Question for Xbox owners

[RicoADF]

I have 2 gaming computers and a PS3 origional. I've never gotten the Xbox as between them, 99% of games are available and couldn't justify paying $400 for a redundent system. however, with the Xbox down to $200 for a 4GB version its now in the maybe range.

My question for Xbox owners is what do you find is good about the system? How does the live subscriptions vs free work? Has the reliability actually been fixed? Does it have many good exclusives? Its games are cheaper than PS3 and from what I can tell its more like a traditional console in that it runs from the disc drive (from what I hear). More importantly, does the smaller HDD mean anything (unlike pc and ps3).

Basically I'm asking what does it bring to the table that makes it worth $200 in your opinion. And no flaming from anyone, I'm asking a simple question, any console/PC flame wars will be reported.

 

[Razentsu]

How does the live subscriptions vs free work?

You need an Xbox Live Gold subscription for online multiplayer and online services like Netflix. You really can't do much with Silver. While Xbox Live is good, you already have competent and free alternatives, so I can hardly see Xbox Live being a draw for you.

Has the reliability actually been fixed?

Reliability likely has been vastly improved, but I cannot speak so confidently seeing as I do not own a 360 S myself, nor am I acquainted with any 360 S owners. Still, reliability seems like a non-issue nowadays.

...from what I can tell its more like a traditional console in that it runs from the disc drive (from what I hear).

You can indeed play games off the disc. There are no mandatory installs. You still do have the option of installing games on the 360's HDD, though.

More importantly, does the smaller HDD mean anything (unlike pc and ps3).

4GB is fine if you do not plan on installing games to the 360's HDD, and you do not plan on playing tons of XBLA titles.

A 360 for $200 is pretty good value if you are platform-less. But since you already have a PC and a PS3, there's not a whole lot more the Xbox 360 can add to the table. :S

Its value will depend almost solely on your interest in Halo, Gears of War and other exclusive Xbox titles. And frankly, the 360 is lacking in exclusive titles.

I believe the Wii would better compliment your PC and PS3.

 

[Jinxzy]

For me played the xbox a lot more then my ps2. So I ended up buying a 360.Over years of playing on it along with my pc and ps3 I do find here are some delightful perks for the 360.

1. Party Chat - Unlike the ps3 xbox has a party chat. you don't have to be playing any types of games to talk to your friends on the console. You can have only up to 8 in the party but you and your friends can chat while playing all different types of games.

2. Download Games - What i mean by this is that you can download games from the disk to your HDD, which makes it run from the disc drive when it needs to and the rest run from the hard drive.

As for your other questions, Live subscriptions are nice, you do need them to run hulu and netflixs, but they do have free play gold weekends. Also there are special deals like $1 for threw months they run every so often. Some of the games that are exclusives are really fun, but it all comes down to your taste in games. As long as you can manage your use of your HDD you really don't notice it. I clean it about every 4 or 5 months just to keep some free space.

I hope I answered some of your question.

 

[skywolfblue]

Does it have many good exclusives?

Halo
Gears of War
Alan Wake

That's about it*. They're good series, but perhaps not worth the $200 if those games are not what you're looking for.

(*There are probably more I haven't heard of)

 

[RicoADF]

Its value will depend almost solely on your interest in Halo, Gears of War and other exclusive Xbox titles. And frankly, the 360 is lacking in exclusive titles.

I believe the Wii would better compliment your PC and PS3.

TBH its the halo series that has me interested, being a huge scifi fan. Just curious, I know one of halos big selling points for me is local coop (like resistance on ps3), is the coop also avaliable online? Already got a Wii, didn't mention as I consider it in the same catagory as my ps2.

For me played the xbox a lot more then my ps2. So I ended up buying a 360.Over years of playing on it along with my pc and ps3 I do find here are some delightful perks for the 360.

1. Party Chat - Unlike the ps3 xbox has a party chat. you don't have to be playing any types of games to talk to your friends on the console. You can have only up to 8 in the party but you and your friends can chat while playing all different types of games.

2. Download Games - What i mean by this is that you can download games from the disk to your HDD, which makes it run from the disc drive when it needs to and the rest run from the hard drive.

As for your other questions, Live subscriptions are nice, you do need them to run hulu and netflixs, but they do have free play gold weekends. Also there are special deals like $1 for threw months they run every so often. Some of the games that are exclusives are really fun, but it all comes down to your taste in games. As long as you can manage your use of your HDD you really don't notice it. I clean it about every 4 or 5 months just to keep some free space.

I hope I answered some of your question.

I wonder if Australia gets either on Xbox, that'd give live some value. Interesting about the chat feature, basically ts3 built into the console.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I wonder if Australia gets either on Xbox

No, neither are available in Australia.

the halo series

The first 2 are available on PC (although if you're using XP, you can only play the first).

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Halo
Gears of War
Alan Wake

You do know that Halo 1, Halo 2, Gears 1, Alan Wake and AW's American Nightmare all had PC releases, right?

 

[RicoADF]

I wonder if Australia gets either on Xbox

No, neither are available in Australia.

the halo series

The first 2 are available on PC (although if you're using XP, you can only play the first).

Unfortuently I would find myself wanting more and thus needing Xbox anyway. Shame the didn't port the rest. And I got win 7 & 8

 

[Shadowstar38]

All the Xbox has going for it is Halo and Gears. I don't find the gold subscriptions to really be worth it when I hardly use a fraction of the overall service. And party chat isn't a big enough draw.

I'd say stick with what you have.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

I wonder if Australia gets either on Xbox

No, neither are available in Australia.

the halo series

The first 2 are available on PC (although if you're using XP, you can only play the first).

Unfortuently I would find myself wanting more and thus needing Xbox anyway. Shame the didn't port the rest. And I got win & 8

Most of the PC gamers I know who played it wanted less.


But you could always get them on the cheap, try them out and see which way that tips your decision.


Also, if you have any petrolhead inclinations, the 360 has the Forza Motorsport series (well 1 was for the original Xbox) and all the petrolheads I know consider Forza superior to it's competitors.

 

[bl4ckh4wk64]

is the coop also avaliable online?

Yup, and you can run most mulitplayer modes with any number up to 4 people on the console, even if they don't have XBOX live themselves.

In my opinion, it's probably best for you to go with what you feel like. If you really think buying the 360 for the Halo games and possibly whatever new Xbox only releases there are going to be is worth the money, then do it. I can say that I've gotten a ton of enjoyment out of my 360, possibly more than I have out of my computer. However, I don't count because I actually like to play FIFA games with friends and I've got more friends with 360's than with PC's.

 

[Tupolev]

TBH its the halo series that has me interested, being a huge scifi fan. Just curious, I know one of halos big selling points for me is local coop (like resistance on ps3), is the coop also avaliable online?

Local coop can be played with up to 2 players on a single machine, and the game can support up to four players total through networking (aside from Anniversary, which is locked to 2 players).

The one caveat is that the huge amount of stuff going on in a Halo campaign means that peer-to-peer asynchronous networking would be pushed past practical bandwidth limits, so campaign coop in the Halo games uses a pseudo-lockstep networking scheme where everything except looking has to be synched to host. In the real world this means that network latency equals button latency, but the non-synched looking keeps things feeling reasonably good as long as you're sticking with a solid ethernet connection and playing with people on the same continent.
(Again, Anniversary is the exception: it uses pure lockstep, resulting in looking having input lag. That game feels terrible online.)

 

[RicoADF]

TBH its the halo series that has me interested, being a huge scifi fan. Just curious, I know one of halos big selling points for me is local coop (like resistance on ps3), is the coop also avaliable online?

Local coop can be played with up to 2 players on a single machine, and the game can support up to four players total through networking (aside from Anniversary, which is locked to 2 players).

The one caveat is that the huge amount of stuff going on in a Halo campaign means that peer-to-peer asynchronous networking would be pushed past practical bandwidth limits, so campaign coop in the Halo games uses a pseudo-lockstep networking scheme where everything except looking has to be synched to host. In the real world this means that network latency equals button latency, but the non-synched looking keeps things feeling reasonably good as long as you're sticking with a solid ethernet connection and playing with people on the same continent.
(Again, Anniversary is the exception: it uses pure lockstep, resulting in looking having input lag. That game feels terrible online.)

I have 100mb/sec cable and my friend has the same, he's in the same city so I suspect latency would be a non issue.
Good to hear forza is a good game, love racing games, also Ace Combat 6 is a 360 exclusive, big AC fan. Looks like I might get the Xbox, although a final concern, account security. I've heard of people hijacking and selling people's live accounts, anyone know what the deal there is especially if I only have a silver account?

 

[Beautiful End]

I have 2 gaming computers and a PS3 origional. I've never gotten the Xbox as between them, 99% of games are available and couldn't justify paying $400 for a redundent system. however, with the Xbox down to $200 for a 4GB version its now in the maybe range.

My question for Xbox owners is what do you find is good about the system? How does the live subscriptions vs free work? Has the reliability actually been fixed? Does it have many good exclusives? Its games are cheaper than PS3 and from what I can tell its more like a traditional console in that it runs from the disc drive (from what I hear). More importantly, does the smaller HDD mean anything (unlike pc and ps3).

Basically I'm asking what does it bring to the table that makes it worth $200 in your opinion. And no flaming from anyone, I'm asking a simple question, any console/PC flame wars will be reported.

Well, I recently got a 360 for the exact same reasons. So...

First of all, as much as I love my PS3, I gotta say the xbox is more friend...friendly. What I mean is that it's easier to talk and interact with your friends than with the PS3, You can form parties with people who are not playing the same game as you, you can join their game at any point and you can even send voice messages. Of course, you're paying for all that so it makes sense for it to be slightly better than the PS3 in that aspect.

As far as exclusives, I had my doubts. But I must say Minecraft, Halo, Fable, Alan Wake and Left 4 Dead have made me glad I got an xbox. 4GB will hold these games' save files but any more than that and you might run into some trouble. But most of those exclusives are available for PC already. But hey, who am I to judge? I got a Wii because it had more than 10 titles I was interested in...

One thing that I do hate, though, is that ring it leaves on the disc if you move it with a game inside. Hasn't happened to me yet but still. Oh, and the controller feels clunky and heavy compared to the dualshock.
There's also the fact that it requires more money than just what you'll pay for the system alone. You need the Live subscription to play online ($60 for a year), batteries for the controller cause it's not rechargeable by default, if you ever decide to upgrade the HD, you need to get the official MS one as opposed to any cheap laptop HD like the PS3. It might not seem as much but its still something extra you're spending on the console.

 

[Tallim]

I have 2 gaming computers and a PS3 origional. I've never gotten the Xbox as between them, 99% of games are available and couldn't justify paying $400 for a redundent system. however, with the Xbox down to $200 for a 4GB version its now in the maybe range.

My question for Xbox owners is what do you find is good about the system? How does the live subscriptions vs free work? Has the reliability actually been fixed? Does it have many good exclusives? Its games are cheaper than PS3 and from what I can tell its more like a traditional console in that it runs from the disc drive (from what I hear). More importantly, does the smaller HDD mean anything (unlike pc and ps3).

Basically I'm asking what does it bring to the table that makes it worth $200 in your opinion. And no flaming from anyone, I'm asking a simple question, any console/PC flame wars will be reported.

Well, I recently got a 360 for the exact same reasons. So...

First of all, as much as I love my PS3, I gotta say the xbox is more friend...friendly. What I mean is that it's easier to talk and interact with your friends than with the PS3, You can form parties with people who are not playing the same game as you, you can join their game at any point and you can even send voice messages. Of course, you're paying for all that so it makes sense for it to be slightly better than the PS3 in that aspect.

As far as exclusives, I had my doubts. But I must say Minecraft, Halo, Fable, Alan Wake and Left 4 Dead have made me glad I got an xbox. 4GB will hold these games' save files but any more than that and you might run into some trouble. But most of those exclusives are available for PC already. But hey, who am I to judge? I got a Wii because it had more than 10 titles I was interested in...

One thing that I do hate, though, is that ring it leaves on the disc if you move it with a game inside. Hasn't happened to me yet but still. Oh, and the controller feels clunky and heavy compared to the dualshock.
There's also the fact that it requires more money than just what you'll pay for the system alone. You need the Live subscription to play online ($60 for a year), batteries for the controller cause it's not rechargeable by default, if you ever decide to upgrade the HD, you need to get the official MS one as opposed to any cheap laptop HD like the PS3. It might not seem as much but its still something extra you're spending on the console.

That ring groove on a disc can happen even if the system isn't moved. Although I believe it's indicative of a few particular older xboxes. That's why I really liked when they let you do the optional install as it saves the discs. Although it only happened on mine if the xbox was upright as opposed to flat so I sorted it somewhat.

My xbox is pretty old though, erm 20GB model I think. Hasn't ever actually broken down though so that's something. I barely use it these days except for the very rare exclusive or a game that was truly horrible on PS3 (Bayonetta being about the only one)

 

[TrevHead]

I have a PC & 360. I chose the 360 over the PS3 because of it has more classic arcade style games on it, especially shmups where about 90% of the good ones are 360 exclusive. XBLA exclusives are another, while the 360 has been loosing ground to the PC and PS3 there are still many great games that continue to be exclusive like Dust, Virtual-On OT, Rez HD and Guardian Heroes and other games by Treasure.

Theres less problems that plague some PS3 ports like Bayonetta, Skyrim & ZOE HD and Forza is a damn good racer and fun to play with all my friends who all own 360s.

Local coop can be played with up to 2 players on a single machine, and the game can support up to four players total through networking (aside from Anniversary, which is locked to 2 players).

Do you know of any other games that use system link? the only ones I know of are Halo and Virtual-On (thats 1vs1, but there is the 2 vs 2 region free Virtual On Force which might use system link)

 

[RicoADF]

Than you all for the responses, I got a 4gb Xbox today with forza motorsports 3, noticed it says there is only 1.4GB free though, what's the deal there?

 

[Batou667]

Than you all for the responses, I got a 4gb Xbox today with forza motorsports 3, noticed it says there is only 1.4GB free though, what's the deal there?

No idea. The actual available amount of space is always going to be less than theoretical capacity due to profiles and other stuff being stored. Did Forza require install space?

I'd recommend you find a cheap HDD on ebay. The newer ones are so big you'll really never have to think twice about whether you have enough space.

Oh, and welcome to the 360 owner's club. Despite what some others have said, it's not just Gears and Halo (but they're great, and you should check them out).

 

[Fredrikorex]

Unless there's some xbox exlusive titles you really want I don't see any reason to get one.

I find myself not playing on my Xbox 360 because I can just get the same games for my PC (most of the time).

 

[Odbarc]

I can't do time-events on the 360 because they switched the A/B and X/Y (likely for legal reasons to not pay some mundane patent) and whenever I see which button to press, I press it's other.