Xbox 360: PAL vs NTSC

[member2127]

How is a PAL Xbox 360 compared to an NTSC one?
I usually buy american consoles in order to avoid 50hz, squashed images and censored games, but with Xbox 360 it would be simpler for me to get one in Europe, especially if it breaks.
I don't know much about this generation of consoles, are the problems I mentioned a thing of the past and the experience exactly the same as on an american console?

I would also like to use it to play a couple of games for the old Xbox (Halo 2 og Ninja Gaiden Black), will they run in full speed with a full image in the correct proportions? I don't know if they did on the old PAL Xbox?

I would of course also like to know if there are other possible differences (between the two consoles) that I should take into my considerations?

Thanks a lot.

[charlesr]

There's a large discussion about this here: http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=73466

But to answer you specific questions, in case you didn't know, many 360 games are region locked in the same way as original Xbox games. So any games you want to play would need to either match the region of the 360 you get or be region free.

The pal 360 has a 60Hz mode in dashboard so all pal games should support this.

The only reason to get a US machine is to get 2D shooters many of which appear there but not here e.g. Raiden Fighters Aces.

If you get a new machine (jasper?) you should be ok on the reliability. Email the seller to find out the PSU voltage (it's lower for the later machines).

[egparadigm]

The pal 360 has a 60Hz mode in dashboard so all pal games should support this.

MS requires all 360 games to support 60Hz, so there will be no issue for 360 games. Some Xbox games didn't support 60Hz, but they were in a minority, the vast majority even supported progressive scan ? although the ability to play them at 480p was disabled on the PAL Xbox.

From what I've read, I understand the reliability of newer 360s to be better but still not great. I certainly wouldn't recommend importing a 360 unless there are some exclusive, region locked games you want from abroad. Play-Asia have a pretty good guide to region locked games ? if you find the game you're after it might well tell you if it's region locked. The majority of 360 games are not locked, from what I can tell.

[sj33]

Importing surely causes issues if the console breaks, which is hardly an extreme scenario with the 360. As others have noted, most US and European 360 games are region free, and release dates are usually syncronised these days, so there's not much point in buying a US console. Things have moved on, 50/60Hz and release dates are no longer issues for any of the main consoles (well, the Wii can still be an issue for release dates...).

On the other hand, Japan still seems to be stuck in the dark ages in this regard, with many exclusives, and almost all games region locked. However, these are mostly CAVE shumps, and other niche titles like Idolm@ster.

[member2127]

Thanks a lot for the help.