Buying an xbox 360

[hungryallthetime]

We're wanting to get our 2 boys an xbox 360 as a joint birthday present, but there seems to be lots of extras and I don't know which are essential. Guessing we need to get an extra wireless controller and 2 headsets. Will this be ok to play minecraft and fifa 14 or do we need kinect too. Haven't got a clue about xbox live either - can they have a subscription between them or do they need on each and what is it anyway?!

Appreciate any help as I don't have a clue about gaming.

How old are the boys?

I'd say based upon my son's usage the following would be useful:

• XBox 360 slim with a decent sized hard drive (ie. not the 4GB one)
• Two wireless controllers
• Two headsets that connect to the controllers
• Charge & Play cables so they can play whilst charging the controllers because otherwise you will need a lot of AA batteries!!
• Xbox Live Gold subscription so they can play online. Without this they cannot play with other people on the Internet. To be honest this is where most of the fun is. If your boys are 12+ then I'd say get it. Otherwise I'd say don't.

The thing to bear in mind is there is a lot of swearing if they play online. You don't need Kinect. The only thing ours seems to be used for is as a spare microphone when my son's broken his headset (which seems to be quite frequently).

Lastly bear in mind that the new Xbox, the XBox one comes out towards the end of this year so if you buy it now it'll be outdated in about 3 months time.

Thanks. They will be 12 and 10, so think they'll want to play online and they love hearing swearing !!! Will look into the cables.

I know the new xbox is coming out but its £429! We can get 360 for half that and it seems its not going to be totally superceded yet, plus we're getting them laptops for Christmas so thought we'll see if they like xbox and can get xbox one another year.

Why would you not recommend for younger than 12? Thinking of one for the youngest DDs (10 and 5) - but not internet connected just thinking of dance games/kinectimals etc. I know the wii is the "younger" console but the games look so clunky in comparison, I wanted something that would have appeal for years (no intention of spending £400+ on an xbox one!)