The Xbox 360 Thread Elite Edition

[eugimon]

I always thought the key to good comic relief is when they have an organic reason for being in the story and they aren't there simply as comic relief... like in the wing commander games, maniac was comic relief but he was also part of the story.

[yellowlightman]

Dropped by my local Gamestop to make a Halo 3 preorder and picked up the free Ace COmbat 6 poster. Came in a package with seven other game posters, none of which I'd put on my wall. The AC6 is rather nice, though.

[Loner]

Damn it! I'm going down to that Gamestop and getting me that poster. I put the AC6 flight stick package on pre-order.

[bandit29]

Amazon Xbox360 Elite Hi-Def Bundle 599.99

here

The Xbox 360 High-Def Bundle includes:

- (1) Xbox 360 Elite Game console

- (1) Xbox 360 HD DVD Player (includes King Kong on HD DVD)

- (1) 300 movie on HD DVD

Get an additional 5 FREE HD DVD movies via mail-in form (1.67 MB PDF). (An Xbox 360 HD DVD Player purchase promotion.)

To take advantage of this offer, click the "Add to Shopping Cart" button below to add all three items required for the Xbox 360 High-Def Bundle offer. The total cost of the bundle will be adjusted during checkout.

[David Hingtgen]

Wow, that might be the first package I've ever seen for a system that's actually good.

[Ladic]

http://www.gogamer.com/viewproduct.htm?pro...p;SID=sduidp0t0

[Macross73]

ahhhhhhhhh!! I've been red ringed

just got off the phone with xbox/support . well looks like I'm w/o the 360 for awhile.

At least bioshock hasn't come out quite yet.

I was starting to get the hang of multi-player on GRAW 2.

[yellowlightman]

At least bioshock hasn't come out quite yet.

Well, comes out in two days. Although people said Toys R Us had the game out on shelves a few days ago, for some reason they decided to break the street date.

[Macross73]

great. now i gotta wait even longer to play it.

[JB0]

great. now i gotta wait even longer to play it.

Look at it this way... I'm gonna have to skip it entirely.

FAR too many needles for my poor phobic brain to handle.

[Fort Max]

Look at it this way... I'm gonna have to skip it entirely.

FAR too many needles for my poor phobic brain to handle.

I hate needles too but that won't stop me from playing this, it'll just mean I lose a lot of fights cos I've covered my eyes whilst he's "reloading".

[JsARCLIGHT]

As always I'm late to the party. I DL'ed Bioshock over the weekend and played through the demo. Is it just me or did the demo kind of end right in the middle of something? I guess they wanted to build tension for the game so people run out and buy it... and to that degree it worked on me. I wasn't too keen on the actual "game" as I'm not much of a fan of console shooters, but the atmosphere and the creepiness have sold me on it.

Now comes the wondering... does anyone think this game will "sell out" on release day? I remember trying to find a copy of Gears of War for like two months after it got released was tough... then again that was in the middle of Christmas.

[Dante74]

I'll be passing on Bioshock and saving up for Mass Effect, Halo 3, PGR 4 and Assasin Creed.

I might get it when it goes to the inevitable Classic and gets cheap. (What can I say, I'm dutch afterall )

[Chowser]

I'll be passing on Bioshock and saving up for Mass Effect, Halo 3, PGR 4 and Assasin Creed.

I might get it when it goes to the inevitable Classic and gets cheap. (What can I say, I'm dutch afterall )

Is Gears of War a classic? It's still uber expensive. Used copies are selling for $55. New for $60 still. Lost Planet is down to $35 and I still haven't picked that up yet.

I think Dead Rising finally went down recently too.

If MS ever sends my kid's 360 back, I think the only game we're getting is Halo 3 for the foreseeable future. Gotta get that helmet for my cat.

Maybe Ace Combat 6 for Xmas...

[Alpha OTS]

As always I'm late to the party. I DL'ed Bioshock over the weekend and played through the demo. Is it just me or did the demo kind of end right in the middle of something?

It wasn't just you. That was my only complaint about the demo. They kick you out of it just when it's getting good. Then they go and show you these cool things that you can't do in the demo. The evil bastards.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Well, the demo's job was to hook you into buying the game... and it worked for me.

There are so many demos that I download on XBox that just seem so underwhelming. It's quite common for me to download a demo, play it for five minutes or so, say "wow this game sucks", exit out of it and delete it. The games that I've thought really shine as demos I've bought every one.

[Macross73]

Is Gears of War a classic? It's still uber expensive. Used copies are selling for $55. New for $60 still. Lost Planet is down to $35 and I still haven't picked that up yet.

I think Dead Rising finally went down recently too.

If MS ever sends my kid's 360 back, I think the only game we're getting is Halo 3 for the foreseeable future. Gotta get that helmet for my cat.

Maybe Ace Combat 6 for Xmas...

yeah its still just as much as when it 1st came out (new or used). I just bought a copy for my Brother-in-laws B'day and there wasnt much point in getting it used since it was a few dollors more for a brand new copy. I havent seen anything inidicating that it would be a Classic Title. Perhaps it'll go classic by December , its just matter of time

[mikeszekely]

Apparently, there's a rumor going around that the Core is being tweaked and rebraneded.

The newly dubbed Xbox 360 Arcade will supposedly have the HDMI port, upgrade from wired to wireless controller, and come with a 256mb memory card that comes with 5 free XBLA games.

Most of the forums I'm reading have the usual belly-aching that it's still a useless sku and only retards would buy it. I kind of disagree, though. Yeah, if you download a lot of content from the Live Marketplace, you'll probably still want the hard drive models, but a 256mb memory card does have enough space for game saves. If you don't care about XBL, you're poor, or your cheap parents are telling you they won't buy you a 360 because it's too expensive, a price that's $70 lower might be attractive.

Plus, there are people like me. I still have a launch-day 360. And so far, so good... but I live in constant mortal terror that it will die on me every time I turn it on. Sure, it's warrantied for 3 years against the Red Ring of Death... nearly two of which have already passed. But what if I don't want to wait for weeks for it to be replaced with a refurb when a game like Mass Effect is begging to be played? Or what if it waits until December of 2008 to throw in the towel? I've already got a hard drive and headset, so buying a new Core/Arcade with a slick new Falcon chipset, or even a Zephyr model with an improved heatsink, works better for me than buying another Pro. (Yeah, there is the lure of the bigger hard drive that comes with the Elite, but I don't honestly download more than the occasional demo, so I'd probably opt to save the $170 up front, and then just buy the bigger hard drive later if I decided I'd need it.)

[CoryHolmes]

Plus, there are people like me. I still have a launch-day 360. And so far, so good... but I live in constant mortal terror that it will die on me every time I turn it on.

Thank God I'm not alone!

[JB0]

Apparently, there's a rumor going around that the Core is being tweaked and rebraneded.

The newly dubbed Xbox 360 Arcade will supposedly have the HDMI port, upgrade from wired to wireless controller, and come with a 256mb memory card that comes with 5 free XBLA games.

Most of the forums I'm reading have the usual belly-aching that it's still a useless sku and only retards would buy it. I kind of disagree, though. Yeah, if you download a lot of content from the Live Marketplace, you'll probably still want the hard drive models, but a 256mb memory card does have enough space for game saves. If you don't care about XBL, you're poor, or your cheap parents are telling you they won't buy you a 360 because it's too expensive, a price that's $70 lower might be attractive.

Yah. My big objection to the Core was always the complete lack of save media.

Given the cost of a memory card, it just didn't make sense.

But add a memcard and 5 free games, and it looks a LOT more appealing.

[CoryHolmes]

I need help from all you really smart people. I can't get the Xbox360 to recognize my surround sound system. I have the two audio cables going into my reciever and the HD cables going into my TV, and yet the Episode III THX test only puts sound through the left and right speakers. The reciever test signals cycle through the speakers just fine, but I can't get the DVD to output to them. What gives?

EDIT

I've narrowed the problem down to my AV receiver. It won't switch from 2 channel output to 5 channel output, no matter how many times I run through the setup menu. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Edited August 21, 2007 by CoryHolmes

[Fort Max]

I finally, finally, joined the party after many months of waiting yesterday when my very own 360 turned up on my doorstep.

*is so happy*

I've only played Crackdown so far though, got C & C 3 to play at the weekend when I've got more time and Bioshock on preorder.

My gamertag is "Angst O Tron" but since I'm in a completely different timezone (London) it probably won't be of much use here.

I need some help though, I set up my net connection through MS'es own wireless adapter and my home network and tried downloading some stuff and it was excruciatingly slow.

I'm supposed to have an 8MB connection but it managed 10% of the Crackdown free for all pack in about 30-45 minutes. Is that normal or is there a bottleneck somewhere that I can eliminate?

Also, is it safe to leave it downloading when I go to work?

That huge power brick has fire hazard written all over it imo.

[yellowlightman]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=182358

Some new Halo 3 screen shots, both SP and MP. Game looks like total sex.

This month's Wired also has an interesting article about the extensive testing Bungie is doing to ensure the game is going to be excellent. You can find it on the Wired website.

Just a little over a month to go... Guess I'd better ask for the the 25th off of work.

[Keith]

Apparently, there's a rumor going around that the Core is being tweaked and rebraneded.

The newly dubbed Xbox 360 Arcade will supposedly have the HDMI port, upgrade from wired to wireless controller, and come with a 256mb memory card that comes with 5 free XBLA games.

Most of the forums I'm reading have the usual belly-aching that it's still a useless sku and only retards would buy it. I kind of disagree, though. Yeah, if you download a lot of content from the Live Marketplace, you'll probably still want the hard drive models, but a 256mb memory card does have enough space for game saves. If you don't care about XBL, you're poor, or your cheap parents are telling you they won't buy you a 360 because it's too expensive, a price that's $70 lower might be attractive.

Plus, there are people like me. I still have a launch-day 360. And so far, so good... but I live in constant mortal terror that it will die on me every time I turn it on. Sure, it's warrantied for 3 years against the Red Ring of Death... nearly two of which have already passed. But what if I don't want to wait for weeks for it to be replaced with a refurb when a game like Mass Effect is begging to be played? Or what if it waits until December of 2008 to throw in the towel? I've already got a hard drive and headset, so buying a new Core/Arcade with a slick new Falcon chipset, or even a Zephyr model with an improved heatsink, works better for me than buying another Pro. (Yeah, there is the lure of the bigger hard drive that comes with the Elite, but I don't honestly download more than the occasional demo, so I'd probably opt to save the $170 up front, and then just buy the bigger hard drive later if I decided I'd need it.)

Why not just "say" it broke down, ship it for a replacement before the 3 years is up, and save yourself the cash.

[David Hingtgen]

That is a good question---how exactly does MS know what's wrong? I sent mine in for a problem which gave no error codes or lights. I know it had an issue, I could reproduce it every time. (and the refurb I got back has never done it despite dozens of attempts)

Perhaps the 3RROD error sets a code in internal memory or something, so MS can check and see. I mean, since the system knows if you ever opened the case, you'd think an actual failure would be monitored too. But like mine, there's plenty of non-standard un-coded errors that could happen out there.

PS--what's the going rate for a system-only 360 sale? If I ever upgraded etc, I want to keep my HDD and most of all, my controller---I do NOT want to do the D-pad fix again, especially after I got it looking and working so nice. Took a lot of work and I came THIS close to majorly "uglifying" the D-pad ring. If I bought "the new version of the Core" or whatever after it gets the 65nm and quieter drive and hopefully fans etc, I'd want to do it for less than 100 bucks if possible. (I went from old PS2 to slim PS2 for only 50 bucks effectively--but that was due to EB having a specific big trade-in bonus at the time to sell slim PS2's to old PS2 user)

I'm going to wait a few weeks/months to see if all new 360's really do have the quiet BenQ drive now, or just a recent batch. The first time we saw the BenQ everyone thought it was the new drive--until it went away and we got Hitachis again. Then there's also the news that new Elites have quieter Nidec(?) fans, as opposed to the Delta fans. Kinda surprised----lots of things have Delta fans and while cheap OEM, they're often quite quiet. My quietest PC fans are/were actually Deltas. So why do 360 Delta fans make noise?

[JsARCLIGHT]

I need help from all you really smart people. I can't get the Xbox360 to recognize my surround sound system. I have the two audio cables going into my reciever and the HD cables going into my TV, and yet the Episode III THX test only puts sound through the left and right speakers. The reciever test signals cycle through the speakers just fine, but I can't get the DVD to output to them. What gives?

EDIT

I've narrowed the problem down to my AV receiver. It won't switch from 2 channel output to 5 channel output, no matter how many times I run through the setup menu. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Is the console itself outputting 5 channel audio? The only reason I ask is after getting my PS3 and having to juggle my audio connections around to eliminate a group loop feedback issue from the PS3 I noticed that the PS3's system settings controlled what kind of audio output was being made by the system. You could adjust it all the way back to Dolby 2.1 if you wanted. It's been a very long time since I dug into my Xbox'es menu system but I'm almost positive the Xbox has something similar to this. Make sure it's set to something other than "mono". If you are using the simple RCA right/left plugs and not an optical cable set the output to Analog and (if I remember right) set it to Dolby Pro Logic II, which should get you your 5.1 output. If you have an optical cable running then it should put out everything up to Dolby Digital 5.1 (which to my knowledge is the ceiling for the Xbox... it's audio output options are kind of weak).

[CoryHolmes]

Is the console itself outputting 5 channel audio? The only reason I ask is after getting my PS3 and having to juggle my audio connections around to eliminate a group loop feedback issue from the PS3 I noticed that the PS3's system settings controlled what kind of audio output was being made by the system. You could adjust it all the way back to Dolby 2.1 if you wanted. It's been a very long time since I dug into my Xbox'es menu system but I'm almost positive the Xbox has something similar to this. Make sure it's set to something other than "mono". If you are using the simple RCA right/left plugs and not an optical cable set the output to Analog and (if I remember right) set it to Dolby Pro Logic II, which should get you your 5.1 output. If you have an optical cable running then it should put out everything up to Dolby Digital 5.1 (which to my knowledge is the ceiling for the Xbox... it's audio output options are kind of weak).

I just finished playing email tag with Yamaha Canada's techincal help people and they told me about the optical cable. I didn't even know the 360 HAD an optical port. I hooked that up to a digital in port on my receiver and it worked like a charm. It's just that the system wasn't outputting 5.1 information through the standard 360 coax cables. Odd, but the problem is resolved.

[Apollo Leader]

Why not just "say" it broke down, ship it for a replacement before the 3 years is up, and save yourself the cash.

When my launch system broke down a year ago July, there were a lot of specific questions the Microsoft people went through with me. It wasn't until I got the 3 red rings and a specific error screen message about two weeks after my system started going funny did they finally agree that something was indeed wrong and sent me my cardboard "coffin".

I've had my refurbished unit for just a little over a year and it seems to be holding up even after MANY hours of playing Gears of War, Guitar Hero II, Call of Duty II, and numerous other games.

Speaking of Gears of War, I just need to get the "THIS! IS! ANNEX!" achievement and "Seriously" achievements on this game. I need about 5,000 more online kills to get "Seriously...". Looks like I'll be playing Gears for another year or two!

[JsARCLIGHT]

What position was the audio switch on the multi cable set to? If it was set to Digital and you were using the RCA cables then it might have legacied itself back to Dolby 2.1 output, or even mono.

[Keith]

When my launch system broke down a year ago July, there were a lot of specific questions the Microsoft people went through with me. It wasn't until I got the 3 red rings and a specific error screen message about two weeks after my system started going funny did they finally agree that something was indeed wrong and sent me my cardboard "coffin".

I've had my refurbished unit for just a little over a year and it seems to be holding up even after MANY hours of playing Gears of War, Guitar Hero II, Call of Duty II, and numerous other games.

Speaking of Gears of War, I just need to get the "THIS! IS! ANNEX!" achievement and "Seriously" achievements on this game. I need about 5,000 more online kills to get "Seriously...". Looks like I'll be playing Gears for another year or two!

Customer service hurdles are easy to jump through, just get mad, tell them to fix it, and you're good . Once they have it, since it seems to be the norm to just ship the next refurb off the line, you're home free. Here's a question though, when shipping back, do they tell you to keep your HDD?

[Chowser]

Yeah, they tell you to keep your HDD, and if you have another faceplate on to put the original back on. They said send only the unit back, no cords, no accessories, etc.

They got mine on the 16th, I'm hoping to have to refurb back this week.

----

Has anyone gotten their 360 to talk to their PC over a network?

I have had trouble getting Vista (Home Premium) to talk to the 360.

This is the setup:

Vista Home Premium

Intel Core2 6600 @ 2.4Ghz

2 GB RAM

NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS (256mb)

250x2 SATA Raid 0 setup

500gb external

My netgear WGR614 just died so I grabbed an old DI-524 I had in my locker at work. With the Netgear I always had communication problems connecting to the 360. The 360 was wired in to the Netgear by ethernet. The PC is connected to the Netgear by Ethernet.

I switched to the DLink while the 360 is away at MS, so when the refurb 360 gets back, I will try again with the Dlink, but I don't expect anything to change.

Never had this problem with Windows MCE.

Vista sees the 360, it tells me it's there, but it won't connect. I guess I will have the refurb 360 with new codes and will try that, else I am giving up on this.

Edited August 21, 2007 by Chowser

[mikeszekely]

Why not just "say" it broke down, ship it for a replacement before the 3 years is up, and save yourself the cash.

Well, I can't do it now. I live near Pittsburgh, but I'm trying to get a job in Cleveland. It would suck if I sent my 360 away, had to move, and the guy who ends up moving into my apartment back in PA thinks he got a moving in present why my refurb turns up.

If I wait until after I move, then I'm faced with that same dilemma... by the end of the month, I'm looking to have picked up Tiger Woods and Dynasty Warriors Gundam, even if I have decided to wait a bit on Bioshock. Do I really want to be without a console? I could probably entertain myself with Metroid Prime 3 and Heavenly Sword, but only if I'm sure I'd have my system back before November, when Ace Combat 6 and Mass Effect hit.

And besides, Microsoft sends back refurbs. Yuck.

PS--what's the going rate for a system-only 360 sale?

EB/Gamestop has them used/refurbed for something like $180. The new Cores are out of stock pretty much everywhere, but that might change if they really do re-release it as the Arcade. Anyway, that should go for $279. I don't know what the trade-in values are, but I don't think you could work it out to get one for under $100 if you went new. If you just bring in your console, they should (at least, my store used to) just keep the controller and cords from the new one, but even if it's working, I don't see them giving you too much for it. Of course, you do have that memory card you can trade, too...

[Chowser]

Good luck with Cleveland, we'll have to hang out or something. You can give them my address in Cleveland if you want to send it in before your move, they can send me your refurb and I'll get it to you. I'm not moving for at least two more years.

Trade in values suck at Gamestop. They were going to give me $20 for my original Xbox. I think they said it was about $90 for a core 360 when I asked when the Elites first came out.

[CoryHolmes]

What position was the audio switch on the multi cable set to? If it was set to Digital and you were using the RCA cables then it might have legacied itself back to Dolby 2.1 output, or even mono.

There's a switch for the audio cables? I only see the HDTV and TV switch.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Doh I got my cables confused with the system settings. I was thinking of the audio control pannel setting, was it set to Digital or Analog?