Hey! There is nothing wrong with the GameCube! I want you to go over and apologize to it, and give it a hug!

There we go, now that THAT is taken care of (it is... right?) to answer your question: I would much prefer the more expensive set. Sure, it is $100 more... but you will need most all of that stuff anyway eventually (say a hard drive!). Xbox live I have never been a fan of, but... you could get downloads..!

The games coming out for it look awesome. BUT for me the only next-get system I care about right now is the Revolution. There is not ONE game coming out for PS3 or Xbox360 that you can't play right now! It just won't look as good.

Besides, I'm all about the RPGs... and those take a while.

Short answer: Buy the bigger bundle. It WILL save money in the long run.

Azi