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games

The XBox Saga

June 4, 2013 1:04:15.713

Earlier this evening, I was off achievement hunting in Fallout New Vegas. As happens in that game from time to time, it locked up on a loading screen. No problem, I thought - I've had to do the unplug/reboot thing before with Bethesda games. However, when it came back, it wouldn't install an update, claiming a lack of space. Since I had 85 GB free, I figured that couldn't be right.

The bad news was, the drive apparently got corrupted. Reformatting it was harder than it should have been - the device tells you to look up the serial number on an info screen, which gives you a 16 digit number. Inputting that to format yielded... nothing. No error, no format, nothing. Turns out it wanted a 12 digit number on the box itself. Fine, that worked. Next up - download my gamer tag.

Well.

That failed with an error - the dreaded 8015D000. So, I went to the MS site, took the "change my password" option (since i had no idea what I had used as my password - the XBox does auto-login). Then the website took me to a "your account has been temporarily blocked" page. That's the point where I contacted support. Support was less than helpful. They couldn't unblock my account, and the best they could offer was that an "advocacy team" would contact me in 2-3 business days. My box is effectively a brick until then, because without my profile, I have no access to the DLC or downloaded games I've bought. Most of the disc games I've bought have DLC associated with them, so they're useless until this is dealt with.

To contrast this - a few years ago, I had a Macbook Pro die on a flight to London. I went to the Apple Store, and while I had lunch with friends, they replaced the motherboard - on a Saturday. Meanwhile, no one at XBox support can figure out how to help me unblock my account, or even explain to me why it's blocked.

Hey @majornelson - explain to me why I should get an XBox One later this year? Seems to me that a half decent PC with Steam would work a lot better at this point.

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posted by James Robertson

Comments

Re: The XBox Saga

[kilon] June 4, 2013 4:37:31.923

Yeah I agree these things should not happen to a console. How often you experience problems like this one with your XBOX ?

I play Heroes of Newerth on my iMac and its buggy as hell. There is too many factors that can ruin a game. I am not so sure going down the pc route will decrease your problems.

Re: The XBox Saga

[James Robertson] June 4, 2013 8:22:20.652

Well, I've had games crash on my Mac, I've had games crash my Windows VM. I've been forced to reboot by both. That's never managed to take out my Apple ID or my Steam ID though.

Re: The XBox Saga

[Lex Spoon] June 4, 2013 9:43:28.646

That's pretty bad.

I think you are drawing the wrong comparison, though. A better question would be why not get a Wii or a Playstation. A PC is a big change from a console.

Consoles, any consoles, have some huge advantages compared to a PC:

1. They are cheaper.

2. They are very easy to configure: just plug them in.

3. You play on a couch.

4. They are a shared activity for the room, rather than a personal activity.

PCs have different advantages:

1. The hardware specs are typically higher.

2. The games have more text in them.

3. You get to point with a mouse instead of a joystick.

Re: The XBox Saga

[kilon] June 4, 2013 11:29:29.754

James I see your point.

Lex spoon ->

1. Are they cheaper ? really ? compared to a pc ?

2. True, they are true plug and play compared to windoom pc which is plug and pray :D

3. Well you could play on a couch with a pc too, providing that the game can operate only with the joystick. But I see your point there, pc games are too reliant on mouse and especially keyboard.

4. I dont understand this point, what you mean by shared activity ?

Re: The XBox Saga

[James Robertson] June 4, 2013 11:34:08.011

I Have a Wii; the games I want to play aren't on that platform. I don't have any faith in Sony at this point - as an ongoing business, they have problems. Most Steam games now support controller play; I use one with many of my games.

Re: The XBox Saga

[Lex Spoon] June 4, 2013 12:28:49.141

James, I can't argue about the overall state of the console market! It is a really pity to see Microsoft shafting itself in various ways in the name of expanding market share and expanding functionality. I've been playing on a PC for a while now.

Kilon, it's true that you can build a PC and game on it for the same price as a console, though it's hard if you include the price of the monitor. It's not what people think of when they think "gaming PC", though, which runs more like $1000-$2000.

By shared activity, I mean that a typical console install takes over the main LCD in some room. As such, anyone in the room ends up interacting with the game in some way, even if they aren't playing.

A PC can be installed like this, but the software is not quite right. You can't escape the mouse and keyboard. Perhaps Steam's next move could be a mode that is optimized for controller-only access. Wouldn't that be sweet? Some of us really do just want a gaming system without yet another version of Netflix included.

Re: The XBox Saga

[James Robertson] June 4, 2013 14:23:28.170

Steam already has that - it's called "Big Picture" mode. It's optimized for large screens, and optimizes for controllers.

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