Xbox 360 Help

[emilymad]

My brothers old Xbox died. My family wants to get him a new one. There are so many options now! We want to make sure he can use all his old games. It seems that the Kinect is more for kids games. Is this correct?

Amazon has a standard option or a digital entertainment option. Which is the digital entertainment option worth the money?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

If your brother doesn't have any Kinect games, don't bother getting an Xbox with a kinect. Do not get an Xbox One (if you can even find one), as it is not backwards compatible.

I don't know what you mean by an Xbox digital entertainment option; I don't see this on Amazon.

 

[SandrA9810]

He does have a 360, correct? None of Microsoft's systems are backwards compatible.

Get him the one with the larger hard drive and no kinect. There's an "Arcade" version that only contains a 4gb hard drive, hardly worth it.

Amazon has two deals, a holiday bundle with 2 games or a spring value bundle with 2 games. Both the games are rather old, and probably not worth much at all. So it's personal preference. You could also look to see what bundles they are offering at retail stores, they may have different bundles.

 

[emilymad]

His Xbox is 5 or 6 years old so I am assuming it is a 360. He has been buying recent games. Could be something other than the 360? Wikipedia's dates made me think it was a 360.

I know the 4GB is the hard drive size but what is that needed for? Saving your game progress?

And what is Xbox Live and do you need a subscription? I see mention of a Gold subscription but not sure what that is for either.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[xipetotec]

His Xbox is 5 or 6 years old so I am assuming it is a 360. He has been buying recent games. Could be something other than the 360? Wikipedia's dates made me think it was a 360.

I know the 4GB is the hard drive size but what is that needed for? Saving your game progress?

And what is Xbox Live and do you need a subscription? I see mention of a Gold subscription but not sure what that is for either.

Thanks for all your help!

XBOX live GOLD is a subscription system with Microsoft that allows you to play online and access other services offered online. It isn't REQUIRED to play xbox, but if he plays online, then it is. ( He might already have a membership if the latter is the case, it doesn't go with the xbox itself, but with his account ).

The hard drive on an xbox is indeed to save progress. But ALSO to store downloadable content. 4GB is really not a lot, however I don't know what he had already. It might be sufficient for what he does. If he buys games online and downloads them. Or tends to download a lot of downloadable content for his xbox, then it won't last long. ( We recently bought a 250GB version. )

If he has had it 5-6 years, then the 360 is *definitely* what he has. Microsoft has just recently ( as in last month ) released their new XBOX ONE. This is not only very hard to find as it just came out, but will *NOT* play any of the games he has been buying. Even recently. They are still releasing games for the Xbox 360, many of the major recent titles have been released for both xbox 360 and xbox one ( as well as playstation 3 and playstation 4). So if the goal is for him to be able to keep playing his existing or recently purchased games, then XBOX 360 is what you need.

 

[SandrA9810]

If you're only replacing the console, I wouldn't go for all the added stuff that most stores try to tack on. When you're replacing a console, you only need the console. All of his accessories that he already has will work with a new system. His Live membership is tied to his account, not to his system. He'll just log on when he gets the new system and he'll have access to his online stuff.

If he's had a system for 5-6 years, I'm sure he has a sizable amount of download content. My bf first bought the PS3 in 2007, and there is currently a 1TB hard drive in the system that is nearly full because of all the games he's bought over the years. A 4gb hard drive can be gone in an instant with one game or a few patches. 320GB hard drive is the largest that can be handled by the system, and those have to be bought through Microsoft (you can't just use a standard drive from a store).

 

[lost*in*cyberspace]

?........ 320GB hard drive is the largest that can be handled by the system, and those have to be bought through Microsoft (you can't just use a standard drive from a store).

No, you can buy a 320 GB hard drive from vendors other than Microsoft and they work fine. I bought one for $54.95 on Amazon last spring and it works great. Was very easy to install.

 

[emilymad]

Is there a way to find out what size hard drives they were making 5 years ago? I also read about using a flash drive with the Xbox. Obviously not ideal but not sure what the budget is. My brother thinks the hard drive is what died on the old one.

 

[SandrA9810]

It depends on which console he had 5 years ago. Was it an old fat, arcade edition, slim? At 5 years old, I'm surprised it hasn't red ringed. The most common hard drive in recent years is the 250gb model. Before that, they're all over the place. I mean 20gog was standard for the original white one, and slowly Microsoft released bigger hard drives up to 120gb for it. They started using the larger drive after making the slim model.

If your brother is the only gamer in the house, then it might be easier to get him a gift card of $250 to Amazon or a retail store so he can buy the system he needs.

 

[JaimeA]

No, you can buy a 320 GB hard drive from vendors other than Microsoft and they work fine. I bought one for $54.95 on Amazon last spring and it works great. Was very easy to install.

Agree. We bought a hard drive for my sons xbox that was not a Microsoft hard drive works fine and was much cheaper.

 

[SandrA9810]

Agree. We bought a hard drive for my sons xbox that was not a Microsoft hard drive works fine and was much cheaper.

I meant you couldn't pick up just any hard drive, it had to be one made for the 360. PS3 uses a standard laptop hard drive.