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The Slim design isn't going to trickle down to the other models?
If I were to guess, it would be this single new model alone for the rest of this year, with the 2 older models slotting in as the "bargain" versions for the holiday season. Then next year, after the launch of Kinect has settled in, and the older models are pretty well phased out, they could introduce a wider range of models.
 
If I were to guess, it would be this single new model alone for the rest of this year, with the 2 older models slotting in as the "bargain" versions for the holiday season. Then next year, after the launch of Kinect has settled in, and the older models are pretty well phased out, they could introduce a wider range of models.
I've heard that the older Arcade and Pro models are no long in production. What is going to happen once they're no longer in stock?
 
LOL, yea because one of those large chunks of black plastic is soooo much better looking than the other two. None of the current consoles are "good" looking, if we're being totally honest. They are just boxes, that perform a function. Who cares?

Tell that to Steve and see what happens, lol.

I do like the way my Wii looks on the shelf. Its slick, plain, and small. The console itself just looks classy, especially the black wiis. The wiimotes on the other hand.... I keep those in a drawer so they dont stick out like ugly white remotes.
 
So the only model they're going to sell is the Elite Slim one once the supplies on the current Arcade and Pro are out?

It's not call an elite or a slim. It is just called Xbox 360 and then the Hard Drive size. My friend at gamestop said there should be a different model (either with a smaller hard drive or no hard drive) coming before the end of summer, due to their current xbox 360 arcade inventory.

Also, Engadget has a breakdown of the insides of the system. The system is quieter and uses less power.

... the new Xbox "noticeably quieter," measured at 45dB when idle or 51dB ... that's down from 50dB and 54dB... Regarding power consumption, Anand measured a 50% reduction from the original 2005 Xbox 360 (25% less than Jasper-class rigs at idle, or 20% to 17% less under load) and pulled just 0.6W when "totally off" compared to the 2W of vampire power pulled by older 360s.

They also said that there probably won't be a price break/reduction in the near future. Soif you were planning on picking up a 360, the current model is 50 bucks cheaper than the slim.
 
2010-06-18xboxfight-4-1276881920.jpg


More comparison pictures against an original 360, Wii and both versions of PS3 over at Engadget.

As I've said before, I'm absolutely sure there will be a cheaper 120GB of the S, maybe in white, released in time for Xmas.

:apple:
 
I am currently deciding whether to buy a 360 Slim or a PS3 Slim. PS3 has won out for one single reason. It has an inbuilt 3D blu ray player that will be getting support for years to come. Had the 360 included a blu ray player, I would be buying it. Sorry MS.

ps3slim580_081709.jpg
 
Also keep in mind that the ps3 has tons more exclusives coming later this year as well.

Even with a complete re-design i'd still be nervous buying a slim 360 right away. MS has shown after several mobo revisions that they couldnt get the rrod issue under control with the fat 360s, so i'm not sure if i trust them to cram everything into smaller, albeit better ventilated, case.

Anyone know what flashed fatties are going for these days? I'm hoping that with the new hardware shipping people might be selling their flashed 360s in order to upgrade. I wouldnt mind having a 360, but i dont want to buy the necessary stuff to flash it myself.
 
Maybe some of you who own one of the two HD systems can help me out.

I own a Wii. I really like it, but you've got companies like EA who think it's only 5-year-olds and grannies playing it. Therefore, we get things like NCAA Football 09. That was by far the worst sports game I have ever played. It was like EA took NCAA 06 for the PS2, stripped out everything good and put in a mascot game. EA didn't make NCAA Football 10, and I see no indication of NCAA Football 11 for Wii.

Thus with the newer designs of the 360 and PS3, I'm considering getting one. I mainly would like HD games at times, especially the college football one. I looked into the 360 Arcade version and balked immediately because it sounds like something for people who never want to save a game. Oh yeah, it has NO WIFI. No WiFi is a dealbreaker on the Pro or whatever 360 as well.

I have a neighbor who manages a GameStop, so I plan on asking him about this. But I'm just curious as to what you guys think. I have zero interest in buying any movies or music online through this. I really don't know much about games specific to each platform. A friend told me there was a Magic: The Gathering game for XBox. That would be pretty neat, especially if I could trade all those damn cards I have for it. I don't plan on doing any Rock Band or Guitar Hero for those because I dropped $150 on the set for Wii. I saw Final Fantasy XIII was on the 360, but I bought friggin' Final Fantasy X for $20 and never played it on my PS2.

I also doubt I'll have much interest in these systems' motion controls because of cost. I'm really not wanting to go all in on these things. I just want an alternative to Wii for when the developers get sloppy and don't release a game I like for Wii. I own a crapload of BDs, so that is in my mind for the PS3. But I already have two BD players for my two HDTVs. So thanks for any input.
 
^ Right now I'd go for a PS3 since I prefer the exclusives for that over the Xbox. You won't go wrong with either though. Sports titles (at least the very popular ones) are always multiplatform. Online play is better on the Xbox though you have to pay a subscription for it. The new Xbox has built in Wifi.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell!
 
^ Right now I'd go for a PS3 since I prefer the exclusives for that over the Xbox. You won't go wrong with either though. Sports titles (at least the very popular ones) are always multiplatform. Online play is better on the Xbox though you have to pay a subscription for it. The new Xbox has built in Wifi.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell!

I'll take up the other position and say go for the 360. I really recommend it if you are a big FPS online player. The 360s success has been primarily built on first person shooters, and it isn't going to stop anytime soon. With it getting Halo Reach this year exclusively, Gears 3 next year, and it gets the dlc packs for Call of Duty first, Microsoft knows where it's hardcore fans lie.

The online play is the star with the 360, and now PS3 will be joining the ranks with their pay system. Live really is worth the $50. You can also do like many of us and check Amazon where you can often get Live memberships for $35, or $50 with extras thrown in like extra controllers and headsets. On Live itself they have been offering all kinds of discounts on the service the past few months. Signing up with a free silver account will let you take a look and decide for yourself.

My Elite did go belly up a few months ago, was without it for 1.5 - 2 weeks, and got one back for free. I have no complaints, though if it does die again, maybe the excuse for the new design. Also as much as the RRoD rightfully became the big issue, it has calmed down a little bit, and PS3 had it's own yellow light of death for a few, not including occasional brickings for older systems whenever a new update came out. Not even close to the 360 issues, but for some problems did occur.

I have a 60gb PS3, love the BW compatibility, but other than that, I tend to lean more towards my 360. I have a Blu Ray player so I don't use the PS3 for that, and like the previous poster stated the new 360s finally come with wi fi.
 
All that matters is what games you like. Halo, Gears? Get a 360. inFamous, LBP? Get a ps3.

The 360 has tons more shooters, but the ps3 has it beat in variety, imo. With titles like the aforementioned inFamous, LBP, as well as The Last Guardian, Ratchet and Clank, God of War, etc theres a lot more variety than the 360 can offer. Of course none of that matters if you like what the 360 has more.
 
I looked into the 360 Arcade version and balked immediately because it sounds like something for people who never want to save a game.
The Arcade units have built in 256MB for game saves, so that isn't an issue. Of if you need more space, any USB drive can be formatted to use as well.
 
Thanks for all the input.

I honestly haven't played much of the games some of you listed as platform-specific. I bought a Wii because of the virtual console games from old systems and the Zelda: Twilight Princess game available at launch. It was also $250 at the time versus like $400 and $600. I like a lot of the games I have bought for it, but damned EA Sports and it's awful NCAA Football attempt.

I think I like FPS games, but it of course depends on which one. I've heard a lot about Halo being good. I remember David Pollack talking about playing that with his roommates when he was at UGA. I think that was in the Halo 2 days. I liked playing Half-Life in college on our network, but I didn't play much of the story. SOCOM: US Navy SEALs was pretty awesome on the PS2, but I got stuck at a couple of parts on it.

As I said, I heard about a Magic: The Gathering game on 360 that sounds interesting. In my PC days, there was an online PC version of that game that I enjoyed a bit.

Someone may need to explain the point of such big hard disks to me on the 360 and PS3. I know you can download movies and such, but I'm still a disc whore/Apple whore. I've got a lot of BDs and DVDs that I use, plus I plan on getting an Apple TV whenever Steve-o decides to update it. I watch a TON of my DVDs ripped to my computer. The Wii has storage space mostly for saves and VC games. I have a 4GB SD card in there, which is way more than I need. See I'd buy the $250 system with two free games if not for the insanity of $90 for a WiFi adapter. My Wii has WiFi built in and costs $200 now. Microsoft, c'mon.

One last thing probably is system reliability. I've had a Wii since launch with no problems. I bought a PS2 before the slimming and it stopped playing stuff effectively, which forced me to buy a Slim. I don't know anybody who owned a PS2 who didn't have to do that. Consider me wary of Sony because of that, just this time the hardware has cost twice as much. I have two BD players. Yeah, it would be neat to have a newer one to replace my pre-Netflix streaming system that loads a little slow, but it still plays mostly fine. I've got another much better BD player, both of these Samsungs, and it's kick-ass.

Thanks again for the info. My only hangup right now on deciding on a 360 is the stinkin' Live Gold card. At least I don't have to buy that upfront. Oh yeah, I also don't want to see Tim Tebow's stupid face on NCAA Football for the next year. I would pay $100 for the game if I could get anybody on the cover but that douche. Unfortunately, even a replaced cover won't cover up the art in the game. AUGGH.
 
...I bought a Wii because of the virtual console games from old systems and the Zelda: Twilight Princess game available at launch. It was also $250 at the time versus like $400 and $600...

I bought the wii for the same reason you did, 250 is much cheaper than 400-600 and the virtual console sounded like an awesome idea.
I bought an xbox when it dropped to 200 and haven't touched the wii since. Also, the xbox live arcade games (a lot of them are also on the PSN) trounce the virtual console games.

Magic: The Gathering game on 360 that sounds interesting...
I think this is coming to PC or PSN as well.

...the point of such big hard disks to me on the 360 and PS3.
There is no point, but lots of people will tell you "you need all the room you can get." I stream all of my media content to my xbox. I only use the hard drive for downloadable games, game saves, and to "install" disc games to the drive. You can use a usb drive (16GB max) instead of a hard drive on the xbox.

... I have two BD players.
Normally I would recommend a PS3 for the blu-ray player, but it seems pointless since you already have 2.

...I also don't want to see Tim Tebow's stupid face on NCAA Football for the next year. I would pay $100 for the game if I could get anybody on the cover but that douche. Unfortunately, even a replaced cover won't cover up the art in the game. AUGGH.

I am glad I am not the only one who dislikes Timmy.
 
There is no point, but lots of people will tell you "you need all the room you can get." I stream all of my media content to my xbox. I only use the hard drive for downloadable games, game saves, and to "install" disc games to the drive. You can use a usb drive (16GB max) instead of a hard drive on the xbox.
There are 2 very good reasons for having a large hard drive, especially on the 360. You mentioned the game installs. That is the best reason ever. Not only do many games load things a little quicker, but the console becomes much quieter. The disc drive on the 360 is the source of much of its noise. By installing, you keep that drive from spinning while playing, and the system is MUCH quieter.

But also for downloadable stuff, which you mentioned. More and more games are releasing lots of DLC, and that can really add up. I have well over 12GB just in DLC for the games I own, and a little over 2GB in XBLA games. Now sure, as you said, you can use a USB drive. If you don't plan on downloading much stuff, that will work just fine. But, I really like having a ton of space. Even with many of my disc-based games installed, all my XBLA games, DLC and stuff, I still have over 30GB free to use for downloading demos and trailers and stuff, and I don't have to keep track of a bunch of different USB drives.
 
Just thought I'd let you guys know I decided on an Xbox 360 Arcade. I really didn't want to drop $300 on the new system -- plus GameStop had none -- and this allowed me to not take as much of a risk moneywise. I'm already finding out how crazy low 256MB of memory is, so I'll probably end up getting an add-on HDD.

The advice was all pretty good. I'm glad I wasn't the only person angry at Wii developers not named Nintendo for their lack of good titles. I'm starting gently on this thing with Halo 3 and the kiddie games that came with this package. Halo 3 so far is a little confusing because I have never used an Xbox controller and it's been years since I played a game like this. I also had to use my 32" TV instead of the older 57" TV because the 57" TV put a nice black spot in the middle of the screen.

So far so good. It's just very confusing at times. I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to start a Gold membership. There's something online that says a month of Gold for $1, but I don't want to have to auto-renew after that not knowing the price. I have seen a 12-month card at Amazon for $35. They need an idiot's guide to this, plus I wish I could plug up my existing HDDs!

So thanks again for the advice. If anybody knows something REALLY fun to play that isn't too expensive, I'd love to know.
 
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