Teach me ... Xbox 360

I saw on my favorite deal forum that Target was blowing out Xbox 360 Arcade 2010 Spring Bundles for $130 with a $50 gift card making them $80, so I bought myself a Fathers Day present and promptly dropped the gift card on Forza. Connected to my home theater with a spare HDMI cable I had lying around and it looks and sounds darned good! I'm probably going to pick up a Microsoft wireless wheel tomorrow, and am on the lookout for a cheap HD to add to the system. What do I need to know about this thing, other than keep it cool to try to avoid the RROD? Recommended games? How does this Live thing work, and can I use it to race you guys? I'm a total xbox newb. "learn me"

For that kind of scratch, I might get one tomarrow.

More than likely you will find the lack of storage space on the Arcade frustrating (I did) so you might want to look for a hard drive.

Hmm, web site showed $150 with a $30 card. Either way, I will take a look when I'm doing wedding registry stuff tomarrow

For Live, you have to buy a monthly subscription, but with that subscription you can play nearly any dang game you want online. We have a junction box with the xBox and the computer hooked up to our hi-speed interwebz connection, and we can actually play online with the computer and play online with Live at the same time.

Also, Netflix' online selections are avalible through xBox Live, so if you already have a Netflix account, you may be able to upgrade that as well.

And yeah, if you have Live, you can race with us.

You can format a 16GB thumb-drive in each port in the front of the machine, without having to buy a hard drive.

The newer machines have changed the way they soldered the board, so the RROD is a thing of the past.

Make sure you get Forza Motorsports 3.

My understanding is that Microsoft got rid of the RROD (red ring of death) by merely eliminating that color from the LED bar. Not that they actually fixed the problem.

Can't even find the XBox Arcade on the Target website.

racerfink wrote: You can format a 16GB thumb-drive in each port in the front of the machine, without having to buy a hard drive. The newer machines have changed the way they soldered the board, so the RROD is a thing of the past. Make sure you get Forza Motorsports 3.

I did get Forza 3. I tried plugging an 8gb flash drive I have into the front USB panel but it wasn't recognized - I'm guessing now that's because it's presently mac formatted. I'll try again with a reformat, but looking at the price of the harddrive kits vs 16gb thumb drives I'm better off grabbing a 20gb drive, or the 60gb drive/live starter kit.

IMHO, you don't really need 60 gigs. I have twenty, and I play a bunch of games all the time, and I have not even come close to filling it.

Our computer is in another room from the box, so we got a wireless router (The Microsoft brand one works excellently!)

We love the Netflix options, and live is pretty fun, it allows me to play with my friends all over the country.

Left 4 Dead 2, and Borderlands are currently my favorites. For fun "arcade" type racing, check out Dirt 2, and Need For Speed: Shift!

the only reason to get the bigger HDs is so you can download the demo games, and so you can save the full games to it(the game will load faster and it wont spin up the disk the whole time)

2.0dohc wrote: ...and so you can save the full games to it(the game will load faster and it wont spin up the disk the whole time)

And it supposedly prolongs the life of the consol

Just picked up the MS Wireless Wheel - too bad I have to actually do work today or I'd be home playing right now.

Welcome to the world of modern gaming. Even though the 360 is plagued with hardware failures, it's a good platform with TONS of great games. You'll want some sort of HD, I'd get the biggest one you can afford. I believe you actually need one for Forza 3, because one of the discs installs on the drive. Also, you'll need some way of hooking it up to the internet. The MS wireless adapter is pricey, but there are other methods. You could run a cable right from your router or modem if it's close by, or you could get a network extender like I did and use it as an acess point.

That said, there are a few other games that are worth picking up for the system. As far as racing games, Forza 3 is the best, but there are some other ones that are not as good at the sim-type racing but are pretty fun, like the Project Gotham games, the two Burnout games (especially Burnout Paradise), Grid, Dirt, and many more. Other than racing games, there are lots of other great games for the 360.

The x-box will live next to my router so networking is not an issue. I will be looking for a hard drive - seems like it's worth it to get one from an internet seller vs. local retailers who are all selling at MSRP. Will I need/want the headset if I do live online gaming? If so that makes the HD decision easy - 60GB hd kit with the wired headset and 3 months of Live for ~$60 from multiple retailers.

Yeah, if you're playing online games, you're gonna want the headset. That's a good price for the 60GB bundle, I say go for it.

Get the headset. You won't be able to harass other players anywhere near as well without it. I might have to pick up another Xbox for that deal, thanks for the heads up!

a headset is nice to have. get one of the wireless ones. the cheap one that came with my x-box was pure crap (I wouldn't call it functional even)

Thanks for the deal heads up! My son and I went out and got one from Target after seeing your post. Sale price was supposed to be $149.99 but at the store (and on web-site) there was a sign that said the ad was wrong. It was supposed to have a headset but didn't so the price was adjusted to $130 plus a $50 Target GC. We bought a used copy of Project Gotham 4 from Gamestop. Grand Total invested is $88 plus tax, not a bad deal!

hmm think we'll drive by target tommarow... for $88 i'll have a hard time saying no... plus just got a 20" HD monitor with HDMI... hmm.

doh forgot that xbox doesn't have wifi... so add another $70 for the xbox adapter lol... or hack a spare router to work as a repeater...

or setup your laptop to share internet connection lol

I use xbox live through my computer. what you need to do is get an ethernet cord, hook one end up to your computer and one up to your xbox. The next step is to enable Internet Connection Sharing. Under Network Connections, select your wireless connection. Right click it; and do properties. It should be on the last tab; Internet Connection Sharing. Check both boxes and it should work! :-D

FYI, the reason Xboxes are so cheap is because MS debuted a slimmer version of the console at E3 this year:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/xbox-360-slim-vs-xbox-360-a-quick-hands-on-comparison/

FTFA: Check out our quick hands-on video comparing the new Xbox 360 Slim vs. the original 360 console.

We took a minute to outline the differences between the two Xbox 360 models. A few of the new features the 360 Slim adds are built-in Wi-Fi, a larger 250 GB hard drive, and 2 additional USB ports.

In other news, I'm thinking of running a StockCar race tonight, in honor of the Nationwide series being at Road America today, and Sprint Cup being at Infineon. Chevy, Dodge, and Ford Stock Cars, stock P.I., and Road America.

Whoops, this was supposed to be in the Forza 3 thread, but it works here too.

funny, I had the same idea earlier today!

where do you live? I'll sell you my once used xbox360 wheel for $50 +shipping (i know this isn't classifieds but it's GRM and I'm trying to cut the man a deal). I just don't have room for a wheel setup right now :( and moving soon so trying to get rid of a lot of stuff.

BTW updated 360 is coming out this week hence why all the other onces dropped in price. Great way to get a deal.

I'm outside Rochester, NY (14425). I just bought a wheel but it's returnable :) PM me a total and where/how (paypal?) to send payment. Thanks!