Which Xbox 360 for an 11 year old?

[bigTillyMint]

DS is hoping to get an Xbox for his birthday, and I think we are finally going to cave.... But I have absolutely no idea what would be the best model to get. We would like it to last him a few years.

Help, please

none ... if you value your sanity .... that wretched thing has caused more arguments in this house than anything else and I've still not forgiven dh for buying one for the boys without asking me first ...

When my kids were younger, I swore blind I'd never be one of those parents who sucumb and get them a console.......oh dear! lol

My DS(10) has an Xbox which only recently I've put on Xbox Live. I am still unsure if it's been a good idea. On the one hand it's been good cos he's loving it. On the other hand he's become a little addict. First thing he does when he wakes is MW3. Then as soon as he comes home from school he's on it again.

Worst thing is that his friends seem to be on it more than him! I now hear him shouting through the mic to his mates.

Then the other kids get annoyed and then I have to be UN Peacekeeper to ensure the others all get a go.

So...in short I'm not 100% convinced getting xbox and xbox live was a good idea.

But if you must get one and you plan to go online then I'd go for the Xbox 360 slim with the 250GB hard disk. The 4GB is very small and only really suitable if you never plan on going online. But like I found you'll soon be under pressure to let him play on live. All his mates will be on it.........and if my son's experience is anything to go by, some of them have parents who seem happy their child plays for 6 hours a day.

My advice would be the same as niceguy's. We've had ours a month and I think having Xbox live has been a good think while is is too cold for ds1 and his mates to go out, providing them with a way of staying in touch and playing games together. We bought halo reach for him and he told me the other day that he gets bored of it very easily because it is too repetitive. His favourites have been sonic generations and Rayman origins. Ours is the Matt black 250gb console.

Thanks everyone - looks like it will be the Xbox 250GB.

I know, I know, it's a bad move, but..... We will definitely be limiting his time -he currently probably only plays Fifa 11 for about half an hour on his DS at the most, and occasionally on the Wii with friends.

And I think we will have to have a rule about Xbox live not happening any time soon.

Should we get a bundle with the kinnect option too?

They are supposed to be releasing the new xbox this year so says the Daily Mail so depending on when your dc birthday is, the old type may be heavily discounted upon release of the new one.

Thanks for the tip-off. Sadly, his birthday is March and I doubt he will want to wait for discounts!

Ha ha, good luck with the limiting time thing. My DS is currently stropping away in his bedroom because I've insisted that he do his spellings from school before xboxing and that he has to get them all correct first. I know...i know....how unreasonable of me to expect him to get his spellings right.

It's the live thing which has done it. Prior to live he was as good as gold.

The Kinect thing is cute if you have dinner parties etc but otherwise, ours barely gets used at all.

Kinect is a lot of fun, but you need a big space for it. Most UK living rooms aren't really big enough. If you do have the space, it might be a good thing to get later for a birthday or Christmas etc.

Problem is that when the 720 comes out you may well not be able to play new 720 games on a 360. However I've heard reports that it may not come out till next year. Saying that the new Wii is out in June and I think a new Xbox will come out fairly soon after that as Microsoft will want to keep up.

Companies don't like saying they're about to release something as they know that noone will buy the old console.

Well, I just asked DS and his mate about Xbox, kinect, etc - it appears that he definitely does NOT want the kinect. Plus DH has a Wii (which only the DC use, and then only if they have friends round and they are bored....) so that's £100 saved already

Viva, I bet you are right. Dunno if I can postpone him though, and if I did, he would probably only want to wait if it was to get the new and obviously more expensive one.

Definitely will be telling him that there is NO chance of getting the live bit in the near future. If we do get him an Xbox, of course!

And what do you all reckon about getting a used one? From Amazon or a store?

Our local blockbusters sells them 2nd hand and you get a years warranty with them too. I'd imagine most blockbusters do this.

I work in Cex and they give a year's warranty too, all consoles are fully checked when they come in. You can check prices on the website.

If you do go second hand then go somewhere who will do something like this, game shops are a good bet too, rather than amazon/ebay as the sellers are often just ordinary people passing things on, and won't offer ongoing support.

Thanks for all your advice, it's really helpful

We got a used one off eBay just before Xmas, was fine , saved about £80 and was hardly used. No warranty tho' but there were some and new unwanted gift ones.