XBL shuts down an account while it's under investigation (usually 3-7 days) during that time suspicious purchases are removed and the funds returned to the account.

That said the trick is fairly common among certain groups and uses EA accounts no XBL accounts (they use fifa as a money laundering system), the head of XBL security has retired this week due to it and changes are being made by MS and EA to attempt to block it. Most of the accounts compromised seem to be those that were involved in the huge DB grab a few years ago so if you didn't change/use different login details for XBL...

Thanks for the mention. This is a plus point. My brothers and I love old games, including those arcade titles. The ability to play MAME games is a huge plus point - we used to play them on the computer, but you know, a big screen for arcade games always triumphs a 21".

I'm still quite inclined to buy a Wii at this point, but EOL products always worry me. Firstly, there's the issue of doing an RMA on a faulty EOL product; secondly, it still costs $200 :S

It's either this or a 3DS. Decisions...
That's worth considering. I'll look around and hope something comes up, thanks man.

Another question: if the Wii is faulty, and the warranty has expired, how do I RMA it?

Xbox is simple go with the S it has a larger HDD anyway and you'll wan't to do the voluntary installs most of the time anyway...
But yeah a second Hand Wii is probably the best option if your not sure at all and get something new in a year or so..

Yeah, I am onto my third PS3 now. First one was an 80Gb Phat model. Hard drive had faults on it so sound and video on games that were installed was skipping. Second one literally just died, a few hours the night before playing FF13, got up following day no power light or anything and a courtesy of swallowing said disc that I couldnt remove.

Thankfully both cases GAME replaced the machine for me, they even replaced FF13

You don't the most common failure in Wii's is a dead drive you just homebrew the system and play off a USB stick only those games you own ofc and you didn't hear that from me...

Soooo...

If the drive spoils, can I install my own hard drive into the system? What storage peripherals does the Wii support?

In case you choose the Xbox360, Castle Crashers is fun to play with friends (1-4 players). It's a side-scrolling beat-em-up with some action RPG elements, it's funny and it's an indie, so it shouldn't cost that much. (And AFAIK it's only available for Xbox360 and PS3.)

And if you get the Kinect one day, Kinect Adventures is a nice little party game.

You cannot open it. With certain modifications, it can support practically anything through USB or wireless.

external drives upto 1TB work iirc though to run games off it you have to format it for use by the wii... (the game loaders will walk you through it) it also has an SD card reader (where you'll install your games from the Wii's store)

Well, let me tell you that I only use my xbox for exclusives and Skyrim (They were out of PC copies sadly) and use the Wii for things like Sonic, every Zelda game basically, the Metroid Prime series is an amazing fps experience, and almost any Mario Game is great fun. Other than that I'm a PC gamer. So I can't really tell you which one to buy but my post might help you decide!

You might be better off checking out local availability for specific titles. If I recall correctly, the Wii is region locked (PS3s are not). But in the case of Japan, I'd say the majority of games available are aimed at the younger audience (of course that might just be selective stocking by local stores).

The hardware may be small now, but the stigma still sticks here. Not only that but the Kinnect is most certainly not suitable for the majority of Japanese houses as the recommended space simply isn't available (probably explains the hideously poor sales here for that unit).

As failures, even recently, I've heard too many stories friends/acquaintances concerning total failure of their system. One friend went through 3 in ONE week (all brand new, all from different stock batches, all failed within hours).

And then there's the fact that even Microsoft appear to have given up here. They even canceled their major TV advertising campaigns last year. Not surprising I guess when the 360 is barely outselling the PS2.

In a way, I respect the Wii, because it seems to be the only console that is at least partly in the right business considering what they provide: hardware.

When you looked at consoles a couple years back, the Wii was the only one that was making money when selling a console.

Xbox and PS3 were selling a a loss on the hardware, but making up on royalties on the games for their platform.

Wii adds something that you can't get on a PC. I don't consider the Xbox or PS3 to be revolutionary concepts (yeah, different bells and whistles under the hood, but once everything is said and done, it runs the same games and you can get similar game controllers for the PC).

And while all consoles inflate prices by taking a cut on the games that run on them (and hence, why console games tend not to go below 30$) and get an exclusive right on some of them, at least the Wii has the benefit of getting an exclusive right only on games that couldn't run on other platforms anyways due to hardware constraints.

Well if you insist on one of the two mentioned, I would suggest the XBox 360. The netflix app there worls smoother than the Wii's (and offers HD output), and that app is definitely worthwhile in a party environment all by itself. As for party games, look into the following:

- You Don't Know Jack
- Mortal Kombat (2011)
- Rock Band 3
- NBA Jam (Downloadable)
- Blur
- Rayman Origins

All these have fun local multiplayer. One thing though: if you are gonna be hosting a lot then PLEASE for fuck's sake get four goddamn controllers. We go to a buddy's house a lot and for the longest time he stuck with two controllers and it really hampered the gameplay for us. Once we added two more, it was a world of difference.

AGREED! :D Why you didn't post the PS3 is beyond me. Games on it I'd recommend are the Killzone series, Heavy Rain (MOST definitely), Read Dead Redemption, Battlefield 3, Little Big Planet, and much more.
It also offers Netflix as well, and it is made for Bluray. :D