yeahhh... sooo.... I bought an Xbox

Chaniyth · Post by **Chaniyth** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:12 pm

I went to Target lastnight, and picked up an Xbox system which came bundled with Forta Motorsport which cost $179 + tax, Picked up a 12-month Xbox Live Starter Kit (came with PGR2 and Xbox Arcade), and I also picked up a non-Platinum Hits version of Fable while I was there for $15.

Eh, I don't see what all the hub-bub is about? I mean in Fable the textures are just as bad as PS2 textures, very blurry, etc. I suppose it's "okay" looking though considering the modles, and over all draw distance seems to be nice.

Forta Motorsport, was pretty good, visual it's beautiful, and it seems to be locked in @ 30FPS? PGR2 looks really nice too, especially when driving through cities.

Today my DVD Playback Kit, and Conker: Live & Reloaded (came with a bonus DVD) came through UPS. DVD playback seems to be better, more crisp/sharp than what PS2's DVD playback is... also a bit brighter, which is nice.

Conker: Live & Reloaded blew me away, Rare did one hell of a good job in coding the game for the Xbox, and as they did on the N64, they pushed the Xbox's hardware pretty hard, with uber beautiful graphics... looks like something from a pre-rendered movie... it's very nicely done, textures are vivid and detailed with no "blur", and the game runs @ 30FPS. Thank you Rare for giving one of my alltime favorite games, a visual upgrade.

Today I bought The Punisher, and Grand Theft Auto double pack. Punisher was pretty nice, I didn't notice slow down, and Punisher's character modle looks great.

Grand Theft Auto on Xbox is a...

experience, for the simple fact how much they did on over hauling the graphics, versus the PS2 and PC versions... cars have reflections, the character modles look much better; more polygons, and they have 4 fingers and a thumb, which articulate pretty decently, also I noticed draw distance is much improved, and not as much slowdown, if any. I did a "side by side" comparison (I have a switch box on my TV, so I just switched to PS2 then Xbox) per scene; visually, as I stated above the Xbox version is much improved. Even better graphically than the PC version. Load times are hella fast with the Xbox version, the PS2 version, especially for Vice City are rabidly slow.

However, I am undecided if my Xbox purchase was worth it, only time will tell.

Can anyone who owns an Xbox recommend some good games to purchase? Also perhaps some information on mod chips, and soft mods... without getting banned from Xbox Live. Thanks.

Tall Israeli · Post by **Tall Israeli** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:19 pm

The Chronicles of Riddick, Halo 1/2, Psychonauts, Ninja Gaiden, Otogi 1/2.

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:19 pm

Get it modded. You won't have to think twice about wether or not the purchase was worth it after that.

Also, pick up Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge (I suggest getting 3 first), both a really fun games.

SlammedNiss · Post by **SlammedNiss** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:26 pm

I agree with Crazy. Get it modded, and you won't regret the purchase at all. Get a bigger HDD, and load it up with emulators and games.

Most of the higher end chips allow you to shut them off so you won't get banned on "Live." I have the Xenon Ice chip for mine.

Jeeba Jabba · Post by **Jeeba Jabba** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:27 pm

KOTOR

Chaniyth · Post by **Chaniyth** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:28 pm

What's the main difference between the different types of chips, that allow you to shut them off. Also, do they shut off via a physical switch, or via some kind of BIOS flag?

SlammedNiss · Post by **SlammedNiss** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:35 pm

Well, my Xenon Ice chip allows you to boot to different bioses. I have my chip set to boot my 2nd bios at boot. If I want to boot the OEM bios, I just have to change a couple settings in the built-on OS for the chip.

As far as differences between the chips, it's about the same as the difference in the high-end PS2 chips. They all do pretty much the same thing.

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:46 pm

Softmod it, and when you boot with a game in the drive, it loads the original BIOS so you don't have to worry about anything. Also, don't connect to xbox live now, or even plug in an ethernet cable. MS will "marry" your HDD to your EEPROM and if you change your hard drive you'll get banned. Only start using xbox live after you upgrade the hard drive. Softmods are really easy, I reccomend them if you don't know how to solder. I softmodded my friends this summer in under 3 hours (most of the time was upgrading the hard drive, I was using a program (XBOXHDM) to create the partition table and stuff).

vicviper74 · Post by **vicviper74** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:02 pm

Well if you already got on xbox live I wouldnt recommend switching out HD due to new marrige theory which by the way I confirmed. and my Brothers xbox as well after upping the HD size. both my brothers and mine were banned due to this I even tried getting non banned eeproms from friends all it did was ban me after I got off of live so I would suggest a soft mod so u can install and uninstall the MOD and go on live. and just burn emus to dvd hell you can fit snes genesis and gamboy all on one dvd if you know how. those are my two cents. Im out

EDIT
WHOOPS I fergot to mention what marrige theory was. When you first log into live your HD serial number and eeprom for your xbox are registered and saved if your xbox eeprom or hd ARE EVERchanged........................ INSTA-BAN!!
SOOOO your only chance to update the HD are before you go on XBOX LIVE.

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:36 pm

I got banned too. Alladin XT and a WD 80 GB HDD here.

Sir Savant · Post by **Sir Savant** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:59 pm

So you can't sign up for a new xbox live account after you are banned, or can you do something to reuse xbox live?

I wonder when Microsoft will stop supporting xbox live for the original xbox.

SlammedNiss · Post by **SlammedNiss** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:10 pm

Savant wrote:So you can't sign up for a new xbox live account after you are banned, or can you do something to reuse xbox live?

I wonder when Microsoft will stop supporting xbox live for the original xbox.

aren't there free services instead of using X-Live?

Tall Israeli · Post by **Tall Israeli** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:10 pm

Savant wrote:So you can't sign up for a new xbox live account after you are banned, or can you do something to reuse xbox live?

I wonder when Microsoft will stop supporting xbox live for the original xbox.

Never.

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:22 pm

You'll get flagged though, so there's a higher chance of getting banned. The free alternatives to Xbox Live are XBConnect (I prefer) and X Link Kai (I could never get it working).

Tall Israeli · Post by **Tall Israeli** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 8:32 pm

Crazy Caboose wrote:You'll get flagged though, so there's a higher chance of getting banned. The free alternatives to Xbox Live are XBConnect (I prefer) and X Link Kai (I could never get it working).

I can't stand either of those services. Everyone is either playing Halo 1 or Halo 2.

atf487 · Post by **atf487** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 9:22 pm

Soft-mods are very convenient but make it much more difficult when upgrading hardware. I flashed the tsop on my old xbox and it was great, although that might not be possible on your new xbox.

Currently, I have a UDE1 softmod that works fine. But if you want to buy upgrade the HD then get a chip because it's much less of a hassle.

Caboose · Post by **Caboose** » Tue Nov 29, 2005 10:02 pm

atf487 wrote:Soft-mods are very convenient but make it much more difficult when upgrading hardware. I flashed the tsop on my old xbox and it was great, although that might not be possible on your new xbox.

Currently, I have a UDE1 softmod that works fine. But if you want to buy upgrade the HD then get a chip because it's much less of a hassle.

I found it a breeze to upgrade the HD. All you do it unlock use Xbox Hard Drive Maker to recreate the xbox partition table and then it restores all of your files. It restores the MS Dash, and then you just do the softmod (the softmod files are still there) and huzzah, you're done.

Disheveled DrFreeze · Post by **Disheveled DrFreeze** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:12 am

Tall Israeli wrote:
Crazy Caboose wrote:You'll get flagged though, so there's a higher chance of getting banned. The free alternatives to Xbox Live are XBConnect (I prefer) and X Link Kai (I could never get it working).
I can't stand either of those services. Everyone is either playing Halo 1 or Halo 2.

yeah, i checked Kai last weekend, and 98% of the players is doing Halo2

its good though, once you are in a lag free game its the same as being on live, headset support, gameplay, its all there

also, id recommend getting jade empire

as for fable, i love the graphics, the entire world looks great imho, sure the textures might not be supersharp or anything, but the way the whole world looks, i was just a tad disapointed the game only took me 11 hours to complete, granted i didnt do everything, but i just went through the game in my own pace, skipping some bits i didnt care about, and the endboss was incredibly easy, even though i was nowhere near the ultimate character

popley · Post by **popley** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 1:20 am

Well i would say softmod it, about the same as having a modchip, and cheaper also you dont have to open your xbox. If you have a dvd burner then dont worry about getting a bigger harddrive just burn the emus/apps onto them. Or ftp them.

http://www.xbox-scene.com more info on how to do it, the xbox has some really nice emulators and apps for it, such as the nintendo 64 emulator, and xbox media center.

Nyarlathotep · Post by **Nyarlathotep** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 2:14 am

Fable is superb. Search for old topics about it I posted in for reasons why.

Get JSRF and Outrun 2 as well. That's pretty much 'the list'.