Does my friend have any better option than console? [PLEASE READ FULL POST]

Hi, so I'm sorry if this isn't suited to the subreddit, but you guys were very helpful with refining my PC build and I don't know of many other subs. Hopefully you will be able to offer me some help :)

So I have this friend who works a pretty low wage job (Wal-Mart). He has enough money to cover the necessities like food, etc. but he's never had a lot of cash for extraneous stuff (like a gaming PC).

So this is my dilemma. ATM he has about $180 saved up and wants to invest it in a gaming system-just casual gaming, nothing big and definitely not more than ~1 hour each day. He says he can get his games cheap by buying preowned or just pirating-main titles he wants to target are the GTA games (IV/San Andreas/Vice City), and a lot of the EA/2K sports games. Also whatever cheap indie titles he can pick up at a reasonable price.

Understandably he's going to be very restricted on his budget. I know some of you might suggest an upgrade to his current computer, but unfortunately that's not possible as he has a positively ancient HP laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB RAM, 60GB HDD, Windows XP) that stutters while visiting webpages.

So, with the explanation out of the way, comes my main question. Does he have any better option than to simply buy a console? RN the three main options I have rounded up are:

• The Xbox 360 E 4GB, at $145. This is looking the most appealing so far, not least because it's one of the cheapest, but also because it comes bundled with a starter game-and IIRC, the 360 was pretty popular in its day, so there should be an abundance of preowned games available. Also, it'll give my friend access to some Xbox exclusives like Forza Motorsport that he's been eyeballing.

• Coming in at a close second is the PS3 12GB. This is $20 more expensive and doesn't have any game bundle, which is a bit of a put-down, but it does have two things going for it. One, the ability to playback DVDs and Blu-Rays, which would be a big plus as my friend could finally watch those on his TV instead of having to do so on his laptop (which is the only thing in the house that has a disc drive). Second, the larger 12GB storage, which I guess would be a small plus if my friend ever wanted any games on download. But I suppose it's more of a nice feature that happens to be there, than a necessity.

• A third option that's there but that I'm not really considering is the Wii Mini at a super cheap $90. On the one hand, this would be nice because it would allow my friend to put the extra $90 in his budget into games, and maybe even save some of that money for something more essential. But on the other hand, it seems to have way worse hardware performance (only 480i when both the X360/PS3 support 720p) and I'm worried about not having compatibility with "grown up" (per se) triple-A titles. So unless my friend changes his taste in games soon, I don't think this is going to be seriously considered as an option.

PLEASE NOTE: 1080p/1080i video output would not be required or possible on any of these devices. My friend has a 24" 720p TV as his only display (I believe this is the model) so no Full-HD video.

I have considered the possibility of a PC build, but on $200 (which is stretching my friend's budget to the max) this is the best I could do. Total potato, right? But the thing is, I don't know too much about X360/PS3 hardware, so would even that potato of a PC be able to outstrip consoles in this budget? I don't know, and this is why I came to you guys in the first place. ALSO: I am not the best at making PC builds, so perhaps I didn't choose the best parts? I DON'T KNOW! This type of ultra-low budget is totally foreign to me and I am seeking advice.

So, TL;DR: Is there any better choice than a console with this budget? If so, please suggest it, and if not, which is the best console option out of the ones I've listed? Also, please feel free to suggest any of your own options that seem applicable.

Very sorry for the long post, I didn't realize it would turn out this big. A HUGE thanks to anyone who offers help!

Submitted by 1_Of_Us Xbox 720 Release Date 2015