PSA - new xmas console parents

Pah. Jr got an Xbox last year for Christmas. He was so keen to play Flight Sim which was one of the biggest downloads. Bad dad hadn't seen this PSA and so Jr wasn't able to actually play his Xbox until about 4 in the afternoon once the setup, updates and game had been downloaded.

I felt it was character building for him.

Recently discovered this site for Switch game price drops at Nintendo eShop, Amazon, Argos.

https://www.dekudeals.com/recent-drops

Loads of good deals at the moment!

A lot of digital downloads seem to be ~1GB, but yesterday discovered the Mortal Kombat 1 Kaos Kollection (base game plus most/all the dlc) is just over 45GB! 😮

No idea how prices compare, but Argos were doing Sandisk 128/256/512GB Switch storage expansion cards for ~£18/30/45 yesterday.

I thought the kids were supposed to show me how to set these things up?

Sandisk 128/256/512GB Switch storage expansion cards

fwiw those are just normal expansion cards in slightly different colours. Save a few quid and just get normal sandisk cards from a reputable retailer

Switch set up, updates downloaded, games installed, user profiles added, and screen protector applied before wrapping up. Will just have to plug in the dock on the day.

GT7 took me over a day to download on ps5!

Good shout OP - takes an age to set up a new console, best done before the 'big day'.

We ust got a switch delivered yesterday. I was planning on setting it up. Fully expecting it to be a different experience to the last console I had (a playstation)

the xbox game pass shuffle stills works as well. did it recently 8 months of ultimate for about £40.

the xbox game pass shuffle stills works as well. did it recently 8 months of ultimate for about £40.

Yep. It's not the deal it was but it still works, you get 3:2 on conversion now. Buy 3 years of Gold or Core whichever is cheapest, 1 month of Ultimate and you end up with 2 years of Ultimate for £105. That's like a quid a week. Sorry, off-topic I know.

As for updates it's worth bearing in mind that not only are there likely to be large downloads, on Christmas morning every other new console owner will be doing the same thing and the delivery servers will be on their arse. I don't know about the Switch, but on the Xbox there will likely to be firmware updates to the console and controllers, and if you've bought a game bundle then you'll likely get a download code rather than physical media. By way of reference I installed the new Indiana Jones game this week (free on Ultimate) and it was something bonkers like 145GB.

Fantastic PSA, my kids are getting a Switch and I hadn't thought about doing this!

Chances are at some point your Switch controllers will suffer "stick drift."

Not used it yet, but last month I bought a lime EasySMX X05 controller from Amazon for ~£20 for my better half's Switch (also works on pc), which has "hall effect" sticks that apparently don't suffer stick drift.

Ahh the days (It was days) of having to set up the boys XBox.  What a great idea it was to buy online games for it that required HUGE downloads.  Sitting in front of a tv trying to fathom out how to do it whilst you lad hasnt got any interest in anything else but having a go on it.

Great headsup.  Get online and get it ready.  Repack it and hand over a present your child will remember.

We’ve definitely done this PSA before. Good luck mums and dads! Oh, and Forza Horizon 4 for the Xbox newbies…

It’s a great PSA and so glad I did this a few years ago with my son’s Xbox one s. He’s getting an upgrade to a series s this year so will do the same and make sure it’s up to date in advance!

Sandisk 128/256/512GB Switch storage expansion cards
fwiw those are just normal expansion cards in slightly different colours. Save a few quid and just get normal sandisk cards from a reputable retailer

Looks like they are the same price if you buy direct from Western Digital/Sandisk: https://shop.sandisk.com/en-gb/product-portfolio/memory-cards/microsd-cards

Always worth checking though - and you do get fakes, so as above always buy from a reputable supplier.

on Christmas morning every other new console owner will be doing the same thing and the delivery servers will be on their arse.

This can deffinatley be a thing! I remember, I think it was when battlefield bad company 2 went live, EA's servers just totally cacked themselves from the demand and were very hit and miss for a few days and it wasnt even christmas!

Edit - this one is slightly cheaper 128gb for £13 https://shop.sandisk.com/en-gb/products/memory-cards/microsd-cards/sandisk-apex-legends-nintendo-switch-microsd?sku=SDSQXAO-128G-GN6ZY although you might want a larger capacity one than that, I dunno how big Switch games are.

I would also reccomend this site for info on games, download requirements player options etc

very useful!

https://www.doesitplay.org/

When my daughter asked for an Xbox One for Christmas, some wag *ahem* wrapped this up for her...

Extra bonus game of IRL Tetris just now trying to get it repacked convincingly.

Pay attention to the unpacking process!

This thread has reminded me so fondly of our first ‘family’ console - a Sony PS2. Cue a very excited child and the great Sony hack on Christmas Day, which meant 3 days of screaming tantrums from him that it wouldn’t work and from me that I couldn’t work out why the damn thing wouldn’t work! Only found out about the hack during Boxing Day I think! That was a stressful Christmas!!

Yes a worthy post but possibly less so these days with full fibre.

Yes a worthy post but possibly less so these days with full fibre.

It's not so much your internet connection speed (assuming its 80mbps+ or whatever).

It's the capacity of the servers your downloading the information from, if they are overloaded with 8 million people all doing a "first run/big update", plus downloading game files, all on December 25th.

You could have the fastest internet connection in the world, but if Sony/xbox/switch servers, etc. are saturated to breaking point, your download will slow to a crawl, or even stop.

I hadn’t even thought about download times, just the faff of setting up accounts, getting activation codes, joining the WiFi etc. Bit of a chore and I’m glad I won’t need to do it while wading through a sea of wrapping paper.

Yes a worthy post but possibly less so these days with full fibre.

you say that but Diabolo iv on PS5had a 30gb update when i tried to login on Saturday evening, and took over an hour to download,

Mario Kart N64  ....sigh those were the days

Forza Horizon 4 for the Xbox newbies…

5.

When my daughter asked for an Xbox One for Christmas, some wag *ahem* wrapped this up for her…

I may even have a shot or 20 of Mario Kart, you know just show I can show them what to do, help them out.

FH5??? Who wants to drive around Mexico when you can rag it around a strangely satisfying UK megamix?

 but possibly less so these days with full fibre

Sure 3 hours is better than 6 hours but try telling that to a 10 year old. Then there’s the account setup (tip - give kids their own accounts to keep their settings and game progress unique to them and to apply age and time restrictions).

How long does it take to set up a Switch? This never crossed my mind as an issue! Ours arrived last week!

I expect longer than an excited impatient child is willing to wait.

Edit: deleted the second part of the comment that didn't make as much sense in text as it did mentally.

?

How long does it take to set up a Switch?

Took me about an hour this morning but that involved a bit of faff woth emails/passwords

F*** em, make the little sods earn their Christmas present. Life lessons and all that

I was happily playing with my matchbox loop the loop while my cousins were still setting up their Scalextric back in the day

Bastards wouldn't let me play on it when I was bored with my toy after ten minutes though....

😉

It’s the capacity of the servers your downloading the information from, if they are overloaded with 8 million people all doing a “first run/big update”, plus downloading game files, all on December 25th.

Indeed it is but the users are done much quicker so the demand drops off faster.

On the same note anyone with smaller children with assembly toys don't attempt this Christmas Eve after drinks. Decals tend to be a one-shot steady hand required application. (Has "Nam-style" flashback to Barbie Horsebox assembly 20 plus years ago, "you weren't there maan")!

FH5??? Who wants to drive around Mexico when you can rag it around a strangely satisfying UK megamix?

I don't think you can buy Forza Horizon 4 any more (digitally, at least).

I don’t think you can buy Forza Horizon 4 any more (digitally, at least).

It's available on game pass - I was playing it on my son's xbox one for the first time last week. I think you can still buy it to download too but the multi-player online side of it isn't live anymore so you can only race against AI opponents.

Also worth noting that xbox game pass ultimate includes cloud gaming so you can play online without downloading the game and then download it in the background at a later date if you like it. Can also play xbox series X games on an xbox one which was a surprising bonus.

I think the last time I looked, FH4 was still on Game Pass but the DLC wasn't. That was a while ago though.

Quite often when something gets retired from Game Pass, you can pick it up on shinydisc for pennies. FH4 is currently £12 on CEX and half that on fleabay.

This probably should be a separate thread.

FH4 has been de-listed on Steam - I picked it up a few weeks ago on steam for about 15 quid before it dissapeared as I've done FH5 to death, almost 2000 hours play time over about 3 years..!!! certainly got my monies worth out of that one!

Not played it yet - I hope the multiplayer/online servers are still active, otherwise that was a waste of money!

Yep. It’s not the deal it was but it still works, you get 3:2 on conversion now. Buy 3 years of Gold or Core whichever is cheapest, 1 month of Ultimate and you end up with 2 years of Ultimate for £105. That’s like a quid a week. Sorry, off-topic I know.

Apologies, but could you explain this one?

utterly destroying your children on Mario Kart

Yeah, good luck.  Enjoy it while it lasts!  I was drift king for about a week, now he has all the shortcuts dialled and is an absolute demon!

Switch is ace.  He got it 2 1/2 years ago for birthday and all he wanted for Xmas this year was a Super Smash Bros.  So "Santa" has also got the Pro controller to go with it.  Using a single little joycon works but 2 player much better with a proper controller.

You new Switch owners have birthday and Xmas covers for a while now!

Apologies, but could you explain this one?

rather than paying monthly, you can buy pre-paid vouchers for 3/6/12/24/36 months of Xbox Live.

eg 12 months of core is £33 on cdkeys right now.

apply this to your account.

then buy one month of xbox ultimate for £10 and apply it to your account.

it converts your 12 months of core to ultimate at a 3:2 ratio, ie you get 8 months of ultimate in exchange for your 12months core + 1 month ultimate.

@jam-bo thanks for simple explanation of Xbox pass boosting, collecting a Fire Stick 4k Max from Argos tomorrow, which supports Xbox cloud gaming.

Apologies, but could you explain this one?

The caveat to jam-bo's explanation is, you cannot have an existing subscription in place. You need to let anything currently active expire first.

The free conversion maxes out at three years and that's the most cost-effective way of doing it. So three years of Core or Gold plus one month of Ultimate equals two years of Ultimate.

By comparison, buying an Ultimate sub directly via the console is (I think) £15/month - £360 vs £105 for two years.

Set the switch up today. Thanks for the tip!

My lad uses a long cable to the router for massive downloads it’s much, much quicker as our 900mb internet was outrunning the Wi-Fi.

This is the way.

My cable management is a bit silly creative because I have interior walls a foot thick and wooden floors throughout downstairs. But I have hardwired fibre ONT > primary router > switch (small S), then I've got the main Xbox (I have three, don't judge me) and a Raspberry Pi running various network shenanigans plugged directly into the switch. Net result, 100GB download, no worries, that gives me time to go make a coffee and a sandwich.

Any self respecting IT engineer you should have access to a ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ 10m Ethernet cable.

Prior to the house move I had almost a full roll of the stuff, probably a couple of hundred metres.