So, 11 year old sons birthday is at Christmas, he wants an X Box 1S Minecraft.

We’re looking at the 500GB version (due to price) – will we regret this over a 1TB?

Aiming to buy from Tesco for £240 and use some Tesco points.

Hes also asked for a second handset like this.

Do we need to buy anything else so we don’t come to a no play standstill over the Christmas period? (charger for wireless handsets? or do they take batteries??? Anything else i’ve missed / overlooked.

Clearly i don’t have a clue on this stuff, and yes i’m well aware he’ll turn into an instant zombie the second its turned on.

Ta

You can plug in an external HDD later if you end up needing more storage. The controllers take 2 AA batteries, or you can play with them wired if they run out. Second controller is nice if you want to play with him.

You may want to organise an XBox Live Gold subscription if you want to do multiplayer stuff (eg if he wants to play Minecraft online with his friends).

We’re looking at the 500GB version (due to price) – will we regret this over a 1TB?

Probably. Game downloads on the Xbox 360 are around 5Gb; on the one they can be *ten times* this. Even with disc-based games you’re often looking at a sizeable install. I’ve a 1Tb box that’s just coming up to 12 months old and had a clear-out as I’d hit 95% used. You can add extra storage via a USB3 HDD, but if you’re going to do that you might as well get the bigger box to start with.

If you want to save costs, Get an Xbox One over the One S. All you’re really gaining with the S is the ability to play 4K movies (and I’m guessing your 11 year old doesn’t have a 60″ 4K TV in his bedroom). [EDIT – if you can find one, they don’t seem to be on sale anywhere. I didn’t realise that.]

The handsets take AA batteries, or a “play and charge kit” which is essentially a rechargeable battery pack. Personally I’ve had mixed experiences with the 360’s P&C kit, on the One I’ve just used rechargeable AAs. See my recommendation here.

You may want to organise an XBox Live Gold subscription

For Gold I’ve always used Electronic First. They’re cheaper than buying direct (though more expensive than they usually are – Christmas tax?) – here: http://www.electronicfirst.com/cheap-xbox-live-codes/12-month-gold-membership-subscription/

cdkeys are also well regarded though I’ve never used them myself. Look to be the same price ATM.

Oh, and,

You might want to consider parental controls at that age. You can create your own account on the box as a master a/c (and add the Gold sub to that if he’s going to play online), then add the boy as a family account so you can control what he has access to.

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/browse/my-account/manage-account/Child%20accounts

https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/security/add-family-member-on-xbox-one

you only get 1 controller with an Xbox?

Save yourself another £40

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xbox-one-s-500gb-with-minecraft-favorites-199-99-delivered-simply-games-add-extra-2566633

Ideally you’ll want a 1TB but £40 can go towards an external hard drive as you can’t upgrade the internal.

I don’t regret my 500gb Xbox at all, as long as you accept that one day you might want to plug an external hard drive in. Especially if he has Xbox Gold and gets stacks of free games (which I heartily recommend! :)). I’ve got a little 1tb perma sat on top of mine.

The pads do take 2xAA batteries and personally I’d stick to rechargeables, I found the charge kits didn’t seem to hold nearly as much charge, it was much more convenient/cheap dropping new batteries in.

As mentioned above, if he subscribes to gold he’ll get a constant stream of free games. Although tragically this month’s don’t seem hugely appropriate for an 11 year old.

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/live/games-with-gold

you only get 1 controller with an Xbox?

Yep, same as with the PS4 AFAIK? On the upside, the One controller is ten quid cheaper than the PS4 one.

Ideally you’ll want a 1TB but £40 can go towards an external hard drive as you can’t upgrade the internal.

I’m not finding any bundles with a 1TB console and Minecraft, either. Buying separately is going to ramp up the price (though Minecraft isn’t vastly expensive, £13 on Game’s website).

you only get 1 controller with an Xbox?

Always has it been thus. I had to go to Woolworths on Boxing day to buy an additional controller for my PlayStation in 1997.

Price wise I bought the Minecraft editon with Forza Horizon 3 for £199 on Amazon last week.

I was a bit worried about the total storage, but you can use external storage devices and we’ve got a very good fibre speed at home so if he ever gets more than about 10 games he can delete and redownload them as an when he wants in not much time.

I was a bit worried about the total storage, but you can use external storage devices and we’ve got a very good fibre speed at home so if he ever gets more than about 10 games he can delete and redownload them as an when he wants in not much time.

Yes this, 1Tb is handy but its not a deal breaker. But if you are getting bundled games check what format they are (eg digital or a physical disk). I bought an XBOX One with Forza 6 and it was a download code rather than a game.

The download was 80GB and on 10Mb/s ADSL that took a long time to download!

I’d be surprised if any of these bundles come with physical media.

Price wise I bought the Minecraft editon with Forza Horizon 3 for £199 on Amazon last week.

I got the same deal from Argos.

If you hold your nerve these offers may appear again shortly.

Cougar – Moderator

I’d be surprised if any of these bundles come with physical media.

Mine did, I don’t think it was an official bundle, it came as 2 separate orders via Amazon, but you couldn’t order them individually.

Good point. Store deals will be different from bundles. IIRC when I bought mine it was a somethingorother bundle with an extra game, the bundled game was a download code and the extra game was a disc.

Yep, same as with the PS4 AFAIK? On the upside, the One controller is ten quid cheaper than the PS4 one.

Yup only one. On the upside its rechargeable.

1TB with Fifa £235

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/xbox-one-s-fifa-17-bundle-1tb-234-99-amazon-2559921

Minecraft £12.99

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/minecraft-xbox-one-edition-12-99-new-game-2564924

Only £8 more total with Fifa and 1TB

Drac – Moderator

Yep, same as with the PS4 AFAIK? On the upside, the One controller is ten quid cheaper than the PS4 one.

Yup only one. On the upside its rechargeable.

I still can’t get over the fact the controllers take batteries.

P.S. I’ve checked the box of the one I bought, the 3 minecraft games (I’ve no idea why there are 3 versions) are all downloads, but Minecraft is tiny, PC version is 50MB or something.

Slight hijack…

Can Xbox1 Minecraft players multiplayer with Xbox360 Minecraft players ?

My lads 11, plays it all the time. I stopped him playing online, as the language from some of his “friends” was somewhat colourful.
He was asking for the Xbox1 but few (younger) folks in the know reckon he’d not notice much difference with Minecraft…

I still can’t get over the fact the controllers take batteries.

What do you expect it to take, bananas?

You can feed it AAs, or you can stick a battery pack on it which will charge over USB whilst you play (presumably the same as the PS4). Choice is good, mmkay.

Can Xbox1 Minecraft players multiplayer with Xbox360 Minecraft players ?

I doubt it. (Why is that an issue if you’ve stopped him doing it?)

He was asking for the Xbox1 but few (younger) folks in the know reckon he’d not notice much difference with Minecraft…

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-05-video-minecraft-ps4-xbox-one-draw-distance-compared-with-ps3-xbox-360

Cougar – Moderator

I still can’t get over the fact the controllers take batteries.

What do you expect it to take, bananas?

You can feed it AAs, or you can stick a battery pack on it which will charge over USB whilst you play (presumably the same as the PS4). Choice is good, mmkay.

I expected it to have an internal rechargeable power source like every other portable consumer device has for the last… I don’t know decade.

Using AAs in 2016 isn’t choice, it’s cost cutting and environmentally stupid.

P.S. I’ve checked the box of the one I bought, the 3 minecraft games (I’ve no idea why there are 3 versions) are all downloads, but Minecraft is tiny, PC version is 50MB or something

It’s just over 600mb on the Xbox One I’m sure PC is bigger now too.

The world on Xbox one version is way bigger than 360 plus the other points in Cougar’s post.

Good advice above. I got a 500gb and added a 2tb external drive. 500 really was not enough if you have several games on the go.

I use the plug and play charger, it’s fine but extra expense. I’d previously used rechargeable batteries for 360 but were getting old so rather swapped.

Gold account if playing online, but some good free games each month

I expected it to have an internal rechargeable power source like every other portable consumer device has for the last… I don’t know decade

And if that’s what you want, you can add it for about the price differential between the two controllers.

Is the PS4 battery replaceable incidentally, or is it new controller time when the battery packs in?

Using AAs in 2016 isn’t choice, it’s cost cutting and environmentally stupid.

How is an internal battery pack any more environmentally tree-hugging than my Eneloops?

[EDIT – In fact, they’re the same batteries I used in my 360 controllers previously, so that’s greener still, non?]

Drac – Moderator

P.S. I’ve checked the box of the one I bought, the 3 minecraft games (I’ve no idea why there are 3 versions) are all downloads, but Minecraft is tiny, PC version is 50MB or something

It’s just over 600mb on the Xbox One I’m sure PC is bigger now too.

The world on Xbox one version is way bigger than 360 plus the other points in Cougar’s post.

Thanks for the info, even at 600Mb it’s still going to take less than 9 mins to download over a 10Mbps line.

How is an internal battery pack any more environmentally tree-hugging than my Eneloops?

I’ve got GP AA batteries that have been charged hundreds of times that I use in my XBOX controllers. Not sure how this is any worse than manufacturing a battery pack that would last a similar length of time

Cougar – Moderator

I expected it to have an internal rechargeable power source like every other portable consumer device has for the last… I don’t know decade

And if that’s what you want, you can add it for about the price differential between the two controllers. Is the PS4 one replaceable?

Using AAs in 2016 isn’t choice, it’s cost cutting and environmentally stupid.

How is an internal battery pack any more environmentally tree-hugging than my Eneloops?

C’mon Lee, your fanboyism is showing.

My name isn’t Lee, and I don’t have a dog in this fight.

Simply put Microsoft stopped stating sales figures for thier console Nov last year, but they’d sold 10m units by then. That’s 20m AA batteries made, used and discarded. If they were rechargeable units then there wouldn’t have been any. That’s without considering anyone buying a second set of disposable AAs or indeed however many untils they’ve shifted since last year.

These pre-selected bundles do my head in!!

If a retailer offered console + any two games + additional controller all for one fixed price they’d outsell everyone else!

My name isn’t Lee

Sorry, I got my posters mixed up, and deleted that comment anyway as I didn’t want it to turn into bickering.

That’s 20m AA batteries made, used and discarded.

What’s this “discarded” business? I’m using the same set of AAs I bought for my Xbox 360 maybe eight years ago (after the dedicated battery pack stopped working).

He means me. I’ve had both systems in the past but now with kids I had to go for the one I used the most and I knew my daughter would also want a console at some point. That ended up me upgrading to a PS4, my eldest getting one 2 years ago and me upgrading to a Pro last week. Yeah I like my gaming.

Anyway, yes I think you can replace them although probably third part.

Fanboy maybe but currently I think Xbox have shot themselves in the foot with the S only adding 4k for movies.

Fanboy maybe but currently I think Xbox have shot themselves in the foot with the S only adding 4k for movies.

Got to say I agree with you there. The One S is a stop-gap really, it’s a replacement for the One in the same way the PS4 Slim is for the PS4.

Xbox 4K gaming is the next console (dubbed Project Scorpio), due “holiday” 2017 whatever that means, probably the Yanks being coy about contentious words like “Christmas.” Scorpio will be a *big* upgrade, something like five times the processing grunt of the One, and as well as 4K its other big focus will be VR.

Sony were first out of the gate, Microsoft will annihilate the PS4 Pro in a year’s time, by which time Sony will have their direct-to-brain interface in the pipeline or something. Not that I overly care personally, I’m in no hurry to replace an excellent 42″ 1080p panel or run out and spend hundreds on a VR headset. I got sick of the arms race with PC gaming, it’s why I bought a console in the first place. If I were to buy another console tomorrow it’d be a regular PS4 to run in tandem with with One rather than replace it.

Yup same reason I pulled out from PC gaming, I wasn’t going to upgrade either or at least wait. But a deal came along with 20% off and 12 months interest free. So it was a bit like the price of a high video card upgrade but being able to use 2 PCs. Of course I’m now going to save for a 4k TV sooner than I planned.

It’ll be interesting to see who played their hand well with 4K gaming, will it be Sony for getting in first or Microsoft for waiting. In the past Sony have won on making the decision add Blu-ray and such but will this one pay off. It also buys them time for their full next Gen uograde.

Thanks all for the tips, gone for the one in Dracs link.

I’d suggest it is worth plugging in before xmas day, as the thing will want to update just about everything at a time when the internet is get hammered and as result you won’t be playing games on it till the 27th!

That’s really good advice actually.

Depends on the kid though I suppose. Is he likely to be happy that it’s ready to go, or gutted that it’s been opened? As a geeky kid I’d have been the latter, but I’m probably atypical.

Very good advice it’s the first thing I did with my Pro before Santa took it away. With software uodates and installing some of the games I play the most it took around 36 hours. 8)

Not to mention the potential fun of hacker groups trying to take down PSN and Xbox Live on Christmas day like a couple of years ago.

Will be plugging ours in tonight / tomorrow to get the downloads such that it’ll play games on Christmas day, otherwise most disappointing present eva.