The General 360 Owners/Buyers FAQ Thread (Updated 1/15/10)

I have a friend who created a silver account while he looks for a good deal on a year of live. I have this one month subscription, so my question is, can he use it to turn his silver to gold or will he have to create a brand new gamertag to be able to use the 1 month subscription.
 
HE can turn his silver into a gold account for the month and when the month is over it will revert back to silver. No need to make a new account.
 
As far as I know If you have a paid sub your gold. If you have a free account your silver. In this case your bud will go from silver to gold and then if he does not get another code to extend that month he will go back to silver when it is up. I could be wrong though.
 
Points question! I guess this is where I ask...

I missed Chuck and My Own Worst Enemy last night (my older model Tivo only has one tuner), so I'm going to either rent them on my Tivo, or on my 360.

The 360 would be (sort of) 20 cents cheaper, but I wanted to clear something up...

I may be giving my 360 to a friend some time soonish, and getting a new one with a larger drive. I'd have to do the thingee where you transfer content licenses to the new system.

Do unused points transfer also? And if they do, when I'm looking through my stuff to redownload on the new system, does it keep games separate from video? I don't want to have to scroll through a bunch of episodes I've rented to find games.

Thanks!

If points DON'T transfer, I should maybe just rent on my Tivo so I don't end up losing points. (I'd be putting in a 1600 point card, and only using 320 points, at least this week.)
 
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[quote name='pitfallharry219']Why not just watch them on Hulu for free? You can get a program to stream Hulu to your 360.[/QUOTE]

'Cause it's a pain. I don't think my new internet connection is really fast enough, and I don't want to buy that program and then find out it doesn't work or whatever.

I watched a couple of them on my Playstation 3 a few weeks back through Hulu, but that didn't work very well either (not sure if it was just the version of Flash being outdated, or my internet connection, or what), but for the time being I'm just going to do it this way, I guess :whistle2:/

(Too bad Hulu doesn't let you download, and do it to Tivo and the game systems!)
 
Stop drinking the Kool-aid, and buy a real gaming/entertainment system. Don't believe Cheapy and his paid for by Xbox love-fest. I love the show but I'm really sick of CAG bashing Sony! You can taste the yellow journalism spewed by the hosts.

reasons not to buy an Xbox

1. Red Ring of Death- Would you buy a pacemaker with a 30% failure rate (and that's being generous) for your heart... I would not! Most of my friends are on their 3rd console while my first Sony is pluggung along just fine
2. So how does it feel having a Beta-max video player? Blue Ray is the future, and Sony has it! Not the Xbox and its outdated tech. It allows games to be made that the Xbox could not keep up with due to it's outdated tech for a player
3.It's loud as hell! Who turned on the compressor! Maybe one of the reasons you get a free headset is because they hope you wont hear how loud and HOT their system is running.
4. Paying for Online play! Add in the extra cost you pay for Online play and I get a free Sony game a year in saved costs. I know there's more Xbox games!! bla bla blaaa. Xbox has an extra year of games most of them are ok at best, and remember quantity does not equal quality. Blizzard does pretty good with the few games they have, because they're quality titles not a floodgate of mediocre titles.
5. Xbox is already planning a 2010 Xbox720 because they cant eeck out any more power from their lawnmower sized engine! Its Topped out in capabilities. While the Sony has stilled not been used in it's full capacities, and will be around for at least another 3 years!
6. Sony does have some issues with customer relations, and does not have as good of lil perks ( online might be better set-up, more games to choose from) that the Xbox does provide. Thats like buying a car for nice fenders and a rockin sound system...without an engine it all doesnt matter.
7. Microsoft are notoriously hard to work with in developing titles, add this to the lack of HP and you get a lot of mediocre games.
Xbox pours tons of money into the advertisment, to drown out the bad facts they want buried. And Cheapy and Major whatever his name are on the payroll... stop the Lies and slanted journalism.

wolftrader

line for the flamethrowing starts ____________________________________
 
Stop being captious.

I think most of us have a 360 because we like the games on it. Many of them are exclusive. The ones that are also on PS3 often suffer, not because of the PS3 but because the 360 is the lead platform. This is a shame. Since the PS3 is more powerful, it shouldn't just have parity on multi-console releases; it should have the superior version.

I personally just bought a PS3, again, for exclusives.

I'm not going to bother replying to any of your silly points above. Sorry. You're not going to be convinced by anything I have to say, and I frankly don't care. You're pretty biased and stuck in your way of thinking. If you don't want a 360, I'm perfectly okay with that. The PS3 is a great system, and you're obviously really happy with yours.

It sounds like your main beef is that the CAGcast covers 360, and you think they're biased towards it. I don't think that's the case. It's just that most of the news is about the 360, mostly for the reasons I listed above.

If there was no such thing as games I want to play being exclusive to 360 (and no, I don't mean Halo or Gears), and if PS3 versions of games were superior like they deserve to be (are you going to lampoon Sony for that? The PS3 situation isn't perfect either), I wouldn't bother with a 360.

I bought my 360 in summer 2006 to play Oblivion since my PC at the time couldn't handle it. There have certainly been frustrations, but I don't regret the decision, and I don't regret my recent purchase of a PS3 either. For someone like me who wants to play everything I'm interested in, there is really no choice but to own both systems (and a Wii as well). For me, LBP, Disgaea, Valkyria Chronicles and other PS3 games made the decision for me. If it weren't for them, I probably would not have purchased a PS3. It's sadly overlooked so far, mostly existing as a port-machine, and that's a real shame.

I don't know if "we" are drinking Kool-Aid, but you're obviously drinking vitriol. You don't need to defend your purchase choice of a PS3 to any of us. It's a great system, and if it got the support is deserves, it would be a fantastic one.

Also, the PS3 is Japanese, and Japanese hate McCain. :) You've obviously got some problems with cognitive dissonance. You should get that resolved. True redneck republicans play Xbox 360, and I can certainly see you fitting happily into that group. :)

(And before I tick anyone off, I know plenty of non-republicans play 360 as well, myself for one. Multi-platform gamers are open-minded. :) )
 
I don't know why I'm bothering, should follow Jesse's lead, but...

[quote name='wolftrader']Stop drinking the Kool-aid, and buy a real gaming/entertainment system.[/quote]

Last time I checked, teh 360 most certainly is a real game system. I haven't listened to the show in a while, and I did dislike some of the Sony bashing I heard on there last year, but I can't comment now.

1. Red Ring of Death- Would you buy a pacemaker with a 30% failure rate (and that's being generous) for your heart... I would not! Most of my friends are on their 3rd console while my first Sony is pluggung along just fine
Click to expand...

It was terrible, no question, but it's gotten much better with Falcon, and should be better still with Jasper. I don't think reliability is too big of an issue now, at least I hope not. I'm actually debating whether to buy a new Wii, as my one from last year died (with much less play time than my PS3/360 ever get).

2. So how does it feel having a Beta-max video player? Blue Ray is the future, and Sony has it!
Click to expand...

Yeah, Sony has it which is cool, but stand alone players are pretty cheap now, and obviously you can still do really good games with the storage space DVD gives you. I'm not really sure either decision was "wrong".
And DVD's not dead yet (and the PS3 plays it too...though yeah, at this point I want to do everything Blu Ray when I can).

Not the Xbox and its outdated tech. It allows games to be made that the Xbox could not keep up with due to it's outdated tech for a player
Click to expand...

I don't know about that. I'm honestly not sure how that's going to play out. We've already seen 4 disc 360 games, and that'll probably become more common. The PS3's storage space may never be used all that well in third party games though since they have to worry about fitting the assets onto a DVD. Although I guess Bioshock has higher resolution textures on the PS3 (although that may be a GPU thing versus storage space).

3.It's loud as hell! Who turned on the compressor!
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I agree, it's crazy they released it like that, and that alone would be a reason for me to standardize on PS3...BUT that's sort of getting fixed in just one week. Microsoft's new firmware allows you to install games to the drive, and keep it spun down (except for a disc check). My 360 is still louder without it's drive spinning, but at least it's more comparable, and I don't think will drive me as nuts.

4. Paying for Online play! Add in the extra cost you pay for Online play
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It depends on the person. For some people paying for a apparently (?) better service is well worth it, for others (like me) it isn't at all-so the 360 effectively has no online for me. But I'm not sure that one is really "better" than other other in any absolute sense, just depends on the person.

5. Xbox is already planning a 2010 Xbox720 because they cant eeck out any more power from their lawnmower sized engine!
Click to expand...

We don't know what Microsoft is planning. Both Microsoft and Sony (and Nintendo) have next gen (or current gen in Nintendo's case) systems in the works, and probably did before their current systems launched. I suspect that both Microsoft and Sony are going to keep these systems around longer than normal. I'm expecting both to last at least 6 years before getting replaced. I mean right now their biggest competitor is a last gen system (the Wii) so why rush out something new, when these systems are still struggling to come down in price, get refined, etc.

I do think the PS3 has further it can be pushed, since it does have more raw power but is harder to code for, and has more storage space, but even still, there's a LOT of new gameplay waiting on both of these systems! Already we've seen amazing new experiences that weren't possible until now, and that's going ton continue for years.

7. Microsoft are notoriously hard to work with in developing titles, add this to the lack of HP and you get a lot of mediocre games.
Click to expand...

I've heard nothing about that before, and I don't know what "HP" is. I've always heard terrible things about Nintendo's third party relationships, and Sony recently apparently caused the demise of Working Designs. Microsoft as far as I know has been okay so far-but then they're the underdog. We've seen in their other endeavors that they're incredibly nasty when they want to be, so if they ever make it to the top they'll probably be bad too...but right now from what I heard they're fine to work with.

Xbox pours tons of money into the advertisment, to drown out the bad facts they want buried.
Click to expand...

To their credit, they're trying to FIX most of those issues (except the d-pad...) They're not doing anything unusual with advertising versus anyone else.

We all own 360s because we like the exclusives-same reason we own PS3s and Wiis and PCs and DS and PSPs (and I bet I'm not the only one with all of them! :) )
 
I'm having trouble voice chatting in game and via the dashboard. Using the same setup, I was able to chat without problem on the old xbox and COD4 on the 360 (about 2-3 months ago).

I just got Gears 2 and cannot hear my buddy in coop campaign. I was able to hear someone on a random game the other night, but NO one can hear me talking.

After some trouble shooting tonight and tweaking my router, I got it to where I could hear my buddy intermittently via chat, but he could still not hear me. I am using an xbox 1 headset. My next test is to get another controller and headset to rule out hardware problems.

Any ideas?
 
I had a similar problem. I could talk fine with the original Xbox but had problems on certain games for the 360. I messed with the router and it worked but I could not hear my roommate during certain games. We finally bought a new Xbox LIVE compatible router and have not had any problems since.
 
[quote name='Malik112099']make sure your nat is open and try a headset made for the 360 (they are cheap)[/quote]


nat is open and ports are forwarded. might have to pick up a compatible wireless g router
 
well i picked up a "compatible" wireless g router and still voice it hit or miss

i'm going to take this piece of crap back and order a long ass ethernet cable and run it to the xbox when necessary.
 
I don't really feel like getting both CoD:WaW or Gears 2 right now...one shooter at a time is enough for me right now.

- I have CoD4, and enjoy the multiplayer and enjoyed the singleplayer (1000/1000 achieves)
- I have only played a bit of Gears 1 and very little multiplayer...wasn't terribly interested but apparently Gears2 is better
- I HATED CoD3 from Treyarch...terribly boring in both SP and MP for me.

Which one has a better/longer SP and a longer lasting MP mode?

tough pick...but there aren't really any other good multiplayer games coming out really...
 
Ummmm if you didn't like GoW 1 you won't like 2. Its just 1 ramped up to the 11th. CoD 5 from what I played is very similar to CoD4, which is a good and bad thing.
 
WaW's multiplayer experience (for me) is the same as CoD4. If you are looking for somethign different then get Gears 2. if you want more ofthe same get WaW.
 
I've played every cod but the first and i thought the 2nd and 4th were better than the third, never played gow1. i got both gow2 and cod:ww and i like cod more. i still find gow2 fun but i like cod much better. you should just try the cod:ww demo. its a lot like cod4 with a few additions and a new skin. however i've onlt played the first level in sp in cod and am only about half way in gow2. try the demo, but if you picked cod4 over gears1 your safe to choose cod again.
 
GOW2 has a better single player experience, but at the same time, holds new multiplayer modes such as CTF/Horde. CoD:WaW holds the same amount of campaign time as COD4, but it isn't breathtaking or anything. However, CoD:WaW features 4-player co-op campaign, zombie mode, and the obvious perk system.

It's really your choice. Both are two great shooters but have a different style.
 
[quote name='SoulReaver']Ummmm if you didn't like GoW 1 you won't like 2. Its just 1 ramped up to the 11th. CoD 5 from what I played is very similar to CoD4, which is a good and bad thing.[/QUOTE]

To me, this is not the case whatsoever. I thought the multiplayer in Gears 1 was mediocre at best, but Gears 2 is excellent. I know a few other CAGs who feel the same. Of course, it's all a matter of opinion.

Call of Duty: World at War is excellent as well. It is indeed more of the same, but the new settings and weapons make it feel somewhat fresh. The spawn system can be atrocious at times, though, with enemies spawning behind you, or your character spawning directly in front of several enemies.

Gears 2's single player is easily longer. COD took me 4 hours, maybe a little more, to finish. I've played Gears for 6-7 hours solo and haven't finished, though I am on the last act.

Both games' multiplayer modes will last you a long, long time. I'd suggest getting both games, but at thispoint, I feel that Gears is slightly superior. And that's coming from a guy who loved COD4 more than any other online game and was "meh" toward the original Gears.
 
Hmm well I'm starting to lean a little more to Gears mainly cause I already have CoD4 and this way I'd have a bit of variety...but ya I wish there was a multiplayer gears2 demo or something.

By the way is horde or zombie mode better? And how's the single player campaign for WaW in comparison to cod4? CoD4 had one of the best SP campaigns from the shooters I've played mainly because veteran mode was actually fair for the most part (unlike CoD3) and I've never really gotten excited about WWII storylines. Also the achieves were fun to get as well.

And actually...will CoD:WaW drop in price sooner too anyway? I mean a CoD game comes out every year...and Gears I'm not sure...
 
I'm playing through co-op campaign in gears atm... VERY awesome. I haven't played CoD other than the beta, but single player CoD games never did much for me and the multiplayer always got stale for me after a while.
 
Are you playing coop online or splitscreen w/someone?

Another question too: Which game is more gory and has more cursing??
 
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Looking to get a 360 on Black Friday but need help deciding best deal. I was at Gamestop and was told that has long has the 360 had a hard drive I could transfer on Live. So here are the deals am currently looking at


I want to be able to play my xbox games and I read that the Arcade can't do that but what if it has the hard drive

which version should I go with

CC: Arcade/20gb/wireless controller for $199 someone in Black Friday thread said it was like getting a Pro for $200

Target: Pro bundle with $60gc $299 looks like the best deal on pro system
 
The arcade is no different than any of the other xboxes out there. The only difference it has a lack of a hard drive that is all. That can be fixed and purchase a hard drive separately.

So, that means you can play any of the backwards compatible xbox games no matter which one you buy. You can even get on Live without a hard drive. The only thing is, if you plan on downloading demos or lots of Arcade games your best bet is to get a hard drive down the line.

So really, it is up to you which 360 to get. There are various deals for Black Friday. It really depends what games you want with it and if you rather just get a separate hard drive later. The arcade will come with a memory unit, so at least you can get started playing, having somewhere to save, and creating your profile.

Also, if you go online to xboxstorageupgrade.com you can fill out some info, and see if you qualify for a refurbished 20 GB hard drive and 3 months of Live for 29.99. This is something official from Microsoft, so don't worry. There is also a link somewhere in xbox.com that will take you there.
 
I need to get 360 component cables for my Arcade unit, and the 3rd party ones are less than half the price of the official Microsoft ones. Is it really worth spending $40 to get official cables, or can I cheap out? Are the "multi-system" cables (works on 360 and PS3) any good?

Also, I want to get VGA cables, too. Is there such a thing as a VGA+component cable? Thanks in advance.
 
i had the same decision myself, i chose Gears 2 and i'm happy i did.

Gears 2 has a great campaign, much better IMO than the 1st game, there's a lot of new things i've never seen in a shooter being done in gears. I have played the game for probably 7 hours and i'm at the end of the 4th act (this is on normal), i can see myself playing the campaign again, haven't tried horde mode yet but i can see myself playing that for awhile, also has plenty of gore and cursing, much more than any game i've ever played

and Gears also has bots to play multiplayer, which means practice or when you're bored, and when live is down

i also got all the achievements for CoD4 and played the multiplayer maybe 1 1/2 months straight before i got sick of it, played the CoD5 beta, and it's exactly the same as CoD4 with the WW2 skin, WW2 weapons, and Maps, i'm interested in the 4-player co-op and zombie mode however(left 4 dead's probably a better choice)
 
If you can get in on it, Circuit City has the best deal by far, IMHO. They're selling the Arcade bundle (which already has Sega Superstars Tennis), and they're throwing in an extra wireless controller, and a refurbished harddrive for free.

That harddrive sells for $30 (with the Live, but whatever) on the Xbox Memory Program site, and a controller is $50, so that's $80 right there. Not half bad.

The only differences between the Premium and Arcade bundles (aside from the bundled games), are that the Premium has a chrome DVD faceplate where the Arcade does not (who cares?), the Premium includes the cheapass headset, the Premium has an included ethernet cable (which is cheap as hell anywhere else), and the Premium includes HD component cables, where the Arcade only comes with SD composite cables.

So, if you can get in on CC's BF deal, aside from the headset and HD video cables, you basically have a Premium 360. If you even need the HD cables, Gamestop has them for $15, and the headsets are about the same price.
 
I've been using Mad Catz (I think?) component cables on my 360 since around launch when the Xbox ones were impossible to find and I've had no complaints. The ones I have aren't shielded as well as the OEM ones but that doesn't affect it at all.
 
Well given how bad CC is in fulfilling promised deals, I would go with the Pro System at Target with $60 gift card. That way, you get 3 or 4 full games to go with your system.
 
I must say though that having a DVD drive in Chrome or Plastic doesn't really even matter. I could really care less, although mine is in Chrome and it's alright.

Sadly shiny things get smudged, then they look ugly.
 
I tried the Resistance Beta and it was horrible. I didn't like MP in the first Resistance either though it's very plain. CoD or Gears would be an easy choice for me at least. I do look forward to playing the SP though just waiting for a game drought.
 
Ok which one should I get? I know that MK vs. DC will probably be $40 used by the time SF 4 comes out in 2009. But then Street Fighter 4 will be full priced I am torn over which one I should get.

And we are all praying for a 3D remake of Capcom vs. Marvel 2.
 
On one hand I like SF4's speed and simple moves its gameplay and art style Ryu Ken Chun Li etc. Should be fun.

so glad I didn't waste any money on Soul Calibur 4 I don't like games with cheap Ring outs.

on the other hand


Mortal Kombat vs DC. has great Art style fun characters Batman Wonder woman etc Subsero and does have Fatalities which even T rated are better than Armageddon's Generic same Fatality for everyone disaster. But is missing my 2 Favorite Characters Cyrax and Reptile. I can't wait to see Batman's Alternate Costume. And Blockbuster video is selling the game now.

can't decide
 
If you're a big DC Comics fan, enjoy fighting games, and don't want to use MUGEN, you may want to buy it. This will be DC Comics' best fighting game for a while.
 
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