Hello! I've got a 360 and can honestly say I think its great. I had largely the same problem when I first got mine as I obtained mine through a phone contract deal thing and because of that it was only the core system. So... 1.You CAN just buy a controller memory unit for about 20 quid, the only real reason to get a hard-drive is because the profiles take up alot of memory so you won't be able to make multiple profiles. 2. It will definatly play all 360 games. It is basically the Premium system minus a hard-drive. 3. If you have a Gamestation near you then they do great preowned offers. If you want it new Argos and PC World have some good deals about now. 4.When you say DAve Mirra, I assume you mean the old Xbox one, in which case you will need to connect to xbox live for 40 quid (per year) to obtain the upgrade to make your console backwards compatible. But unlike the PS3, not all old xbox games can be played, and I don't dave mirra will work. There is a new dave mirra game coming out on the WII though... 5. I wouldn't have bought mine if I didn't get it free initially, but I would buy one now if mine got lost because it really is that good. Get Gears of War and Halo 3 and you'll be set. It really has the edge over the PS3 in terms of games and the Live scene, and in terms of price. The only thing that lets it down is that if you wanted the full experience then Microsoft do hit you with all the add-ons, as I've mentioned about backwards compatibility. But aside from that they are great!