Customer Reviews

Xbox 360 Arcade Spring 2010 Bundle

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I don't have all the cash to spend in the world, so deliberating between the Arcade bundle and the Elite bundle was a lengthy, careful process that involved reading multiple reviews and generating a feature vs. value spreadsheet. In the end, I'm very happy with my choice to go with the Arcade bundle. It allowed me to get the core system plus three games (Gears of War, Final Fantasy XIII, and Super Street Fighter IV) for a little less than the price of an Elite bundle. I'm giving this a 4 star review for the following issues:

1) The pack-in games aren't that great. Neither Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts nor Viva Piñata are particularly enthralling (and this is coming from someone who greatly enjoyed the original Banjo Kazooie, and Animal Crossing - which is similar in concept to Viva Piñata). This is a matter of opinion, however, so I recommend giving both games a test drive if you can. If neither are your cup of tea, then maybe the extra $100 is worth spending on the Halo 3: ODST and Forza Motorsport III pack-ins of the Elite bundle.

2) No means of internet connection. I prefer playing games solo and not online, so I didn't think that this would be a problem. However - and this is something important to consider - in order to use the Xbox 360 as a decent media hub, you *need* to have network access. I already have a few hundred GB of photos, music, and movies stored in a portable hard drive and was intending to hook it up to my console to watch/listen to media, but half of the file types aren't supported unless you download a system update. Of course, you can't download the update unless you're connected to the internet. D'oh! Syncing with a PC via Windows Media Center to watch media you already have stored on a computer also requires an internet connection. So in addition to considering whether you'll want to play games online or not, definitely also think about whether you'll want to use your Xbox for viewing media when deciding which bundle to purchase. Also think about whether it will be more convenient for you to use an ethernet cable or wireless router. If your console is set up near a port or a router, then the cable that comes in the Elite bundle will do. If you want to connect wirelessly, you'll have to buy the Wireless network Adapter anyway (or set up a work-around, the means of which you can find out and about the internet), so maybe the Arcade bundle will suffice.

3) No included high capacity storage. There's 512 MB built into the console, but after creating profiles for me and my wife and saving saved game data for five games, I'm down to around 180 MB. With the latest system update, you can use a third party external storage device (flash or hard disk drive) to store up to 16 GB of games, media, and Xbox Live Arcade purchases per device (you can use up to two, expanding your storage to a total of 32 GB). This is a good thing since I have a few portable hard drives that I can use, thus saving me the cost of having to buy an official Xbox 360 hard drive. However, loading a game onto your external storage - which greatly reduces loading time, noise, and wear-and-tear on the DVD drive - takes about 8 GB per disk, so at 32 GB you'd only be able to store 4 games tops. I tend to play around three games at a time, so I think I'll be okay (though Final Fantasy XIII is three discs large, hmmm...) But if you have any intention of loading a library of games onto your hard drive, you'll want to consider the Elite bundle which comes with a 120 GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive.

The above issues considered, I'm still very satisfied with the Arcade Bundle I chose. In the end, I'm going to forego the official Xbox 360 hard drive and stick to my external hard drive (perhaps loading one or two games at time). I purchased a Wireless Network Adapter through another online retailer a few days ago, so I'll be able to download the system update and purchase games on Xbox Live Arcade. With the additional expense of the Wireless Adapter and considering my gaming habits, I still feel like I got a better value with the Arcade bundle over the Elite bundle.

My First Impressions Of The 360


I must admit, I'm a little late to the 360 game, but I feel the need to put up a review for people who might still be on the fence about getting a 360. If your reading this, now is the perfect time to get a 360, the Jasper chipset in the 360's have reduced failure rates by an enormous amount and the 'New" 360's are getting an even newer chipset, but I'll just keep my review to the 'Original' 360.

Once you get the 360 out of the box, you see a nice sleek looking all white system (if you have the arcade model, if not your disc tray is chrome) and almost instantly you will notice that most of the 360's housing is aluminum, though there is a little bit of plastic on the outside of the system. Once you dig further into the box however, you will notice perhaps the BIGGEST power brick ever seen on a console, this puppy even has to have its own fan! (A word of warning to people, you MUST keep your power brick in a open well ventilated area and not keep it on the floor/carpet if the power brick overheats it will give your 360 3 red rings (not a RRoD, but a general hardware failure type of 3 red rings) until its cooled off enough to safely power the system.) One thing I did notice with the 360 is that unless you install the game your playing to the 360's HDD the DVD drive is crazy noisy, so much so that I even had to turn up the volume on my TV, a 6GB install (for all games) later and the 360 was as quite as my PS3, the power brick on the other hand makes a constant low humming noise because of the fan. Overall build and design is a 9/10.

The controller of the 360 is perhaps my favorite controller yet. As far as I can tell however it uses infrared to achieve wireless capability's, All though to the 360's benefit I have yet to have the controller lose its sync with the 360. Big bonus points awarded to the 360's controller for being powered by 2 AA batteries, they are user changeable (its just like changing remote batteries) and the included batteries have lasted 4 hours and still seem to be going strong, I'm not 100% sure but I think the controller will start blinking when its almost time to change the batteries, However shame on Microsoft for charging $40 for a play and charge kit (recharge your rechargeable batteries inside the 360's controller while having your controller plugged into the 360,much like the PS3) I would have bought it if it was half the price, however it is a much better investment to just buy 4 AA rechargables and a charger, that way you can always have a set of batteries ready. The 360 controller does have rumble, but it doesn't seem to be very strong, I believe this was done to prevent the AA's from draining to fast, low rumble is better than no rumble though. The controller can also be used to turn the system on and off, I love this feature as my 360 is at the other end of the room I'm in. The controller also has a port on the bottom to plug in a wired headset. Overall a 9/10 for the controller.

The 360 has 2 ways to store data, the first one is a built in 256MB memory unit, this is PLENTY to save games on, the 2nd is a Hard Drive, these range in space from 20GB's,60GB's,120GB's,or 250GB's the HDD's main function is to install a very large portion of a game (75%+) onto it to reduce laser usage on the DVD drive, this is completely optional but is a welcomed option for me. However (and this is a biggy) the Arcade model does not include a HDD only the more expensive elite does, and to buy the HDD separately is actually more expensive than buying an elite unless you buy the HDD used or marked down. Overall a 8/10 for storage mediums

There are many accessories for the 360, anything from lighted controllers to cooling pads are available, however only a handful of these are under $40, the wireless adapter alone will cost you $100! Overall a 7/10 for the accessories affordability.

Games for the 360 are one of its strongest points and easily the number 1 reason to buy a 360, games for it on the used market are very affordable,most popular titles are $40 and under! There are also many must have games for around $15-$20 new (blue dragon is a prime example!). Games for the PS3 do not drop as quickly in price as the 360 games do, as a result this was my personal reason to get a 360, I could get 2 games for $50 while only getting 1 good/recent game for the PS3 for $50, this is starting to change a little more though as PS3 games are starting to drop in price *almost* as quickly as 360 ones do, although the 360 does have a MASSIVE library of games for budget prices. I'm an RPG nut and the PS3 is like the Xbox whereas the 360 is like the PS2 in terms of RPG games. Bottom line, Microsoft got it right this time ans Sony didn't. 9.5/10 for the 360 on its game selection/price.

Overall:42.5/50

Pros:

+Affordable System
+Games are also quite affordable when buying used
+System is a looker
+Excellent 3 year warranty (on the original 360's only! New 360s carry a 1 year only)
+Controller is a smart design and is miles better than the original Xbox controller
=/= The 'original' 360 is now cheap to buy due to a handsome price cut

Cons:

-A high maintenance power brick
-Propitiatory HDD makes buying one expensive
-Accessories are on the expensive side
=/=This 360 is now an old model

Purchased the X box as a christmas gift for my son at the end of October. When it was received we turned on the games played for a few minutes and everything seemed to work fine. The game was boxed up and wrapped. On christmas morning my son was thrilled to get this game. Hooked everything up to the TV and the game worked for a few minutes and froze. We reconnected everything a couple more times before the game stopped working altogether. My son was in tears!
When the seller was contacted all the response I got was that it worked fine when it was shipped and that there was a 30 day return policy. And a slap in the face by signing "Happy Holidays" I do understand a 30 day return policy but some consideration should be made when a unit works for less than 20 minutes and then dies!
Not happy with this seller at all but learned a valuable lesson, I will never buy Used Electronics again.
Thanks for nothing Markis Books!

I purchased one of the original xbox 360's (Xenon) just after the launch. It was noisy and blew lots of heat out of its back side.

This new Jasper ver Xbox has the 65nm cpu and gpu. The new smaller power supply is now rated at a much more reasonable 150 watts. The rear fans on this latest model make much less noise and the air coming out the back is much cooler. This is a significant improvement.

I'm sure there are more improvements coming for the xbox but this latest version is pretty good.

Let me begin by saying that I purchased this item for my children. However I feel I am qualified to write this reveiw because I unpacked the XBox 360 Arcade and upgraded it with my used 20GB hard drive. I also transferred my childrens' data from my XBox to their XBox as it now had a hard drive. And of course I have monitored my children's use of this item to be certain it has performed well...and it has been a great investment.

I am certain there are others out there in a similar situation. I am an avid gamer on the XBox 360 and as my children became older they had become avid gamers on MY XBox 360 as well. This soon became a problem as there were 3 of us wanting to play different games at the same time on the same XBox. I knew I needed to get my kiddos their own XBox. After researching different options, I decided to go with a used XBox 360 Arcade from Amazon, and I have been very pleased with my selection.

I had originally purchased a refurbished XBox 360 with a 20GB Hard Drive, but I had upgraded my unit with a 120GB Hard Drive (which I also purchased from Amazon). That left me with a 20GB spare hard drive. I knew my children would definitely need a hard drive for their XBox as they are playing more and more games. I decided to go with a used Arcade unit to save money, since I already had a 20GB hard drive. This was a great choice and here is why:

The arcade XBox has a built in memory unit. Though the space is too limited for many of the games my children play, it made transfer of data from my 120GB hard drive to their 20GB hard drive a breeze. It could not have been easier. I simply attached my 120GB hard drive to the arcade 360 and transferred my kiddos' profiles and saved game data to the internal memory unit. Then I removed my hard drive and attached my old 20GB hard drive drive to the arcade 360 and moved the data from the internal memory unit to the 20GB hard drive. I only had to repeat this process once or twice and all my childrens' data was moved! They were very pleased to have their profiles and all their saved games without having to start anything over again.

I purchased a used Arcade XBox 360, it was not the full Spring Bundle, but it did come with all the cables and one controller. This unit was very securely packaged, clean and has worked great! It was an economical investment that saved me money and saved the kiddos grief by not having to lose any of their data they had saved on my XBox 360. I highly recommend this item, especially for buyers in a similar situation as I was.

Like everyone else, I've heard a lot of horror stories about the 360's being unreliable because of the infamous Red Ring of Death which is caused by extended periods of heat build up inside the console. Also, people have complained about the fans being too loud...

The new "Jasper" model (mine was manufactured: 4/2010) seems to run relatively cooler and quieter compared to the original beast, which debuted back in 2005. Actually, the disc drive on mine seems to be the loudest part. Microsoft has also extended the warranty for the Red Ring of Death or "Three Lights Flashing Red", as they have officially dubbed it, for three (3) years now. So in my humble opinion, if you consider purchasing one of these beast, make sure it's one of the new (NO USED OR REFURB!) ones or just save your money for the new "S" (slim) model.

i bought this item months ago and this is the best shopping that i did, 5/5 :) The best Xbox 360 on amazon.com

It came like four days later, and im on the other side of the country. Plus the bonus game costs 60 bucks along with two other ones. Even a controller is includeed with batteries. Plus a wifi cable and an hd cable.Or you can pay for a used xbox with a contoller at gamestop for $140. But this is the same deal, but better.This inclused Blitz: The League, which is 60 bucks, plus the xbox and controller are new.And even the two other games. So paying 60 bucks extra for a new xbox three awsome games and new contoller and cable, rather than 60 bucks less for used poop is an obvious choice. Buy it!!!!

So i got a arcade system a while ago after my pro broke.The arcade isnt good at all.It feels cheaply made,it makes allot of noise when you play a game.You get a poor amount of memory space.You cant even download a demo since you have no space.Plus you cant play any original xbox games.
Get a xbox 360 elite.I have the modern warfare2 edition xbox and its really good.Huge memory and allot nicer that the white color.

I have purchased another controller after the first one worked intermittently and changed the batteries several times in about 2 weeks. The second controller connected intermittently and no longer does. Contacted XBox and will now be sending in for a malfunction. Just got the system 3 weeks ago. Numerous blogs talking about the same problem of the system not connecting to the controller. My 10 year old very disappointed as this was a birthday present.