What do I need to consider when buying an X Box. It is for an eight year old boy. Do I need to buy Kinetic etc.Any other comments appreciated.
Prices seem to go from £189 to £300+
Many thanks

The kinect is good but gets boring after a few months and there are not that many good games for it, and you need a play and charge kit for the pad because it will save a lot of money on batteries

If you get a kinect make sure you have a wide open space to use it in.

If you get him any of the latest FPS games (Call of Duty, Halo: Reach, Gears of War3, Killzone3, etc.) don't let him play them online. His team will get pwned.

You dont need a kinect to play on the xbox, you only need it for the select games that work with one, I totally agree with the point about buying a play and charge kit as otherwise u will be getting hounded for AA batteries every few days haha

For him to play online you will need to buy an xbox live gold account for that to work(about the price of one game for a 12 month subscription) you can get these from any decent gaming shop or even a supermarket, there will be a code on it that you redeem using the xbox.

getting "pwned" means getting beat by other people online, but you gotta get pwned before you get better so i dunno what ex0 has been smoking lol!

oh, it wouldnt let me edit my last post (soemthing about edit time?) anyway i was meant to point out that if you are buying a gold account for online play then you dont need to go and buy a full 12 month pass, there are cheaper ones out there, and last time i checked you get a free month of gold when you make a new account, so it might be worth trying that out to see if he will use it before you spend out on keeping the gold account.

Beware letting him play online if he's only 8. The language from some people on there is terrible!! (trust me, my boyfriend does it a lot)

It's worth getting a headset for him too, as if he does play online with his friends, he can communicate through that.

Also, if you'll need to make sure you can connect a Ethernet cable to it from your modem. So if it's gonna be upstairs in his room, that might be a problem?

You'd be happy playing with an 8 year old on your team?

Thanks for all advice.Much appreciated all very valuable.

The new xbox's are wifi so you won't need an Ethernet as long as you have a wireless Internet at home, my hub is wifi enabled so we just connect through that, as he's 8 he might get away with a silver subscription.

If u buy a connect package you usually get at least 1 connect game, most lads like the sports one but u do need at least 5 foot clearance from the sensor to be able to use it...and once you've got it you can always add to his collection .

A rechargeble battery pack & stand is a MUST as normal battery life is a matter of days.

If you get him one now and next year a new & improved version comes out you can part ex...I got £100 off for my last exchange.

Not sure an 8 yr old should be playing online? As they say "game experience may change etc, etc...." Dry humping never gets easier to take!

Right I'm not having a dig cos this is just my point of view.

I personally would buy him a new bike and let the bugger play outside! We bought our boys an xbox each when they were around that age and now they never want to 'play out'.
I wish we had never bought them and they would go outside and enjoy the real world instead of the 'online' one where they just shoot and kill other people.
I think 8 is too young for xboxes and the like and not forgetting the price of the games £30 minimum and the batteries as previously said.

Call of duty 18 certificate

Halo: Reach 12 certificate

Gears of War3 18 certificate

Killzone 3 errr ps3 only

so your 8year old can't play any of these anyway

Yeah, cause people care about game certificates. What planet are you on?

Shit, I remember buying one of the GTA's over in Liverpool when I was like 14, the person at the desk wouldn't sell me it and the guy behind me in the queue bought it for me and handed it to me, while we were still stood in the queue.

My bad on KZ though, forgot PS3 exclusive. It sucked anyway

well exO im sorry your parents didnt care enough about you to to try and protect you as long as they could from things you didnt need to see.......kinda explains a lot......just sayin...

kids know far too much about things they shouldnt these days such a shame

Made this for you. Computer games are not evil or real, they are simply entertainment. And nowadays, they are as much a social thing as sitting in the pub all night drinking.

so as a note what would you not let a 8year old see?
or is everything ok?

Thanks for all advice. Much appreciated much to consider