Any and all Xbox Live advice needed.

[Goodwill Hunter]

With an offer I couldn't refuse (Circuit City had a 12-mo. kit with headset, Gotham Racing 2, and a free copy of Call of Duty 2 for $69.99!) finally took the plunge and picked up an Xbox live kit this past weekend. I have heard numerous horror stories about various aspects of Xbox Live, and thought I would tap the collective wisdom of DP to try to avoid them.

What are the benefits of wireless/wired....3rd party vs. Xbox hardware? Best games? Best ways to avoid flocks of foul-mouthed 12-year-olds? Best times to game? Best way to find players of a similar skill level? Or as an aging gamer with fading reflexes should I just stick to Xbox arcade?

I literally know nothing about all of this, so any advice at all will be welcome.

Thanks,
Rich

[davidbrit2]

In my experience, it's best to get in on a game sometime in the first two months. That way, you can enjoy the game with all the other fresh new players, before the influx of morons (which is even more pronounced once the game starts dropping in price). And if you wait too long, hardly anyone ever plays, e.g. Outrun 2. But those first 2 months or so that I was playing Forza were great, because the game was new, and ways to be a total dickhead hadn't been totally refined yet.

[Biff_McFresh]

It's really not all that bad with the assholes online (a lot of annoying Halo 2 players though, but nothing one can't look past). XBL is a great setup, i think you'll enjoy it.

[njiska]

And if you cross over into the 360 level of live gaming then things get even better. The rep system is gonna do great things.

[PapaStu]

Totally agree with Davebrit on the getting in early. The playing I used to get into when Live first launched... whooboy! Now its not quite the same since I have been playing single player stuff (and buying when the games get cheap) before I touch most of my Live enabeled games. However until patches are droppped for games where there are issues and massive amounts of people exploiting them the games just arnt fun to play, but thats the case with any exploitable glitch in online play.

I really like it personally. And when it comes to equiptment, I just have my stuff running into a hub/switch and into my wireless router (i've got Airport Expresses all over the apartment). I use the XBL headset and though it takes a little time to get used to, I really like it, and even use it with my cell phone.

[Neil Koch]

Pretty much any Xbox Live game has their share of retards, but the good thing about it is that you can fairly quickly build up a sizable friends lists, and then just make up games with people from that list.

I think there used to be a list of Live gamertags on here, and you could also try asking around at http://www.geezergamers.com/. I've played with cool people in both places.

Otherwise, it's just down to jumping in to public games and hoping it's not over-run with idiots (this seems to be the most prevalent of FPS games). Some games allow you to set up your session so you can set certain paramenters and kick out people you don't like.

As for games... it depends what you like really. Most of the Live titles are action stuff, but there is card/board games, non-competitive sports like golf, etc.

My favorites are Halo 2, Burnout 3 and Star Wars Battlefront.