Xbox Living

Being a huge fan of Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, I got excited when I heard about Frontlines: Fuel of War. After all, much of the Frontlines development team came from Battlefield projects, so they must know what they’re doing. 32-player online battles in a third world war over depleted oil reserves? Where do I sign up!?

So I did. I got the game, and went to Xbox Live. Quick match, because I want to play quick!

Something happened quick. But it wasn’t play. It was my good old friend, the ‘this game is no longer available’ message. I remember these from a rash of network problems that Battlefield 2 had. I thought it was over. I wanted so much for it to be over.

“Why is this happening?” I thought, as my controller fell to my side and I curled up into a little ball on my couch, sobbing amidst the high-definition glow of a perpetual loading screen.

Okay, it wasn’t quite that dramatic. I believe just swore at the thing and moved on to custom matches. They proved to be a little more promising, as I could generally get into every one in five that I tried. When I did get into a game, I would find myself in two possible situations:

• The game would play out normally.
• The game would lag tremendously.

The second happens way more. Headshots to a still target from a sniper rifle turn out as misses and opponents move around like they’re in SNL’s Lazy Sunday video.

When the network glitches are resolved, it looks like this game will be a lot of fun. The features and combat style are highly reminiscent of Battlefield 2, and the single-player campaign is surprisingly enjoyable so far. The game seems to feature some of the destructible environment that the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company promises, albeit with smaller scope.

Just, give it some time.

It’s no secret (sorry Microsoft) that the Xbox 360 has an appalling failure rate. I’m currently on my third Xbox 360 system, but I’ve spoken with others on their fourth or fifth. It’s been estimated that about 1/3 Xbox 360 consoles fail. Early models of the console would scratch discs and read games as if they were DVDs (presenting the ironic “please insert this disc into an Xbox 360 console” message.) But the most persistent and annoying problem is the infamous “Red Ring of Death“.

The Red Ring is occurs when the Xbox 360 experiences a general hardware failure. If you see the red ring (three of the four lights on the console’s ring of light will flash red), chances are that your system is dead and will need repair or replacement. The biggest culprit behind the red ring is overheating — the circuits inside the Xbox 360 become brittle at high temperatures and can degrade or break apart. Microsoft claims to have fixed the problem on newer consoles.

There’s no perfect way to prevent your Xbox 360 from experiencing the red ring, but there are a few things you can do to improve your chances:

Keep your Xbox 360 in an open area

If you keep it tucked in a little cubby in your entertainment unit, your Xbox 360 can get a little stuffy. Heat gets trapped easily in small areas, and the Xbox 360 is already bad enough at managing its temperature. Instead, keep it standing up in an open area where it has some room to breathe. Also, try and keep it away from windows — both direct sunlight and a winter breeze can be harmful to your system.

Don’t turn the system off right away

When you’re playing a game, the system is operating at its highest temperature — the GPU is pushed to its limits and the disc drive is spinning away. If you shut down your console abruptly, it may cool too fast — which can be a problem as well. Sudden temperature changes can cause the circuits to separate or bend inside the console — which could eventually lead to the red ring.

Instead, leave your Xbox 360 on the Dashboard for about 10 minutes after play. On the dashboard, the system doesn’t have to work as hard and the CD drive is still — this lets the Xbox cool off a bit before the heat is taken away completely. After about 10 minutes, you can shut down the console and let it cool down the rest of the way.

If the weather outside is frightful…

In the winter, you might want to avoid transporting your Xbox 360 outside — especially if you live in a northern climate (like, say, Canada). If your Xbox starts to freeze, its tender electronic insides can get hurt.

If you do need to move your Xbox 360 around in the wintertime, let it warm up to room temperature before you start playing it. Otherwise, your Xbox will heat up too quickly, and the circuitry will distort or snap as a result. If that happens, you’re guaranteed a Red Ring.

Be careful with cooling fans

If you use a cooling fan, be sure that it does not draw power from the Xbox 360 itself. Some units draw power from the system, which can also cause hardware failures. Microsoft will go as far as to void your warranty if you use one. If you do use a cooling fan, be sure that it has its own plug and that it doesn’t draw any power or interfere with the Xbox in any way. (It might be safer, though, to use the Xbox 360 without a fan while your warranty is still good.)

If you do use a fan, be sure to turn it off as soon as you power down your Xbox 360. If you don’t, the system will cool too fast and may suffer damage.

Don’t use a surge protector

The Xbox 360’s giant brick of a power source includes a built-in surge protector, so don’t worry about frying your console. Plug it directly into the wall socket — a surge protector limits the power flow to the Xbox, which Microsoft warns can be harmful to your console.

If you do see the Red Ring…

• Don’t panic. First of all, if all four lights are flashing, it’s not a hardware failure — that warning means your AV cable isn’t properly connected to the console.
• If your wires all check out, try leaving the console alone for a while (at room temperature) and then trying again.
• If nothing works, call the Xbox support line. Microsoft extended the warranty to three years for the red-ring problem, so your console is protected for three years from the day you purchased it. Since the console was released in November 2005, that means all consoles are under warranty until at least November 2008.
• Microsoft is pretty quick about replacing consoles with this problem. When I got the red ring a few months ago, I got my replacement in 6 business days. I’m told that’s quick, and it might be because I’m not too far from the nearest service center in Toronto, Canada. The average wait time is said to be about 22 days.

Good luck. There’s a 33% chance you’ll need it.

Just a few doses of Xbox 360 news today:

• Jade Empire and Conker: Live and Reloaded have been announced as upcoming Xbox Originals that can be downloaded on Xbox Live
• Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 will be out in Europe on March 21, the same day as its intended North American release
• Call of Duty 4 will get new downloadable maps this spring. The new maps will bring more “variety” to the hugely-popular online gameplay.
• Although rumors were rampant yesterday about Gears of War 2, Epic has made it clear that they have never announced that this game exists. (But of course, why wouldn’t they make a sequel given the success of the first one?)  [[Update: This game has since been confirmed.]]

Happy gaming.

I just finished up Assassin’s Creed this weekend. It’s a pretty fun game, although tedious at times. But one thing that always gets me shamefully excited when I wrap up a game is the rush of Gamerscore that usually comes with that last Achievement or two.

I’m not one to spend hours trying to get a single Achievement unless the gameplay required is lots of fun. I’ll never boost an achievement and I don’t care if most games on my record have less than 1000G earned. But I do have fun picking them up, and sometimes I will go out of my way to get them. They’re a great part of the Xbox 360 experience.

So I was a bit disappointed when I realized I’d missed one of the achievements you can earn by completing the game. The ‘Conversationalist’ achievement is earned by entering into a dialogue with the Lucy character at every opportunity. I missed one near the beginning of the game. Oh well.

To save you the trouble if you haven’t been through the game yet, here are a few quick achievement tips to keep in mind when playing Assassin’s Creed:

• Talk to Lucy repeatedly: Lucy is the technician who operates the Animus. Between each memory segment you can talk to her by approaching and pressing a button when prompted. This usually happens immediately after each memory is completed, and before you go to your bedroom. Talk to her repeatedly to get all of the dialogue, until she starts repeating things like “can’t talk” and “aren’t you tired?” If you get them all, you get the 20G Conversationalist achievement.
• Activate all Memory Glitches: Memory glitches can be accessed whenever you see the screen flicker white and the DNA codes appear over top of the screen. They happen in many of the cutscenes throughout the game. You activate them by pressing any button on the controller — you can tell they’ve activated because the perspective will change and you can see a closer view of the scene. They usually occur during the scenes immediately before fighting a target (when they’re giving a speech, for example) and during the scene immediately after each assassination (occurring each time the target speaks to you). There are multiple glitches in each scene.You need to access 85% of all the glitches in the game to earn the 20G Hungerer of Knowledge achievement.
• Flag locations are available online: Normally I’m not a huge fan of using guides, but the flags can drive you crazy if you’re missing one or two. I’m not sure if I’m going to go back and complete them all, but if you choose to, the best maps are available at AssassinsCreed-Maps.com. This site has nice, big, easy-to-read maps that show all hidden flag and Templar locations. Try and get them all on your own, but before you pull your hair out, swing over here to track down the last few. The Flag and Templar achievements can be earned after you beat the game.The eight “Keeper of” acheivements are earned by collecting flags, and are worth 105 Gamerscore in total. The Personal Vendetta (kill every Templar) achievement is worth 40G.
• Save Every Citizen: There are a number of citizens calling for aid in each district of each city. Save them all and get the three “Defender of the People” achievements, worth 20G each. The description of these achievements says you need to complete every “free mission” in the city — this only refers to saving citizens. You only need to complete 3/6 investigations per district to advance to the assassination point, and you won’t miss this or any other achievement by not completing them all.

Most of the other achievements are self-explanatory, and the secret ones all come to you during the normal course of the missions. Hopefully these tips will keep you from missing anything!

I sat down today to take a run through the brief demo of Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, a first-person shooter from Codemasters. The demo popped up on Xbox Live yesterday.

The game is a ‘what-if’ scenario — taking place in a world where would-have-been British prime minister Winston Churchill was killed in New York City when he was hit by a car. (The accident did actually occur, but it only left Churchill injured.) In the game’s timeline, the Nazis successfully invaded the United States and took over. It’s a pretty good concept that puts a new spin on the otherwise tired WWII shooter genre.

Enter you — some random construction worker who’s atop a skyscraper that’s being built when the Nazi air assault hits New York City. The demo starts off here, and has you running along the iron beams of the tower in an attempt to make it to the bottom safely. Along the way, a parachuting Nazi is found, allowing you to take him out and steal his gun.

The rest of the demo plays out very much like Call of Duty 2. Although the controls are much less intuitive (it takes a few minutes to figure out which buttons do which, especially if you’re accustomed to a more logical pattern like in Halo or Call of Duty). You proceed down a linear path fending off Nazis as you go. At a couple of points you can shoot them as they hang from parachutes or jump out of some fancy-looking blimps.

That’s right: if Winston Churchill had been killed, the Nazis would develop superior blimp technology. Actually, the weapons in the game are also enhanced versions of the real weapons used by the Axis in World War II — as well as some that were developed later but never used in combat.

The graphics in this game are nothing to get excited about. They’re decent, I suppose, but they don’t do justice to the Unreal Engine 3 on which the game runs. I was more impressed by Medal of Honor: Airborne than this one. Objects are a bit rough and the smoke you see in the sky at the end of demo is very pixelated. If you’re on a standard-definition TV this might not be so noticeable, but in HD it feels like a game from the previous generation.

I’ll admit the story concept is interesting, but you see so little of it in the demo that it hardly encourages you to buy the game. Still, it would be neat to see how you presumably drive the Axis forces out of America. It would also be interesting to see a non-military character in a war game like this one… but as far as the demo shows, this character is just like any other soldier from the first-person perspective. Perhaps the game does a little more character development?

In short, the gameplay and graphics are nothing special, but if the idea of fighting Nazis on American soil peaks your interest, give this one a rent or try out the demo on Xbox Live.

Microsoft has announced that it will be giving the Xbox Live Arcade game Undertow away for free to any Xbox Live members that want it. Consider it a “thank you” from Microsoft for being a loyal subscriber to their online service.

Actually, the free game is a quiet “we’re sorry” — an apology for the network difficulties that Xbox Live had over the holiday season. They announced at the beginning of the year that they would be giving us a free game, and this is it.

I was kind of hoping we’d have our pick of games to download for a limited time, but I suppose this will do. Undertow looks pretty cool, so it’s worth downloading to try. It’s an underwater shooter-style game that has some pretty impressive 3D visuals for one of the Xbox Live Arcade titles (which are normally much simpler).

The game will go live for free at 10am GMT this Wednesday, January 23 and will stay up for free until 8am GMT on Sunday, January 27. Both Silver and Gold members are able to download the game for free.

Ever get sick of being called a noob in Call of Duty? Tired of blaming lag when you get pwned in Halo 3? Can’t finish those last few Guitar Hero songs? We have just the thing for you!

A German firm has developed a new drug that’s designed to make you better at playing video games. FpsBrain is supposed to boost your mental alertness and response times — which is probably useful in many situations but is being targeted at gamers because it contains less caffeine than most energy supplements, preventing the shaky caffeine jitters that could ruin a good game.

The ingredients are mostly vitamins, amino acids and a touch of caffeine, making it about on par with your average energy drink. Aside from being a little unnecessary, it’s not particularly unhealthy and has passed German health & safety requirements.

A bottle of 60 capsules costs €19.90, which is roughly $30 U.S.

Creepy.

Oh, this just keeps getting better. And by “better”, I of course mean “worse”.

First, a quick recap: during the holiday season in December, Xbox Live experienced a few hiccups in its service, and for a while gamers would randomly get disconnected or would have trouble connecting and finding games. (This is the first “major” performance/availability issue in Xbox Live’s 5-year history.) On January 4, Microsoft came forward and apologized for the network issues, explaining that the increase in subscribers over Christmas was even greater than expected. They promised a free Xbox Live Arcade game to every Xbox Live user. A few days later, a lawsuit was filed by a group demanding $5 million U.S. in compensation for the downtime.

So, yesterday, Major Nelson (aka Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live’s director of programming) said on a webcast that he can no longer provide Xbox Live members with updates about the network issues because of the lawsuit. Naturally, commenting on the reasons for the outage could effect the pending litigation, so they have to keep everything quiet until the suit is resolved.

Annoying, to say the least. The issues seem to be mostly, if not completely, resolved already (at least on my end things are running great). But this is almost certainly going to delay the free game we’ve been promised — and in the unlikely scenario that the group suing Microsoft wins, or gets a decent settlement, I’m probably not going to see any of that money. So what good is any of this to me, an average Xbox Live customer?

I’ve seen a lot of complaints online in forums and on blogs that Microsoft “must have expected” a rush in traffic and should have been more prepared. Aside from the fact that Microsoft admitted its own disappointment, you have to consider that the system jumped from 8 million users in November to over 10 million during the holidays. Microsoft says they’ve weren’t expecting to cross the ten-million mark for another 6 months. An error, yes — but since when are you an expert, Mr. Random Forum Troll?

So much fuss over so little. If these lawyers are so hungry for a lawsuit they can come up North and go after my cable company… at least they’ve had real, unexplained downtime and consistent signal degradation on HD channels — and they charge way more than Xbox Live does.

The idea of a sequel to Bioshock is no surprise, given the game’s commercial success. But according to CVG, we may not be wandering the ruins of Rapture, the game’s underwater setting, but taking part in its demise.

Sources close to 2K Games have revealed that the successor to Bioshock is in pre-production stages, and is looking like it will be a prequel to the hit game. Bioshock is a shooter with RPG elements, set in the rich world of Rapture — an underwater city built in the 1940s by an eccentric business tycoon. The city was built to be a utopia free of government corruption, but ultimately fell as an odd cocktail of organized crime and genetic engineering led to its devastation. A prequel might be a suiting installment in the Bioshock franchise, as it might give players a chance to visit Rapture in its prime and witness its downfall. (Very cool, in my opinion.)

2K Games hasn’t officially announced a new Bioshock title, but CVG points out that the company had earlier mentioned that they’d like to release a game for the new franchise every second year. If that holds true, we could see this sequel (or prequel) in 2009.

Last Friday a proposed class-action lawsuit was filed by a group led by three Texans against Microsoft. The lawsuit complains of the network troubles experienced by Xbox Live users over the holiday season, and claims that this constitutes breaches of contract and warranty, as well as negligent misrepresentation of the Xbox Live service in Microsoft’s marketing.

The reasoning behind the lawsuit is that Microsoft must have expected the increased traffic on Xbox Live over the holidays, and that it failed to prepare for it. The filing explains:

“In December 2007, XBOX Live crashed and prevented Plaintiffs around the world from accessing online play for several weeks … Microsoft knew the increase in subscriptions would increase game-play on its servers yet failed to provide adequate access and service to XBOX Live and its subscribers.”

The lawsuit seeks $5 million U.S. in compensation, supposedly on behalf of the 8 million Xbox Live customers worldwide.

I see two flaws in this suit. First, the claim that Xbox Live crashed and kept people from accessing online play for several weeks is mostly inaccurate. I don’t believe Xbox Live ever “crashed” in the sense that it went down — it was an issue of access. Some people were consistently unable to use some matchmaking features in some games, granted, but I still think that’s inaccurate.

Second, Microsoft already revealed last week that it would give a free Xbox Live Arcade game to each and every Xbox Live member as compensation. At $10-15 each, the retail value of that is well over $5 million.

I wasn’t a fan of the downtime, either — and I’m not one to advocate for big business — but this suit does seem like its reaching a bit. An interesting attempt, at least… let’s see how it plays out.