Indie games on Xbox360 require connection to Live January 7, 2010
Posted by Joker in : Indie Games, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox Live , 2commentsI saw a recent tweet from XboxSupport that said "@carocat 2 play Indie Games, u must be connected 2 Xbox LIVE 2 start it. After it starts+loads, u can disconnect from LIVE if u want to. ^KS". After seeing them saying that I went & tested it with a single player game called Miner Dig Deep, where I found what they said to be true.
This is annoying for me as if I take my 360 to a location where I don’t have an Internet connection I can’t even open the game. All I get is a message that says "To play this game, sign in to Xbox Live.", with the option to sign in or not to sign in.
I’d like it changed so that I’m allowed to have the offline parts work without being signed into live. I’d also like achievement points to be available for the indie games as well. I know I’ve bought some arcade games because they said I could keep an achievement that I earned in the trial of the game.
The other thing I’d like to see is being able to remove any rating I’ve put on a game. I have one time accidentally rated a game that I hadn’t even played & that made me want to be able to remove the rating I had applied to it. Even if it was implemented in the web site first or only in the web site that would be better than not being able to remove a rating.
Sphere: Related ContentIssues with Tinker from Games for Windows – LIVE December 29, 2009
Posted by Joker in : Games for Windows - LIVE, Microsoft, Tinker, Windows, Xbox Live , add a commentWell about two weeks ago I installed Tinker from Games for Windows – LIVE. It is an interesting puzzle game. It was released previously for people who purchased Windows Vista Ultimate. You have a timer, can only make a certain number of moves, & on some levels have to get all the gears to get an achievement in the game. After performing certain tasks you receive achievements that are viewable to everyone.
If you look at my gamer card on the left you should see that I have played it & earned most of the achievements so far. I hope to get the remaining three in the future.
My first issue with the game is that to install it I have to manually start the Windows Firewall which is frequently disabled if you install a third-party software firewall. So it is a good game just a really annoying issue to be able to install it on my computer.
It looks like they fixed my second issue with the game. The requirements page had claimed that the 59 MB download needed 9 GB of disk space. Which made me wonder, do they think this is Fallout 3 or some other blockbuster title.
My third issue is that when I earn achievements in the game it doesn’t always update my gamer tag. Right now it is displaying all the achievements that I have earned so far, but is has been buggy in updating my profile. One time even though I was connected to live on my computer I had to close out the game & the client, then restart them so that I could get my achievements updated.
Sphere: Related ContentThe Wii & friends codes November 27, 2009
Posted by Joker in : Microsoft, Nintendo, Wii, Xbox, Xbox Live, blog , add a commentWell I really hate the way that the Wii does friends codes. Such a pain, oh well I guess I’ll deal with it.
My code is 0237 3199 4147 6328. The way you find it is by going to messages on your Wii to the address book. The directions are so long they get their own paragraph.
It’s the envelope in the bottom right corner, then to “Create message” in the bottom left, then you go to the address book on the right side & you should see your code, then to become friends with someone you give them that code & they give you theirs & you add it to the address book. You take the number you were given & go to the Address book & use the “+” & “-” signs to select a page, then select an entry you want to add them to (They just need to be in there somewhere.) You enter their cryptic code & add a nick name so you know who in the world that cryptic code belongs to. After they have done the same you are now friends. (Just like Xbox Live you are restricted to 100 friends, but unlike it you have a cryptic code instead of a name like my gamer tag “joecr”. My gamer tag is pronounced as you would Joker.)
Now I just need to get codes & get people to tell me theirs.
Sphere: Related ContentMore on the Zune 4.0 & related stuff October 2, 2009
Posted by Joker in : Internet, Microsoft, TCPIP, Windows, Xbox, Zune, blog , add a commentWell I just made another large post on the Zune forums about the issues I’ve had with the 4.0 software & other related stuff. It made me realize I forgot to mention another issue is they seem to be abandoning the pre Zune HD hardware. It looks like they are going to only be releasing apps for the Zune HD which means back when “Larry Hryb, Xbox LIVE’s Major Nelson” said that were doing XNA for the Zune that they dropped support for the originals or they are taking the back burner, IE the apps in the Zune Marketplace are only for the Zune HD at the time of this post with no indication of that ever changing. I really want to know which it is & why. I figure part of it is the new device has a much more powerful processor but beyond that I don’t see a reason why they would do that.
This is one of those issues I’d just like them to address as to what their plans are. I like having my expectations set as that makes me happier.
Oh I just thought of another issue that I’ve had with the Zune software for some time why do we only have unrated, broken heart & heart. I like the way that Netflix does the rating system better. Unrated, Not Interested, or a 1-5 star rating. I guess in the case of the Zune software that sort of arrangement would make more sense. Then we would have something like not rated, broken heart, or 1-5 hearts. That makes more sense to me then the current broken system. One more thing I don’t care that to someone else 1 star means a different thing to them since no one has said this is what they mean in the software. I think that is something else that Netflix has done better 1 star = Hated it, 2 stars = “didn’t like it”, 3 stars = “Liked it”, 4 stars = “really liked it”, & 5 stars = “Loved it”. So if you would just say what you think the different stars mean like they did you would have less confusion as you would have set the expectations of everybody. I remember back when I was trained to do support for Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition that one of the key points to making the customers happy was setting expectations.
Also does the software have to keep all the past downloads listed. The only way I’ve found to clear that list is to close the software. One more thing I just remember why after I finish a video or a piece of music does it still want to play it again & keep switching between showing that & the downloads at the same time in the area it used to in prior versions if you finished watching or listing to a single podcast episode just stop saying you are playing what ever it was you just finished. I like it showing when I’m playing but after I finish I want it to go away like it used to.
Sphere: Related ContentTime for another post April 17, 2009
Posted by Joker in : Security, Xbox, Xbox Live, blog , add a commentWell it has been a long time since my last post so I guess I should write something.
Well I just recently listened to Major Nelson & I believe many of the things mentioned at the Xbox Account Security page are useful for everyone even if you are not on Xbox or Xbox live. I say this because many of the schemes that people use on Xbox live members are some of the same tactics used elsewhere. I know it doesn’t cover everything about web security but it does help with some of the possible issues.
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