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by CJL
Anyone on here signed up to XBox live?

Whilst playing the game, I felt like a 'fly on the wall' tapping into their local culure, from the slang that they spoke, to the subjects they discussed.

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Honey I feel like that every single time I visit here. You just have to take notes and don't be afraid to ask for help. Its a big wide world out there and you either look at it as a fascinating adventure, or... not. Its up to you. Personally, the 'fascinating' side of it is more fun

I know Havoc is certainly contemplating it... I'll have to investigate matters further (ie: pester the hell out of him and probably get a slap round the face for my troubles... that's Havoc for you ) when I pay good ol' hometown a visit... (Yay! Only two weeks to go! )

Speaking of RtCW, just been playing it (rented it from Blockbuster on Friday) and am quite impressed, even tho' I don't have Live access, the single player campaign is pretty darn cool! How far've you got on it, CJL? I've just got to the X-Labs and I've decided I don't like the nasty cyborg-undead things very much...

i've not played on live yet but i am thinking about getting it, as i like online gaming, but can just (for my own personal reasons) never get into games on a PC, has to be a console for me.

Also, yeah i've got RTCW and those cyborg dudes in the X Labs, just use that massive german mini gun that you find and circle kinda closeish to them, they then die ultra fast

Done that, now got to the "Under the Castle" bit, just got to the zombies bit... dammit, I hate those Venom-toting Super Soldiers! Still, Venom Chaingun me likey...

Heh, the game was supposed to go back to Blockbuster last night, oops...

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by Alan
How far've you got on it, CJL? I've just got to the X-Labs and I've decided I don't like the nasty cyborg-undead things very much...

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I'm only at the level where I steal their secret plane. You must be playing non-stop!

Anyway, back to X-Box live discussion.

Even if you don't have it, what do you think are the effects of having access to a live chat forum - not text input, but actual live people?

Imagine if the T21 chat section was voice only - would you still go into it and chat to a bunch of strangers?

Well live chat does have it's advantages above text but with live chat you will have to actually be there all the time to follow the conversation which is a major drawback.

I guess it would help against all those people in chatboxes saying they are a 12 year old girl from the north of the UK but is actually a 40 year old guy from Ireland.

I think a lot of people feel a lot more confidant behind "text" and it would be very hard for a lot of people to actually talk to "total strangers" that way.

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by CJL
Imagine if the T21 chat section was voice only - would you still go into it and chat to a bunch of strangers?

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Well, it'd certainly make me a *little* nervous (A little? Who am I trying to kid? ) plus actually understanding what somebody's trying to say to you if accents are a major concern (which I presume they might be?), but I would probably still try (chatting on XBox Live) as I agree with the premise so nicely put by Pvt. Joker of Full Metal Jacket:

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"I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture, and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill."

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Hence, somebody throwing insults at me in language I can't understand + rocket launcher =

I'm on Xbox Live. Currently only got one game which is Live-enabled though, Mech Warrior. My overall impression is that the user interface and infrastructure is very impressive: it all worked fine first time out but then I have an ethernet DSL link. Not sure how easy it would have been if I'd had to set up Internet sharing.

The main weakness that I can see so far is a lack of killer must-have Live games which aren't also on the PC as most people currently get broadband for the PC rather than for console connectivity. Then again, lack of large numbers of killer games is a general Xbox problem... It's also going to be interesting seeing what effect Microsoft's charging scheme has on uptake.

That said, Mech Warrior is very enjoyable on Live. The voice stuff does make the game seem more vivid than the text messages on PC games. Bit embarassing when one of the players giving you a good kicking says "Later, dudes, school..." The ability to download and store new content (ie new mechs and levels for Mech Warrior) is pretty neat too.

JOOI, what's your gamer tag? Mine's The Monkey King.

Although with Ventrillo, Teamspeak, et al, there really isn't any reason why you can't have voice-comms in pc games

(Edited by Stoo 03/11/2003 16:35)

True, but Live offers the usual console advantage of a single, consistent standard. JOOI, how common is support for the Sony/US Navy SEALs headset?

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by Ming
JOOI, what's your gamer tag? Mine's The Monkey King.

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Who's JOOI?

My Gamer tag is Pips (Don't ask)

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by Ming
True, but Live offers the usual console advantage of a single, consistent standard. JOOI, how common is support for the Sony/US Navy SEALs headset?

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It depends on the game really, games such as Destruction Derby Arenas (well, the version I tested anyway - it might change for the final release) only allow it in the gaming lobby, partly it was to allow more players on track at once, and partly it was because the game didn't really lend itself to voice-comms, as all you'd really get is just a string of expletives

But certainly in fps games, and other games that are team based, headset support is pretty common, and is getting more and more common as new releases come out.

Actually, I've just received yet another free game - Hardware Online Arena, this trial has been well worth it

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by CJL
(quotes)

Who's JOOI?

My Gamer tag is Pips (Don't ask)

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JOOI = Just Out Of Interest (Not one of Ming's releations sadly )

And.. Why Pips?

I just bought Rainbow Six 3 today which comes with a headset to talk to your AI men and also comes with a two month free trial of XBOX live, so i think i'm going to play through this on one player and then once i've done that i'll head onto XBOX live, by the way, when i am on, my nick'll prolly be KingOfTheC........ also, don't ask

I thought about getting X-Box Live, but decided to pass on it in favour of Playstation 2 Online. This was mainly based on the fact that X-Box Live charges a subscription whereas for PS2online you just buy your network adaptor (£25) and that's it, no more money to shell out.

So far the only online game i've got is SSX3 and the online play is excellent. It's totally seamless and i've only had a bit of lag once or twice. Have played Australians, Brits and Frenchmen. Playing with people of other languages is made easy because you can challenge people to a game without having to actually talk to them, you just select it in the game menu. Great stuff.

If X-Box Live ever drops the subscription then i might consider playing on that too, but until then i'll pass on it.

The Xbox Live sub is intended to fund the buildout of the Xbox Live infrastrcture - global gamer tag, single sign-on, etc which provides a single consistent platform across all XBL games. I guess this becomes more interesting once you start owning multiple games from multiple publishers - XBL gives you a single ID and UI across them. MS' philosophy appears to be analagous to a theme park where they build the park itself and the publishers build the rides. However, a fair few publishers aren't happy about the level of control/ownership of the customer relationship given up to MS.

Sony's taken a much more hands off attitude - it seems to be building its equivalent of XBL but without any obligation on publishers to use it. The term we coined was "Opt-in Xbox Live". What this means is that the online experience/UI is likely to be more fragmented than with XBL.

Also, the infrastructure has to be there. Sony or the other publishers will have to build it and it has to be paid for. PS2 owners may not end up paying a sub as publishers may choose to absorb the costs (both MS and Sony have stated they're free to levy charges though) but increased costs usually mean greater conservatism on the part of publishers. Then again, higher costs are probably acceptable for the PS2 due to the much larger size of the market.

I guess what it comes down to is that XBL is likely to provide a smoother, more consistent online games experience but you'll have to pay a premium for it. Way I figure it, the price of an additional game per year isn't too outrageous an overhead.

Sony are building their own "Central Station" universes for most games, these will be staffed and checked by Sony to stop the current wave of cheating brought about by the sheer stupidity of a couple of cheat system manufacturers..

EA decided to do their own thing entirely and refused to take part in the network beta trial, and as a result most of their online titles have rather large bugs. oops.

Once the HDD finally arrives there will be quite a few changes, and from the odd screenshot I've seen it's certainly for the better

Huh. So it's not just MS that EA has issues with? Still, EA is supporting PS2 Online but not Xbox Live so I guess they can't be that serious.

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by Maffrew
I thought about getting X-Box Live, but decided to pass on it in favour of Playstation 2 Online. This was mainly based on the fact that X-Box Live charges a subscription whereas for PS2online you just buy your network adaptor (£25) and that's it, no more money to shell out.

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As far as i'm aware, X-Box live is free for the 1st year.
I know they'll still charge a subscription after that, but it does seem to be a pretty good, solid, system.