OK Jellies- I need your opinions on gaming consoles for my daughter. Help please?

Xbox has better gaming options, in my opinion, but chances are, it will crap out on you and you’ll have to send it to Microsoft to get it replaced. The failure rate for the 360 is enormous. I’ve gone through three of them over the course of three years.

I’d go for the Xbox with Kinect. Allows her to play motion sensitive games at an age appropriate level. Some decent games available for the younger, more sensible, less competitive gamers. Ahh sweet innocence…what happened to you? :¬)

Xbox typically receives better multiplayer reviews, and has a somewhat larger library of games to choose from (though most of the “good” games are on both platforms). Xbox does have a ridiculously high failure rate, in fact I don’t know of anyone who had one that didn’t fail at some point. If you go the xbox route, get an elite (the black ones), they don’t have most of the design flaws that the regular ones do.

PS3 has better graphics. Not incredibly better, but if you’ve seen both you’ll notice the difference. The few games that are unique to it tend to be more “epic” games or quest games. It is also backwards compatible with old PS1 and PS2 games (pending your model PS3), which is nice, but your 10 year old probably isn’t too worried about nostalgia.

But really I’m not sure what would be better for a 10 year old girl. Not really up to par on the games that someone in that group would be into. That would probably be the thing to figure out.

@tedd I know she likes the Xbox because of the Halo game that a friend of hers has, but I’ve seen parts of that game and I’m thinking for her age… ummm. Uhuh, no way.

You might try the wii? Its games are definitely more appropriate and in a lot of cases geared towards younger children.

Personally if I was buying a new system (I don’t have either of the big 3 at the moment, but have owned both Xbox and PS3)... I would probably get another PS3.

My nephew has the wii and it’s a huge hit with the young kids. That’s the extent of my knowledge. I’m still working on pong.

Being a Sony fangirl, I won’t be biased; I’d get her an X Box 360, because it has a much larger library of games than the PS3. Although as pointed out, it’s a shoddy console at best that always has something wrong with it.

However, the online features for the PS3 are way better, and through the PlayStation Network she could buy games of all sorts. The XBox also has games to buy online though. (As does the Wii.)
I’m mentioning these features because in the end, this is gonna depend on what kind of games your daughter likes to play. Most of the games for both consoles are pretty mature, although the variation greatly expends for the games you can purchase and download.
What kinds of games does she play? Has she played many games before? So I’d go with the X box if you’re not sure because of its better library. I might also consider a Wii which also has a huge library.

Do you have a decent quality PC? That may be something to think about.

There are much better games out there for the PC then the XBox, in my opinion, even for little kids.

@tedd @Adirondackwannabe We have a family Wii, but she’s wanting “something of her own” I guess. Plus a ton of her friends have their own console, and most of them have an Xbox. I guess I’m leaning a little more towards the Xbox, since that’s what a lot of her friends play. She’s getting to the age where the gifts they like are more mature… and more expensive lol.

@Symbeline She’s played mostly on our Wii and my old PS2. She loves gaming when we allow her to have “zombie free time” HA!

@dverhey Yes, we have a PC and she plays this game called “Wizard 101” and likes it, but she’s wanting a console for the TV.

@WillWorkForChocolate Sounds good to me. Hey good luck, she’s just getting to the my own, mature, and expensive years. :)

Our 10 year old boys love the Xbox, but if your daughter has played on the PS2, I would go to the PS3. The controls will be familiar to her, and the game selection is fine. I’ve fluctuated over the years between favoring PS and Xbox, so I’m not particularly biased toward either console. @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard is correct, in that the Xbox has a high failure rate, I can’t even tell you how many we’ve gone through in the last few years. That is a big downside. Also, the controller for the Xbox is large and bulky, which may be difficult to manage for a 10 year old girl’s little hands.

@WillWorkForChocolate I’d go with the XBox then. As much as I like the PC and PS3’s reliability, the PS3 doesn’t have the same kind of catalog that the Xbox does, and if all her friends are already on that then she can borrow their games or add them if it’s hooked up to the internet.

We just bought our son a Xbox 360 for Christmas (we already had a Wii and PS3 though). He really wanted the 360 because more of his friends have it and because of Halo and a few other games that are only on the Xbox. That being said, he has it and can play it, but he isn’t allowed to play on Xbox live without me or my husband in the room so we can monitor what he is saying online. I’ve played online and it’s pretty shocking what comes out of some little kids mouths on Xbox live sometimes.

If your daughter is likely to get on and play with her friends and most of them have the 360, I’d go with it.

I will just second what a lot of other people are saying and say X-Box 360. The kinnect is the coolest thing ever (until something cooler is invented of course)... I played it and now I want to get one so that I can get that dancing game.

Ask her what types of games she likes. Does she like sports? Shooters? War games? Role Playing games? Or get a list of games from her. Then go to a store and pick out the system that has more of those games. Keep in mind that the Playstation line has traditionally been geared to children (the controller is even made to fit a baby’s hands, and I find it hard to hold), whereas the Xbox line has been geared to adults (not adults as in porno, but grown ups; also the controller is bigger and more comfortable for an adult, but a tad large for a child), though there is a lot of crossover in popular games available for both systems. There’s also the Wii, but I think that’s a gimmick…I’d get sick really quickly jumping around and waving my arms to play a game. Another advantage of the Playstation for little ones is the Playstation Network is free, but you have to pay to subscribe to Xbox Live…though Xbox Live seems to have more protections (read: censorship) than the Playstation Network (which, IMO, is why the Xbox doesn’t do well in Japan…Japanese culture doesn’t seem to be as into protecting their children from the “big bad world” as Americans are).

I have both. If I were to pick one I’d go for the PS3.

Didn’t read the others, but the xbox 360 with kinect is so much fun! Even for an ok’d woman like me!