Jonathan's Universe

Posts Tagged ‘xbox 360’

So, an update on two things I’ve previously mentioned in regards to NXE.

Netflix
We can watch sony-produced films now! My brother was watching seaquest, aftwards I went back to the queue, and what do you know.. I had like 20 extra movies popup in my xbox 360 queue. Nice

Community Games Marketplace
Yes.. of the 3 or 4 games I looked at, you had to pay Microsoft Points (like 200-400) to download the full version. I guess this is fair, developers need money too!

So, yesterday.. I neglected to mention possibly the coolest part of NXE. It’s actually a feature that I haven’t at all looked at. It’s the new XNA Community interface. XNA is basically the set of tools that allow game developers to make games for the 360. the XNA Community Interface is basically the area where these developers release their games for others to try them out.

This is a pretty cool premise. You can find games you might like then download them to your machine. However, I am not sure if you have to pay for the games (maybe it’s like the Apple AppStore, some you buy, some you don’t have to), but this looks very promising. You’re guarenteed to get some kind of quality too, because in order to be part of the XNA developer community, you have to pay a subscription fee (and I believe for some developer software too).

I’m curious to see how this ends up. Will this turn out to be a dumping ground where lame games are put? Or will it be the proving ground where Microsoft can scout for future developers? *cue dramatic music* We’ll find out.. soon enough!

So about a week now I’ve had my xbox 360. It’s all well in good. But I’ve had a few issues.

In the The Force Unleashed, there have been a few probably-game related glitches. The first one involved me getting stuck, probably shoddy collision detection coding. Also, every now and then invisible walls keep popping up to the point where I can’t walk. This isn’t be design. This is happening most annoyingly on one of the final parts, the part where you need to pull down the star destroyer. I’m running back and forth on the platform, I go to run back and my character just runs in place. It’s very annoying. Also, I finally get very close to the star destroy being destroyed. Guess what happens. Yup, the system locked up. The 360 doesn’t respond to any in-game calls (start menu button) or system calls (holding down the center button). Great.

Now a more severe issue. It’s not detecting my headset, anymore. It was until tonight. All night my controller kept turning off (one of the batteries might be bad), and then all of a sudden now it doesnt detect the headset all. No one hears me, I hear no one (except through my TV). This is a used controller but a brand new headset. Ugh.

I’ll try again tomorrow and look at my diagnostic options.

So, yesterday my 360 came. It’s awesome.

First off, Microsoft really took care of me. I’m surprised. They were only legally obligated to fix the three red-ring-of-death issue and that is it. Well, they fixed the controller port flaps (they were extremely loose and just hanging there, basically worthless) and they fixed the rattling in the machine (it sounded like a loose pebble or something.). And, they gave me a month subscription to xbox live to compliment my year subscription.

So I went to turn it on, I put in the hard drive I got from an eBay seller. WHAT!? It’s red rings and gives me an error code relevant to a screwed up hard drive. I email the company and go out and buy a new (used) one. I come back and they have replied with an offer to exchange it. I tell them that I’d like a refund. So I’m working on that.

So, while I picked up the harddrive from the store, I also got Assassin’s Creed. Fun game. Kind of confusing as sometimes stuff you need to do isn’t laid out for you. Also, I have a copy of Burnout Paradise. Well.. I did. Last night I was playing it, but because I have a standard-def TINY television, I couldn’t read the instructions. I moved closed and knocked the 360 over. The disc is done.. the laser chewed it up pretty bad. Uh.. oops.

Last night i spent some time playing some demos. Bioshock, Iron Man, Force Unleashed and TOB: HL Episode 2. I know they are demos but they are insanely short. TOB didn’t even finish the level, you just walk around for about 5 minutes and it’s done. Oh well I guess. I also downloaded the Bourne Conspiracy, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. It’s nice to finally be able to play the 360 though.