Anyone want to field some questions about buying a 360?

[Flake]

I am thinking about getting a 360 due to some shmups and exclusives. The last time I owned a 360 was back when they were all white and only came in two versions: Red-Ringed and pre-red-ringed.

What are the essential (read: I don't want to break the bank) things for a 360 right now? I probably won't want anything like a kinnect, right?

[Jmustang1968]

I am thinking about getting a 360 due to some shmups and exclusives. The last time I owned a 360 was back when they were all white and only came in two versions: Red-Ringed and pre-red-ringed.

What are the essential (read: I don't want to break the bank) things for a 360 right now? I probably won't want anything like a kinnect, right?

I would just get a black slim, and the one with the hdd. I dont feel a kinect is necessary unless you want the novelty of it and to play around with.

I also recommend getting one of the silver play n charge controller kits, the dpad on those are better than the standard controller.

[Flake]

Okay, there about a bajillion SKU's. Which ones are HDD and why is HDD preferable?

[Jmustang1968]

Okay, there about a bajillion SKU's. Which ones are HDD and why is HDD preferable?

There should be 2 base models on the market. The 4g and the 250g. I recommend the 250, unless you are comfortable using USB flash drives for storage. If you want to download and install stuff, get the 250, if not, go with the 4g

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Looking at 360s myself and doing some research (the last time I had one was also when you had your choice of dead or pending-death ), and the oldest model I'd go to is the Pro 60gb (Jasper revision). By then they were using the 65nm chips and are relatively reliable, and have HDMI. Though the brand new slims are finally cool and quiet, so maybe just go for one of those? Avoid the 4gb and get the 250 if you do.

For accessories. Play and charge kit is pretty obvious. Nobody likes fumbling for the extra set of AA batteries. Plenty of arcade sticks. I hear the official SSIV one is pretty good.

Slims have WiFi in them I believe, any earlier is going to require a wireless adapter (either official or otherwise).

Kinect is pretty worthless IMO.

[Flake]

Is there any real reason to avoid the 4G? I don't download a lot of digital content so I don't see where I'll be missing out.

[ninjainspandex]

Is there any real reason to avoid the 4G? I don't download a lot of digital content so I don't see where I'll be missing out.

4g will fill up extremely fast with patches and add-on content im pretty sure i have seen 120gb drives for the slim in the store id go for that. flake i know you like shmups and there are a bunch only available on the XBLA for download only.

[Xeogred]

I wouldn't do the 4G either, there's a handful of shmups that are DL only I'm pretty sure and yeah, as others said it'd just fill up pretty fast. May as well play it safe. Demo's alone for games can run over a gig easily.

Other than that, hard to say much else. Like it's pointed out lately, this has truly been a pretty boring year for games and at this point unless you're into Halo or something, you can find just about everything on the PS3 as well anyways.

[foxhound1022]

IIRC, anything made after Nov. 2009 should be safe.

[ninjainspandex]

borderlands 2, sleeping dogs, and supposedly shenmue 1 and 2 are being released in HD on xbla this year!