Your views on xbox live and your use of it.

[cloutbasher]

If you are dissapointed in Live, and have the Orange Box (or can buy the Orange Box) then I must reccomend Team Fortress 2. Check out the online folder. It can get a bit laggy with randoms, although it can still be fantastic fun, but with the folks off here it's the best game I've played all year.

I actually only got round to buying it last week. Would a total newcomer like me still be able to get decent games?

[christaylor]

I actually only got round to buying it last week. Would a total newcomer like me still be able to get decent games?

I've only played TF2 a couple of times, and tend to get my ass handed to me a lot, but you learn the maps quickly enough and then the different classes and what they can do, and when you do manage to get a couple of kills against the more experienced players it's very satisfying.

But the difference with playing with fellow rllmukians is that no-one really minds how good you are (as long as you're not actively team-killing!) so it's a much friendlier environment than just jumping on with randoms.

If you read the last page of the thread in the Online folder there's a way you can practice on your own too, if you want to learn the maps that way.

[Vimster]

If you are dissapointed in Live, and have the Orange Box (or can buy the Orange Box) then I must reccomend Team Fortress 2. Check out the online folder. It can get a bit laggy with randoms, although it can still be fantastic fun, but with the folks off here it's the best game I've played all year.

Lately I've been seriously enjoying the PC TF2, and am so tempted to get the 360 Orange box. As long as it doesn't fizzle out after 3 weeks like GTA4

[El Stevo]

I think you have misunderstood me I already have the update but it still forces be to have to be online before it will show content on stick.

That error message has three options - "OK", "Download Update" and "Cancel". If you choose "OK", which I think you have been doing, the update is stored temporarily somewhere until you finish watching the video. If you choose "Download Update" the update will be stored permanently on your HDD (under System Items) and you will then be able to watch all your stuff offline.

I love Xbox Live, I think it's quite a bargain. Ignoring the valid question of what it actually is that you're paying for, it's the cost of a game a year and you get many more hours of enjoyment from a Gold sub than you would from most retail games. I mainly use it to stay in touch with real life friends and rarely play with randoms but I still think it's worth the money.

[divine visitor]

I quite like Xbox Live. Although I don't play games online as much as I used to, it's a good way to keep in touch with far away friends. Messing about in Halo 3 Forge while chatting rubbish with a couple of mates I don't get to see very often is a pretty cool experience.

As someone else mentioned too, I really like the fact that even the games with much smaller communities still get to keep their servers running. It annoys me when games that are specifically built to be played online have their servers shut down a couple of years later (at best), and then the game becomes pretty much useless.

[Puck]

I actually only got round to buying it last week. Would a total newcomer like me still be able to get decent games?

I have loads of fun with it and my FPS skills peaked ages ago; around the time I started to be able to run in a straight line without the camera pointing up at the sky. The different classes and the ability to change between them mid-match means there's something to suit most types of player.

I don't like online solely with randoms, but with friends and forumites it's brilliant.

Whilst I'm posting in this thread though I'll echo the opinions of some others, in so much as LIVE enabled me to play games more regularly with mates than I had for ages and since increasing my friends list with forumites it's provided me with some of the best gaming this gen. I don't use it everyday, in fact I can have periods stretching weeks where I don't play online, but I couldn't ever imagine wanting to cancel my subscription. Left4Dead can't come soon enough.

Also I've never liked split screen, traditionally peferring system link where possible on previous consoles, and LIVE neatly takes care of that too.

[CurryKitten]

Though I've still got a Gold account, I haven't played online in yonks, mainly because all the single player games I buy start piling up in the corner and I never get round to playing them otherwise. I haven't even tried COD4 online.

I was quite interested in TF2 though, it's different classes reminded me of RTCW which I enjoyed for months and months back on the original Xbox. Is it similar in this sort of way ?

[Yoshimax]

More people need to try Shadowrun, or try it again. It's the best online multiplayer game this generation. Still plenty of randoms, but not enough real people!

Nearly re-bought this yesterday - it's criminal how overlooked it was/is.

The main thing putting me off was I expected it to be dead - this is good news indeed I will try and rally some more buyers.

[Uzi]

It's only 6 quid in my local cex- I reckon I'll pick up a copy too if you guys are going to play

[Yoshimax]

it's in the 4 for £20 deal at gamestation too !

[Terria]

I find myself more inclined to play on xbox live when people I talk to regularly on msn/forums etc all agree on a game that's coming out so we'll all play it together. Don't tend to go on and play with randoms very much, as there's not much joy to it, usually it's more of a chore. I'm actually coming back round to PC games over console games if I want to play some multiplayer now too as Team Fortress 2 has proven to be too much fun.

[Vin]

I've never had any real problems with random people on Live.

The majority of folks on my friends list were born from just having a laugh and good conversations.

[Stanley]

I really don't care about talking to people online. I turn all their voices off. My favourite online game recently, apart from Mario Kart, is COD4. I only play one for all Deathmatch, and I just like that it gives me a bunch of people to shoot. I don't really give a hoot what they have to say. Infact people talking really removes me from the experience.

[hoot]

I've turned the sound off more and more on mine. The trouble with that is that on something like Gears of War it's much better if you can talk to your teammates, so you want to leave it on but then get the downside of that which is people occasionally being twats. In Halo 3 I just found randoms didn't do teamwork unless it was with their mates. With games like Table Tennis my default option is to have the sound off.

Most newer games let you mute individual people.

[franki]

some of my best Live experiences with random punters have been PGR2, 3 and 4 getting a group of british players together. the driving and the chat is generally great. mostly i play with a very small handful of people i already know who live in different cities now. coop halo was wonderful as was gears of war. assault heroes 1 & 2 on Live Arcade are well worth a look for coop fun as well. a lot of my friends list seem to have adopted gears of war as a game for life - i fear GOW2 as i imagine they will be unstoppable. i also have a group of friends from here who i compare scores on old skool or old skool style games like space giraffe, pacman, geo wars and a range of others from Arcade.

i don't mind paying for the service, perhaps if i had a ps3, i'd begin to resent it but at the moment, it's money well spent. i'd rather spend time chatting to my friends while driving around hawaii on TDU or playing an all night game of Civ Rev than just chatting on the phone - hell if i spent as much time talking to them on the phone, i'm sure it'd come to over 40 quid a year anyway so it's all good for me.

my main request for an update would be a better mixing panel for voice and game volumes. i always wear headphones when gaming so i use the "play voice chat through the speakers" option. voice has a volume control but even at max volume, it's still not always easy to hear people and there's still the odd game that doesn't have nice user friendly volume controls to compensate. voice chat in one ear feels weird to me, i'm so used to it being mixed & therefore both ears.

[Yoshimax]

Most newer games let you mute individual people.

You can mute individuals via the guide button as well - just pick them off the players list and there's a mute option.

[Raff]

I mute LOADS of people that way. So much so that I regularly come across people I've already muted in the past, even on CoD4.

CoD4's built-in muting annoys me because it clears once you return to the lobby, it should be proper perma-mute.

I also think they should develop this further and display the number of people who have muted you on your reputation bit.

[macosx]

I've made some good mates on LIVE and we still play since the early Xbox days. It really has built a true gaming community. Thanks to LIVE I experienced my first lapdance! (and no not in Mass Effect). The defining games for me were the Black Arrow and Gears which we all played for months.

[Vaya.]

it's hit and miss. I've been left a lot of negative feedback by people I've won against too. Too many poor sports.

[Guest]

Well it now seems I need XBOX live to play media from my USB Stick. I have just started storing stuff on USB sticks as my very old and out of date pc can't handle the pressure any more. When I slot the stick into a port on the 360 while offline it keeps on coming up with an error message that I require a media update when I attempt to play movies stored on the stick but as soon as I sign into live its fine.

So to the more technically gifted gentlemen than myself my question is this why do I have to be signed into XBOX Live to be able to watch media content stored on my USB stick ?

You can play media off USB sticks on the 360? Since when?? Not since always I hope, otherwise, DOH.

What formats does it play...

[mackemansj1]

You can play media off USB sticks on the 360? Since when?? Not since always I hope, otherwise, DOH.

What formats does it play...

Any what the xbox can play like divx xvid wmv etc etc.

[Qazimod]

I don't play as much multiplayer as I used to when I started out; at present it's just nice knowing it's there, and that people are always able to invite me to games and stuff if I'm online. Usually I have to wait for some big new game with online functionality to come along (Halo 3, PGR4, Rock Band) and that would drive up my interest in playing with others. On a related note, as enjoyable as an oldie like Crackdown or Test Drive Unlimited is online, I don't play them as much because everyone - myself included - wants to be in on the current craze rather than playing catch-up... :/

You need to get Rock Band and come play with Dan and I.

Seconded.