[Dakar the Fourth]

That's what you get for giving MS $10 for 3 maps.

De-rail!

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

That's what you get for giving MS $10 for 3 maps.

De-rail!

Which is the most asinine thing ever. Luckily I bought COD4 so I wont be needing any Halo 3 multiplayer anytime soon anyway...

[Dakar the Fourth]

Everything I've heard about the game is stellar... except the quality of the matchmaking servers.

[sek929]

I doubt the maps will make it into ranked games before they are free anyways.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by sek929 

I doubt the maps will make it into ranked games before they are free anyways.

They will, but only if all the people playing have the maps installed.

[pyrite]

they're definitely overpriced, but they enrich the list a lot IMO. It's nice to have such a flexible template for the forge (Foundry's standard layout is awesome, too) and a vehicle-track style level is a novel idea for breaking up the monotony of normal slayer matches etc... and who can complain about standoff??
If the maps were 400 points they'd be a bargain, but 800 is definitely a stretch...

[sek929]

I DLed some new content for Bioshock last night. Something about new plasmids and what have you. It was free but I haven't had the time to check them out.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Holy crap this is pretty awesome:

PSP firmware 2.10 allows Remote Play of PS1 games - Engadget

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Everything I've heard about the game is stellar... except the quality of the matchmaking servers.

Not everything, the single player is only 6 damn hours! That talked me right out of buying it because I don't like online FPS.

[Dakar the Fourth]

I don't think Halo's single player was much longer.

[Shaddim]

well sh*t, I guess I'm getting a 360 after all, I just won one from a Dr. Pepper bottle cap.

[sek929]

Hah! Congrats!

[Shaddim]

We drink waaaay too much Dr. Pepper.

[sek929]

Are you planing on keeping it, selling it, or gifting it?

I don't see you as a big gamer....but I could be wrong.

[Peter]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Holy crap this is pretty awesome:

PSP firmware 2.10 allows Remote Play of PS1 games - Engadget

becoming really tempted by the PSP/PS3 combo now!

[Shaddim]

I game quite a bit, I have a PS3 and a Wii.

Dunno what I'll do with the 360 though, I'm thinking it over.

[sek929]

Halo 3 rocks...but the 360 isn't without annoyances.

BioShock is also phenomenal, you should def. keep it

[Aegis]

I'm happiest with the 360 now. Playing BioShock, very engrossing (and I'm not even a FPS kind-of-guy). I also have love for the Wii but it just looks sad since I got a HD TV, even through component. Makes me not want to play it as much. Does anyone use their old CRT for things like the Wii? I'm considering that.

[jokell82]

360 died on me last week. And since it wasn't a red ring, it's not covered by warranty.

Went to CostCo and bought another - at least if this one dies no matter what happens I can get another one. I plan on running the old one as much as I can, maybe wrapped in a towel, just to try and red ring it to get it replaced by MS. If I can at least I could ebay the replacement and recoup SOME of the costs.

Really hating Microsoft right now...

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

360 died on me last week. And since it wasn't a red ring, it's not covered by warranty.

So what is wrong with it exactly?

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

So what is wrong with it exactly?

At first it started displaying odd colors, and then the video went out completely. Audio still comes through just fine.

[icruise]

That sucks. The general shoddiness of the hardware is my primary complaint about the 360, which is otherwise a surprisingly good platform.

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

I game quite a bit, I have a PS3 and a Wii.

Dunno what I'll do with the 360 though, I'm thinking it over.

Well, I thought it over and I'm going to sell it as soon as I get it. Everyone I know who has a 360 has had at least one die on them. They sound like a steaming pile of sh*t and I don't want to deal with the headache.

[Aegis]

Myself and 3 friends all have 360s from the last 6 months and all of them have held up well so far. I've had some pretty long sessions too.

[Hawkeye_a]

Check out Endless Ocean for the Wii .... very very cool concept. it's like a visual interactive 3D encyclopedia of the ocean. It looks and sounds cool and could actually be a fun piece of interactive software. amazon has it listed for $29.99

Happy New Year.

Cheers

edit>> YouTube - Wii - Endless Ocean - Beautiful New Trailer , YouTube - Endless Ocean - Blue Whale , YouTube - Endless Ocean trailer , Gametrailers.com - Endless Ocean Japanese Trailer by AenimaPT, Gametrailers.com - Endless Ocean - 9 min. gameplay by AenimaPT (9 min gameplay)

[icruise]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

Well, I thought it over and I'm going to sell it as soon as I get it. Everyone I know who has a 360 has had at least one die on them. They sound like a steaming pile of sh*t and I don't want to deal with the headache.

There are a lot of really good games for the 360, though, and it's not as if your system is guaranteed to break -- especially if it's one of the newer ones. If you consider yourself a serious gamer, I think you owe it to yourself to play some of the 360-exclusive titles like Bioshock, Gears of War, Mass Effect and others.

[Shaddim]

Well, I'm mostly into RPG, sports, and strategy games. FPS types don't do very much for me, mostly because my reflexes aren't the best in the world.

[sek929]

Fable for 360 looks right up your alley.

[Shaddim]

Well, it would be if I hadn't already beaten it on PC.

[icruise]

Well, Mass Effect is a RPG with some shooting elements. I'm just saying that having all three systems gives you the option to experience everything.

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

Well, it would be if I hadn't already beaten it on PC.

D'oh, I forgot you can play games on PCs. The last game my G4 was able to run decently was Return to Castle Wolfenstein...which was like 6 years ago.

[Aegis]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

Well, I'm mostly into RPG, sports, and strategy games. FPS types don't do very much for me, mostly because my reflexes aren't the best in the world.

I'm also a big RPG and Strategy fan. Obviously the 360 isn't going to give us oodles of classic JRPGs, but I've still found a lot of other games to keep my interest.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

Well, I thought it over and I'm going to sell it as soon as I get it. Everyone I know who has a 360 has had at least one die on them. They sound like a steaming pile of sh*t and I don't want to deal with the headache.

A lot of that depends on when they bought it, or more importantly, which model you're getting. All 360s had a design flaw till late summer, so the failure rate was 33% or something. The newer model corrected the problem, and I haven't heard anything on them either way yet (too soon to tell, I guess). FYI.

[Shaddim]

I guess a lot will depend on which unit I get. If it's one of the new ones I may keep it then, if it isn't I suspect it would be better to sell it off. From what I can tell it's the $349 unit w/ NCAA Football 2008. I don't have that game for my PS3 yet, but I was planning on getting it some time soon.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

I guess a lot will depend on which unit I get. If it's one of the new ones I may keep it then, if it isn't I suspect it would be better to sell it off.

That's solid reasoning. Just today I dissuaded a friend who was considering purchasing a 360 from someone else. Apparently the person had gotten the dreaded Red Rings of Death, and wanted to sell his 360 now that it had been repaired.

Come to think of it, I wonder if he wanted to get rid of it to buy a newer model.

[angelmb]

Is there a way to know when a certain 360 was built like Serial Numbers in our Macs?, a friend got one -new- last week and would like to know if it is a newer model or an older one… He got it with a pack that came with three games (Halo 3, Forza 2, Viva Piñata) and the Messenger thingy, so maybe it is not that new and the retailer sold it like a bundle… Rather funny the one that failed wasn't the 360 but one of the games he bough separately, Pro Evolution Soccer 2008.

[Chuckit]

A game failed? How's that work?

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by angelmb 

Is there a way to know when a certain 360 was built like Serial Numbers in our Macs?, a friend got one -new- last week and would like to know if it is a newer model or an older one…

Look at the sticker on the box. If it lists 203W then you have the older hotter chip. If it says 175W then you have the newer cooler chip.

[AC Rempt]

Good to know, Stogieman. I keep thinking I might get an XBox to play Halo with my best friend who lives pretty far away from me. This would be a good thing to know.

[angelmb]

Originally Posted by Stogieman 

Look at the sticker on the box. If it lists 203W then you have the older hotter chip. If it says 175W then you have the newer cooler chip.

Thank you very much, shall pass this info to my friend…

As for the game failing, well, it really boots up but when you are ready to play a message says the disc is unreadable, kinda weird but he had no issue to get a replacement one.

[angelmb]

d'oh ! it says 203W

[angelmb]

BTW… any idea why the 360 wouldn't connect to messenger?, there is no messenger running there besides the console, computers are off… meh, this gets silly, I wonder if he would better have followed my advice about getting a PS3 instead of the 360… -for some reason he doesn't like the Wii-.

[iMan G5]

That happens to me sometimes. I'm usually on MSN from Adium at the same time and it won't let the xbox take the account to the xbox. So I have to disconnect in Adium then try on the xbox and it works. I have a halo 3 console (lot 733) with the old board, but it doesn't get so hot like many people said they do. I thought they were like burning hot but this gets warm out the back and barely warm on the top of the console. I also have the 203W adapter and I checked the bottom of the xbox for the three inductor rings. You can still turn around and lose maybe 30-50 bucks and sell your xbox and pay some more $ to get a ps3. Obviously if you have some games you can get more.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Any PGR4 players in here? Last night Live was decidedly solid and I found people do, indeed, play it online. I played my first online match (Ranked) and won, unlocking 3 achievements! (yay)

Bragging aside, the reason I mention it is I found a custom lobby for the hyped Bulldog mode, and I gotta say, it's pretty damn fun. (For you Halo fans, think of Infection, only with cars). Its a shame that all the kudos you earn you don't get to keep. Also, the open maps are awesome... it's too bad they don't have some type of free mode available so you can wander around them in single player.

[jokell82]

Just picked up the Orange Box for 360 since Best Buy had it on sale. Back in college I was a TFC addict - played ALL the time and was even in a clan that made it to the top of the CPL. So now I'm playing the crap out of TF2. Even though they completely screwed up The Well level in this game, I'm loving it. Such a great update to one of my favorite games.

Just wish Microsoft/Valve would fix the lag issues.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Well, I think this'll dissuade Shaddim from keeping the 360...

http://loot-ninja.com/2008/01/09/xbl...ms-soon-after/

The short of it is, as I understand, someone made a post on the live forums commenting on paying for the past 3 weeks of downtime. The post was removed his gamertag is supposedly invalid. From the article:

Here is a very well written manifesto to MS about the recent perils of XBL. Its worth the read. Trust me. The forum post has been locked since and mysteriously disappeared. I managed to salvage it because the page was already loaded and I emailed the link to another person who could not access it. His GamerTag, DWells55X, is now mysteriously invalid all… weird. Click more for the entire ‘festo.

And his post, which is quite well written:

I won’t pretend that this is a completely original idea and no one else has ever raised the question of why Xbox Live is a pay service. In fact, I used to be one of the people who argued against them and supported Xbox Live. But, with recent Xbox Live troubles and news, it’s becoming significantly more difficult to do this. Having taken the time to really look at the state of Xbox Live is making me have to start agreeing with the people who I used to argue against.


Let’s start with the recent Xbox Live downtime. It is, quite frankly, absolutely unacceptable for a pay service. Until a few days ago, my brother had a two week period where he could not recover his GamerTag from Xbox Live. That’s two weeks of no Xbox Live access whatsoever. He tried deleting the profile of his Xbox and recovering it again, but this didn’t work either. Now he couldn’t even access his game saves or earn any achievements. Although I had my account on my Xbox, that’s not to say everything’s been great. Like the rest of you, I’ve been experiencing a lot of trouble with Xbox Live. Inability to join games, sign in to Xbox Live, load the dashboard blades, sometimes problems bad enough to freeze my 360 entirely until I pulled out the Ethernet cable.

Yes, we’re getting a free Xbox Live Arcade game as compensation for nearly 3 weeks of Xbox Live downtime. Woohoo. No details have been given, and as a result I suspect that this free game will be a specific title or list of titles which Microsoft will choose. I feel that at the very least we deserve to be either refunded for a month of Xbox Live or given a free month on top of this. Think about it, if your cell phone service had trouble for a month, dropping calls, refusing to dial numbers, etc., you wouldn’t be satisfied with a free cell phone game. The first step would be a refund for that month and then some sort of compensation for the inconvenience on top of that.

Connection troubles aside, there’s other reasons why I feel Xbox Live shouldn’t be a pay service. As of March 1, 2008, Xbox Live Diamond will become an additional $6.95 fee. No thanks. Not only was this service close to worthless, but to charge for something that was supposed to be a benefit of paying for the Xbox Live service is absurd. It was pathetic as a freebie and to think anyone is willing to pay for this is ridiculous.

Next up, Xbox Live is full of ads. Even when you first boot up your Xbox 360, you’re greeted with ads on the Xbox Live blade. While this may not seem like a huge issue, how would you feel if your internet service provider, who you pay a fee to, placed ads on the desktop of your computer (which you also paid for)? Gold members should at the very least be given an option to disable these ads.

Xbox Live also feels the need to wrap content in restrictive DRM schemes that limit users’ access to the items they’ve purchased. Worst of all, this is done without proper warning of just how restrictive it is. Xbox Live Arcade titles and dashboard themes are unusable when not connected to Xbox Live unless you are on the same Xbox they are purchased on. So, as a reward for being a loyal customer and upgrading to the Halo 3 edition of the Xbox 360, all the content I purchased on my previous content is now unusable when I’m not signed into Live on the account I purchased them from. This means that when Xbox Live is having trouble or when I’m on vacation or anywhere else I don’t have steady high speed internet access, I can’t play the games which I have paid for.

Despite the fee for Xbox Live, networking is almost entirely peer to peer reliant. There are no dedicated servers for games, something which has been long available to PC games with no online fee. The average residential high speed internet connection often does not have an upload bandwidth capable of properly supporting large amounts of players. This results in lag and allows for exploits relying on network manipulation, for example the standby cheating which plagued Halo 2.

One would think that the fee for Xbox Live would entitle users to extra content to justify the fee. However, Microsoft allows companies to charge often high prices for nearly every single piece of downloadable content for games. This setup for the Xbox Live Marketplace encourages developers to either purposefully withhold content or release games lacking content with the intent of later releasing and charging an additional fee for the rest of the content. Xbox Live’s content setup may even discourage free content. Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney is quoted in a 1Up Podcast as saying that “We’ve been wanting to give them away for a long time, but actually Microsoft has been pushing back on us for that.” The video game magazine Game Informer supported this in a 2007 issue where they also claimed that Microsoft forces companies to charge for content they wish to distribute. I do not doubt this to be the case, as free content for online PC games has long been the standard. Call of Duty 4 currently has a new downloadable map available for PC users which is absent from the 360 version.

So, what exactly is Xbox Live offering its paying customers? A unified friends list? The same feature has been available to PC gamers through free applications such as XFire and Steam. Put simply, the features of Xbox Live simply do not justify its price when considering the free services offered by the competitors and the robust structure of online PC gaming.

Although I’m sure many are likely to disagree with me and simply respond with “if you don’t like it, don’t pay,” it’s not quite that simple. Without an online service, my games and the console itself lose much of their playability and worth. I also lose contact with my friends who still use Xbox Live. So unless I’m willing to cut off contact with my friends and make my system no longer worth playing, no longer paying for Xbox Live isn’t really an option.

I’d like to hear the thoughts of the rest of the community. I feel that now, in light of the recent Xbox Live downtime, is a good time to start changing Xbox Live for the better.

Can anyone explain to me what this XBOX Live Diamond crap he's talking about is?

[ort888]

Originally Posted by analogue SPRINKLES 

Not everything, the single player is only 6 damn hours! That talked me right out of buying it because I don't like online FPS.

It's a hell of a 6 hours though.

I've seen it in the US for $39.99 a couple of times. I think it's a must buy, even if you never touch the multi-player.

The single player game is a pretty amazing ride.

[jokell82]

Originally Posted by Dakar the Fourth 

Can anyone explain to me what this XBOX Live Diamond crap he's talking about is?

It's some discount card that is worthless. The only thing you can use it for is showing people how much of a nerd you are by keeping an XBox card in your wallet.

[Dakar the Fourth]

So I had a fantastic experience with my 360 last night.

I was in the middle of Halo online co-op when my 360 suddenly dies, like someone cut the power to it. So I walk over and press the power button, which turns green, I hear the 360 power-up for half a second and then it shuts right back off. For those of you at home keeping score, I got NO RINGS OF DEATH. Zero. The thing wouldn't turn on long enough to display any.

So I immediately go to the internet where google reveals no people having mentioned this problem. Great. I register my 360 on support.xbox.com, look through their trouble shooting, and find out how to manually remove the disk. After that I change my underwear, put everything together, and reconnect everything for the Hail Mary. Turn it on - BOOM - pretends like nothing ever happened. 15 minutes later I load Halo in, get back into campaign co-op, play for 3 more hours, go to bed.

I'm going to have heartburn every time I think of turning it on for the next week.

[Mrjinglesusa]

^^^ Exactly why I sold my 360 after M$ fixed it and got a PS3. Just not worth the heartache.