Busy Gamer News

Microsoft claims its weekly replenishment strategy for the Xbox 360 is going according to plan, but that many ill-informed retailers are passing along bad information about availability. One enterprising individual, Chris Lambert, is mapping stores with inventory to aid you in your quest. Find the Xbox 360 Live Inventory Locator at xbox.clambert.org... Rumors of a recall are overstated, though some systems displaying the Ring of Death are being repaired... There are also various reports of game discs being scratched. One obvious way to damage a disc is to move your console while it's spinning. If you want to change the orientation of your system, remove any discs first! Also, don't set your 360 on an unstable surface. Rumors that normal horizontal usage can cause minor disc scratches are unconfirmed; we've been running ours that way and haven't detected any...

If you're aching for some FPS goodness but not sure if Quake 4 will fulfill your needs, get the 325MB demo. It includes two single-player missions and two versions of the multiplayer Fragging Yard map - one designed for big matches and the other for one-on-one action. Get the demo at fileshack.com/file.x?fi d=8037. Likewise, RTS fans can lay into the Civilization IV demo to see if the first 100 turns of play will convince them to shell out for the full game. Get the 314MB demo at fileshack.com/file.x?fi d=8029. And if you want to try the newly revised Star Wars Galaxies, the 10-day free trial demo is here - if you're game for a 656MB download. May the Force be with you at fileshack.com/file.x?fi d=7994...

Xbox 360 rattling resurrection
I finally received a replacement Xbox 360 for the one that suffered the red Ring of Death and, overall, my support experience was net positive. But there were a few wrinkles worth mentioning, including an odd little rattle in the new 360 when I lifted it out of the mailing carton.

WRINKLE #1: On Thanksgiving, the 800-4MY-XBOX telephone support person told me they'd ship my mailer using UPS and that it would arrive on Friday. It turned out they shipped it Friday and used DHL, which meant no Saturday delivery - so I didn't get the box until Monday. Since I had to work that day, I didn't turn it around in time for same-day pickup. So I lost two days in the process.

That said, they did replace the console and ship it back the day after they got it, so their three business day estimate once the package was received was correct.

WRINKLE #2: The support person also insisted that I must include my hard drive since I had a premium system. Fortunately, the system failed twice - each time with a different hard drive - so I took the liberty of sending the drive that had no real significant data instead of the one with all of my ripped music, Xbox Live Marketplace downloads and saved progress in several games. That was lucky, because when they swapped my system they did NOT send back the original hard drive.

I also found another blogger with the same Ring of Death problem who said he was instructed to include his power brick and AV cables too, where I was specifically told not to include them. Also, the sheet that came with the mailer had no instructions for including anything except the main console. So I think the 360 support team may need more training, since they're inconsistent on this point. I also think the instruction sheet should be explicit about what to include and what not to include.

If I had it to do over again, I would have kept the hard drive. What are they going to do, not fix it? Fortunately for me, there was no harm done.

WRINKLE #3: When I unpacked my new replacement 360, I noticed it had an odd little rattle like there was a loose part bouncing around inside. Needless to say, this worried me. Then, after I plugged it in and reacquired my wireless controller, I noticed the Ring of Light had the wrong quadrant lit for vertical orientation. It should have been the upper left one, but instead was the upper right - which would have been correct had the unit been laid horizontally. Great, I thought, my Ring of Light orientation doodad is broken. Am I going to have to ship it back again just for that?! [SEE UPDATE ON THE RATTLE]

I went through all of the setup steps and downloaded the required Xbox Live update. When it rebooted itself, the Ring of Light was correct. Whew!

So far, I've only messed with the dashboard and played a DVD movie with it, but so far so good.

Does anyone else have a strange rattle in their 360 when they pick it up? Any other interesting 360 support experiences? I'd love to hear about them and I'll share any good stories back in the blog.

-=Gamewatcher

BLOG: Xbox 360 rattling resurrection: I finally received a replacement Xbox 360 for the one that suffered the red Ring of Death and, overall, my support experience was net positive. But there were a few wrinkles worth mentioning, including an odd little rattle in the new 360 when I lifted it out of the mailing carton.

[Read full Blog entry]

Here are some Xbox 360 mods that aren't exactly authorized but won't cause you - or Microsoft - too much grief. Since the so-called 20GB hard drive (with only 11GB available space thanks in part to preloads) fills up fast with free Xbox Live Marketplace trailers and demos, you may need more storage fast. Fortunately, it's not much trouble to rig up an external hard drive for a quick fix (and your already ripped MP3 collection). Any portable drive that supports USB 2.0 should work. Find more details and some recommendations at llamma.com. Don't like the headset that Microsoft makes? Well, you can plug in any headset with the right connector, but it won't have volume control UNLESS you can solder. You'll need to remove the connector on the default headset and rewire it with the one you want to use, per the instructions at gamersreports.com. It's actually pretty easy, and the worst thing that happens is you scrap your work and buy another crappy $20 headset...

Halo 2 is getting an overhaul today in the form of a major matchmaking update. Two playlists are being retired (Head to Head and Major Clanmatch) due to lack of interest while many more are being added or tweaked; details at bungie.net. If you happen to be playing Halo 2 during the 6 a.m. Pacific Time update, you won't get the changes - which could lead to some odd ranking results. You'll know you have it if you see Team Actionsack among your playlist choices. If not, log off and back on again until you're patched. Once you're up to date, happy fragging! Oh, and stats are not being wiped this time regardless of what you may have heard...

Xbox 360 repair round-up, and a smashed iPod too
I've become a magnet for Xbox 360 repair stories and, so far, they're pretty much all good. Of course, there's the guy in Chicago who decided to sue Microsoft over some glitches rather than send his console in for support and maybe get a replacement system in a week or less. But typically people seem to be pleased - I know we are.

George in California said that he was told not to include any accessories when he shipped his 360, but that his instruction sheet said to include them. Weird! My instructions didn't say anything on the subject either way. George also said he read somewhere that he was supposed to write a repair order number on outside of the package or risk getting it sent back, but that wasn't the case with mine. It also doesn't make any sense; might be some more PS2 fanboy misinformation.

Oh, I've been told that the rattle in the 360 is simply the gizmo that determines orientation. It's called a solenoid, or ball-bearing switch, and it's perfectly normal. (Thanks, Andy in the U.K.!)

So far, there have been no problems with the replacement 360 we received last week. GrrlGotGame has been successfully killing junkies in Condemned on it pretty much every night since we got it back.

In an unrelated event, my 18-month-old iPod bit the dust last week. I must have dropped it one too many times and it started giving me a blinking folder with exclamation icon instead of starting up.

I sent it into iPodResQ and they told me I needed a new $230 hard drive. With that and the $30 battery replacement it also needed, I told them I'd sell it for parts ($40) and I picked up a new 60GB iPod with video support last night.

Interestingly enough, I would have bought it Best Buy but they hassled me on a 360 return.

I ended up with an extra copy of Kameo and asked to return it for store credit. In all fairness, I didn't have a receipt, but the customer service rep asked her manager and I was told I could have store credit only if I traded it right there and then for something else. I had 20 minutes to get to my son's daycare, there are no new 360 games and I was still waiting on the status of my iPod. So I said, "No thanks" - which was much nicer than what I was thinking.

Ironically, Best Buy just apologized publicly for some of their strong-arm launch day tactics like "pressuring customers to purchase items they may not want or that may not fit their lifestyle." That said, this wasn't the case here though I believe it's just as indicative of their corporate culture.

So Fred Meyer, a local department/grocery store chain with a more customer-friendly return policy, got my iPod business.

Right off the bat, I have to nitpick a few things on the new iPod:

• FireWire is no longer supported. It took 4-5 hours to sync some 15,000 tracks over USB 2.0. Some other accessories won't work - for instance, anything that requires the control plug found next to the headphone jack on older iPods. That means there's no way to easily remote skip songs while driving or when it's stashed in my jacket or pullover - at least not out of the box or with my existing stash of cables and add-ons.
  
  
  
• No demo videos. There's nothing preloaded. The only ones available for download in the iTunes store cost $2 a pop. And there doesn't seem to be a way to download the free iTunes movie trailers. Xbox Live Marketplace does this right - the trailers and promotional videos are free. They're ads for what the service can do, and you can bet that any videos that do eventually cost money won't be ads. I'll need to see if there's a way I can convert and download my own videos, but I haven't had time to check into it.

BLOG: Xbox 360 repair round-up, and a smashed iPod too: I've become a magnet for Xbox 360 repair stories and, so far, they're pretty much all good. Of course, there's the guy in Chicago who decided to sue Microsoft over some glitches rather than send his console in for support and maybe get a replacement system in a week or less. But typically people seem to be pleased - I know we are.

[Read full Blog entry]

You may have to pay for your holiday duds in Kameo, but the folks at NCsoft are giving their fans several free gifts this season - starting with holiday-themed costumes and a nifty new jetpack for getting down the chimney on time, whatever your nefarious or noble purpose. Simply login to either City of Heroes or City of Villains by Jan. 2 to download these and some additional virtual presents expected to materialize over the next few weeks...

Microsoft announced Xbox 360 emulation for a number of under-prioritized UbiSoft Tom Clancy titles in its December update. Joining the original Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six 3 emulation profiles are:

• Ghost Recon 2
  
• Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike
  
• Rainbow Six 3 Black Arrow
  
• Splinter Cell
  
• Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
  
• Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

• Catwoman
  
• Codename: Kids Next Door
  
• Curse: The Eye of Isis
  
• Freedom Fighters
  
• Mortal Kombat: Deception (this one actually works though!)
  
• NBA LIVE 2003
  
• Sid Meier's Pirates!
  
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars

If you're wondering why Burnout Revenge didn't make the Xbox 360 launch, it's because the game is not just a straight port with achievements and enhanced graphics. Online matches will remind players of any past rivalries, even if they happened weeks or months in the past, so payback can be served. Gamers will also be able to save their favorite crashes and racing moments and even share them online, where other players can rank them and find the most popular clips...

If you've been dying for a new Master Chief adventure, there's now a fan-made 2D platformer complete with Grunts, Elites, a Warthog and even online multiplayer. Halo Zero is an unauthorized extension of Bungie's most famous gaming universe - and since it's a trademark violation, it's also totally free. Get it at www.halozero.new.fr before Microsoft's lawyers shut it down - or Bungie buys it and releases it on Xbox Live Arcade...

More holiday extras are appearing in various games, joining NCsoft's recent in-games gifts for City of Heroes and City of Villains. Now Age of Empire III fans can get a holiday bonus map entitled Winter Wonderland, complete with giant, lit Christmas trees and presents. Download it at agecommunity.com... If you're still not ready to shell out for the Kameo Winter Warrior Pack, there's a free Xbox 360 theme with the Santa-suited fairy and some of her holiday incarnations available on Marketplace... And if you're playing with Wild Tangent's FATE, you might appreciate a few new monsters, weapons and armor. Just don't expect jingle bells and mistletoe here; this is strictly a free bonus. Get it at fatethegame.com...

Child's Play Charity Auction, year 2
I actually launched my blog (separate from the news feeds) one year ago right after the first Child's Play Charity Auction.

Last night, we attended the second.

This one was even bigger than the last. More people. And definitely more high rollers. The word is out!

We arrived a little late and the silent auction was already hopping. GrrlGotGame snagged a framed print from GU Comics about the Penny Arcade duo's spat with Jack Thompson, and I made a bid for the framed and signed set of covers from the first four issues of The Escapist.

John Tynes, who writes The Contrarian for The Escapist, approached me afterward to ask why I had swiped his prize. Turns out he was the only bidder for it up until then, and I literally scribbled mine down in the final seconds before they closed the auction. I explained simply that I aspire to write for The Escapist (or at least at that caliber), and I thought that having their covers on my office wall would inspire me to focus on my goals and take my game writing to the next level. He seemed satisfied with my answer.

Inside the big live auction, things got crazy fast. The first item was a mystery box, which went for a few hundred dollars over its stated value of a cool grand. It contained a treasure trove of games, game books, collectibles and a PS2 console. This set the stage, and the majority of items that followed went for $1,000 or more. A few jumped into the $3-4K range. Then the unthinkable happened: someone bid $20,000 for an appearance in a Penny Arcade strip. As each bidder upped the ante above $5,000, the audience gasps underscored the impressiveness of the gestures. Jerry Holkins, Penny Arcade's writer, joked that the winner should have his undivided attention for a week at that price!

We actually bid up several items - including the giant Master Chief statue that used to be stationed at the entryway to the Bungie offices in Redmond - only to have each one snatched away at the last minute as it quickly priced beyond what we could afford or even stretch to cover. But, hey, we were glad to see them go since the money raised far outweighed our desire for these material objects. This evening was for the kids, and winning something nice to take home was a bonus.

That said, I would suggest that next year they expand the silent auction to offer many more small but unique items and fewer large bundles so that everyday folks like us have a better chance of walking away with something and contributing to the evening's fundraising total. I was a little surprised there were no Xbox 360 faceplates in either auction, just a 360 console and a few signed games. We should have been swimming in them!

Even though we won a couple very nice collectibles and contributed a few hundred bucks through our tickets and bids, we spent far less than we anticipated. So I'm about to head over to Child's Play to buy some more toys and gifts for the kids. I know that Children's Hospital in our hometown of Seattle is quite well taken care of: they raised nearly $90,000 for them last night, up from about $17,000 the first year. So I'm going make my donations to the Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., which helped me out years and years ago when I was a kid.

--Gamewatcher

BLOG: Child's Play Charity Auction, year 2: I actually launched my blog (separate from the news feeds) one year ago right after the first Penny Arcade Charity Auction. Last night, we attended the second. This one was even bigger than the last. Inside the big live auction, things got crazy fast. The first item was a mystery box, which went for a few hundred dollars over its stated value of $1,000. It contained a treasure trove of games, game books, collectibles and a PS2 console. This set the stage, and the majority of items that followed went for $1,000 or more. A few jumped into the $3-4K range. Then the unthinkable happened: someone bid $20,000 for an appearance in a Penny Arcade strip. As each bidder upped the ante above $5,000, the audience gasps underscored the impressiveness of the gestures.

[Read full Blog entry]

Let me start by saying that I'm just short of being blown away by the Xbox 360. The new dashboard is light years beyond the green ka-chunk of the original Xbox, and I've had several amazing experiences enabled by the new gaming technology.

For instance:

• I ripped my favorite albums to the hard drive and then selected custom soundtracks while playing Kameo: Elements of Power. Bashing an army of flaming trolls while listening to Limp Bizkit is one of the more surreal experiences of my young life. A few minutes later, I unlocked an elemental power and watched it bounce around the screen, seemingly in perfect time with Ben Kweller's "Lollipop" cover from the Stubbs the Zombie soundtrack. Letting us replace in-game music with our own soundtracks is brilliant. Let's just hope that the rumors that some games will be permitted to override this feature are false.
  
  
  
• I opened up a voice chat channel between our two online 360s so I could chat with GrrlGotGame over headsets (connected to our wireless controllers, I might add!) while she bashed junkies in Condemned: Criminal Origins and I took on a nasty boss in Kameo. Mostly we talked about what to make for dinner in-between attacks on our respective enemies.
  
  
  
• I downloaded the free demo of Outpost Kaloki X and played through the first two levels. Partway through the third level, I decided to buy the game for 800 Microsoft points (aka $10). I was able to purchase it without quitting my current session, and it quickly unlocked the ability to save my game and even gave me an Achievement. That's really slick, and it's exactly how it should be. If only the rest of the console had this kind of attention to detail…

1. A Purgatory zone. Recreation, Pro, Family and Underground are a great start. But gamers caught cheating or inappropriately griefing their fellow gamers without their consent and a clear "safe" word should be moved to this zone where they can do no harm and maybe even learn a lesson. It even seems fitting in a Sartre-esque way: Hell really is other people. In this case, people just like you.
   
   Time in Purgatory could be on average 15 days or until legit gamers (only matched to Purgatory players at their own choice) rank them well enough to trigger an early release. Maybe they can even do some community service (or if they're famous enough, PSAs - "When you pwn your fellow gamer, gaming pwns you!") to work off some of their sentence. Oh, and no one in purgatory can rank anyone they play, so they can't claw their way out by getting their fellow inmates to help.
   
   
   
2. Xbox Live profiles that can be stored in multiple places. OK, so this one is just a pain. Let's say you have two 360s and two profiles, each tied to a Gold account. Each has its own hard drive. But if you want to access two Profiles on the same console at the same time, you have to move one to a $40 Memory Card, or recover it to the other console by typing in your Passport e-mail address and password. (By the way, this last step renders the original profile useless until you recover it again by moving it or retyping the Passport information, which is not cached.)
   
   We can understand that you don't want two people using the same Profile at the same time. So block anyone from logging with the profile if someone else is already using it. But let us store active, ready-to-go Profiles anywhere and everywhere we might need them.
   
   
   
3. A better shopping experience. Xbox Live Marketplace is a big improvement over the in-game download interface in the original Xbox. And it's great innovation to be able to download hi-def videos and movie trailers, dashboard skins, avatars and even Xbox Live Arcade games with a payment system that supports micro-transactions as small as 25 cents.
   
   But it's hardly the best online shopping experience. First off, there's no cart. If you want to buy something, you select it and download it right away. And you're stuck there waiting until it's done downloading - anywhere from a few kilobytes for a lowly Gamer Picture to a gigabyte for a large demo. There's not even an impulse aisle. All you can do is stare at the progress bar.
   
   The good news is you can abort a long download and pick it up right where you left off later. But you really should be able to download your files all at once in he background while browsing around in the dashboard, or be prompted to get any pending items on shutdown, so the 360 can simply grab your queued files and purchases and then power off when you're ready to call it a night - or a morning, as the case may be.
   
   Oh, and items marked New shouldn't be the items that you list as new for weeks on end. They should be the ones that are new since my last visit.
   
   
   
4. Purchased content is licensed for all of your 360s. Another thing that's wonky is how licensing works. If I'm reading it right, purchased content can be readily copied and used on all of my 360s as long as I can fit it on a memory card. Also, anyone can play a purchased Xbox Live Arcade on the original console that housed the transaction (or maybe just the hard drive), and I can use my Passport to transfer my privileges to another system if needed. Sounds good, right?
   
   But there are some wrinkles. First, how can you tell the demo-only version from the full version so you don't accidentally overwrite it when moving it around? Does it even matter? Also, why can a second person play Bejeweled 2 and Outpost Kaloki X on the first 360, but not Geometry Wars - which shows up as demo for anyone but the original purchaser (at least for me)? It's all very inconsistent and confusing.
   
   Let's make it simple. Like iTunes, let us authorize a few systems that can play any of our purchased content, be it games or themes or gamer pictures. Make us provide enough personal information (like a credit card) that we'd never sanely entrust to a stranger - this should all but eliminate abuse. Build in a check so multiple people can't use the same license for the same Xbox Live Arcade game at the same time. That's fair, since we'd have to buy two copies of a retail game to play each other on more than one console.
   
   You can even offer to sell us a second license on the fly! Just let us take turns, if we choose, and play the games on our own individual hard drives so we can keep track of things neatly - without our brains exploding as we try to remember who bought what, on which system, with whatever hard drive and where our Profiles are stored today. You know, those things we can't store in more than one place.
   
   
   
5. Better overall usability. The new "blades" interface is brilliant. And that whooshing sound effect, wow. But let's face it, any UI that has to tell you how to find a feature by supplying written directions just isn't done yet. And that's exactly what happens when you download a new Theme: "To use this theme, open the Xbox Guide and select Personal Settings, Themes."
   
   Even with the written directions, I kept looking for Themes under Display Settings - where you'd find them in Windows. Turns out, you're supposed to use the oversized Guide button on your controller to access Personal Settings, which contains all of your personal settings - except for those stored on the Settings blade or accessed by clicking your Gamer Card. That's right, there are three different places for settings before you even launch a game! Why not just put Themes in Display Settings too, so you can access them from either place?
   
   The "Find your item" option for other downloaded files such as trailers and demos is only a small step up on the UI faux pas ladder. How about just "Play it"? Teach me how to fish in the manual, but let me use the features I want wherever they make the most sense to me. Isn't the 360 supposed to be about personalization and choice?
   
   Also, we shouldn't have to unplug our Ethernet cables to so we can mark ourselves to appear offline before we log in. Keep in mind that you now expose our online state to anyone on the Internet with an Xbox Live account who's looking - including, quite possibly, bosses, coworkers and parents. Give us the choice to start with a profile selection screen so we can decide whether to appear online before we login. Or whether we even want to login in. If I'm watching a movie with my sweetie or my kid, I'm probably not going to want to see popup alerts whenever a buddy pops in a new game.
   
   Yes, there's an auto-profile login selection preference, but the 360 seems to ignore this and sometimes just autologins like an overanxious teen at his first makeout party. Some people may think it's cute, but most of us want a little more control.
   
   
   
6. An easier-to-use Music Player. The new visualizations are nice, but the text input for the Music Player really needs some work. Sure, you can plug in a USB keyboard if you have one, but 360 text input is generally pretty easy to do with the controller (apart from the Caps key really being a Caps Lock). So why does it take forever to enter a few song titles? How about adding auto-complete and the ability to easily fill in the artist and album fields for an entire CD for all tracks at once?
   
   Better yet, offer us multiple music databases so we can choose the entry that has the most accurate or appealing data format for each album. If something is wrong or not-yet-entered, let us 360 users (at least those who are not in Purgatory!) help out by uploading our work after we've corrected or hand-entered it. Also, let us play the songs on the Rip Music selection screen where we're actually making our choices, so we don't have to back out and scribble down all of the song titles we want to rip and those we want to skip. What a pain!
   
   Oh, and while we're at it, figure out a way to better support iPods. Heck, even cheap car stereo kits and cassette adapters can manage a passthrough any protected tracks (yes, even through the dock connector) that have been ripped to AAC or purchased from iTunes. I plugged my iPod into my 360 and was only able to play one song out of the 30 or so from my holiday playlist. Here's the kicker: It was the one song I hadn't paid for.
   
   
   
7. Create and share our own Themes. Remember how Forza Motorsport let gamers really trick out their cars with elaborate artwork by simply overlaying different colored shapes? Gamers made the most amazing pictures with this simple little interface. Even people without a design degree could turn out some halfway appealing car decorations.
   
   And while it's nice that we can pick out a single background picture for our 360 dashboards and adjust the color of the accents and the pop-up pane background, it's hardly Theme creation. Let us adjust every blade and popup to our exacting specifications and save them as custom Themes. Then the very best ones - at least those that don't violate copyrights or community standards - can be sold over Xbox Live Marketplace, with the seller getting a small piece of the action.
   
   We'll still buy the professionally made ones, but only if they're very, very good. Maybe we'll even pick over the ones we buy and improve them. I love the Penny Arcade Theme, but I'm not so wild about the popup pane background. If I could just change that one little thing to whatever I wanted, I'd be thrilled. Oh, and I really want to create a really nice Futurama theme. I already have all of the art I need. Where's the interface that makes it happen?
   
   
   
8. Achievement icons usable as Gamer Pictures. Achievements are great. Unlocking little tokens for our accomplishments tantalizes us further into the game. And there are generally a handful of Achievements that only the hard-core gamers will ever earn.
   
   Likewise, Gamer Cards are amazing. We can see how our friends are doing and even hit them up for help if they're further along in a game than we are.
   
   Why can't we get these two great tastes together? The pictures for Achievements are about the same size as Gamer Pictures. Shouldn't we be able to display them on our Gamer Cards? The idea of Gamer Score is interesting, but it's a little abstract. What does it really say about you? If it's low, you're a loser or a "newb." If it's high, you have the mad skillz, a bunch of different games and/or too much time on your hands.
   
   C'mon, if I ever earn an award for beating Call of Duty 2 at the highest difficulty, I'm going to want everyone to know it the second they pull open my Gamer Card - at least until Halo 3 arrives. And I beat that at the highest difficulty. Or at least on normal.
   
   
   
9. Even better Gamer Card browsing. Did I mention that Gamer Cards are waaaay cool? We already like to surf them, just like we surf actors and directors in the Internet Movie Database, consider related purchases and recommendations on Amazon.com or browse artists and playlists in the iTunes store.
   
   Gamer Cards are fun to pull up when you're playing a game and scanning the lobbies and leaderboards. You did this part right. But I can't help but think we should have even more ways to browse them right from the Dashboard and find people who are very much like us that we can invite to chat and play.
   
   
   
10. Original Xbox save support. It's bad enough that some saves on the original Xbox were arbitrarily locked. But every original Xbox game played via emulation on the 360 now has its save locked, too. Check it out, you can't copy any of them! Meanwhile, every 360 game save is unlocked due to the fact that the hard drive is now an optional component.
    
    Enough with trying to control our every move. Game saves are OUR data, sometimes even more precious than those Word docs and Excel spreadsheets that we backup religiously ever night (well, some of the time). Face it, hard drives are unreliable. Every one of them will fail, some sooner than later. They should be treated as the ticking time bombs waiting to explode that they are. Our data is valuable and should be easy to back up or move to another drive, so we can preserve our progress and downloads - forever if we like.

Activision admits there's a bad bug in Call of Duty 2 that can eat your game save. Ouch! The good news is that there's a workaround while they devise a permanent fix. Just enter the cheat code to unlock all levels. From the Mission Selection screen, hold both shoulder buttons and, while you're doing all that, tap the D-pad left, left, right, right and then the Y button twice really fast. It may take a few tries... If you haven't seen Llamma.com's video of an Xbox 360 game disc getting ground up when the system is moved, you should. Apparently, there's a homebrew fix: just add some foam around the disc tray to keep it from bouncing. It's not clear whether this might void your warranty, so try it at your own risk. If all else fails, the makers of Game Doctor claim their product can fix discs damaged in this fashion, though you're better off avoiding the whole mess by putting your 360 on a level, well-ventilated surface and leaving it alone... Microsoft is making up for a temporary drought in new 360 games with a flood of new downloads in Xbox Live Marketplace. Right now, you can get:

• Wik & the Fable of Souls, a new Xbox Live Arcade platformer, and the classic Robotron:2084
  
• Six free cars for Ridge Racer 6, and - for a dollar apiece - six new background music tracks
  
• New trailers including Mission: Impossible III and Lost Planet

Xbox 360 improvements we can (almost) all agree on
Thanks to all of you who've taken time to read my 10 reasons the Xbox 360 doesn't quite rock - yet and offer thoughtful feedback. As you no doubt realize, my intent was not to diss Microsoft or the Xbox 360 but to offer some constructive criticism and kick off discussions of what was done really well and what might be done maybe just a little better with a future update.

As several of you noted, the great thing about the 360 (and the original Xbox before it) is the ability to add features and fixes through a software update. This isn't totally new for consumer electronics - Apple occasionally updates its iPod operating system via flash ROM updates and I've had many a cell phone and router that's been upgraded this way - but, with the exception of the PSP now, it's not really been done in the console space without some change in hardware.

It seemed like a number of people didn't read the article but jumped to the conclusion that it was some Sony fanboy slam against the 360. bean19 at Evil Avatar replied, "Deceptively titled. . . should be 10 really solid suggestions for improving the X360. Also, the best one isn't in the list at all IMO. The suggestion of putting an 8MB memory card in the Core units is excellent."

OK, so I have a thing for the thunderous, attention grabbing headline. Let's chalk it up to my years of writing thunderous, attention-grabbing headlines for a living. Maybe next time I'll tone it down a little.

FYI: This article actually went through about six drafts, and I nearly abandoned it two or three times. But everytime I'd play the 360 (pretty much every night), a voice in the back of my head would keep shouting about this or that feature, and how much better it would be if you could only do this or that.

So, yes, for a moment I listened to the voices in my head. Now I'm listening to yours:

• protocol_image at Evil Avatar had a really good tip. You can use password protection to prevent auto-login: "just do the simple 4-button password rather than unplugging your cable (yuck!) everytime." Nice.
  
  
  
• King Drewsky at Evil Avatar believes we should have Clan support "or at least some type of recognition of who you roll with." He makes a compelling case: "As a moderator for a website of 3000 gamers over the age of 25, I tend to only want to play with members from the site. However when I receive a friend request, I am unable to distinguish if the guy is from the site or just some random Timmy that I would prefer to ignore. With the Halo2 interface, you could tell who people were by the clan they were a part of. Now all I've got is a gamer tile and a silly motto in which most people just put, 'I like b00bs.' Wouldn't it be nice if you could know if the person was from Evil Avatar, the Team Xbox forums, the Penny Arcade forums, Clan PMS, 2old2play, or some other online organization?"
  
  
  
• Grimgrock at Evil Avatar cites John Dvorak as proof that the 360 UI is darn near perfect and thinks that online documentation is OK. I don't have a problem with a little online help, but it shouldn't be a substitute for an intuitive interface. It's a kludge, and citing Dvorak (who I've always considered a hack) won't get you anywhere with me. That said, I do think the 360 UI is a vast improvement over anything we've seen to date, and my comment was that a few small nits mar an otherwise innovative and beautiful UI.
  
  
  
• Xbox360fanboy.com retitled my piece "Ten careful considerations about the 360" and added the 10 Things I Hate About You logo. Funny! I hope you don't mind that I borrowed the logo for this post.
  
  
  
• Several posters on Joystiq.com picked apart my list. That's fair, up to a point. Everyone has an opinion, and I was simply pointing out the things that interfere with my total enjoyment of the 360. And where I could, I suggested possible solutions. You're welcome to agree or disagree. But let's not prejudge whether some of the smartest software engineers in the world can solve these sticky problems. I say throw down the gauntlet, and let's see what they can do!

BLOG: Xbox 360 improvements we can (almost) all agree on: Thanks to all of you who've taken time to read yesterday's 10 reasons the Xbox 360 doesn't quite rock - yet and offer thoughtful feedback. My intent was not to diss Microsoft or the Xbox 360 but to offer constructive criticism and kick off discussions. The article actually went through about six drafts, and I nearly abandoned it two or three times. But everytime I'd play the 360, this voice in the back of my head would keep shouting about this or that feature, and how much better it would be if you could only do this or that.

So, for a moment, I listened to the voices in my head. Now I'm listening to yours.

[Read full Blog entry]

The Xbox 360 has gotten a lot of ink for kicking off the "HD era" for game consoles, but now Sony is claiming the the true start of the high def era won't be until the PlayStation 3 ships next year. The 360 supports a higher baseline resolution - at least 720p and, in most cases, native 1080i - than the original Xbox, which had more high-def games than the PS2 and GameCube combined. Just not the high-end 1080p, which Sony exec Phil Harrison terms "the true definition of HD," adding: "So it's really premature to be talking about the HD era." Phil has a point: The PS3 will offer 1080p for games (though it's not known yet if this means all games) and movies, thanks to its next-gen Blu-Ray drive, while the 360 only plays standard DVDs at a lowly 480p. Of course, only the newest TVs support 1080p, so you may not even care about this issue for a few years. Microsoft revealed it has no plans to offer a 360 with an HD-DVD drive in the next year. Also, it seems that its ATI graphics chip offers built-in support for 1080p that the Xbox team chose not to tap. Does this mean it might be added later through a software update. FYI- With HD, bigger numbers are generally better, but your best choice depends on your TV's native resolution. Also, the "i" is for interlaced, and "p" is the superior progressive scan...

Another wave of Xbox 360 consoles hit U.S. stores recently. Best Buy horded its allotment for its Sunday ad, but word leaked onto the Internet. So those in the know lined up the day before, meaning anyone who actually saw the Sunday circular in the paper probably walked away empty-handed. There were some other sad and funny consequences:

• According to one report, folks who camped out at a Best Buy in White Marsh, Md., were ordered the night before the sale to disperse or be cited for trespassing. When they returned at the appointed hour of 4 a.m., a new line had formed. The groups tried to work out a fair agreement, but ultimately police were asked to intervene and turned their batons on the mob. Threats of pepper spray and dogs were also made but never enacted.
  
  
  
• In Anchorage, Alaska, a group of five successful 360 purchasers tried to scalp some systems to those still in line. When they failed, they went to a nearby McDonald's and entrusted the consoles to a 14-year-old who stayed behind in the car. Turns out, robbers had followed them and jacked four of the 360s at gunpoint. The boy held onto one that had been stashed out of view.

Thanks to a French gamer who traded in his copy of God of War for The Movies, even non-gaming types are buzzing about how, in the right hands, Lionhead's moviemaking simulator can actually help transform a good story into decent machinima. The French Democracy, a 13-minute political short by 27-year-old Alex Chan, was made with a PC and the $50 videogame in only a few days - not counting the game time required to unlock the necessary tools. Downloadable at machinima.com, the film examines the paths of three very different French citizens whose lives intersect at a riot. Lionhead head Peter Molyneux says he's impressed with Chan's work and added that he's considering a Project Greenlight-style contest where a movie made with their game is turned into a real film project. For now, you can submit a Christmas-themed short by Jan. 6 for a chance to win an ATI graphics card and an award for your in-game studio; details at movies.lionhead.com...

EA isn't calling it a recall, but they are offering to replace your Madden 2006 for PSP disc as a "long-term solution" for the Franchise Mode bug. If you mail in your disc, you'll also get coupons for EA's online store, one for $15 off and another for free standard shipping. And, oh yeah, your Madden game shouldn't freeze anymore. It's not clear if the corrected, er, improved disc is available at retail - or how you could even tell. Maybe there should be a sticker that says, "Now with fewer crashes!" Details on how to swap your disc are at easports.com...

SOCOM 3 fans get their holiday wish early thanks to a Sony online patch that solves problems with disconnects and time-outs, some (but not all) voice chat issues and various in-game bugs. Simply login with SOCOM 3 and save the patch to a PS2 memory card... id Software knows that nothing says "holiday" like a fragfest, so they're offering three new maps for Quake 4 in their free Quakemas Map Pack. Campgrounds Redux is a remake of a classic Quake III map, Tremors is set in a cave and Railed is an old Strogg base with long hallways. Get it at fileshack.com/file.x?fid=8153... And Outpost Kaloki X, the Xbox Live Arcade strategy game for the 360, now has a free Fireworks scenario...

Microsoft marketers want you to sign up for their new Xbox Live Diamond card. No, it's not yet another branded credit card (though that might actually be cool!). Rather, it's a free discount card with offers to pick up a second rental free at Hollywood Video, save 20% on Etnies shoes and clothing or buy a sub, get a sub at Quizno's. Supposedly McDonald's and Ticketmaster will have offers too, but details are absent. Want it? All you need is an active 12-month Xbox Live Gold account, at least 18 years of age and a willingness to fill out a few forms at xboxlivediamond.com. It's not integrated with Xbox.com, so be prepared to pick your favorite games and genres again and answer some leading questions about your console and game preferences. Hey, it's free and, in 6-8 weeks, you'll be printing online coupons and raking in the savings...

They say everything old is new again, and so it is. Two hot mods have hit the scene, recreating classic games with more advanced gaming engines. GoldenEye: Source is a mod for Half-Life 2 that recreates Rare's groundbreaking Nintendo 64 shooter. It's only an alpha release, so it's incomplete and plenty buggy. But the beta's not expected to land until next September, so give it a shot at goldeneyesource.com. If dungeon crawling is more your speed, Ultima V for Dungeon Siege (both PC and Mac) is now complete. This is a v1.0 release and, while there are known bugs that will be patched soon enough, the game is more or less finished after 5.5 years of development. Just make sure you have all of the updates for Dungeon Siege before you get the mod from u5lazarus.com...

Does the siren song of free MP3s from bands you've probably never heard of make you want to give up your name, age and snail mail address? If so, hightail it over to 2ksports.com before the end of December. There are 13 songs at this writing, with two spots left for songs to come before the New Year. Truth be told, we have heard of one of these bands - and maybe you have too: Aceyalone, Afu Ra, Common, Ghostface, Grinder, Jean Grae, Jet By Day, Little Brother, Lyrics Born, Panthers, Plane, The Roots, RJD2, Trans Am and Zion I. Did we mention there's no DRM? That's right, these tracks will actually play on your 360...

Has Sony seen the light? Will the PlayStation 3 have an integrated online experience similar to Xbox Live after all? It seems they're at least hiring a PSP/PS3/PS2 network game integration engineer to help build "lobby functionality (e.g. matchmaking, content download)," "networking middleware for use by the teams" and "lessons learned/best practice for teams embarking on online projects." If nothing else, it sounds like Sony's online gaming story should, over time become more consistent. Some see it as evidence that the console leader is backing away from its earlier stance to leave the online experience to each individual developers. Others, not so much...

There are now free demos of Condemned: Criminal Origins and Quake 4 in Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as nine new picture packs and nine added themes that you'll have to pay for. Alas, there's no preview yet on Xbox.com, so you'll be buying blind...

You might want to make it your New Year's resolution to update your graphics card drivers, which are no doubt woefully out of date. Maybe, maybe not. First off, if you're not having any problems with the games you're playing now, you can safely put it off for another day. If you are looking for a particular graphics glitch fix, both ATI and NVidia have recent driver updates: ATI Catalyst 5.13 and NVidia Forceware 81.98. Read the release notes first to see what's been addressed - and whether you might lose any features you depend on. Then have a rollback plan just in case things don't work out...