out with the 250gb harddirve some racing game cant remember the name).

400 dollars it costs i believe and i read somewhere that microsoft is temporarly offering a 50 dollar rebate or something so 350 with that.

Get your Year subscription off ebay as i think it is the cheapest off there, well it is in the UK anyway at least £12 to £17 cheaper (25 to 35 dollars cheaper). also they email the codes straight to you so you dont have to wait for it in the post.

if you live in the UK its £250 and you can pre-order on Game's website.

Then all you need is the VGA cable which are cheap enough

Message edited by davedurg09 on 09-24-2009 at 01:16:01 PM

Reply to davedurg09

Hi, yes sorry i meant it in dollars. I was not thinking about getting the mw2 edition, but i just summed it up as in +$60 for the mw2 game alone in addition of a base console + setup cost.

so its $250 ( $300-$50 rebate) + about $40 (approximately for the yearly online plan) + around $40 for the VGA cable + $60 for mw2 ...total = $390 for the console and the game....

I'm just trying to figure out if the entire purchase would be worth it(considering the fact that I do already have a rather high end PC)

Reply to illuminatirex

Wll if your are talking in terms of reasons for buying the console, here are some that i think make it a good choice.

1. I have Call Of Duty 4 and 5 for the xbox and love playing them, ive played COD 4 on a high end pc and didnt enjoy it because I found it to really chaotic sometimes as the pc version supports like 64 or something I think (xbox = 16) which is just crazy for the size of some of the maps. dont get me wrong i am a pc gamer first and xbox gamer second, you are right in saying you can beat a pc for FPS games due to mouse accuracy etc but does accuracy really matter when u have like 40 to 50 grenades being randomly thrown into the air and falling onto your head from everywhere. Playing them on the 360 makes them alot better i think and more skill is required to play

And a controller is really better for most other games types (I.E Third person shooters, football, soccer, fighting, racing, the list goes on.), and i think the layout and feel of the 360 controller in your hand is perfect

2.Xbox 360 is not just a gaming machine, its also a media centre, you can take it to any room in your house and hook and external hardrive or usb pen drive or connect to a network wired or wireless and play music, video and look at pictures all in High Definition provided your content is in HD (for full effect), you can also rent movies and music videos to your xbox and netflix is coming soon, this means no more going to movies store. you can do all this with a pc also but it is more work moving/disconnecting a pc as you probably already no lol.

3. communication - the xbox headset provided makes it really easy for taking to friends online and sending them msg's if they are offline, you can start and join parties within a matter of seconds which connects you to your friends instantly and you can even join there session whichs takes you right into the server they are in, no need to load ventrilo or ts and then find there channel and then try and get the server name or ip so you can manually connect.

4. there is also a new games on demand where you can download full games to your 360 harddrive.

5.Game updates - on the 360 these are usually small and download instantly and the xbox tells you when you need one, no more need to find the latest version you need for your pc game and then spend hours looking for a website that has a hign enough bandwidth so u can get it fast.

6. even playing field - when you play online on the 360 everyone is using the same xbox controller and so you are equal to everyone else(except the losers that buy modded controllers) where as on the pc you could be up against people who spend hundreds of dollars on top of the range keyboard and mice and so they are more accurate than you and this puts you at a disadvantage.

Im sure there are more reasons but i cant think of them at the minute lol.

Reply to davedurg09

Being a console and PC gamer I must confess the attraction of simply chucking a disc in the console and playing right away with minimal effort is great.

I love the ease of being able to turn and and connect to online party games almost instantly.

Downsides..... play COD4 / COD5 on a console then play it on a high spec PC and the visuals are not as good on the console.

Reply to ulysses35

I've been very tempted to buy one since the price drop and news of upcoming rebate. But every time I really think about and start adding up all the extras it gets really expensive really fast. I think what it's going to come down to for me is the availability and cost of pre-owned/older 360 titles. I don't want to shell out hundreds of dollars just to play a couple of exclusives and I'm certainly not going to pay extra for new releases that are also available on the PC. Time to starting shopping around I guess.

------------------------------ GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 v2.0
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Reply to purplerat

True.... Console games are more expensive that the same title on a PC - not sure why... just the way it is

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to ulysses35

ulysses35 wrote :

True.... Console games are more expensive that the same title on a PC - not sure why... just the way it is

Licensing. Any joe-schmo can create and put a PC game if they want. But in order to put out a XBox or PS title you have to pay MS or Sony. I'm not completely sure how the payment scheme works, if it's a one time licensing fee per title or if MS/Sony gets a dollar amount per unit sold, but you're essentially paying both the people who created the game along with those who created the hardware it's played on every time you buy a game. There are a few other reasons for the price difference, but I think that's the biggest one.

------------------------------ GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 v2.0
Intel Core2 Q6600 @ 3.3Ghz
4GB OCZ Reaper DDR2 800 @ 915Mhz
EVGA 8800GTS 512MB G92
Reply to purplerat

Thank You all for the reply's

To be honest the more and more i think about buying the 360/ do more research, the less I want to get it...that is...let me explain....and as a small reply to Davedurg09's post.....

1. I never really played a single game on a 360(not counting the 360's set up in stores)
but the lack of accuracy (I only base this on playing couple "direct" ports to pc, such as mirror's edge, street fighter, the batman demo, and other games that fully support a controller)
for instance in mirrors edge, even walking a straight line and turning, or just fluid moving was a bit challenging for me on the controller, and with KB/M it was very natural for me and i could perform some nice stunts.

2.as to a media machine...i do own a Phillips DVD player that allows me to plug in a flash drive/external hdd to it to watch movies via it. As to net flix.....i can always stream the same content to a PC (granted it wont have that cover art...but i don't really care about that sort of menu, I'm more into content than its presentation (which is important, but not in this case...at least for me, when it comes to this purchase)...and also I can always hook up my pc to a tv...if a need arises...but usually i watch movies on the pc anyways...got a tv tuner, so as of late i don't really sit in the living room and watch tv that much, since i like browsing the web, and doing other things while having a tv view on the side.

3 & 4 & 5. . I don't really care about "communication that much"..I have been using steam for a long time and had a headset for about 2 years now...never used it for any online game..surprisingly ....to be honest i hate talking with others while playing, I'm a fast "typer", so i usually team chat/type, to the point that ppl ask me how can i be as good as i am in game, and still type most of the time. So having a mike is stil redundant, and somewhat counter apealing to me.

Games on demand...I use steam if i need to...but I always enjoyed purchasing a boxed product rather than a digital download, even if it was slightly more costly.

Game updates...Steam, easy painless, relatively fast, and no cd's/dvds needed.

6. I dont think having a better KB/M would help ppl that much, I have on an older keayborad and a MX 700 mouse, and usually in all FPS's im in the top 5 if not top 3.
And i got so used to the MB/M for FPS's that I was considering getting one of those devices that allow you to use the KB/M on the consoles....since i would probably get 1 kill out of 20 of my deaths lol

Personally i have a feeling that the 360 + its online payd plan is more like renting an item, than owning it like a pc...sicne it feels so restrictive.....

I dont mean to be so negative, but somehow I notice more negatives than positives.....and cant seem to justify a purchase....and think in terms like"for that $450..i could get a beter motherboard and a faster quad"..i know its silly but old habits die hard

Reply to illuminatirex

Well 360s are easy to flash the DvD drive firmware, so you can play your backups.

Reply to daship

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Forum Games General : Games General Discussions - Is an xbox 360 worth purchasing?