Potential Xbox Newbie Here

[Retrodude]

Afriend of mine got a new 360 and offered me his old one. It doesn't have the RROD (yet), but it's having trouble reading discs. He thinks it just needs to be taken apart and cleaned and he doesn't want to bother with it. Seems like an awful waste of money to me, but I didn't say anything and I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth. I never thought about getting a 360, but if I'm going to have one (assuming I can get it working), here are the games I'm interested in:

GTA IV
Red Dead Redemption
Dead Space
Fallout
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
Batman: Arkham Asylum/Arkham City
Fable
LA Noire

Are there any others you could recommend? I like RPGs, action adventure and open world/sandbox games. I also like platformers, but I don't know if the 360 has any of those.

[isiolia]

Your friend may have just wanted a reason to upgrade anyway. The Slim models are quieter, have built in WiFi, and are a much safer bet if you're worried about red ring'ing. Plus the standard HDD size has gone up.

If the drive is just dirty, then it's not hard....but if it's failed, the optical drive is basically bound to the motherboard, so replacing it is a bit more complicated than with most.

Assuming, from some of those, that you don't have a PS3 either, you might want to check out Enslaved, Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, the Crackdown series, the Prototype series, Saints Row series, Lost Planet, maybe Dead Rising series as well.

The 360 peaked early for RPGs, for the most part. Some of them are still exclusives, like Lost Odyssey. I think Tales of Vesperia is still exclusive outside of Japan. Nier is on both but worth looking into.

There are a lot of 2D platformers on XBLA, which may be a nice use for the system even if the disc drive is broken.

[LugNutX]

I reference this page from time to time with the current consoles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vi ... eneration)

You've listed some good titles. I would also recommend:

Gears of War
Chromehounds
Kameo

If you're hunting used stuff, they can all be found well under $10. In fact, all of those may be closer to $5 now. If you try them and don't like them, you're only out the cost of a hamburger at a fast food joint.

The only RPG I've played and enjoyed on the 360 is Eternal Sonata, which I would suggest as well. It's not an exclusive anymore (PS3 eventually got this), but it should be very inexpensive at this point.

[Retrodude]

Hey guys! My friend dropped off the 360 today and it does work, although I have to tap on the top of it while it's reading the disc before it'll go. Before I try and take it apart, I'm gonna pick up a lens cleaner disc and see if that helps at all.

Question: I want to be able to buy Xbox Live Arcade games, but I'm not able to connect my console to the internet. Is it possible to download the games to your pc and use a usb flash drive to move it over to the console?

[BoneSnapDeez]

Retrodude, there are no Japanese games on your list!

For JRPGs, definitely check out Tales of Vesperia and Eternal Sonata (the PS3 version of Sonata is better, but I don't know if you have a PS3).

[Stark]

Are there any others you could recommend? I like RPGs, action adventure and open world/sandbox games. I also like platformers, but I don't know if the 360 has any of those.

Here's a few off the top of my head.

RPGs that I liked:
Lost Odyssey
Enchanted Arms
Mass Effect

Action Adventure that I liked:
Tomb Raider: Legend
Tomb Raider: Underworld

Open world:
Assassin's Creed & AC II

[gtmtnbiker]

Question: I want to be able to buy Xbox Live Arcade games, but I'm not able to connect my console to the internet. Is it possible to download the games to your pc and use a usb flash drive to move it over to the console?

No, I'm pretty sure you can't do this. You need to have your Xbox connected to the internet.

[Ghegs]

Question: I want to be able to buy Xbox Live Arcade games, but I'm not able to connect my console to the internet. Is it possible to download the games to your pc and use a usb flash drive to move it over to the console?

No, I'm pretty sure you can't do this. You need to have your Xbox connected to the internet.

Yep, that's correct. You can, however, play the Live Arcade games offline without a problem once they're downloaded. Can you use a really long network cable just for these occasions, if the console's location is the problem?

Oh, and Xbox Live Indie Games won't work offline, they require a constant Internet connection for whatever reason.

[Retrodude]

The issue is that I have wireless internet at my house because I'm in a really rural area that doesn't have land lines yet. I do have an ethernet cabe, though, and I read something on the Xbox website about connecting the console to my laptop and getting online that way, so I guess I'll have to do that. I know that there's a wireless adapter available, but I wasn't planning on having my system online all the time, so I was just looking for the easiest way to get stuff from the marketplace.

[Ghegs]

The issue is that I have wireless internet at my house because I'm in a really rural area that doesn't have land lines yet. I do have an ethernet cabe, though, and I read something on the Xbox website about connecting the console to my laptop and getting online that way, so I guess I'll have to do that.

Yes, that works as well, I actually have my system set up quite similarly. My game room houses the gaming PC and the 360, but there's just no way to get network cables in there without drilling holes through several walls. Quite inconvenient.

So I bought a WLAN card for my desktop PC, connected that to the wireless network, then connected the 360 to the PC with an Ethernet cable and that's how my 360 goes online. It works really well for me, I don't think I've ever had disconnects in the middle of a game.