My Gamer Diary - Xbox 360® Fansite

Title: Mass Effect

Size: 580kb

Resolution: 1280 x 720

Comment: I still firmly believe that this game has the best Xbox 360 graphics out there... well maybe until Final Fantasy XIII arrives.

A few days ago I wrote a post about some Xbox 360 problems and bugs that would be really nice to have resolved. In part one I discussed some major problems such as the infamous Red Ring of Death and the ridiculously overpriced Xbox hard drives plus some smaller problems including the slow NXE navigation speed, crappy Xbox controller D-Pad and the inability to disable avatars. So today I un-proudly present to you part two where I’ll be addressing some other quirks.

6.) Noisy optical drive

I’m sure every Xbox owner has noticed this already and has also most likely gone the install games on hard drive route but unfortunately not everybody (arcade owners) can do this. I understand that the discs are read at a ridiculously high speed (hence the noise) but why doesn’t this problem affect other game consoles just as badly. Do they have better optical drives? Are there some noise reducing rubbers implemented? Or are the other consoles just better assembled? Either way, the noise is far too loud and I’m sure the tech folks at Microsoft can do something to at least reduce this for people like me with sensitive ears.

7.) Stock Availability

This might sound like a weird problem to list but believe me when I tell you that some countries (such as South Africa) almost never have stock. This is usually caused due to the inability to do repairs locally and therefore using retail stock as replacements. Surely Microsoft can make a plan sending by sending some unit love to the countries that are under stocked. They do want the sales don’t they?

8.) Build-in Wi-Fi

These little adapters cost almost next to nothing these days (excluding the Xbox ones of course). Even these new cheap little notebooks have them now so why not just integrate it and deliver a better all-round package? I’m pretty sure they pocket some extra bucks by selling these adapters as fancy accessories but aren’t they making enough on the ridiculously overpriced hard drives already?

9.) Xbox Play and Charge Kit

Ok wait; I’m starting to see a pattern here. The Play and Charge Kit (something that almost every Xbox owner will definitely buy) is also just another optional accessory. If shafting us on the hard drives and Wi-Fi dongles wasn’t enough already they still went ahead and did it on the main accessory pretty much everyone needs. Nice one.

10.) Improve Resolution Support.

I believe 32” is a nice size for a HDTV and as most people already know, they usually have a native resolution of 1366 x 768, so why is this resolution not supported? Sure I can buy a VGA cable and set it to 720p but when I’ll have scaling taking place or I can set it to 1360 x 768 but then get a small black bar or scaling again. I for one would like to run the Xbox 360 at the native resolution of my monitor so why not just implement it?

Look out for Part 3 coming soon.

I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time now. How antisocial am I really? Well I don’t have many friends, I’m single, I spend most of my day thinking about gaming and I host my own Xbox dedicated blog. Wow, I really am antisocial! It won’t be fair to blame this on my Xbox however since I’ve been a gamer long before the console was even released. I’m trying to remember the first game I ever played. If I recall correctly it was some Ace flight fighter simulation game on the Commodore 64 when I was like twelve years old. Yes you read correctly, the Commodore 64. My first console however was the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System and boy did that thing consume hours of my life (and money since the power adapters kept burning out).

I’ve always had a passion for gaming but not in a job sense kind of way. It’s my hobby, my escape, my diversion from reality. I had plenty of friends in school but almost all of them got married and created their own little American dreams. The reason for me creating this blog is purely due to my passion for games. Yeah sure, my English is not the best (see note on right hand pane) but I try to at least make it readable (and hopefully entertaining). Every time I complete a post I feel that sense of satisfaction since I truly believe I’ve just contributed something to my source of entertainment. I sincerely apologize if I’m getting a little deep here.

Sure I had relationships in the past but as with most women, gaming was not really approved. They all started off with the usual “yeah, gaming is cool man” but that quickly turned into “you’re addicted to that junk”. I didn’t really even play that much but I guess they all have this idea that guys simply “grow out of it” over time. What’s the point of going into a relationship if you don’t really approve of your partner’s hobbies? Well I guess there are two sides to every story. Bottom line is that I’m not really in need of a relationship or heavy parties and whatnot. I’ll rather chill at home, watch some movies, play some games, write a few posts and listen to music as geeky as that might sound. If people want to label me as a geek, nerd or whatever, that’s fine with me but at least I’m not giving up the things I love to spend time with other people who don’t really accept me for what I am or truly like.

I’m not antisocial due to video games. I’m antisocial since I prefer spending my time with the hobbies I love and not with people who don’t respect it.

Title: Magna Carta 2

Size: 180kb

Resolution: 1024 x 768

Comment: I absolutely love the art style and since this is my first wallpaper of the day post I’ve decided to start it with one of my most wanted upcoming Xbox 360 titles. Let’s just hope it’s better than Last Remnant.

I own the console, play the games, buy the merchandise and hell, I’ve even made a blog about it so yeah, I pretty much love my Xbox 360. There is however still quite a few improvements I would really like to see. Some of the problems might be minor or even seem pointless to some people but hey, it’s my list and the following is stuff I would like to see fixed. I’m breaking this article up into a few parts to avoid clutter so look out for the rest over the next couple of days.

Well let’s get started shall we…

1.) RROD (Red Ring of Death)

The RROD requires absolutely zero explanation. If you’ve never heard about it before then consider yourself extremely lucky. Hey! Don’t go Google it now! Anyway this problem has been around for far too long. Seriously, if the new Jasper models don’t resolve the problem then the tech guys at Microsoft should definitely hit the drawing board and figure this thing out once and for all. The console was originally released in 2005 so I honestly can’t see any reason why this issue should still even exist.

2.) Xbox 360 Controller D-Pad.

You know it, I know it and every Xbox fighting game fan knows it. The D-Pad simply sucks. I’ll rather use a Nintendo pad if I could. Yeah fine, they’ve made some improvements to it over the past couple of years but its still far from being the quality product you’ve come to expect. Don’t fix it, just redesign the damn thing.

3.) NXE (New Xbox Experience) Navigation Speed.

In terms of stability and navigation speed, the original Blade dashboard still kicks the crap out of the NXE. Intermittent freezing, sluggish store browsing and menu delays still plagues the New Xbox Experience and keeps it from being a truly great innovation and while we’re on this note, please…

4.) Add the disable Avatars option.

It sucks looking at virtual me the whole time. I’m not saying that the Avatars were a bad idea and yeah, they might even help out with the casual market but not every Xbox gamer wants them. Personally I think avatars ruins the look of the dashboard and I would seriously like the option to disable them.

5.) Xbox 360 Hard Drive Pricing.

Fine, you’ve forced me to only use your hard drives which is good and all but why make them so ridiculously expensive? I read some reviews about the 120GB HDD on Amazon the other day and basically 99% of the reviewers complained about the same thing being the horrible price. You know you’re ripping people off Microsoft.

Look out for part 2, coming soon.

Yeah I pretty much grew up in the 16-bit era although here in South Africa we didn’t really have a choice between Super Nintendo and Sega Megadrive/Genesis. Nintendo didn’t really bother with SA much and that time the only Mario based console we had was the Famicom. We were pretty much stuck with good old Sonic. I’ve honestly played a truck load of games on my old Megadrive and till this day I still wish I didn’t sell it. Retro titles are however being re-released in complications and whatnot these days but I still miss the feel of the old consoles. Insert cartridge, turn on, no display, remove cartridge, blow out slot, reinsert cartridge and wham, 16-bit eye candy.

Anyway, if there’s one title I would really love to replay, it’s Mega Turrican. I’ve spent hours messing up my eye sight on my old tube television with this game (now I wear glasses). It just had all the wonderful elements required for a great platformer. I’ll never forget the frantic action, great controls, sharp visuals, mega power-ups and fantastically awesome sound track. Maybe one day Mirco$oft will be so kind as to add it to the marketplace.

Well here’s a video about the game you can check out while I try and recover from nostalgia.

After all the Jasper hype I finally decided to go out and get one (even though I already own a perfectly working Falcon). This task however, was not as easy as it seemed at first. For those who don’t know, the Xbox 360 Jasper model is the latest revision of the console out at the moment with talk about it being the RROD savior (we shall see). Google can help with more info if needed.

Anyway, the mission was simple: Wake up early, infiltrate the local shopping mall, grab the first 12.1A unit (Jasper) I see, rush back home and enjoy my purchase victory. Things however did not really go according to prior debriefing. The first shop (Game) had a nice special going. Buy any Xbox 360 console and get a second Xbox controller for free. I obviously should have known there was a catch since after inspecting three units I discovered them all to be old stock 16.5A (they still exist?!) models. The next shop (CNA) had zero specials running (actually the units were slightly more expensive) and after confirming four Falcon units I knew this shop was not going to help me out. The third shop (Musica) had some mixed results. Some of the units were Falcons and some were older Xenon/Zephyrs or whatever bases ones. The other shops in the mall wouldn’t even allow me to open the little flap on the side of the box (paranoid?) which made it extremely hard to even try and identify the units as Jaspers.

Needless to say, I left the mall extremely frustrated. I sat outside having a smoke thinking about my limited options when I noticed a small shopping complex across the road. There was still hope! The complex only had one shop to try (Look & Listen) so I went in clutching my thumbs. The sales dude informed me that they only had two Arcade units in stock but offered me the chance to inspect the amp rating via the flap window. Tada! My Jasper unit was finally located but the biggest surprise came when I unpacked the unit at home. As you most likely already know, the Jasper models come with 256/512mb memory onboard but as a bonus I received an additional 512mb memory card (including Worms) and a copy of Sega Superstar Tennis. The day was pretty much a success.

This just proves that it’s sometimes better to just take your time and shop around a little.