The Xbox 360 Thread Elite Edition

[protostar8]

Cheating was never that bad on Halo 2, the few common exploits like the modem-standby glitch were solved pretty quickly with updates.

Wow, you got really lucky then. I was part of one of the best Big Team clans around. We weren't bad with 4-man stuff either. We ran in to cheaters ALL the time. Like 1 in every 3 matches b/c cheaters got to the top quick. Oh, and modem standy wasn't fixed with the updates when I had stopped playing (a year ago in august I think). Bungie released an update that was supposed to fix a bunch of stuff, but cheaters had it broken within a few days. It got bad enough that one of my clan mates found a program that would allow us to boot players who weren't using normal copies of the game. Thank god that program never got passed around b/c people would have abused the crap out of it. Maybe Bungie fixed things again after I left and their fixes worked, but there was rampant cheating when I was around (I think the worst case of cheating was the autokill enemy seeking bullets that were one shot one kill no matter where you were on the map).

One of my friends just said that Toys R Us is supposed to have a buy one get one free sell on all their video games, so does anyone know if this thread has a list of games that are good? I'd really like to go ahead and pick up a few titles even though I won't get a console until after the free games get packaged with them.

Edited October 14, 2007 by protostar8

[Ishimaru]

You guys really need to add me in to your lists, I only got one of you.

I keep getting declined.

[eugimon]

in case any of you would like to kill me in Halo 3 (since it would be illegal and wrong to do so in real life) my gamertag is: eugimon

[HoveringCheesecake]

That's multiplayer for ya there are ******** online.

My best time was when I was the juggernaut being chased and I had the beat stick (forgot the name ) and went on a rampage of 5 people straight on, and kicked their mofos as far away as possible.

Gravity hammer I think. I love that thing.

[protostar8]

You guys really need to add me in to your lists, I only got one of you.

I keep getting declined.

I'll get a 360 and Xbox Live around Christmas time. I'll add you then. My name will more than likely be protostar8 since that was my old account's name and I can hopefully keep it.

[Ishimaru]

Added eugimon and protostar8, expect a message from Ryvann.

[yellowlightman]

Picked up PGR4 on a whim today and it's awesome. The weather effects and cities are gorgeous, lots of cool cars (and motorcycles) to drive around in. Not to mention, a new Geometry Wars game.

[wolfx]

Just started with Bioshock. This game is gorgeous.....and really has the same vibe as the System Shock games. I love how you can ignore the main mission and just go about collecting better plasmids and stuff.

[Dax415]

had a regular xbox question but wasn't sure where to post it. mods, if i need to post this separately or in another thread feel free to move it. the dvd drive is down and i wanted to upgrade it...it currently has the philips drive in it and my dad got a better one from a friend. problem is its the wrong connections, is there a way to make this work? where would i go to find out? or is it just best to scoop one up off of ebay to get this fixed? thanks

[TheLoneWolf]

I'll get a 360 and Xbox Live around Christmas time. I'll add you then. My name will more than likely be protostar8 since that was my old account's name and I can hopefully keep it.

If your Xbox1 Live or 360 Gold membership has lapsed for more than 3 months then you'll be forced to choose a new gamertag if you want to play on Live. The weird part is that Microsoft doesn't delete lapsed gamertags so no one else can take them, but they will not (or cannot) revive them either even if you verify that you're the original owner. In the case of 360 Gold memberships the account will be automatically downgraded to a Silver membership, but after 3 non-paying months on Silver status your gamertag will permanently be stuck on Silver status.

had a regular xbox question but wasn't sure where to post it. mods, if i need to post this separately or in another thread feel free to move it. the dvd drive is down and i wanted to upgrade it...it currently has the philips drive in it and my dad got a better one from a friend. problem is its the wrong connections, is there a way to make this work?

There are four Xbox1 dvd drives out there: Philips, Thomson, Samsung and Hitachi. To my knowledge, all these drives are interchangeable on all Xbox1's. But if you're trying to install a standard PC dvd drive onto your Xbox1 you're going to notice that the pc dvd drive is missing an extra connector that's exclusive to the Xbox1 drives. It it possible to physically mod a pc dvd drive to work on it, but at this point it's not worth the hassle and probably cheaper to just buy a used Xbox1 from Gamestop.

Edited October 15, 2007 by TheLoneWolf

[David Hingtgen]

Wha? MS can make accounts permanently silver simply for not playing? Because I downgraded to silver like 2 months ago. I don't want to have to keep buying 1 month cards every 3 months just to "keep the account active".

[TheLoneWolf]

Wha? MS can make accounts permanently silver simply for not playing? Because I downgraded to silver like 2 months ago. I don't want to have to keep buying 1 month cards every 3 months just to "keep the account active".

Edit: Whoops, misread your post.

But yeah, that's a cheap way to keep your gamertag "alive" if you don't plan on playing too much.

Or you can grab an Xbox1 Live 1-year prepaid card and use that instead. Most places are clearing them out because they think they're worthless, lol. My store was one of those places so I picked up a 1 year subscription for $20 plus my employee discount.

Edited October 15, 2007 by TheLoneWolf

[David Hingtgen]

I've never heard anything about accounts being "permanently locked as silver" due to simply not being gold any more. I mean, you can never play online for years, keep your tag as silver for all that time, then one day go on and be gold with no problems. But as soon as the first time you're ever gold, you have to keep using it to ever be allowed to use it again in the future? That really makes no sense.

[TheLoneWolf]

It doesn't make sense to me neither, but that's what MS told my old roommate when he tried to revive his lapsed account. But if you want to go ahead and try it anyways then let me know how it works out.

I suppose, in a way, they're holding your gamertag hostage. To someone with the gamertag of Bob543979 it won't make any difference, but if you really like your gt and don't want to lose it then MS has you by the balls.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Tell you what, I'll test this "No gold for you" thing tonight when I get home. I had a gold account months and months ago but never played online so I let it lapse. Its been silver for a loooong time. I'll go on when I get home and see if it will let me re-connect using my old gold tag.

[TheLoneWolf]

Sounds good to me, but just remember that logging into your silver account won't be a problem. You'll run into the wall if you try to upgrade your silver back to gold via a prepaid membership card or credit card payment.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I just did it and it worked fine. What I did was log into Xbox Live (as a silver), go to the marketplace, select "account management", then select "memberships" and I just picked a one month $7.99 deal. It thought about it then had me log off and log back on. It now says I'm "Gold" and even has the little yellow header that used to be silver.

As a "Test" I have my friend's Halo 3 disc (for you folks who read my hate for Halo 3 on AP this is not what it looks like... he left it here and it was the only "online" game I have to test with) and I booted it up and went to the multiplayer section and it automatically dumped me into some sort of "training" mission against three or four other people. I promptly got whacked in the head and quit. BUT my old username of JsARCLIGHT was still good and it showed up on the screen clear as day... I did not have to change anything or use an alternate. My "gold" account had been in lapse for months and months, my best estimate was it fell out of use around march of this year.

Sooooo... no offense but I call BS on the "no gold for you" thing.

And if anyone does not have me listed I guess I'm back on gold.

Edit: If I had to guess I'd say that if your gold account goes cold and someone else comes in they can take your name because you are not "using it". My usual monkier "JsARCLIGHT" is so obtuse that I'm the only human on earth that uses it. Anytime you see a JsARCLIGHT... it's me. IMHO that is what probably happened. You probably had a "more common" username and someone snaked your name while your account was in limbo. Use it or lose it as they say...

[TheLoneWolf]

Sooooo... no offense but I call BS on the "no gold for you" thing.

None taken, but now I gotta wonder why they wouldn't allow my old roommate to revive his account. Oh well, thanks for volunteering to be our guinea pig.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I guess it's kind of fortuitous in the end. I've had like four or so people on my "friends" list for nearly a year and have never played a single online game with any of them. Every time I tried to play in the past I always wound up playing against foul mouthed kids, racists, the criminally insane and one time I think I actually played a game against satan himself.

I was planning to re-up at some point when I got Ace Combat so I could at some point be part of the MW squadron.

[Ishimaru]

God dammit Gamestop won't exchange my scratched Limited Edition Halo 3 which is still under their 7 day return policy, they are telling me to do that replacement process with MS but I'm not going to do that.

Should I go back and argue for a replacement?

[CoryHolmes]

one time I think I actually played a game against satan himself.

How did that happen?

[JsARCLIGHT]

I was playing Tony Hawk Project 8 around this time last year and one of the guys playing had a really, really deep voice... Like scary deep. And he kept yelling at people who "got in his way", he kept cussing his chosen skater that he was using and every now and then when he'd land a trick you'd hear him yell and make some kind of tongue wagging Gene Simmons-ish sort of noise. It was simultaneously embarrassing and scary.

That was actually the straw that broke the camel's back for me. That was the last time I ever played online with the Xbox. I stopped playing, removed my headset, put it in my home theater parts bin in the basement and have never got it back out. I really wanted to get into the online gaming with this deck. It sounds bad to say it but every time I tried to play online I always seemed to get paired with the freaks, foul mouths and infantile jackasses. I will fully admit that I myself am a goofball when playing online games. I'm not a griefer, cusser or any sort of jerk but I do fully admit that I myself have a very Dennis Leary-ish mouth on me and I start cracking wise about everything, including myself... but the people I got paired up with, hoooooooo boy they made me look like Mother Theresa.

I'd love to start playing online against people I know but I never seem to "be around" for any online games. Maybe I can find a way to change that.

[Chowser]

God dammit Gamestop won't exchange my scratched Limited Edition Halo 3 which is still under their 7 day return policy, they are telling me to do that replacement process with MS but I'm not going to do that.

Should I go back and argue for a replacement?

The manager at my GS told me that MS is handling all the replacements. If you go to GS and exchange it, chances are you are going to get another scratched disc.

My brother gave me his Limited Edition for my son which was scratched. I sent it off to MS, cost me about $2, and after about a week, we got the replacement discs, non-scratched and works fine.

Here's the page where you can download the form.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemus...dconditions.htm

I just bought a bubble mailer when I was at the store, stuck the scratched discs in between the forms (I printed two, one for each disc), and stuffed it all in the envelope and sent it off.

PITA, but no scratched discs.

Haven't really played it much since my son and I finished it splitscreen while waiting. Took about 2 to 2.5 hours. Done. Tried some online the other day, but I'm trying to finish most of the quests in Oblivion before Ace Combat comes out.

[David Hingtgen]

My headset is still sealed in its wrapper. There's really no need to talk to anyone, and 90% of what is said is just swear words anyways. Now, if AC6 really allows "squadron play" then I might need to hook it up if we have to really act in synch or something. Otherwise I plan to leave it where it is.

[wolfx]

Sounds good to me, but just remember that logging into your silver account won't be a problem. You'll run into the wall if you try to upgrade your silver back to gold via a prepaid membership card or credit card payment.

Btw just to confirm jsarclight's findings, i myself have been on hiatus from XBL and it was silver for 3 months due to reasons that i can't play my XBOX (3ROD grumble....then when i finally get it back, was swamped by work etc) and just 3 days ago i revived my silver back to Gold. So no worries on keeping your gamertag inactive.

[Ishimaru]

The manager at my GS told me that MS is handling all the replacements. If you go to GS and exchange it, chances are you are going to get another scratched disc.

My brother gave me his Limited Edition for my son which was scratched. I sent it off to MS, cost me about $2, and after about a week, we got the replacement discs, non-scratched and works fine.

Here's the page where you can download the form.

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemus...dconditions.htm

I just bought a bubble mailer when I was at the store, stuck the scratched discs in between the forms (I printed two, one for each disc), and stuffed it all in the envelope and sent it off.

PITA, but no scratched discs.

Haven't really played it much since my son and I finished it splitscreen while waiting. Took about 2 to 2.5 hours. Done. Tried some online the other day, but I'm trying to finish most of the quests in Oblivion before Ace Combat comes out.

I can't wait a week thats the thing I got plans for a vacation, the disc is freezing up my system. I told Gamestop that and they kept giving me the phone number and what not. I mean come on it says it right on the receipt that I can exchange it within 7 days, why am I not allowed to do that?

What should I tell them so that they would exchange it?

I'm aware of it having the chance of being scratched again but my chances are not better with what I have right now.

Also if I added another month of live gold to my account via the Xbox Live Gold Card to my current subscription which is at a month, would it add on to it?

[Chowser]

If they let you exchange it, try and gently shake the box to see if the discs are loose inside. Chances are if it's loose, it's scratched. If you don't hear it, then you'll get lucky. I'd just exchange it for the regular edition, those haven't been scratched.

If you add a month, it just adds extends your current expiration by one month. You don't lose any time.

Mine expires in 15 months. (I had a 12 month card and just added the free one months I keep getting)

[protostar8]

Edit: Whoops, misread your post.

But yeah, that's a cheap way to keep your gamertag "alive" if you don't plan on playing too much.

Or you can grab an Xbox1 Live 1-year prepaid card and use that instead. Most places are clearing them out because they think they're worthless, lol. My store was one of those places so I picked up a 1 year subscription for $20 plus my employee discount.

You wouldn't happen to have any more of those year subscriptions for $20???

[Apollo Leader]

Just need to beat the game with 4 more characters on Dynasty Warriors Gundam and I can get back to Halo 3. Buuuttt, Guitar Hero III, COD 4, and Rock Band are all out in a few more weeks! Not to mention I'm thinking of picking up the Orange Box.

[CoryHolmes]

Buuuttt, Guitar Hero III, COD 4, and Rock Band are all out in a few more weeks!

Bah! Those all pale to greatness that will be Mass Effect!

[TheLoneWolf]

You wouldn't happen to have any more of those year subscriptions for $20???

Sorry but they're long gone, once the other employees found out these things flew. Just a word to the wise: I made sure to activate the code on my old Xbox1. The code will probably work if you activate it from the 360, but I didn't want to risk it and just plugged back in the old Xbox1.

Also, if you have any friends that work at Best Buy you may want to hit them up. Even when the Xbox1 was at its apex Best Buy employees were able to buy 1 yr cards at cost, which was $13. By that logic, the Gold 1 yr cards should be around the same price.

[Black Valkyrie]

Bionic Commando

[JB0]

Bionic Commando

Hot.

Pity we'll never see another Blaster Master game. Of course, given what the Genesis and PlayStation ones were like, that could be a good thing.

The monochrome GameBoy one can be ignored, because it wasn't even in the series until it came to America. That was a Bomberman spinoff and I'm pretty sure it broke more hearts than BM2 and Blasting Again put together.

[yellowlightman]

Picked up Beautiful Katamari today, only two days after getting PGR4. It's kind of a killer month for the 360... lots of good games and not enough time to play them.

[David Hingtgen]

I hate when sequels don't get a number if it's been more than one game system since the last. This should be Bionic Commando *2*. And let anyone under 20 wonder what happened to the first one...

(Yes, Ninja Gaiden should have been NG 4)