Gaming XBox 360 worth it?

[3DPiper]

I have the opportunity to get a good deal on a used Xbox 360, but I wanted to see if it was even worth it..

I've read the FAQs and stickies..

As for games, there doesn't seem to be as many family-friendly games available.. Most of the titles I see are first person shooter style (all my kids are 12 and younger).. Plus, the 'modding' process seems to be much more complicated than on the Wii.. Now that we have our Wii softmodded, it is very simple to play a backup on a USB hard drive..

Everything else actually looks pretty good.. I like that you can play DVDs on it (BluRay?), and that it streams media from your PC.. We have a TVix now, and we have our PC hooked up to the tv via dvi/hdmi, but it would be more convienient to just stream media from the PCs hard drive than copy everything to the TVix.. Most of our video library is standard def XVid/DVix..

Plus with the new Windows Phones coming out, playing the same game on the phone and xbox seems like a cool option..

While this one device would replace two of my current units (DVD player, TVix), is it worth it if we don't game on it much? I guess my main sticking point is the difficulty in modding, and the games available..

Thanks

 

[Wabsta]

Nope, can't play blu-ray.

Anyway, if it's an old, not elite xbox, there is a chance that it suddenly stops working, cause of the RRoD.
That's what stopping me to buy an xbox. The first xbox, can be hacked, but has a chance to break. And the Elite xbox can't be hacked..

 

[chinmi]

if it's a jasper version then it's worth to consider on buying it... because jasper version motherboard is rrod free...
you can find how to distinguish a xenon/zephyr/falcon/jasper motherboard an xbox is by looking @ the power connector... google it for details...

 

[3DPiper]

I'll ask him what kind of 360 it is..

360 elite can't be flashed to play backups?

 

[ace1o1]

Any drive can be flashed as far as I know on the original 360s. Not the Slims yet.
It's just that the newer models or models with updated dashboards can't be jtagged.

 

[3DPiper]

I finally saw the system today..

It was white, and he said it was an 'arcade' model..

He said it had a modded firmware (I assume on the DVD drive) and comes with a hard drive, but that all the backups had to be burned to disc so he just plays them off of disc.. But then he also said it had a 'blu-ray drive'..? I don't think that is true.. He had also modded the fans to run at full speed (it was loud)..

Regardless, just the console is $125 without controllers..


Anything else I should ask?

 

[overlord00]

by blu-ray maybe he meant the old HD-DVD external drive...?

 

[3DPiper]

I didn't see anything external..

 

[dilav]

I didn't see anything external..

no clue what they mean by blu-ray..
Which version... very important to know..
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x127/MR...r/XboxPower.jpg

Also ask if it is banned from xbox live. i assume it is..

 

[el3venth]

I see you kinda want it to use it as a media player.
Remember to try WiiMC on your wii, then your wii can play DVD/divx/stream too.
And remember it is quieter than the x360

(Take this from someone who has both an xbox and wii, and loves his quiet. )

 

[754boy]

And the Elite xbox can't be hacked..

Elites can be hacked. My Elite was hacked and I recently hacked one for a friend.

Also, there are TONS of family and kid friendly games on 360. All those kiddy movies cash-ins like Cars, Toy Story, Kung Fu Panda, Bolt, etc..... You just don't hear much about them because the FPS and shooting games are the blockbusters lol.

 

[3DPiper]

Ok, I asked more questions.. He said:

- It has not been banned from live and you can play it also... The only time you get banned is when you play a burnt game that has not been stealth patched online or you play one that has not been released yet on live those are the only ways you get banned

- It has the zephyr chip and the console has been modded to not overheat


If you always have to play games from a disc, what is the hard drive even for? Media (movies, tunes, etc)?

Are there 4 player xbox games? any good co-op games? We loved Shrek 2 on the Gamecube, where everybody is on the screen at the same time.. New Mario Bros Wii is a hit, too..

Thanks!

 

[dilav]

- It has not been banned from live and you can play it also... The only time you get banned is when you play a burnt game that has not been stealth patched online or you play one that has not been released yet on live those are the only ways you get banned
Thats true in a way. Although if you mod it, even if you don't pirate, expect yourself to be banned.

- It has the zephyr chip and the console has been modded to not overheat
12 volt mod and many other extra fan do not normally fix overheating issues. Zephyr are 2nd generation Xboxes. The first ones are xenons and do not have HDMI they are known to rrod. Zephyr had new gpu heatsink and added HDMI however they still suffer from rrod, just not as bad. However it should last a while, unless it rrod before and he fixed it cheaply with X-clamps without a good reflow or reball. For 125$ including power and av, it is a fair price. Not cheap, and not too expensive.

QUOTE(3DPiper @ Oct 16 2010, 03:32 PM)

Are there 4 player xbox games? any good co-op games? We loved Shrek 2 on the Gamecube, where everybody is on the screen at the same time.. New Mario Bros Wii is a hit, too..

Thanks!

Not too sure about this question... Xbox generally aren't childish/family system with kids like Nintendo. But I'm not much of a gamer, someone else has to reply to that.

 

[overslept]

Get a PS3. It has Blu-ray, Netflix, Facebook, and family friendly games. Your kids will love LittleBigPlanet.

 

[Thoob]

Seeing as you aren't buying this for online multiplayer, etc. then a PS3 would be a far better option. More family friendly games, Blu-ray playback, streaming media from a PC, and it won't suddenly die on you.

 

[dilav]

Seeing as you aren't buying this for online multiplayer, etc. then a PS3 would be a far better option. More family friendly games, Blu-ray playback, streaming media from a PC, and it won't suddenly die on you.

I agree with the two post above, a PS3 might be a better option. However I wouldn't get the older version, but get the slims as the fat has laser suddenly die on people. Little Big Planet would be a good family game. Although the system will cost you 300 it includes rechargeable controllers, wifi, blu ray and what not. It does streaming better than the Xbox in my opinion. To "hack" them you will need a ps3 with firmware 3.41, and a usb development stick. Oh and Xbox also has Netflix and Facebook... PS3 got a web browser though, however if you do not update you cannot use online functionality atm, however they may be some firmware modification in the future.

 

[3DPiper]

Thanks all,

I ended up buying the xbox system.. he threw in a hard drive (I assume 20G) and one controller..

I have no interest in a Playstation (no offense)..

Can I upgrade the HD myself, or do I have to buy an 'official' hard drive? How big a hard drive can the xbox use?

 

[tk_saturn]

Max is 250GB, I'm sure someone on here had a 60GB they didn't know what to do with.

 

[dilav]

Jumpman17 had a 60GB that he may sell
http://gbatemp.net/t258170-old-harddrive

Max HDD size is 250GB, I think.. You can either buy one. Or buy a compatible WD drive, I think all WD Scorpio drives are now compatible, you may want to do some research though. And flash it with a correct HDDSS.bin file using HDDHackr. Reason for this is because MS locked out all HDD that doesn't have a recognizable "serial number" on the drives.
http://www.xboxhacker.net/index.php?topic=11813.0

 

[3DPiper]

Well, I finally got a chance to hook it up and test the XBox.. It ran for awhile (long enough for me to delete the stuff on the hard drive), then froze up. I turned it off, then on, and it had three red lights blinking around the power button.. I called the guy and he said bring it down he can fix it, that they just sent out an 'update' or something.. I never set up an internet connection or anything, did it automatically connect through my wifi and update itself?