This year we were thinking of getting the kids ( 11, 12, 15) a xbox 360 for Christmas. This would be thier only gift ( we spend $100 on each of them.. instead we would be combining it) besides a few games to go with it. Thier PS 2 died on them about 6 months ago and I think they would like a new game system. We had the Wii before and they didn't have much interest in it... then our 4yr old knocked it off accidently and broke it.
I was talking to my dad about it and he said that he didn't think that the xbox would be a good idea. He thought most of the games are 1 person and its more designed to play against others online. Well there would be no online playing in our house.
I admitt I haven't done any homework on this to find out myself and Im just asking you all...
Would this be a good choice for them? Are there mulitplayer games that they could all play together on? or should I find a different game system that they could all use... if so what do you recomend?
Thank you!
We got our kids the xbox and kinect for christmas this year. They are 12,10 and 8. We have found several games that they can play against each other as ours wont be playing online either.
The xbox 360 Kinect is AWESOME! We have that and a Wii, and there are plenty of games to play together on the Xbox -plus you can set up an entire home entertainment system for movie downloads and everything through it. There are plenty of multi-player games. Personally, I can't imagine having an xbox without Kinect. It's what makes it so cool! You may also want to look at pricing -when we got ours several months ago, it was far cheaper to get the Kinect already bundled with it than to buy it separately.
For kids you need the Kinect feature. All the good kids games use it. My kids play against each other and the games are designed for it.
FYI, the PS3 also plays DVD/Blu rays, so it does double duty. You state there won't be any online playing but I'm throwing this out there, to play online with the XBox it cost money. You can play online with PS3 for free. Just in case down the road you change your mind. The kids will be thrilled either way!
The XBOX 360 LIVE has MANY games and MANY multi-player games.
My boys are 9 and 11 and their cousin gave them their XBOX. They have at least 10 multi-player games and about 10 single player games.
The LIVE portion allows your children to play with other people outside the house....my kids don't have the LIVE portion YET...I didn't want to pay for the subscription without knowing more...their friend, Christopher, has LIVE - and it sounds a lot like facebook - you select people and friend them. So you can have some control over who they play with.
We love our Wii!! We use it on family night and bowl, play tennis or Jeopardy!
My husband and I don't play the XBOX.
The boys have said they would be interested in the Kinect - but I've not done any research on it to see if it's worth it.
We have a Wii in our house and an Xbox. the Xbox is designed dfor online play - my son plays video games with all of his friends from school and youth group. It's really quite a social thing - he's got his headset on and sounds like he's having a great time with all his friends. They form "clans" or teams and if they're good other clans invite them to their clan, etc. The graphics are also supposed to be much better on the xbox than on the other systems.
The downside is that many of the games designed for xbox are really intended for older people - many are M rated for violence, etc. We made the decision to buy it last year for the big family present and we regret it becuase my son would much rather be on xbox playing shooting games than doing things that involve in-person contact. We have to strongly limit his time or he'd never do anything but xbox. so now we are always the bad guys...
But I don't know anything aboput PlayStation systems so I can't provide any comparison...
We have been told that the Kinect feature is not all that relevant--except for a few games. My son likes his Wii, but really wants an Xbox 360 this year for aviation type games--no Kinect needed. You can always add it later, too.
