X-Box 360 advice

[Earth 2 Chris]

So my son wants an X-Box for Christmas. He's been content with the Wii, but he's 11 now, and I figured the time was coming. I'm completely out of the loop on these. I see most major chains has a bundle with the X-Box, Kinect, 2 Kinect games, and one controller for $250. Is this a good deal? Is the Kinect worth it? Does it work as advertised?

Any other Holiday deals you know of?

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. Also, do you prefer X-Box over PS3? Seems like most of his friends have X-Box, so I'm probably going that route.

Thanks!

Chris

[domino]

I own a PS3 but I do keep an eye on the gaming market, and $250.00 for the 4GB 360 Kinect bundle is pretty much standard price, so I wouldn't call it a deal. If it is indeed the 4GB version, you might want to reconsider. 4 GB seems like a lot but can fill up fast. Since you already have a wii for the "motion" gaming, how much will he use the Kinect? If he is more into the Call of Duty or Halo games you might want to pass on the Kinect feature and buy the 250 GB bundle for the same price. I can't comment on the Kinect feature since I don't have it but from what I have heard, it works well.

You might just want to wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday and see if a better deal comes along.

[drquest]

We have three PS3's here, so I do prefer it for several reasons, but do have an Xbox 360 too, my son plays it sometimes. I would agree about the 4G model not being enough storage, I'd get a larger hard drive model over the Kinect I think, if it was me buying it.

I would expect in about a week you'll see some cheap prices on both the Xbox and PS3 for Christmas

[Figuremod73]

I'm sorta out of touch on the newer systems myself but I believe the xbox 360 has a better selection of cheaper games since its been out a little longer.

[MegoSteve]

Best Buy is going to have a nice 360 bundle for $199.99 on Black Friday. 250 GB unit with Skyrim and Forza 4. If you want Kinect, there are similar 4 GB bundles that are going to be $199 on Black Friday, too. Check bfads.net.

[toys2cool]

I have both the ps3 and the xbox360...I honestly prefer the 360, if you could get that bundle listed above for $199 I'd take that..I'm not into the kinect at all but I think kids his age really enjoy it

[noelani72]

I can't say which system to go for, but I can say this - XBoxLIVE.
Good grief, we started our account a few years ago and tied it to my debit card.
Well, come time for my debit card expiration date, I worried I would have to login to their site and update my info - but I didn't have to...it just kept working...

A year later, we find we don't play it but maybe an hour or two a month, so I decided to turn it off.
Nope. Nadda.
Their site conveniently "errors out" when you try to cancel membership.
You cannot remove your debit/credit card until you provide another one first.
You call the 1-800 line to cancel, and get stuck speaking to someone who's english is soooooo broken, that you eventually just hang up out of frustration.
Google XBox Live Class Action lawsuit and you'll see I was not alone...
So, to kill it, I had to kill my debit card.
Yea, pain in the arse...now, I have to redo ALL my online billing info and auto-payments.

Here's the kicker that my bank simply could not understand...
1) Microsoft ONLY had the 16 digit card number

yup. We reviewed my account during the process -
they did not have:
a. correct billing address
b. expiration date of card
c. three digit code off back of card

My bank was shocked that the transaction was even going thru and suggested I call a BBB.
But hey, it's Microsoft...

[Werewolf]

I personally don't care for the Kinect. Don't care for all the party games for it and the control isn't good enough for regular games. I do recommend not getting the bundles with the 4 gb hard drive. It will get filled up too fast and the sold separately HDs are over priced when you want to upgrade.

[Wasimhosen]

4GB will fill up pretty quick but you can use usb memory for extra storage.

[BlackKnight]

My Son loves his X-Box 360 .., I never bought the Wii or PS3, as I did in the past with all the other systems. I won't let him play X-Box live, as I do not think it's Age Appropriate, as far as who he could be playing with out there.

[piecemaker]

I can't say which system to go for, but I can say this - XBoxLIVE.
Good grief, we started our account a few years ago and tied it to my debit card.
Well, come time for my debit card expiration date, I worried I would have to login to their site and update my info - but I didn't have to...it just kept working...

A year later, we find we don't play it but maybe an hour or two a month, so I decided to turn it off.
Nope. Nadda.
Their site conveniently "errors out" when you try to cancel membership.
You cannot remove your debit/credit card until you provide another one first.
You call the 1-800 line to cancel, and get stuck speaking to someone who's english is soooooo broken, that you eventually just hang up out of frustration.
Google XBox Live Class Action lawsuit and you'll see I was not alone...
So, to kill it, I had to kill my debit card.
Yea, pain in the arse...now, I have to redo ALL my online billing info and auto-payments.

Here's the kicker that my bank simply could not understand...
1) Microsoft ONLY had the 16 digit card number

yup. We reviewed my account during the process -
they did not have:
a. correct billing address
b. expiration date of card
c. three digit code off back of card

My bank was shocked that the transaction was even going thru and suggested I call a BBB.
But hey, it's Microsoft...

I bought my son an XBOX 360 a couple years ago and paid like 300.00 for it.I was also paying for XboxLive for him with my credit card.My son ran up quite a bill,so i decided to remove my Credit card. I tried to do that through their website but also ran into problems doing that.They wanted to verify it was my account and sent a code to my email address to enter.The only problem was the email they showed on that page was one letter off mine,so i was not recieving their code.I tried a few things to make that right but nothing worked.I agree they have a few "glitches" in their system that made it impossible for me to remove my credit card info myself through their site.I finally had to call them and two customer service reps and two hours later,i was finally able to remove my credit card and cancel "my" membership.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Thanks for the info guys. Good point on the Kinect, as we do have a Wii for those types of games. I think we'll be skipping X-Box Live for now as well. He's a bit too young for that , IMHO.

I think I'll look into a bigger GB too. I appreciate all the input!

Chris

[boynightwing]

Kinect is so much more advanced then Wii.

I don't have any trouble with xbox live. I have the free version. I didn't pay for the membership or whatever. I did the free trial but I found I don't care about playing with people online or any of that jazz.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Wal-Mart looks to have some decent deals on bundles in their "pre-Black Friday sale".

I'm trying to stay around $250 for the system and at least one game, since we have other presents already bought, and 2 kids to buy for.

Their best price on an X-Box bundle has that daggum 4GB console though:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Xbox-360-Customer-Choice-Bundle/7964864

For $30 more, their cheapest PS3 bundle has 160GB console:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/PS3-Ultimate-Bundle-70-Value/20655836

I'm starting to lean toward Playstation now. Seems like I can get more GB bang for my buck...

Chris

[ODBJBG]

If your son is going to do online gaming (I'd suggest waiting a year or two so that he can be mature enough to handle it as it's a lot of profanity and such) the Xbox is the way to go.

I use the PS3 for stuff like Netflix and whatnot, but when it comes to online gaming, Xbox Live blows them away.

I don't play online as much anymore, so I'm not on Live at the moment, but as soon as I get the hankering, my Live account comes back on. The experiences are so vastly different that it's not comparable.