Plans to buy a 360, but which one?

ThatJoe · 26 Apr 2008 at 04:32

Hey, i'm really really out of the console scene at the moment and i've decided with the upcoming release of GTA and the majority of my friends having a 360 it should be a sound investment. I've read there are quite a few types of the console, the normal, premium, elite. Can anyone point out the differences and maybe one they're recommend? I've been looking at the various consoles and was looking in detail at the premium but i'm still not sure of the advantages/disadvantages between them. I don't think i'll be going for the Elite version at all purely because of the price. I've also heard people having trouble with heat and the 360, can anyone expand on the cooling systems for the consoles? Now this bit i'm likely to get flamed badly, As i'm an avid PC gamer playing FPS games such as COD4 And CSS i'd like to stick to a mouse and keyboard just to get me going so, what is the mouse and keyboard compatibility like on the 360? It would be brilliant if someone could recommend me a few games on the 360 that have proved worth it for them.

Cheers.

Margaret · 26 Apr 2008 at 04:54

Well whatever you do don't get an Arcade, only a fool picks that over the Premium, the hard drive alone included in the Premium pack is worth more than the price difference between the two.

toosepin · 26 Apr 2008 at 05:01

My girlfriend found GTA4 + an Xbox 360 Premium for 200GBP from a well known DVD/CD site - it seems to be a pretty good deal.

ThatJoe · 26 Apr 2008 at 05:11

toosepin said:
My girlfriend found GTA4 + an Xbox 360 Premium for 200GBP from a well known DVD/CD site - it seems to be a pretty good deal.

yeah i've also found that deal, been researching a bit and i have 2 new questions, i read over in a review around 8 months back that the wireless controllers use a frequency which may interfere with home wireless networks and phones, not sure if this is utter butter but yeah, and, just wanted to emphasise on the heat question, i really don't want to buy a console where i have to keep turning it off and letting it cool down every 45 minutes, especially with GTA

sc(+)pe · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:04

Jihad said:
Well whatever you do don't get an Arcade, only a fool picks that over the Premium, the hard drive alone included in the Premium pack is worth more than the price difference between the two.

Hey! I'm most likely to be buying an Arcade today, although I have my hdd from my old 360.

Caustic · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:21

If you are not a super serious console games player then the premium is ideal for you. It is cheap (great deals to be had!) and gives you all the things you need. Spot on for the money!

Phemo · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:24

ThatJoe said:
yeah i've also found that deal, been researching a bit and i have 2 new questions, i read over in a review around 8 months back that the wireless controllers use a frequency which may interfere with home wireless networks and phones, not sure if this is utter butter but yeah, and, just wanted to emphasise on the heat question, i really don't want to buy a console where i have to keep turning it off and letting it cool down every 45 minutes, especially with GTA

Well, I've got two 360s (sometimes both are in use at the same time) and they're both sitting right near my wireless AP. I've never had a problem with my wireless network so I don't think it affects that, at least not in my experience. Not sure about cordless phones though.

As for heat, the new Falcon-based motherboards (which you'll get in any brand new 360 now) are definitely noticeably cooler. They still kick out some heat alright, but it's not ridiculous. Don't worry about it, unless you're planning on sticking the thing in an enclosed area which would be a bad idea.

There's no real point going for an Elite now - the only differences are that it's black, has a 120GB HD and comes bundled with an HDMI cable/audio box (the Arcade and Premium, although they have an HDMI port, don't come with an HDMI cable). I've got an Elite myself and I have 102GB free on the drive out of 107GB usable, there's just no need.

There are no games with official keyboard and mouse support. You can get a device like the XFPS Sniper Pro (there are other versions, but all the ones before the Sniper are crap) which basically uses a mouse and keyboard to emulate stick movements. It works fairly well, it's clearly not as good as full native keyboard/mouse support, but it's certainly better than using the controller.

So in short, get the Premium

ic1male · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:25

ThatJoe said:
Now this bit i'm likely to get flamed badly, As i'm an avid PC gamer playing FPS games such as COD4 And CSS i'd like to stick to a mouse and keyboard just to get me going so, what is the mouse and keyboard compatibility like on the 360? It would be brilliant if someone could recommend me a few games on the 360 that have proved worth it for them.

There is zero mouse and keyboard compatibility for games on Xbox 360. Only for entering text messages and chatting on Messenger.

As for games, I always recommend having a look at metacritic.com, finding the 360 games and listing in descending score. You can't go far wrong. There are no hidden gems yet, I don't think.

Caustic · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:25

Don't worry about the heat issues. It might get fairly hot but having it heat up and then cool down all the time is actually worse than leaving it on. Same for most electronics.

furnace · 26 Apr 2008 at 10:29

sc(+)pe said:
Hey! I'm most likely to be buying an Arcade today, although I have my hdd from my old 360.

Hehe I always feel quite offended when people say that, too! But I see their point. Like you, the only reason I got an Arcade is because I already had a HDD and really dont give two ****s about a shiny disk drive...

Vai · 26 Apr 2008 at 11:11

toosepin said:
My girlfriend found GTA4 + an Xbox 360 Premium for 200GBP from a well known DVD/CD site - it seems to be a pretty good deal.

I am looking to get that deal as well, is it the best one out at the moment? I don't understand why it is on preorder until the end of next week :confused:

Shamikebab · 26 Apr 2008 at 11:35

Id get the premium, in fact i did

ThatJoe · 26 Apr 2008 at 15:28

Vai said:
I am looking to get that deal as well, is it the best one out at the moment? I don't understand why it is on preorder until the end of next week

yeah i was wondering that, but I guess it doesn't matter much unless you need the game desperately now, it's still cheaper to buy that bundle, then to get it separately. As i can't say which retailer i'm talking about i think i'm okay to say "the bundle of GTA and Premium 360 for £200, does anyone know what deliveries and returns are like with this company?

And cheers guys for the replies.