New 360 User [Use Sticky Above]

[Gamer SDP]

Hey CAG, this is sorta copy-pasta'd but hopefully you guys can help me out. i already read the stickys (okay browsed) so please don't jump on me

I'm hooking up a new monitor and will setup a 360 (Elite and most likely Falcon) once everything else is working (tv, PS2, GCN, etc). I never had an original Xbox and am not too familiar with the 360 despite playing it a few times.

My internet connection is Verzion DSL. I use a usb wireless network adapter in order to get my computer connected to the internet. The routers (have 2) are in the basement while my room (with the computer) is two floors above. My connection is decent, can stream videos, download via torrents, play some cheap online games, etc. However, it's not the best. The connection signal fluctuates and loading sites can take a while but over all it's okay. I also have a laptop which I haven't used much (few months old) so maybe if I connect through that, LIVE would be better? I rather not buy that adapter for $100.

I have quite a bit of questions


General

1. What do I have to do about NXE? Some new 360's are preoladed, but I got mine from Amazon several weeks ago. I'm pretty sure it's probably one of those repackaged warehouse ones from the Spring.

2. Do I have to transfer files to the 360's hdd in order to view/play files? I have external hdds with media, do I need some software or something to view them? Can my pc connect to it?

3. How does saving work? Does it vary with the actual game? Can saves be transferred, i.e. bring my data of a game to a friend's place or backup my data on pc? I also heard that there use to be a memory unit which I guess is like a memory card (like the PS2 and GCN).


XBL/XBLA/Marketplace

1. I hear that all new systems come with a 1 month Gold membership trial. I also heard that one console can have about several LIVE accounts. How do these work? Additionally, is a subscription shared among all the console's accounts? I would like to have several accounts or gamertags.

2. Are the subscription fees fixed? I know ebay is the best to buy a 1 year Gold, but I mean will Microsoft ever officially change the fee?

3. When I mentioned accounts, I guess gamertags is what I meant since that's the term. Does playing a game while on LIVE (Silver or Gold) make a difference had I not been signed onto LIVE? In other words, are my game saves universal regardless if I played while singed in (with a gt) or not (or with different gt/account)?

4. How do achievement points and gamerscore work? I read that games have at most 1500 (?) or so possible achievement points along with an additional 250 (?) or so via DLC (free or paid). I believe it does not matter if your account is Silver or Gold, your score is solely based on achievements (though some achievements might only be available via co-op modes or something).

5. How do 48 hour codes work? Will 48 hours be added to a person's subscription if they already have GOLD?

6. I'm guessing you must have a GOLD membership in order to play XBLA games with other 360 users. Do you have to be signed onto LIVE in order to play XBLA games locally?

7. Can things purchased/downloaded (free or not) from the Marketplace (especially games), be transferred to another console? Also are downloads shared among all the accounts/profiles/gt's on a console (sorta ties in with the subscription question)?

8. I know Silver members can buy/download things as long as they have points. Are games and other downloads always priced at 400 Microsoft point increments (I hear 800 a lot)? Again I guess ebay would be the cheapest for point cards.

Okay so that's quite a bit of questions. My main concern is with game saves (and data storage/transfer), how multiple accounts/gts on a console work (I'd like to have 3 or 4), playing on LIVE (especially connection >_>), and ownership of purchased/downloaded media (I hear scary things about some law regarding intellectually property and digital distribution with the Marketplace)

[Littlefields]

General

1. If you still have the dashboard, as soon as you connect to Xbox Live their will be a prompt that pops up to update your console to the fall update. (NXE) It will do everything for you.

2. I'm not too sure about this but, I think you can use an external hdd and plug it into the USB ports of the 360. Depends on what kind of files your dealing with.

3. Again I'm not too sure, but I don't think you can back up the information on a PC. I think you can just bring the game saves with you if you detach it from the console. Memory Cards are worthless if you already have a hdd. They have too little memory.


XBL/XBLA/Marketplace

1. Everytime you create a new Gamertag you get a 1-month trial. So technically you can keep creating more and more as your trials expire. They are not shared. You can have multple accounts on one console.

2. They are pretty much fixed. I wouldn't expect a price drop until about 2 more years. People are still buying the subs.

3. Game saves are saved into Gamertag accounts. You pretty much have to be signed into a Gamertag to play. Weither it is a Xbox Live Gamertag or a Offline Gamertag. If you play with an Offline Gamertag, it will stay that way. Game saves will remain on that Offline Gamertag. As for Silver and Gold. It does not matter. They are both Xbox Live Gamertags.

4. That is correct. You can pretty much obtain all the achievements if you have Gold. (Or like you said, for special co-op achievements.) But since some achievements require you to be playing on a Multoplayer game/match, you cannot complete those achievements on Silver. Silver memberships cannot play online with other people. So if you choose Silver memberships you can't play Online Multiplayer.

5. No. 48-hour trial codes do not stack on to existing Live memberships. You wouldn't need to use 48-hour codes anyway if you have Gold. You can add them to your account later, when your Gold membership runs out.

6. No. You do need to sign into Live to play Online with other people. (Not-locally.) But for local multiplayer, you still need to be signed into an account. Depending on the game the other people playing may need to sign into an account too. Now you must be signed into an account, but you don't have to have a valid Gold membership.

7. Sadly, downloads are not shared among the accounts on the same console. Otherwise people can just sign-in their accounts on a buddy's console and get all his downloads for free. Which leads to your first question: you cannot share downloads with other accounts. But I think you can just take the hdd of your console and just plug it into your friends console to play the game, if that's what you mean.

8. It really depends on the game. Some games have even set the price to 1200 points. ($15) And yes, eBay is always a good choice if you are looking for deals on points. But don't expect that much of a price difference.

Good luck. You don't need to be that concerned, it's just like any regular old console you bought before. With the exception of Live features theirs really not that much to be concerned about. Once you use it more often you'll get the hang of it.

[Malik112099]

This is gonna get merged. Every single question you asked can be easily answered in the general 360 thread or by a quick google search.

Also, wtf is "copy-pasta'd" ?

[torifile]

Hey CAG, this is sorta copy-pasta'd but hopefully you guys can help me out. i already read the stickys (okay browsed) so please don't jump on me

I'm hooking up a new monitor and will setup a 360 (Elite and most likely Falcon) once everything else is working (tv, PS2, GCN, etc). I never had an original Xbox and am not too familiar with the 360 despite playing it a few times.

My internet connection is Verzion DSL. I use a usb wireless network adapter in order to get my computer connected to the internet. The routers (have 2) are in the basement while my room (with the computer) is two floors above. My connection is decent, can stream videos, download via torrents, play some cheap online games, etc. However, it's not the best. The connection signal fluctuates and loading sites can take a while but over all it's okay. I also have a laptop which I haven't used much (few months old) so maybe if I connect through that, LIVE would be better? I rather not buy that adapter for $100.

If you're playing online at all, you'll want to have as stable a connection as possible. While it might seem that connecting to your laptop directly will give you that, your laptop will provide a stable connection to an unstable connection, so no, it won't help. The weakest link in the chain will dictate the quality of your connection. Add to that, the fact that it's hard to get a laptop configured right so you don't have a strict NAT to allow for voice, etc.


General

1. What do I have to do about NXE? Some new 360's are preoladed, but I got mine from Amazon several weeks ago. I'm pretty sure it's probably one of those repackaged warehouse ones from the Spring.

Connect to LIVE and it'll download automatically. Nothing needs to be done on your part except accepting the download.

2. Do I have to transfer files to the 360's hdd in order to view/play files? I have external hdds with media, do I need some software or something to view them? Can my pc connect to it?

You can stream files from your PC and you can store stuff on your 360. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how to get media on the 360 but I know it's doable.

3. How does saving work? Does it vary with the actual game?

Depends on the game.
Can saves be transferred, i.e. bring my data of a game to a friend's place or backup my data on pc? I also heard that there use to be a memory unit which I guess is like a memory card (like the PS2 and GCN).

If you have a memory unit, you can save to it and bring it over. But game saves are not usable between profiles. So in order to use a game save on your friend's 360, you'll need to save your profile to the memory unit and log in with that. Both are easily doable.

XBL/XBLA/Marketplace

1. I hear that all new systems come with a 1 month Gold membership trial. I also heard that one console can have about several LIVE accounts. How do these work? Additionally, is a subscription shared among all the console's accounts? I would like to have several accounts or gamertags.

Each new LIVE account gets a month free when you create it. The gold account is only for the gamertag associated with it. In other words, not every account gets Gold access just because one of the accounts have it.

2. Are the subscription fees fixed? I know ebay is the best to buy a 1 year Gold, but I mean will Microsoft ever officially change the fee?

No one knows, but it's been $50 for years. The best way, as you said, is to get a prepaid card from other sources. I picked up a 12+1 month card for like $30 from ebay.

3. When I mentioned accounts, I guess gamertags is what I meant since that's the term. Does playing a game while on LIVE (Silver or Gold) make a difference had I not been signed onto LIVE? In other words, are my game saves universal regardless if I played while singed in (with a gt) or not (or with different gt/account)?

Game saves are associated with gamertags not with LIVE status. I've got 2 accounts on my 360. I can't play game saves from one while logged into the other. So make sure you're logged into the correct gamertag when you play. (Gamertag log ins are completely separate from LIVE log ins, though they often happen at the same time. Think of it like logging into your computer and logging into your email. They can happen at the same time, but you can log into your computer without logging into your email. But not vice versa.)

4. How do achievement points and gamerscore work? I read that games have at most 1500 (?) or so possible achievement points along with an additional 250 (?) or so via DLC (free or paid). I believe it does not matter if your account is Silver or Gold, your score is solely based on achievements (though some achievements might only be available via co-op modes or something).

That's right. Achievement points aren't related to your type of LIVE account.

5. How do 48 hour codes work? Will 48 hours be added to a person's subscription if they already have GOLD?

Dunno. That's a good question.

6. I'm guessing you must have a GOLD membership in order to play XBLA games with other 360 users. Do you have to be signed onto LIVE in order to play XBLA games locally?

Not ordinarily. There are circumstances in which you can't play DLC offline but those happen rarely when you've switched consoles and didn't migrate your account properly. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that. And you definitely won't under normal cirucmstances.

7. Can things purchased/downloaded (free or not) from the Marketplace (especially games), be transferred to another console?

Only if the gamertag that bought them is on that console.
Also are downloads shared among all the accounts/profiles/gt's on a console (sorta ties in with the subscription question)?

Sort of. As long as you don't have the situation where you can't play offline (see #6), all accounts on that particular console can play that game.

8. I know Silver members can buy/download things as long as they have points. Are games and other downloads always priced at 400 Microsoft point increments (I hear 800 a lot)? Again I guess ebay would be the cheapest for point cards.

The prices vary. Braid is 1200 points, for example. Buy your points elsewhere otherwise they work out to $1.25/100 points.

[Droenixjpn]

I would answer most of these, but I think they've been answered. Honestly, don't worry about the 360 to much. Just play around with it and enjoy the system! That's what I did, I didn't go on Live ever in my life until last year, and I still enjoyed my system.

If you need any reccomended games to get you started off with, I and others can reccomend a few.

Also: This is gonna get merged. Every single question you asked can be easily answered in the general 360 thread or by a quick google search.

Also, wtf is "copy-pasta'd" ?
__________________

Yeah... Umm.... I think you can figure out what he means by copy-pasta'd. If you need help with what he is saying there, he means this is Copy and Pasted. Basically meaning he typed these questions out and probably copy and pasted them, or he means something else.

Just don't try and be an ass, ok? Not saying you were, but it came out that way.

[Gamer SDP]

thanks guys, I already have games thanks to BF Amazon. The Elite is a Holiday Bundle so got Indy/Kunfu Panda pack (but I'll sell that). GoW2 (order came with that along with the big ass lancer weapon), Infinite Undiscovery w/gift, and The Last Remnant are the games I have so far. I plan on getting Fable 2, ToV, and maybe COD4. For now I'm set game wise (including stuff on other systems).

I just tried to connect to LIVE but no dice :cry:. It doesn't surprise me since I could never get on Wifi with my DS or PSP (though my sister who is on the same floor occasionally connected with her DS). If I moved the 360 to the basement I should be fine but then again that's where my parent's home office pc is and the tv sucks there.

I'll have to hold off on LIVE atm :-( and wil research my options. If CAG can help me out with that, I'd be greatly appreciateive! next gen here I am (although the family has a Wii...I plan on adopting it for myself soon)

[Droenixjpn]

OH! Hate to tell you bro, but Xbox 360 does not have Wi-Fi. I know it's dissapointing, but you'll have to connect it to a modem/router to get it going. If you bought the 360 Wi-Fi Adapter, then you do have Wi-Fi but that imo is a waste of 100 bucks.

Also if you get Live up and need anyone to play with I'll play with you. I hope to get Gears of War 2 tomorrow.

[Gamer SDP]

oh it doesn't have WiFi? sorta makes me feel better about my crappy internet setup (stares at the usb wireless network adapter) but it's weird that the Wii does and what about the PS3? I'll keep reading up on other possibilities, if not than will be watching ebay for a while since there's no way I'll be allowed to drill holes in the floors/ceilings/walls for a wired connection.

[JJSP]

The 360 has no WiFi, but there are many alternative options (including the laptop as a bridge). Any wireless adapter will work provided it's plug-and-play (check eBay for things marked "gaming adapter" or keep an eye out on Amazon). There's a list of compatible devices on MS's website - the MS brand is $100 and largely overpriced, but you do have the option of picking up the original Xbox wireless adapter (which, actually, will match the color scheme of your Elite since it's black).

http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-Wireless-Network-Adapter-MN740/dp/B00005QBX9/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1230164898&sr=8-2 - the OG adapter, $45 from Amazon

[gindias]

If you want to add music I believe you need to use a CD to copy it, I have tried to get music off my external HD and couldnt do it. For some reason we cant browse our network and copy over music and videos. Needless to say I have no music or videos on my elite.

[Droenixjpn]

Yeah I hate having to have to have CDs to copy the files to the Hard Drive. Really all you need is one CD-R disc and you're set. Write to disc, transfer to Hard Drive, rewrite new files to the disc, and then repeat.

Guess it's to try and stop piracy.

[Malik112099]

Why would you want to copy any files to the hd when you can stream them from a pc or play them off an external hard/thumb drive?