I give you a 1k PC spec with a 1080p monitor!
I'd also add a 64 Gb SSD for windows, and an optical drive, but most people should have an old optical drive lying around somewhere.
360, 250gb version, around £150, take any normal PC< add £100 graphics card, xbox beater.
You don't buy a 1k PC for, gaming alone, nor would anyone with any sense spend 1k, on a truly rubbish computer(unless you like Apple.... burn).
This spec though, you can put in a £80 cpu, a £80 mobo, £20 for 4gb mem, a 500gb hdd for half the cost, don't need a expensive cooler, still get a better GPU, the screen and spend significantly less money.
I picked up xbox 360 on a good deal not long ago, thinking I'd pee around with Kinect a bit, play a few games I hadn't had the chance to. I both do and don't regret it, games look almost universally awful. But gameplay is largely ridiculously easy in far too many games. LA Noire is a great story, but the gameplay, the finding clues and mostly the combat should have been far more challenging. Its okay to play through but with a real challenge could have been a great game. Graphically, xbox games are so lacking, texture quality, pop in, I didn't think it would be as bad as it was but its irritating. Some games that are in limited enviroments can look good but stuff like open world LA Noire shows up its limitations so immensely badly.
I don't care who likes what, I play xbox games, some are great fun, others are not a patch on the overall experience the same game gives you on the PC.
What I do care about is the ridiculousness of claims of a 1k PC not looking better. You don't need a £240 cpu to run PC games well, you don't even need a £100 cpu to do that, and the only cost above and beyond a "normal" PC that every single person I know has anyway, is a new GPU, which again, sub £100 cards smash xbox graphics to shreds.
If everyone has a PC, and doesn't have an xbox, then its MORE expensive to buy an Xbox for gaming than sticking a GPU in your PC, when you factor in game costs you get screwed over and over for the lifetime of owning your xbox. Its not unfair to say most console releases are £40-60 and most PC games are £20-30, with FAR more frequent deals to pick up pre-orders cheap on PC, like Crysis 2 for £15 on pre-order.
PC cheaper, and better, and cheaper games when you buy them.
)
. I miss my old one, actually... might hook it back up again, but the buttons were getting a bit unresponsive if I recall...
