Help me boards people, you're my only hope

Creature

Ok so I'm looking into getting an xbox for SSF4. I really don't want to wait the 6+ months for the PC release...again.

What I need is help in finding the console and possibly the TE stick for the best possible price.

The console is of primiero importance. How much would I be looking at buying one new for and would I save much if I bought online considering the likely huge P&P costs? What about going second hand? If that'll affect the warranty or repair options then it's not an option as I know Xboxes tend to up and die if you so much as look at them funny.

The stick isn't too important as I already have an ancient HRAP that works with a converter but I want to upgrade anyway. If I don't have one by launch day its not the end of the world so waiting a while for delivery is no problem. The best offer I can see so far is £129 on Amazon, but AFAIK they wont ship electronic good here. Any other ideas?


God I feel like such an oul fella, asking the 'kids' about their video games machines.

Sisko

get a ps3

Doctor DooM

I heard HMV are selling off the original T and SE for pretty good prices.


Dunno about consoles. I use my housemates.


And I have a PS3 as well.

chopperbyrne

Check www.adverts.ie

Also, get a PS3.

bush

Do not, under any circumstances get a ps3 for street fighter :pac:

I think you would be better off buying brand new too. I dont think they are that expensive now anyway.

Creature

Yeah I'm sure you guys are lonely all by yourself on PSN but I don't think I'll be joining you. Also PS3s are more expensive so no thanks.

chopperbyrne

Creature wrote: »

Yeah I'm sure you guys are lonely all by yourself on PSN but I don't think I'll be joining you. Also PS3s are more expensive so no thanks.

I'm assuming you'll be wanting an xbox live account, that's 59.99 per year.

If you need to connect wirelessly then you'll need the wireless adapter which is about another 50.00.

It's about another 15.00 to just have the ability to charge your controllers!

The console by itself is cheaper, but all this crap adds up.

bush

Buy your live subs from here, save a bit of money.

http://cheapxboxlivecodes.com/xbox-live-gold-subscription-codes/cheap-12-month-xbox-live-gold-membership-subscription/

Ramza

I had a RROD Xbox I sold recently, could of sold it to you with the wireless yolk, HDD and all for a steal (given you'd have to send it to MS for a repair)

Personally I've had enough with the "Brokebox please fix me", so I just use my brother's PS3 from now on (which he rarely uses to an extra plus there)

After using Xbox for so long having free online is a great help, even though my own experience with PSN wasn't as enjoyable as XBL (but I think I should personally give it another chance)

You could look on adverts, people usually sell RROD Xbox for practically nothing, if you're willing to send it off/wait a while, you could save a lot of money

D4RK ONION

chopperbyrne wrote: »

I'm assuming you'll be wanting an xbox live account, that's 59.99 per year.

If you need to connect wirelessly then you'll need the wireless adapter which is about another 50.00.

It's about another 15.00 to just have the ability to charge your controllers!

The console by itself is cheaper, but all this crap adds up.

But you'll also want to have people to play when you get online. Therefore, you might want to go 360. I'm pretty sure the cheapest model is pretty good value at this stage.

Creature

Hmm yeah I forgot about the subscription to Xbox live. Hopefully I'll only need for a year or so until the PC version gets a release.

Ken B

There's a 360 TE2 stick in Gamestop in St. Stephen's Green shopping centre for €140, or at least there was one last week.

Kirby

Creature wrote: »

Hmm yeah I forgot about the subscription to Xbox live. Hopefully I'll only need for a year or so until the PC version gets a release.

It's a gateway though. You will get one for SSF4, but now that you have it and have access to other games, you will probably get more.

K.O.Kiki

You could always put fresh buttons in your HRAP instead of getting a TE.
Function-wise, it'd be the exact same.

Retr0gamer

Even though it's ever so slightly inferior, with my xbox live subscription up and no money to renew it and my 360 in the hospital after a rrod incident I'm kind of regretting not going for the PS3 option.

Jim

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Even though it's ever so slightly inferior, with my xbox live subscription up and no money to renew it and my 360 in the hospital after a rrod incident I'm kind of regretting not going for the PS3 option.

While I would say, this is only in some cases and xbox is grand, on the other hand I wouldn't know what I'd do if my xbox red ringed. Well out of warrenty and there's no way I can afford a new one.

Retr0gamer

I looked after mine well and it was well out of warranty. I rang up to get a price from MS but they took it for repairs for free, no questions asked.

Sisko

I pretty much did what your looking to do creature. I'm a pure PC gamer but bought a console cause I couldnt stand the wait (or knew I couldn't)

I went with ps3 for a number of reasons but I personally found it compliments the PC gaming better then the 360, for me. I'm not into halo and all that , and really not into any console fpsing.

The machine itself is better and I personally like the pad more, the way it charges and the USB functionality. I was well used to playing SF on a ps3 pad.

The paying just to be allowed to use the internet thing on 360 is a scam and really pisses me off too so the free PSN was another aspect.


Anyway I'll tell you my experience and compare it to GFWL since that appears to be the same interface wise to xbox live.

SF4 on PSN, when you search for games it'll only show 3-4 results per page. People confuse this thinking they must be the only people hosting.

Not the case, it just doesn't display a full page for some reason, you just keep refreshing and it'll show you the next few people and the next.


Filtering hosts by 'stability' is pointless, it doesn't work, pretty much the same on live though. Its really better to use your own judgement.

Remember your ping goes up when your searching for players so you can pretty much add one bar to everyone you see on the list.

Also just cause its not showing someone's ping doesn't mean its going to be bad ping.

Anyway back to differences. On PSN compared to the PC version now, you'll run into that unable to connect thing a lot more. On PC you can try the same guy again and it'll work. On PSN you pretty much wont be playing that guy. His ports are not open or he's on an iffy wireless connection.

Putting your PS3 on a DMZ on your router really helps things. But you are also depending on others to do the same.

On the PC , pc gamers tend to be used to messing with port forwarding and such so your not gonna run into this as much.

Also note that sometimes unable to connect shows as the guy who was hosting stoped hosting just before you tried to join.



More onine experience differences :

Joining game invites is a bit quicker with live. On live you get the message, open it up and accept invite.

Or you can look at your list and see your friend is hosting and join him (this is the pc version I assume its the same on console)

On PSN instead built into the main menu on SF4 theres a 'confirm invites' menu option.

So on PSN when you get the invite message, you don't open it up at all or do anything with it. Instead you click on the 'confirm invites' menu option, then select the invite and join.

Live likes to use the live interface as much as possible which sometimes annoys me a bit, someone would send me a message and I go to press the home key but before I pressed it a 'friend' comes online. Now for some reason I'm looking at his profile , so I have to try and go back to the main live menu , end up having to open it up again, then navigate to my message inbox etc etc. This wouldnt be too bad if live wasnt so terrible at handling fast inputs. I could do all what I said there with a few fast keystrokes but live can't handle that and starts pausing and getting confused... delaying all this. Annoying when your tryng to get back to that character select screen in time to stop it auto picking Abel :P

This is more me bitiching about having to use a console interface on a pc though. Having a mouse and kb infront of me I'm used to **** responding instantly. If I was downstairs on the tv with a pad in hand I probably wouldnt notice.

Anyway:


Live limits you in terms of your message size and the amount of messages you can hold. Which is retarded for the PC version...

You also can't see your sent messages either.

I can't tell you the amount of times I've logged in to live to see messages from people and I've no idea who they are or what they're responding to. I can't check sent messages to see what our conversation was.


On PSN you can view entire conversation history which I really miss when I use live.

Live however gives you more info on the player, tells you if he's in game , playing training mode, player match in the main menu, bla bla bla.

PSN just tells you what game you met the person in, and if he's not in your friend list then unless I'm mistaken , you won't even know if he's still online nevermind what he's playing.

Only other difference I can think of is that on the PS3 you can add your own music to SF4 by use of a playlist. This will replace the main menu and stage music. However when you play online the proper stage music plays. But only during the fight, once the fight is over it fades back to your own music.


Also you install the game on ps3 to get the better loading times.


Chances are on 360 more people are connected using ethernet cables instead of wireless meaning better connections to people, this probably just adds to the myth that online on 360 is better because of the monthly fee, which is not the case.

Most of my live experience is on PC, which would more then likley be better then live on console, its differences are not worth a montly fee imo.

bush

Please dont listen to sisko :pac:

Sisko

I'm just telling him my experiences with both systems online features , but I've little with an actual 360 so I'd be interested if I'm wrong.

In the end its down to personal preference. I'm a snobby PC gamer, both consoles are bollocks. I just think the ps3 is a little less bollocks

If I was a pure console gamer, into console fps's , no online pc gaming experience, bla bla, even though its more of a disposable gaming machine I'd prob go with a 360.

bush

Ive played both versions a lot, the xbox version is much better and I use wireless on both with the proper nat type. Its worth paying the 30 quid a year to not have your head wrecked trying to get a decent match going on psn. You can also install any game on 360 and listen to your own music over any game if you want.
The only thing I will agree with is the message system is way better on psn.

Sisko

What do you disagree with though? I never said you can connect to people easier on PSN.

Also for clarity:

I mention the installation thing not as a 'haha on ps3 you can do this' but as a difference between the two, on ps3 you must install it to get the good load times, not the case with 360.

The music feature again, not something I'm saying its a deal breaker and worth buying the ps3 for, just listing differences. The feature I'm talking about integrates your music into the game, I'm not talking about turning down the volume and playing you own music.

Jim

Sisko wrote: »

The music feature again, not something I'm saying its a deal breaker and worth buying the ps3 for, just listing differences. The feature I'm talking about integrates your music into the game, I'm not talking about turning down the volume and playing you own music.

You can do the same on 360. It just turns off the ingame music and plays whatever music you've selected.

chopperbyrne

Two things I like about xbox live over PSN is that it tells you what country the player you're playing is from and you can browse peoples friend lists in order to add mutual friends.

When I play online I tend to use Arcade Request so I'm rarely waiting longer than one round for a challenge.

bush

Ok heres some things I dont like about the psn version

The number one thing is nobody is on there, its been a ghost town for ages. The 360 is still really active and the majority of the well known players use the 360 version.
A lot of the results you get back dont show the ping rating. This happens on 360 too but nowhere as much as on psn. You cant connect to half the people. This happens on 360 too sometimes but again nowhere as much as on psn. It also takes bloody ages to tell you that you cant join the match too whereas on 360 it tells you straight away. It gets really annoying having to wait 5-10 seconds for this when you couldnt join the last 5 games you tried, all the time arseing around trying to get into a match adds up.
The psn version has way more disconnects when you finally do get into a match. It looses sync between rounds for some reason a lot.
Im not saying the 360 version is perfect but any problem on 360 is twice as bad on psn.

K.O.Kiki

Arcade Request FTW.

Creature

Ok thanks for the replies everyone, especially you Sisko, its much appreciated. I'll take both sides on board but if the XBL is more populated and PSN, as Bush stated, is a ghost town then I'll be going for the Xbox. Ultimately all I really care about is getting access to the most players and the smoothest online experience.

Kirby wrote: »

It's a gateway though. You will get one for SSF4, but now that you have it and have access to other games, you will probably get more.

Not going to happen .

Jim

I wouldn't imagine PSN will be a ghost town when Super is released. A year after though maybe.

Sisko

As I said its not a ghost town, it just only shows 3-4 results per page , just refresh the page.

There's no way you wouldn't find any games on PS3, just none.

I can't disagree with anything else bush said however. I just hope online is better with Super.

Oh and just to add this was just posted in the super thread :

Ken B wrote: »

My Xbox RROD's two weeks before SSFIV and 1000GP away from SG............I'm ****ing well pissed off.

Sorry to use your sorrow in this thread ken, but eh yeah, something to also consider creature.

Lastly, if your a PC gamer like me you might also want to look at what else you can get from your console since its more then likely your mainly only getting it for one game.

Azza

I personally go for the Master System version because of the SUPER HD graphics, but then again Atari Jaguar!

Sisko

Hehe, btw azza has all 3 versions.

Yo azza, I assume your getting super for both consoles.....right?