The 360 thread!

tentaclesex · Post by **tentaclesex** » Fri May 25, 2007 7:51 pm 0

The nice thing about DiRT is that it has a bunch of settings for the force feedback on the wheel. You can crank it up to pretty crazy levels!

Ratsoap · Post by **Ratsoap** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:14 pm 0

Flabio wrote:You can probably expect to catch the odd glimpse of one or two of the forum Lionheaders at some point in future episodes. We're all due to get roped into it at some point.

I was actually off work the day they filmed most of it, so I escaped part 1 at least...

Tell that fella with the pony tail and moustache to cut his fingernails.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:29 pm 0

Ratsoap wrote:
Flabio wrote:You can probably expect to catch the odd glimpse of one or two of the forum Lionheaders at some point in future episodes. We're all due to get roped into it at some point.

I was actually off work the day they filmed most of it, so I escaped part 1 at least...
Tell that fella with the pony tail and moustache to cut his fingernails.

Pony tail! Moustache! And you're concerned that his finger nails need cutting?

Jimaroid · Post by **Jimaroid** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:35 pm 0

Awesome frontend on DIRT, really well done.

Game's not too bad either, the stage in the Imprezza is great, the in-car view, handling and damage model are all fun.

Edit: HDR is lovely and the tyres feel grippy too. Are you paying attention, Forza?

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:51 pm 0

Bubba wrote:The 720p version looks lovely if your connection is fast enough to stream it!

Or, you know, right click and save

Looks lovely so far.

Stone · Post by **Stone** » Fri May 25, 2007 10:02 pm 0

Bubba wrote:Got a 360 with one of the various drive firmware hacks for playing "backups"? Best get a new one if you want to use live then - despite recent updates to the modified firmwares to prevent detection of games, MS have done it anyway and regardless of updates your console is now banned from Live. Which kinda sucks - I suspected they'd only ban specific games rather than the console as there's plenty of modded users out there who'd buy content.

They ban the whole console but not the Live ID signed in with it. Which is a bit gay since there's some legit users being banned by it too.

At the moment I have a box hooked up just to log in occasionally and check it's still not banned, I replaced the drive in it when it died and spoofed it to report back as the same model originally in the box...not banned yet though, so here's hoping

Would be interesting to know how they were doing it. A straight checksum of the firmware won't work as there's a unique key stored in it...

Stone

Bubba · Post by **Bubba** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:13 pm 0

Stone wrote:They ban the whole console but not the Live ID signed in with it. Which is a bit gay since there's some legit users being banned by it too.

At the moment I have a box hooked up just to log in occasionally and check it's still not banned, I replaced the drive in it when it died and spoofed it to report back as the same model originally in the box...not banned yet though, so here's hoping

Would be interesting to know how they were doing it. A straight checksum of the firmware won't work as there's a unique key stored in it...

Stone

Yeah, plus they must be loosing out on a fairly large chunk of direct revenue stream from the live marketplace / video marketplace sales that these people make.

As for the hows and whys, I don't think it's checksum related - far simpler than that. A lot of early backups weren't "stealthed" (didn't contain some vital sectors or other) so the drive just spoofs it from a lookup table in the firmware. Which gives instant results whereas the drive would previously have to execute a seek then read. That and apparently even the stealth Hitachi firmware isn't that stealthy at all, returning the wrong filesize for the disc, and when the PFI/DMI (I think?!) values are queried MS are apparently asking for a larger number of sectors back and thus reading in the fake location of the security sector too. Also you can send arbitrary code to the Hitachi's and have the drive CPU execute it, so detection of these is going to be a relative walk in the park whatever you do.

My brother still appears to be online with his - I flashed it so he wouldn't destroy my originals. But from now on he's using originals only. Apparently the DVD drive appears to be on it's way out anyway, so I may flash it back then ship it off to MS for an out of warranty replacement. Not sure about flashing it back yet as if they are doing any kind of checksumming this may set alarm bells ringing. Do you have a connectivity kit Stone - there's been rumbles that the 360 could be logging the "there's no DVD SATA cable connected" error amongst other things.

Good luck with the swapped out drive - which version of the xtreme firmware is it running?

Cheers

Bubba

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Sat May 26, 2007 7:39 am 0

DiRT : Like the interface. Game is ok (gotta love analogue shoulder buttons) but would probably be better with a wheel.

Spirit · Post by **Spirit** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:20 pm 0

A couple of vids for Flatout: Ultimate Carnage

Looks bloody good and just my sort of racer.

Anders · Post by **Anders** » Sun May 27, 2007 7:56 am 0

I rather like the buggy part of Dirt. I'm not very good at driving and bounce around a lot, but it was fun (unlike the Forza demo). I would prefer a bigger and more open track, though. A desert or a beach, where you could just screw around and a good time. I loved the damage to the vehicles and the scenery. That added a lot to the atmosphere, as did the AI, which wasn't entirely on rails. The other cars would spin out of control, crash into each other, etc. And the graphics look great. Whoever said they were terrible must have been thinking of Forza. I might very well buy this one.

Other demos I've played recently,

Green Beret. Looked alright, I guess, but didn't do a thing for me. Then again, I was never a big fan of the original, so it's hardly surprising.

Xevious. I used to play this religiously in the arcades and had every secret (silos, yellow flags) memorized. This looks like a good version of it, but I still can't get excited about it. I wish they move ahead a generation or two with the retro titles, to Final Fight, Magic Sword, the Nemesis series, etc.

Wanderer · Post by **Wanderer** » Sun May 27, 2007 8:00 am 0

Worms on XBLA is awesome methinks!

Guru-Meditation · Post by **Guru-Meditation** » Sun May 27, 2007 8:48 am 0

Wanderer wrote:Worms on XBLA is awesome methinks!

Bought it, but I would've preferred a retro version

tentaclesex · Post by **tentaclesex** » Sun May 27, 2007 3:03 pm 0

Guru-Meditation wrote: Bought it, but I would've preferred a retro version

Just be glad it's not 3D!

Anders · Post by **Anders** » Sun May 27, 2007 5:33 pm 0

I know it's old, but what was the verdict on Condemned? For whatever reason, I never bothered with it, but I tried the demo and it seems like an alright game. Does the demo give a fair representation of the full game?

Mat T · Post by **Mat T** » Sun May 27, 2007 6:54 pm 0

I spent a good few hours with DiRT and I think it is a pretty solid racer. As mentioned before, the FE is very nice; maybe the first "next gen" frontend out there. Although all things considered I would hate to think how much time was spent on developing it. There is a fine line between being self indulgent and providing functionality.

In terms of the game, I quite like it. The most impressive stuff is the tech in the damage. I love the deformable barriers, and the vehicle damage is excellent. I enjoy the mountain climb track the most as this felt like classic Colin McRae to me. As for the buggy driving, I found this the worst. It felt far too floaty and there is one jump that puts you into a barrier everytime; not good track design there. Overall, I think the handling of the car isn't outstanding - the car feels like it is spinning on one pivot through the front of the vehicle. However, going to the in game camera this doesn't feel the case. I love the second in car camera that is slightly off set and back. It provides the coolness of the in car visuals along with the ability to actually play in the camera. A rare occurance in a driving game.

Visuals are good throughout. I think the HDR bloom is a bit OTT - it's the new lense flare for next gen methinks and the sooner people get away from it the better.

But overall, it gets the thumbs up from me, despite the framerate drops on 30fps. As for the comparison to Forza 2, they have obviously sacrificed a lot in order to keep 12 cars on the track at a solid 60fps. It's a definite technology choice, so I think a comparison is a bit unfair.

Anyways... All good. Nice to play some cool racers!