Xbox 360 Thread-Mark VIII

[Medicine Man]

Microsoft to cut Xbox Live Gold subscription requirement for media apps...

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/05/r ... flix-hulu/

Is the biggest scam of the previous generation (and this one for that matter) finally coming to an end?

[Medicine Man]

Just in case anyone's interested, media apps are available to all 360 owners now.

[Medicine Man]

Deals with Gold sale...

Deals With Gold Xbox 360 1/13 – 1/19

Borderlands The Pre-Sequel – $29.99 / £22.49 / €29.99 / AU$39.97 (50% off)
Xcom Enemy Unknown – $9.99 / £12.49 / €14.99 / AU$19.98 (75% off)
Xcom Enemy Within – $9.99 / £7.49 / €9.99 / AU$17.48 (75% off)
Remember Me – $9.99 / £4.99 / €7.49 / AU$12.48 (75% off)
Dead Rising – $4.99 / £4.99 / €7.49 / AU$12.48 (75% off)
Puzzle Fighter HD – $3.99 / £2.70 / €3.79 / AU$3.98 (60% off)
Super Street Fighter 2 THD – $4.94 / £3.29 / €4.74 / AU$4.93 (67% off)
Mafia 2 – $4.99 / £3.74 / €4.99 / AU$7.48 (75% off)
The Darkness – $4.99 / £3.74 / €4.99 / AU$7.48 (75% off)
SSX Mt Eddie and Classic Characters – $3.99 / £2.69 / €3.79 / AU$3.97 (50% off)
SSX Classic Character pack – $2.99 / £1.99 / €2.87 / AU$2.97 (50% off)
SSX Mt Eddie – $2.99 / £1.99 / €2.87 / AU$2.97 (50% off)

2K Publisher Sale Xbox 360 1/13 – 1/19

Bioshock – $4.99 / £3.74 / €4.99 / AU$12.48 (75% off)
Bioshock 2 – $4.99 / £3.74 / €4.99 / AU$7.48 (75% off)
Bioshock 2 Minerva’s Den – $2.49 / £1.68 / €2.37 / AU$2.48 (75% off)
Bioshock Infinite Burial At Sea Ep 1 – $7.49 / £5.99 / €7.49 / AU$9.97 (50% off)
Bioshock Infinite Burial At Sea Ep 2 – $7.49 / £5.99 / €7.49 / AU$9.977 (50% off)
Bioshock Infinite Columbia’s Finest Pack – $2.49 / £1.69 / €2.39 /AU$2.47 (50% off)
Duke Nukem Forever – $4.99 / £4.99 / €4.99 / AU$12.48 (75% off)
Borderlands 2 – $6.59 (67% off)
Borderlands 2 Headhunter 1 – $1.49 / £1.19 / €1.49 / AU$1.47 (50% off)
Borderlands 2 Psycho Pack – $4.99 / £3.37 / €4.74 / AU$4.97 (50% off)
Borderlands 2 UVHU Pack 2 – $2.49 / £1.69 / €2.39 / AU$2.47 (50% off)
Spec Ops The Line – $7.49 / £4.99 / €7.49 / AU$12.48 (75% off)
WWE 2K15 – $40.19 / £30.14 / €40.19 / AU$53.56 (33% off)
Borderlands Pre Sequel Handsome Jack Doppleganger Pack – $7.49 / £5.99 / €7.49 / AU$10.46 (25% off)
Borderlands Pre-Sequel UVHUP & Holodome Onslaught – $7.49 / £5.99 / €7.49 / AU$10.08 (25% off)
Mafia 2 Jimmy’s Vendetta – $4.99 / £3.37 / €4.74 / AU$4.97 (50% off)
Mafia 2 Joe’s Vendetta – $4.99 / £3.37 / €4.74 / AU$4.97 (50% off)

[Medicine Man]

EA sale...

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/promotions/sales/ea-sale

Amalur £3.99
Skate 3 £3.74
Crysis £2.99
Crysis 2 £2.99
Crysis 3 £2.99
Most Wanted £3.99
Titanfall £9.99

[Animalmother]

I don't suppose anyone is having a problem logging onto XBL lately? Mine dropped a few days ago and bugger all I do can get it back. It probably is an issue at my end but would nice to know I'm not the only one.

[DjchunKfunK]

Microsoft have discontinued the 360.

http://news.xbox.com/2016/04/20/xbox-36 ... -10-years/

[Prey]

[Subway Diet]

Ah, so many hours of entertainment.
The old 360 had a fine run. A fine run indeed.

If you don't count those first couple of years where it broke all the time, or the last couple of years were the dashboard was more a mess of advertisements than functional UI.

Still, we had a laugh, didn't we?
I remember enjoying the system so much back at the start of 2006 that I actually claimed, on this very forum, the only way to make it better was if it had a moist orifice.

[Mantis]

Might pick one up on the cheap from somewhere just for the sake of having it. I've still got a ton of games for it in storage that I never got around to playing.

[Raid]

I'm not really sure how I feel about the 360 these days. Sure, there was some cracking software for it, but the hardware and OS? Dreadful, except for the controller. The most obvious issue was the RROD faults for the first third or more of the console's life, and it happened to me three times. The DVD drive was far too loud, and it took much too long for the game installing feature to be released. They released it with the hard drive being optional, meaning developers couldn't guarantee that users would have one so couldn't utilise it, despite the fact that its predecessor had one as standard. The controller may have been much more comfortable to use than the Dualshock 3, but Sony's internal battery and standard USB charging cable were infinitely preferable to Microsoft's AAs or optional play and charge kit. They supported the quickly defunct HD DVD system, but not in a way that allowed them to stick games on it (an obvious business choice given that the alternative was produced by their direct competition, but bad for the player). And every iteration up until the most recent one was ugly - the most recent one is simply boring looking.

So yeah, some awful hardware saved by a strong software lineup. I've not turned mine on for 3 years, the last game I bought was (after a brief look through my Amazon history) Halo: Combat Evolved Remaster. That's not necessarily related to the console, it's more to do with my return to PC gaming. Still, the PS3 still serves as my blu-ray player, and my partner still uses it for games. Can't say that about the 360 unfortunately.

[Prey]

If it were all to come down to simply the value of gaming quality the console delivered I think we would all put our hands up and agree it delivered some cracking titles during its lifespan plus it also gave us the best single controller I think any console machine has ever given us to date. No matter if you had just a 360 or a 360 and a PC that controller became a staple of your gaming day in and day out and many still prefer using it to this day over the Dualshock 4 or Xbox One controller. My son played Destiny on his 360 console religiously and even though he's now swapped over to an Xbox One the new version he has to me looks pretty much the same and runs the same as the 360 version did. Testament then to just how much they managed to squeeze out of the console.

However if we are to look at the console from a technical standpoint and judge it on just how many revisions it took Microsoft to give people an actual working machine and the amount of misery it cost them then things aren't really anywhere near that positive. It was a complete mess and cost Microsoft something in the region of $1.15bn according to Peter Moore which is an unbelievable amount of money simply due to attempting to cut corners and keep costs down with the innards fluffed design during early production.

[DjchunKfunK]

Some of this feels like revisionist history. Yes the original Xbox 360 had serious issues, but it didn't take them a number of attempts to fix the problem. You also have to remember that despite it effecting a good amount of people it didn't effect all machines, there are some people who still use a first generation 360 today.

In the end you can't separate the console from the software/Live as you don't have one without the other. Microsoft offered a great product at a great price compared to it's competitor and they were able to dominate the market. It was easy to develop for, they gave indie developers their first avenue into the console scene, you could make the argument that with Xbox Live Arcade we might not have seen the explosion of indie gaming that we have witnessed over the last few years, and for me they gave us the best controller around.

For me with regards to the history of the industry the Xbox 360 stands alongside the PSone and the PS2 in terms of the long term impact it had on the industry.

[Quietman]

The 360 controller was just a slightly refined S controller from the original Xbox anyway.

[eVoL]

Some of this feels like revisionist history. Yes the original Xbox 360 had serious issues, but it didn't take them a number of attempts to fix the problem.

Yes it did! It wasnt till the slim that it was fixed, that was 5 revisions in. I think it was 6+ consoles that died on me. Its revisionist to play it down in any way, it was an incredible mess. The internet resounded with "Falcon is going to fix it!" "Jaspers going to fix it", nope!

The saddest thing about the 360 ending production though is that its still the only place to play Bulletwitch

[DjchunKfunK]

I'm not playing it down, I just dispute that it took as many revisions as people think to fix the issue. According to a quick bit of searching, the failure rates for RROD specifically were around 1% with the Jasper chip.