Mark 'X' for X Box

Dave's fourth request was to blog about the X Box. As someone who has never been the best at co-ordinating her hands, and who doesn't take an interest in computer games unless they have shiny gems and/or collapsing balls, this is probably the trickiest request that I have had this month. I am resisting the urge to Google search for this, because, well, I just am.


As the wife of a games lover, and the mother of A Chip Off The Old Block, I am fairly familiar with games consoles. Both my kids have a Nintendo DS and a PlayStation 2 console each, and there is a PlayStation 3 in my living room, as well as a Wii console in my son's bedroom. So when my son requested the X Box 360 for Christmas this year, I wasn't overly impressed. I mean, just how many consoles does one house need?

My son debated the virtues of owning an X Box 360, but I'm not buying it (both literally and figuratively). When I was persuaded into allowing a PS3 in the house a couple of years ago, I was told that it was the 'best console ever' and that you would never need to have anything else to satisfy your gaming needs. I argued that - as with all things - something bigger and better would come along sooner rather than later, and that the PS3 was not the be all and end all of all things. But I ended up allowing one to be purchased (though I didn't offer a penny towards it, as it happened, because as far as I'm concerned I have better things to spend my limited cash on).

The PS3 turned out not to be such a bad buy, I will grudgingly admit. Hubby, being the technical guy that he is, hooked it up to the PC and the main TV in the house, so we can do all sorts of things with it, not just play games. And we've been saved the hassle of having to purchase a Blu Ray player because there's one built in to the console. Fair enough, I stand corrected.

But the X Box 360 doesn't offer the same value for money as far as I'm concerned. Everything it does, we can already do with the PS3. My son's final argument is that there are a couple of games he would like to play that are only available in the X Box format, but I don't consider spending £200 for a console just to be able to play a handful of games good value for money. Hence I have persuaded my son that a laptop would be a much more suitable present for Christmas.*nods firmly*

So, after some heavy 'persuasion' on my part, the Smith household says 'no' to X Box, thank you very much.