Busy Gamer News

Been wondering where to find the patch for Dungeon Siege II that adds the fun in? Well, the answer may be the v2.2 updater, which improves performance and network play, fixes some bugs and - more importantly - adds long overdue mod support. It also adds GameSpy auto-patching for future fixes. You can get the v2.2 patch at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7525...

The news that Best Buy is moving into used videogames is sending shockwaves through the industry. While good for consumers who don't need a shiny new game on launch day, it spells doom and gloom for publishers and developers (who make no profit on secondhand sales) and for their chief competition, EB/Gamestop (who've so far dominated this high profit center). Right now, only a handful of Best Buy stores in California and Illinois are offering used titles, but you can expect this trend to spread. The backlash could spur even higher game prices, more digital distribution (a la Steam and console downloads) and tighter license agreements...

Microsoft has confirmed part of its launch day lineup for the Xbox 360. Titles that are definite include FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World Cup, Kameo: Elements of Power, Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted, Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. Up to a dozen more titles with Nov. 22 availability will be announced in coming weeks. Other newly announced titles include a next-gen Castle Wolfenstein, MotoGP 2006, Superman Returns and Tom Clancy�s Splinter Cell 4 - but none of those are expected before 2006...

Irate gamers are reporting serious flaws in Madden NFL 2006 for PSP including freezes and bugs, difficulty maintaining online multiplayer connections and an apparent lack of general quality control in the form of typos and graphical glitches. EA answered with a workaround that supposedly fixed a major shutdown issue (kill all existing Franchise saves and then always enter a Franchise game from the Team Schedule option menu). Some players say even that isn't working, while others have had no problems at all. For those who want to vent, there's a call for a recall at maddenrecall.us...

PlayStation Portable users should be extra wary of downloading purported homebrews, mods and patches from questionable sources. There's a virus on the loose that could turn your gaming portable into an expensive hunk of junk. Trojan.PSPBrick (as Symantec has classified it) is hiding in a mod that promises homebrew software compatibility (something Sony recently blocked) if you download and install it. But it actually deletes important system files, requiring you to make that embarrassing service call to the manufacturer. Beware of gifts bearing Trojans...

If you haven't started Black & White 2, get the new v1.1 patch now (at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7786) before you do. For some inane reason, save games are not compatible between the retail release and this update, which corrects some bugs (including some crashing ones) and better balances the game. If you have gotten pretty far in, you're bound to be pissed about this... In other news, Battlefield 2 was recently patched to v1.03. It includes a remake of the popular Battlefield 1942 map, Wake Island, updated for 64 players. There's also improved mod support, numerous bug fixes and gameplay and interface improvements. Patch away at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7768...

If you've always wanted to be a super-strong giant ape, now's your chance. The tie-in game for Peter Jackson's King Kong is now out in demo form. You can play as a human menaced by a T-Rex, or as Kong battling it out against the dinosaurs. Hey, it's under 300MB! Download it at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7783...

Good news for Halo fans. The movie adaptation will be produced by legendary filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (Lord of the Rings, Dead Alive, Heavenly Creatures). Alas, Jackson will not direct, but apparently neither will videogame hack adapter Uwe Boll, as previously rumored. Principal photography and special effects will be done in Jackson's home base of New Zealand (big surprise!), and the finished film is slated for summer 2007 release... Oh, and the latest Halo guessing game is figuring out which character from the Halo-verse will crossover into Dead or Alive 4. That's right, Bungie's confirmed that one of their creations will be an unlockable fighter, but they're not saying much else except that it's not Master Chief. Cortana might have the right, er, stuff if she weren't a holographic AI. Or maybe it's the Arbiter in a tangerine speedo. Time will tell...

There's been a lot of news around City of Heroes lately. First, if you've got a character that you're not playing, you might lose your name if you don't play soon. NCSoft will start releasing names of under Level 35 characters on accounts that haven't been accessed for 90 days. It's only fair: If you're not going to be Captain Stinkypants, someone has to... Want to try City of Heroes for free? Eurogamer. net is offering 3,000 14-day trials - no retail version necessary. Just enter by Oct. 21... Oh, and if you're thinking of getting City of Villains at the end of the month, there's good news: NCSoft is only charging one $15 monthly fee for both games...

If pink, silver or teal aren't your colors, Nintendo is introducing a Hot Rod Red version of the Nintendo DS bundled with Mario Kart DS. Priced at $150 (the same as the Nintendogs bundle), the racing stripes are optional stick-on decals. Nintendo is gambling that you'll be able to wait two weeks for a cool color: the wireless-enabled Mario Kart DS is actually shipping two weeks earlier on Nov. 14, the same date the free Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection puts the portable dual-screen racer online. And then there's a little matter of the Xbox 360 launch shaking down gamers' disposable income on Nov. 22...

The PlayStation Portable has been updated to v2.5. There are a few new Web browser features, like saving forms input. You can also play DRM-protected video that you buy online and save to a memory stick. All in all, a minor update, which you can get at us.playstation.com/PSP.aspx...

Forget the fact that Master Chief is the last Spartan. For Dead or Alive 4, Bungie and Team Ninja have teamed up to resurrect a lady version of Master Chief as an unlockable character who can kick Hayabusa's scrawny booty. In other Xbox 360 news:

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has been delayed two weeks to Dec. 5
  
• A free game is included on the 360 hard drive: Hexic HD, a first taste of the built-in Xbox Live Arcade pay-to-play downloadable game service
  
• Media Center PC owners can download a new Update Rollup 2 to get ready to stream movies, music and more to their 360
  
• The 360 won't support your original Xbox saves

EA is betting that for a few dollars more, you'll spring for its Need for Speed Most Wanted Black Edition, which offers additional rides (BMW M3 GTR and '67 Camaro), eight specially modded and finely tuned vehicles (AMG, Corvette C6, Corvette C6.R, Lotus Elise, Mercedes-Benz SL 500, Mercedes-Benz SL6500, Porsche 911 Carrera S, Porsche 911 GT2 and Supra), three bonus races and an extra pursuit challenge. Plus, there's the usual DVD with behind-the-scenes videos, concept art and - what you'll probably buy it for - bonus footage of model-cum-actress Josie Maran getting all digitized. It�s priced at $60 for PS2 and Xbox...

I have to admit I'm of two minds about the Xbox 360. On the one hand, it's going to have:

• Wireless controllers that you can charge and play - and hopefully they'll be as reliable as the Nintendo WaveBird, only with vibration and a place to plug your Xbox Live headset
• Custom soundtracks in any game you like, with in-game sound effects cleanly mixed in
• Customization options for your dashboard and online persona including skins, avatars, an online gamer card with your stats and achievements, and even a removable faceplate for the system itself
• Some very promising launch or near-launch titles, such as Perfect Dark Zero, Dead or Alive 4, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, Call of Duty 2, Quake 4, Project Gotham Racing 3, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Final Fantasy XI - and sometime in 2006, there's the promise of Halo 3 and Resident Evil 5
• Hi-def graphics and 5.1 sound for every game
• A progressive scan DVD player (finally!)
• Remote PVR playback - if you have a Media Center PC with a tuner card, you can watch your TV shows anywhere you can plug in a 360

That's a lot to be excited about. But I know I won't be the only one who's extremely bummed by the underreported news that the 360 will have zero options to transfer your original Xbox saves. (So far, this news has only been spotted in an Official Xbox Magazine FAQ, buried amidst a sea of other questions.) That's right, even if they eventually emulate every Xbox 1 game for the Xbox 360 (which is doubtful), you'll have to start each and every one of them over if you want to play them.

All of your tracks, stats, and carefully decorated cars from Forza Motorsport? Gone. Those hard-earned DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball swimsuits that you spent weeks or maybe even months trying to get? Like they were never there. Your 100 hours of Morrowind progress? Forget about it. You're back at square one picking out a name and distributing skill points.

It's like the last four years never happened.

This little piggy went to market
I can see why Microsoft wouldn't fight too hard to enable you to port over your saves. Given a choice between playing a new title and starting an old one over again, which would you choose? Except for a few select games (like Halo 1 & 2), you'll probably choose the new stuff.

On the other hand, a rich library of high-quality original Xbox titles might slow your focus on acquiring the latest and greatest 360 games, reducing Microsoft's return on its loss-leader hardware investment. You do know that console makers lose money on every system they sell, right? They make it back by selling you games and accessories. If you mostly play the stuff you already own, they make zip.

Truth be told, Microsoft has never been fully behind the idea of backward compatibility. They've waffled on whether to include it for years and only seem to have tacked it on at the end when their focus groups no doubt insisted it be there or their credit cards would remain in their wallets. The official response has been if you really want to play your Xbox games, keep your Xbox.

That's fine, except for two things:

1. Not everyone is rich enough to keep every console they've ever owned
2. MTBDF

Some of you are nodding your heads about that second one, and the rest will need further explanation. It's important, so listen up.

Failure is inevitable
MTBDF is "mean time between disk failures." It's an industry measurement used to determine the durability of the spinning magnetic media that we store all of our digital crap on. Anyone who's owned the same computer for more than about 5-6 years knows that as inevitable as death and taxes is the fact that all hard drives fail. They'll always fail, eventually. It's just a matter of when.

The best drives have a high MTBDF, maybe 6-8 years. Some last longer, and some fail much faster. It's just an average. Even with a high MTBDF, your drive could fail after just one or two years. If you have important data, you should back it up or store it on a drive array (like RAID) that can protect against a single point of failure.

Basically, without a way to backup and preserve your hard earned Xbox saves, you're eventually going to be screwed. If you broke the rules and modded your Xbox, you're probably in the clear - you can back up your saves and keep backing them up to newer drives more or less forever.

The rest of us can transfer some of our saves to memory units, but odds are we can't afford to back everything up to these expensive though durable cards. Plus, some files won't fit because they're too big for the largest available memory unit - Knights of the Old Republic, anyone? Also, Microsoft allowed developers to lock their saves if they wanted so that they can never be backed up, at least not legitimately. DOAX, Steel Battalion and, for some reason, Transworld Snowboarding and Whacked! fall into this last category. [UPDATE - Nov. 21: I was wrong about Steel Battalion - it's game saves are unlocked. But the others were correct, and there are many more including Burnout 3, Forza Motorsport and Ninja Gaiden. See related Blog entry.] 

The customer is always right
Come November, everyone is going to wake up to the cold reality that their Xbox saves are useless or at least doomed to eventual loss. So, what's the answer?

Well, again, you could mod your Xbox (not that I actually advocate doing so) and then hope that the hackers eventually find a way to move them to your 360. (They will. That all security measures will eventually be broken is also inevitable, though it could take years.)

Or Microsoft could simply step up and do the right thing.

At minimum, Microsoft should offer an inexpensive peripheral for the 360 that supports original Xbox memory cards. Sony introduced a new memory card format for the PS2, but they still supported the legacy PS1 memory units right out of the box. I'm sure it's because they knew that if they had tried to force everyone to restart all of their Final Fantasy games, there'd be a mutiny.

I also suggest that Microsoft should permit the one-time transfer of all of your Xbox hard drive contents to a single Xbox 360, even the locked ones. I don't care if you'll need a crossover cable or a temporary storage locker on Xbox Live. Just get it done.

Our Xbox hard drives aren't getting any younger.

-=Gamewatcher

UPDATE - Oct. 18: Wow, I'm amazed at how many people completely missed the point. This really isn't a matter of backward compatibility, per se. It's about preserving your weeks and months and years of data. If you lost your Word documents, music, family photes and p0rn everytime you upgraded to a new computer or operating system version, you'd be pissed. But people seem willing to toss aside their game progress like it's nothing.

I've posted a followup to my Blog, including a summary of the response to date. There are rumors that Microsoft is quietly working on something, but nothing official yet.

[Read full Blog entry]

What's going to suck about Xbox 360
It's been awhile, but I finally posted a Rant on what I think is the only real knock against the Xbox 360: Its half-assed backward compatibility won't permit you to move over your original Xbox saves.

I'm also working on my observations on using the PSP as a portable movie device. No, I haven't suddenly become a fan of UMD. Those Memory Stick Duos finally came down in price and I've been successfully transferring movies and shows from my vast DVD library.

For now, let's just say there are plusses and minuses. I'll blog more on this subject soon. For now, enjoy the new Rant.

-=Gamewatcher

Save my saves - fallout from yesterday's Rant
Wow, I'm amazed at how many people completely missed the point of my Rant about original Xbox saves not being transferable to the 360. The item has now been reported on Digg, Evil Avatar, Joystiq and Kotoku. Truth be told, I posted the Evil Avatar item myself - I normally find the feedback I get there mostly informative and well reasoned. Mostly.

The counter-arguments so far seem to fall into the following buckets:

• Who cares - most consoles except the PS2 haven't had cross-save compatibility, and even that one wasn't 100% (ignores the paradigm shift)
  
• Stupid rant, you're obviously an Xbox hater and/or troll (I'm really not - and you clearly didn't read the article, you maybe skimmed the summary)
  
• There's some technical or security reason for this (it's possible, but we're just talking about data here, and the games when emulated will still save to the 360, right?)
  
• Maybe Microsoft or some third-party will fix this later (I sure hope so, but Microsoft has security to block unauthorized third-party peripherals so it will only get addressed if they want it to)
  
• Um, since I don't even have an Xbox, I guess this means I should just get one of those and not a 360 (you obviously didn't read the article)

First off, and anyone who actually read the Rant can figure this out: I'm rather looking forward to the Xbox 360. In fact, I've ordered two - one to replace each Xbox we have now - and also to hedge our bets in case there's a shortfall and one of our preorders doesn't make launch day. Assuming both come through, the missus and I can play on different consoles against each other (via LAN or Xbox Live) or different games at the same time (single player or online). Yeah, she's a gamer and a hottie. And she's taken.

Only problem is that's a lot of consoles to stack and find stereo inputs for: two Xboxen, two Xbox 360s, a PS2, a GameCube, a Dreamcast and an N64. I'm rather hoping that I can eventually consolidate these, hence my disgust at the news that this may never be possible without abandoning my progress on some treasured game experiences.

You see, we have a toddler and full-time jobs, which severely limits our gameplay time - at least for the moment. I'm sure since other first- and second-gen gamers like ourselves are getting older (heck, Gabe from Penny Arcade now has a kid and Tycho's is on the way), we're not the only ones in this category.

We still love to play, but we're often too tired to put in the kind of time we used to. We have a stack of unopened titles and partially completed games, and then there are the games that just take forever and a day to complete - though you love to keep at it from time to time. GTA3 is one such title I fully expect to be playing in some form 10 years from now.

On a side note, that's why I don't publish a new Rant or blog entry more often. I find I can only spare the time to write about the topics that really push my buttons, that I'm really passionate about. This is one of those.

Anyway, the point is that I'm rooting for the Xbox 360, perhaps even against my better judgment. There's a lot to love, and I'm going to be plugged in on Nov. 22 just like everybody else. I just want the experience to be complete and satisfying, and for that to happen I believe there should be a strategy for carrying over my past saves beyond the life of my aging Xbox hard drives.

It's worth noting that if Microsoft hadn't sprung for backward compatibility for its second-gen console, this wouldn't even be an issue. But they did.

The empire strikes back
This really isn't a matter of backward compatibility, per se. It's about preserving your weeks and months and years of data. If you lost your Word documents, music, family photes and p0rn everytime you upgraded to a new computer or operating system version, you'd be pissed. But people seem willing to toss aside their game progress like it's nothing.

vherub on Evil Avatar put it nicely: "for an industry to completely abandon its past every 5 years is a shame not only as a gamer, but also for anyone who even remotely believes there is some level of art and expression inherent in the medium."

Yes, gaming is starting to be taken seriously as an art form alongside cinema, theater and literature. And the Xbox was the first console to include a hard drive, essentially a PC technology. Maybe the folks at Microsoft missed this, but they've opened up a new paradigm for console gaming: more customization, more gaming lifestyle. A few titles even included map editors and decal creators that you could spend hours pouring your energies into.

Early on, people were complaining that the Xbox was too much like a PC. But that should be an advantage here. Transferring files from one PC to another is a trivial matter. Moving saves from an Xbox to an Xbox 360 should be equally so.

Likewise, the arguments about region encoding for DVDs rage on to this day. Why are people so OK with a developer being able to lock up your hard-earned game saves? I can understand why DOAX and Steel Battalion did this (and I secretly hope that there's be some way to eventually hook up that monster controller to a 360!), but Transworld Snowboarding and Whacked!? What was that about?!

It seems so arbitrary:

"Hey Bob, should we lock our saves or not?"

"I don't know - lock 'em? Yeah, let's do that."

Attack of the clones
There's also a lot of misinformation out there, such as the idea that Microsoft isn't supporting backward compatibility at all. They are, but only for select A-list titles at first and then eventually for a growing number of games to be capped whenever Microsoft believes they've covered what most people care about. Those games will work in your 360 once you download an emulation profile for free over Xbox Live. You'll just have to start your game over on the 360 with a new profile and no unlocked progress or customizations, just as if you were playing it for the first time. Or hold onto your Xbox and pray your hard drive holds out.

Oh, and simply buying an Xbox instead of a 360 won't help, really. You'll just build up save games and other data on the old platform and you won't be able to reclaim them if/when you upgrade. If it were me, I'd start any new Xbox 1 games (starting, oh, about a month ago) on my 360 when it releases next month. The only gating factor here is availability of hardware (there's expected to be the usual holiday shortfall) and whether Microsoft offers an emulation profile for the title in question anytime soon - or ever.

A new hope
One thing I rather like is that the 360's hard drives are removable - no more frantically copying off saves using the awkward dashboard interface to take a game upstairs. Just grab your hard drive and go. I do hope there will be adequate capability to backup our most treasured 360 saves or move them to a bigger hard drive later, but that's a future Rant. (In fact, Microsoft just announced it has no plans to expand their drive size beyond 20GB, but there's still that drive failure thing - and we all know that drives will get cheaper and bigger over the life of the console. And 20GB - that's not even as big as most decent iPods these days. Again, another Rant.)

On a semi-related note, I rather like that the Revolution will finally emulate the complete Nintendo game library, even if you'll have to buy them again. Maybe this will set a trend that allows us to keep all of our games in one place once and for all, at least on one platform.

And, no, before you start: I don't harbor hopes that I can somehow pry my Blast Corps saves from my aging N64 cart and copy it to the Revolution. That was from before the paradigm shifted, and the battery in that cart has no doubt given out by now anyway. Besides, that game didn't have the customization options we have today, and you can reclaim your progress in an afternoon or two if you really try. Morrowind, KOTOR, Forza and DOAX - well, you might as well shoot me now.

At any rate, I want the 360 to be great - and I think it will be. But one good chink in the armor can really hurt a powerful adversary. Again, if Microsoft had simply said "no backward compatibility," fine. But they've offered it, and I for one would like to take them up on it.

-=Gamewatcher

p.s. - It's a little too soon to wail on Sony, and they were never committed to the whole hard drive thing in the first place. I'm still waiting for all the facts to arrive. We'll see what they do and I'll hold their feet to the fire as well, if necessary.

Oh, and there are rumors that Microsoft is quietly working on a save game solution, but I've seen nothing official yet. It's hard to tell if it's speculation, wishful thinking or something real.

If you're picking up F.E.A.R. at retail this week, be sure to download the v1.01 patch, which corrects some bugs that should have been caught earlier. Most are multiplayer fixes. Get it at worthdownloading.com/download.php?gid=734&id=5727... If the first Serious Sam 2 demo wasn't enough, there's a new one. Those swarms of enemies won't kill themselves; give it a spin at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7830...

BLOG: Save my saves - fallout from yesterday's Rant: Wow, I'm amazed at how many people completely missed the point of my Rant about original Xbox saves not being transferable to the 360. This really isn't a matter of backward compatibility, per se. It's about preserving your weeks and months and years of data. If you lost your Word documents, music, family photes and p0rn everytime you upgraded to a new computer or operating system version, you'd be pissed. But people seem willing to toss aside their game progress like it's nothing.

[Read full Blog entry]

The less said about Jack Thompson the better, but this is too good not to share. The lawyer recently promised to donate $10,000 to a charity chosen by CEO of Take-Two Interactive Paul Eibeler (publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series) if someone made a vigilante game where the object was to kill a poorly disguised stand-in for Eibeler and then go on a shooting spree that included videogame retailers, law offices and a final climactic showdown at E3. When some modders called his bluff, Jack claimed the whole thing was satire - keeping the money in his pocket. Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik (aka Gabe) and Jerry Holkins (Tycho) decided to make a $10,000 donation in Thompson's name to the Entertainment Software Association Foundation, a group designed to help the kids Thompson claims to protect. So Thompson, claiming harassment, asked the Seattle police department to arrest the rampant donors. So far, it hasn't happened and the consensus (at least in the gaming community) is that Thompson has been schooled...

Next week's release of Metroid Prime Pinball - where you play as Samus in ball form, at least most of the time - will include a Rumble Pak that slots into the system's GBA cartridge slot. The vibrations will add a force feedback element that's normally missing from portables - and that wasn't known in consoles before a similar device was introduced for the Nintendo 64. Rumor has it that the Rumble Pak will also work with Metroid Prime: Hunters when it releases early next year, though it's not clear yet if it will be bundled with that title, sold separately or only available with the pinball game...

Xbox game saves - the awful truth
I found an interesting blog entry discussing my Monday Rant on how Xbox game saves won't be transferrable to Xbox 360. In it, I'm criticized for approaching the whole game save topic "in an alarmist fashion." That's fair. I would have gone with "sensationalistic" myself.

But the goal of the piece was to be a wake-up call. Titling it Dude, wake up, your hard drive's dying and there's nothing much you can do about it and, oh, Microsoft's said they're not going to help either - so there wouldn't have been much of a hue and cry. And I believe that what I've described is truly the one thing that will suck about the 360 - or at least the one thing we know about. So I stand by my title. Hey, made you look, didn't it?

Anyway, the Space Ninja blogger also reports that he talked to his buddy Daniel who worked on Whacked! dev team and takes issue with my report that the saved games are locked - that is, cannot be copied from your hard drive to any memory card. Daniel apparently didn't bother to boot up his Xbox to check - I'm guessing he didn't know he was on the record and would be quoted in a blog. But it would have been nice. Because he would have found that it is indeed so.

Actually, a lot of Microsoft Game Studios games are locked (as you'll see in the list I've compiled below) so - I would speculate - the decision was probably made at an executive level and no one bothered to challenge it.

Anyway, this guy Daniel's disbelief made me go back and double-check my Xbox hard drive and I was shocked - SHOCKED! - at some of the other titles that have locked saves. This means you can't rescue these files to a memory card or another original Xbox unless you have illegally modded your machine. It also means that even if Microsoft comes around and offers a memory card solution to move your Xbox saves to the 360, you still won't be able to move these ones. They're permanently stored on a single hard drive that will inevitably fail.

Before I get into the list, let me preface this with an admission. I didn't double-check the titles before I posted my Rant (hey, I was pretty beat Sunday night and I'm fighting my fourth sinus infection this year) so I depended on memory. I remembered Transworld Snowboarding and Whacked! because I tried to copy them once and it struck me as odd that anyone would bother locking these saves. I also correctly recalled Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball because it made sense - you could cheat to more easily acquire the most expensive and revealing swimsuits if you could back up your save before every round. Plus, all Team Ninja games have locked saves - it's some hard-core gamer machismo thing with them.

But I misremembered Steel Battalion, which zaps your save if your Vertical Tank explodes before you hit the eject button. Turns out, that one's not locked so you could back it up before each mission. I haven't actually tried it, but I suspect it would work. So much for it being the most hard-core game on the block, or maybe they just took pity on us.

With that said, here is the result of my survey of games with locked saves:

• Burnout 3 (V)
  
• DDR Ultramix
  
• DDR Ultramix 2 (V)
  
• Dead or Alive Extreme Beach Volleyball (V)
  
• Dead or Alive 3 (V) (ZSF)
  
• Dead or Alive Ultimate (can copy battle records though) (V)
  
• Defender (V)
  
• Forza Motorsport (V)
  
• Fuzion Frenzy (ZSF)
  
• Grabbed By The Ghoulies (V)
  
• Kung Fu Chaos (ZSF)
  
• Lego Star Wars
  
• Mafia
  
• Namco Museum (ZSF)
  
• Ninja Gaiden (V)
  
• Otagi
  
• Shenmue II (ZSF)
  
• Silent Hill 4 (V)
  
• Simpsons Road Rage (V) (ZSF)
  
• Spider-Man (ZSF)
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (V)
  
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 (V)
  
• Tao Feng (ZSF)
  
• Transworld Snowboarding (V)
  
• Whacked! (V)
  
• X-Men Legends (V)

Again, not a comprehensive list - this is just a sampling from my own Xbox hard drive. Items with a (V) are ones I took the time to verify manually by popping the game and searching the interface for any way to copy or at least start a game on a memory card. Some are also notated with (ZSF) for zero save files, which suggests any save data is stored in the main game profile. These containers for your saves and other game-specific data files can never be copied using the dashboard interface.

Again, all this means is that you can't back up your progress. If you want to play these games on another Xbox (whether or not you're concerned about about the survival of your existing one's hard drive) or an Xbox 360 (pending emulation), you'll have to start over.

This is why I'm hoping Microsoft will find a method to permit a one-time transfer of both locked and unlocked game profiles, saves and other game data to your 360's hard drive - so your $400 can at least buy some time for your hard-earned Xbox saves and customizations.

-=Gamewatcher

BLOG: Xbox game saves - the awful truth: I found an interesting blog entry discussing my Monday Rant on how Xbox game saves won't be transferrable to Xbox 360. He talked to his buddy who says he worked on Whacked! dev team and takes issue with my report that the saved games are locked - that is, cannot be copied from your hard drive to any memory card. Actually, a lot of Microsoft Game Studios games are locked (as you'll see in the list I've compiled) so the decision was probably made at an executive level and no one bothered to challenge it. Anyway, Daniel's disbelief made me go back and double-check my Xbox hard drive and I was shocked - SHOCKED! - at some of the other titles that have locked saves.

[Read full Blog entry]

Sony is making a last-ditch assault on your holiday spending money with the PlayStation Portable Giga Pack. The $300 bundle replaces the default 32MB card, useless for anything but save games and maybe an MP3 or two, with a 1GB card suitable for storing several TV shows or a feature-length movie. There's even a little stand included... In an odd but convenient coincidence, some interesting PSP news broke this week from Tulsa, Okla., where a woman bought a used Memory Stick Duo card for her husband only to find it was loaded with porn clips. Apart from underscoring the true appeal of the portable device (particularly when coupled with a nifty stand for hands-free operation), it's also a useful warning to parents that they should maybe check any used memory cards before passing them on to junior...

In case you hadn't noticed, Xbox Live is down today for upgrades. When it returns Tuesday, it will boast enhanced features for the Xbox 360 in addition to continued online matchmaking for the original Xbox. The Xbox.com Web site is undergoing a similar overhaul, since part of the upgrade includes tighter integration between the two services. When you finish an Xbox 360 online match or even an offline game, your up-to-date stats will not only be visible on the Xbox Web site, but they'll be portable enough to display on your own Web page or blog as a Gamercard. You'll also be able to see what games your buddies are playing and give them hell if they're lagging behind you. On the other hand, if you suck at games - well, maybe you should hold off attaching your Passport to your Xbox Live Gamertag... When Xbox Live does return, you'll want to download the free multiplayer maps for Doom 3. Communications is a warehouse packed with shadows where stealth is an asset. Surface offers views of the Mars landscape in a large multi-level industrial yard. Actually, these are two of the seven new maps included in the standalone expansion pack, Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil. But you won't be able to play people who bought the add-on with the original Doom 3. It's like they say, the first taste is free... Speaking of first tastes, if you can't resist the siren call of the newly redesigned Xbox 360 controller, a Windows-compatible version is available at retail now. It will cost you a stiff $45, so unless you're big on gamepads for your PC you might just want to fondle it through the plastic at your favorite electronics store. The good news is that it will work with a 360 too...

If you want to play Xbox 360 early, you could take your chances on eBay and hope it's somehow legit. Or simply visit the handy map locator at frappr.com/xbox360kiosks to find an in-store kiosk near you. Only one problem: the 360 wireless technology has been interfering with some retailers' equipment (Wal-Mart in particular - which is funny, since they scored the first units). This has forced a temporary shutdown of the game demo stations in some places, so you may want to call first to see if it's actually running. Gamers also report some stations have been set up for the wrong screen size and at lower output resolutions that don't exactly show off the next-gen system to the fullest. Microsoft says they're working out the kinks and that this is part of the usual retail rollout fine-tuning...

Sony's newly updated game release schedule moves Gran Turismo 4 Mobile for the PSP out of 2005 and into 2006 for Japan, suggesting the U.S. release could be even later. Too bad - it would have made a great stocking stuffer...

Soule music
Good news for Morrowind fans: Esteemed videogame composer Jeremy Soule has returned to deliver the score for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

For those who missed out, the Morrowind soundtrack - which came bundled with the deluxe PC version of the game - offers some of the most soothing music ever written. I've ferreted out the odd-numbered tracks and mixed them with other relaxing songs like acoustic Alice in Chains and Ben Folds' live rendition of Not the Same to make what I like to call Daddy's Blood Pressure Medicine.

In case you're wondering, the even-numbered tracks are all combat music, triggered whenever you encountered some random enemy or picked a fight or got caught trying to pickpocket some townsperson in the game. The good stuff is like NyQuil for the soul. When these particular songs come up on my iPod, I immediately feel my breathing start to ease up, the muscles in my neck and upper back unclench and years that a former boss took away quietly adding themselves back to my life.

It helps, I think, to have played the game because you'll have the added associations that come from hearing the music as you walked the game's vast countryside, the sun rising off in the distance or a picturesque shoreside shanty town appearing from the mist before your eyes.

I only hope the Xbox 360 version delivers similarly soothing experiences. And that the deluxe edition of the game includes a soundtrack album as well, so I can expand my collection of music with medicinal qualities.

-=Gamewatcher

BLOG: Soule music: Good news for Morrowind fans: Esteemed videogame composer Jeremy Soule has returned to deliver the score for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. For those who missed out, the Morrowind soundtrack offers some of the most soothing music ever written. I've ferreted out the odd-numbered tracks and mixed them with other relaxing songs like acoustic Alice in Chains and Ben Folds' live rendition of Not the Same to make what I like to call Daddy's Blood Pressure Medicine.

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Qu'est-ce qui s'est pass�? If you picked up Civilization IV at launch this week, you may have mistakenly received the French version of the game's tech-tree poster. You could return it to the store and hope it'll have the right one. Or simply visit 2kgames.com/civ4/techtree_support.htm and order a free English poster and download a PDF version to tide you over...

Nintendo and Gamestop have teamed up for a PR event that unlocks a free gift for your Nintendogs. Just enter any Gamestop store between now and Sunday with your game in Bark mode and you'll receive a set of star-shaped sunglasses that otherwise aren't available in the game. You'll also hear a voice greeting from Haylie Duff, the star of Napoleon Dynamite... On the seamier side, there's a new use for the DS and Nintendogs in the U.K. - anonymous sex hookups. Randy Brits are posting messages with their whereabouts at nintendogging.com and then locating willing partners via the game's Bark mode. One glance at the message boards and you'll be sure they aren't just eager to trade rubber bones...

If you've been tooling around the menus for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, you may have noticed a custom soundtrack option. Unfortunately, it won't work unless you use Rockstar's special tool to rip legit CDs to your PSP. That's right, CD-Rs and music from online stores like iTunes won't work. You can download the Custom Tracks tool from your favorite download site, though 1up.com makes the 900K file particularly easy to get...