But before all the fanboys jump in and say yes , please take time to read this.

I already have a PS3 which I'm very happy with and I use this for online gaming , so there's no chance at all of me paying to do the same on a 360. At the moment though , there are some excellent deals on a 360 arcade that are almost too good to ignore.

I can get an Arcade plus three games for £120 , then sell the two I don't want to bring the price down to under £100 , so I'm guessing the question really is - are there enough 360 exclusive single-player titles to make it worthwhile?

Forza 3!

Forza 3!

Yep , thats the game that's included in the deal and it does look good , but if I never buy anything else that's effectively cost me £100 for one game , and I could just wait for GT5 on the PS2

What type of games do you like playing?.

Forza 3!

NO you will have to put up with the ring of death the dreaded three red lights my mate up here went though three xboxes 360s in three months each time having to send it back to germany to be repaired (paid for buy the warranty) but each time he didnt have it for about two weeks , in the end he took it back to get a ps3 ...stick with the ps3

Personally I reckon Forza 3, the Gears of War games, and Halo are probably enough to warrant a purchase.

However be careful as while the Arcade set up appears value for money for your £130 ish pounds you get :

• 
  *a single wireless controller which will eat AA's at an alarming rate
  *no hard disk so you will only be able to save a limited amount of game data,
  *no HD connection cables so the silky smooth graphics will go through red yellow white component cable or SCART
  *xbox live membership to "silver" level only meaning no online game pay (unless you buy "gold"status at anoter £30)
  

By the time you add a HDD, a HDMI cable and a gold membership to xbox live you'd be as wise to buy a standard (non-Arcade) or Elite xbox.

NO you will have to put up with the ring of death the dreaded three red lights my mate up here went though three xboxes 360s in three months each time having to send it back to germany to be repaired (paid for buy the warranty) but each time he didnt have it for about two weeks , in the end he took it back to get a ps3 ...stick with the ps3

No longer a problem, the new Jasper revision console has the problem solved and its no longer a problem with those. This revision of console runs much quieter and a lot cooler than the earlier versions.

The big issue is going to be that most games for the 360 are geared for online play, they can be played offline but to get the full benefit you need to be online really.

No longer a problem, the new Jasper revision console has the problem solved and its no longer a problem with those. This revision of console runs much quieter and a lot cooler than the earlier versions.

The big issue is going to be that most games for the 360 are geared for online play, they can be played offline but to get the full benefit you need to be online really.

cheers buddy was going to buy one but ended up with a ps3 due to his problems was only september would haveheld out for the xbox murphys law i think its called

NO you will have to put up with the ring of death the dreaded three red lights my mate up here went though three xboxes 360s in three months each time having to send it back to germany to be repaired (paid for buy the warranty) but each time he didnt have it for about two weeks , in the end he took it back to get a ps3 ...stick with the ps3

I have owned both the 360 and ps3 since launch and for reliability my 360 wins hands down and its used a lot more than the ps3 . So far im on my 3rd ps3 and 2nd 360. i only replaced my launch 360 earlier this year due to the 3 red lights . Also i find xbox live far better than anything sony is offering .

NO you will have to put up with the ring of death the dreaded three red lights my mate up here went though three xboxes 360s in three months each time having to send it back to germany to be repaired (paid for buy the warranty) but each time he didnt have it for about two weeks , in the end he took it back to get a ps3 ...stick with the ps3

RROD is over. Fixed. Finished!

Xbox... as has been said, Forza, Gears of War. The only two reasons you need

I'll be buying a PS3 when Heavy Rain comes out. I'll be buying the console for one game!

I've never liked any of the GT series! GT5 Prologue was very disappointing, too!

is there a confirmed release date for GT5 yet?

is there a confirmed release date for GT5 yet?

About the same time as a new Fabia vRS

About the same time as a new Fabia vRS

Which is also the fastest car in the game/world

What type of games do you like playing?.

I do like a good driving game (played them most on the original X-Box) , and I've been playing a lot of FPS games on the PS3.

One thing that's tempting me is some of the downloadable games , but I know for that I'd need a hard drive.

Yes, you will need a HDD if you want to play the downloadable "Arcade" games. I tend to play all my driving games offline, not using XBL and find them just fine, so thats Forza2 and PGR4 and an old Need for Speed for me. I have not got Forza3 yet as I will wait till it drops in price or becomes available as a preowned title.

Personally I reckon Forza 3, the Gears of War games, and Halo are probably enough to warrant a purchase.

However be careful as while the Arcade set up appears value for money for your £130 ish pounds you get :

• 
  *a single wireless controller which will eat AA's at an alarming rate
  *no hard disk so you will only be able to save a limited amount of game data,
  *no HD connection cables so the silky smooth graphics will go through red yellow white component cable or SCART
  *xbox live membership to "silver" level only meaning no online game pay (unless you buy "gold"status at anoter £30)
  

By the time you add a HDD, a HDMI cable and a gold membership to xbox live you'd be as wise to buy a standard (non-Arcade) or Elite xbox.

As I said , I've got no intention of using it for online gaming so Gold membership isn't an issue , and a HDMI cable is only a couple of quid.

The lack of rechargeable battery isn't too bad - I have plenty of AAs for the Wii , though it does smell a bit of too much cost cutting.

I'm not trying to start a console war , but if you want a 360 with a hard drive , wireless network and rechargeable batteries then it's as expensive as a PS3 (if not more so) and that's without Blu-Ray.

I'm only considering an extra machine cause it's under £100 and not twice that.

I wouldn't recommend a 360 without a HDD to anyone.

Even forgetting XBL, the console is a noisy mofo and installing the games to HDD gets rid of a lot of the noise, and makes them faster too (removes a lot of waiting time).

Without a HDD, your pretty buggered for downloadable games, as most of the new ones wont fit on the memory cards.

If you want to do it cheap, get an arcade, and find a 20 or 60GB HDD on ebay.

And NEVER EVER buy a second hand 360, its an absolute minefield, with older less RROD proof chipsets.

Similar reasons to why I bought mine but I just don't have the time/opportunity to play much campaign type stuff or online so its quick blasts for me.

As to a few of the points raised, you can pick up small HDD pretty cheap if you need to, batteries in the controllers are not too bad. I think I was using Duracell Ultra and seemed to last long enough - not worth it (cost/benefit) for me to buy the battery packs - when you've got a small child you've always got AA batteries around. I'm connected over the included component cable to a 32" 720p LCD TV and the quality is good enough without needing the HDMI cable and a friend gets similar results with his 40" 1080p LCD (both Samsungs).

Another option for you, if you're not going to go online is getting it chipped/flashed and then you play whatever you want

I got, from a friend, a new Pro/Premium (60Gb HDD whatever they're called) plus the Residnet Evil 5 game and controller pack back in the summer for £140 which was a good deal at the time but since had it flashed and warranty tossed out of the window I've not played mine for a bit but my mates still works. Only thing is his 'associate' got his machine banned from XBL, my mate hasn't logged in since and I've not set it up yet anyway. AFAIK you get a free month of XBL Gold to give it a try. :S

I've just got a VGA cable so I can connect to my monitor rather than TV which means I should be able to play it a bit more now.

Mine works fine over component also

I'm a 360 user but my brother was a PS3 user and I know he has had to replace his twice (in 2 years) where as this is only my second xbox in 4 years, first one lasting for over 3 until the ring of death (which has no been repaired and is used by my brother).

He (my brother) says that the PS3 is better for game play and the fact its blueray etc but for on-line gaming the 360 wins hands down even with having to pay for the years membership. Its also quicker to update.

As for buying one is it worth it for the few games that only the xbox have? Forza 3 is great better than forza 2. I like the left for dead series which I'm fairly hooked on at the moment and the on-line gaming bit is great.