Xbox 360

I'm just wondering if buying an Xbox 360 right now is worth it. I'm planning on maybe hooking it up to my monitor, or to my regular non-hd tv.

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Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

From my experience, hell yeah it's worth it. I've been playing mine a whole lot lately and I enjoy every minute of it :smile: Really though it comes down to what sort of games you like playing, as at the moment there are some genres that aren't all that well accomodated for by the console. If you like racing games or sports games then you'll be well catered for by the 360. On the other hand, there's only one (non-MMO) RPG out just now (another in a couple of weeks, though its not meant to be much good) and that's available on the PC too, and, well, despite LOTR:BFME2's best efforts, consoles just aren't the system to find RTS games. Plenty of FPS games, even if most are PC ports, so if thats your interest you'll prolly like the system too.

What I like the best about the 360 though is the system itself. Its so refreshing using your console to download game demos whenever you like, or to check out some new game trailers. Having your gamer profile with achievement points and the like also encourages you to make the most of your games - it sounds like a silly, overhyped feature of the system but it completely works on me, and I find myself far more inclined to go and hunt down all those secrets in Tomb Raider or get all gold medals in PGR3 with the 360 than I have on any other system. Leaderboards in most games also help you feel like your efforts in the game are somehow significant - a huge leap from the almost completely pointless scoreboards found in most other consoles. Having my wireless controller sat next to my bed also means that when I get up in the morning, if I fancy a quick game of something while lying in bed or maybe just checking out whats new on the Marketplace, I can do it all without moving, as it lets you turn on the console too.

I've got my 360 rigged up to an HDTV and a 5.1 surround system, which really makes the world of difference, but I was plenty impressed with it before I invested in that setup. Some games don't come out too well without HD (DOA4 just looks like DOA3, for example) and some even have issues (PGR3 and the Lost Planet demo have tiny text - thankfully unimportant stuff - that is near enough impossible to read on an SDTV), but its perfectly playable and still plenty nice to look at.

So to sum it up - its a great system provided you are looking for what it offers.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I'd agree with all that ReNo has said; the standard of games is pretty high though there aren't very many atm, and it's more than made up for by the community and online aspects...leaderboards, achievements, Marketplace (the download area), friends list, streaming media from your PC, etc. It definately brings some old-school high score gaming back into the spotlight.

I would say though, that if you don't have a high speed internet connection and a HDTV then you'd be missing out on 50% of what the 360 has to offer, so in that situation I probably wouldn't recommend buying one.

Thanks for telling me about the HD stuff and net connection stuff. I've decided not to buy it until i get HD or non-dial up internet, and also since I don't have enough money now since I bought a PS2 and Guitar Hero just so I could play Guitar Hero :biggrin: .

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Reckless disregard for childrens well being, women and nothing but utter contempt for other cultures.

If you want to buy the system, look at the games. That's all that there is to it. While HD content and game demo downloads are cool ... if the console doesn't have a good game base then it's just a computer ... and you obviously already have one of those. Likewise, if all the good games are just computer ports ... you already have one.

I can think of a couple games I wouldn't mind playing myself actually. Although I head Gears of War will probably make its way to PC sometime. Dead Rising is the other title. Capcom doesn't port anything ... unless it's to get it off of a Nintendo system ...

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Oblivion is worth it on the 360, 'cause you don't have tp dumb down the graphics for it to play.