Jennie Lees
-
Jennie hails from under an umbrella somewhere in England. While
waiting for the latest games and tech to make it over to the UK, she
studies for a PhD in computer science and plays FPS games online with
the PMS Clan. Her favourite word is "shiny".
by Jennie Lees 
{ 4 years ago }
It may be a bit of a niche market, but we
can think of the odd scenario when you might need to hook up your Xbox 360 to something so ancient it doesn't support
the shipped cable. Whether through necessity or a lust for retro gaming experiences, if you want to use RF to connect
your console to your TV, this accessory will do the trick. Whatever next -- a smoke signal generator?
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
Brits can breathe
easily--Microsoft have finally confirmed the release date for
Dead or Alive 4 in the UK, and the good news is
that it's just around the corner. Available from January 27th, it's impressive that the game is out so soon here after
the launch delays it experienced.
We're not complaining, though; simultaneous or near-simultaneous releases
are a vast improvement on the months' delay we have to suffer for some platforms and games, and we're hoping this trend
continues for future 360 releases.
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
We've been getting pretty cosy with
Final Fantasy XI recently, and while porting various existing massively multiplayer games to the 360 is very
much sought-after, we're hoping that developers will really take the 360 into account for some upcoming titles. Here's
a wishlist of features we'd like to see in 360 MMOs:
Continued →
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
OXM's free
Final Fantasy XI beta disc
has been a success despite a delay in the magazine's UK release; it hit newsagents on Thursday, and seems to be a big
hit amongst many gamers.
Our quick tips:
- Get your registration code handy before
installing. You'll want this site if you're using the European
disc.
- If you can, grab a USB keyboard for the installation and registration procedure. It's a lot easier
than entering the requisite information the long way.
- Also, find something else to do during the two-hour
installation.
- Remember your character name; if you hit the Random button, write it down!
- Make
sure to get a copy of the US or UK manual; the registration isn't
particularly complex, but the controls are.
- If you want to group with a friend, use the Xbox 360's private
chat feature to talk rather than laboriously crafting text messages ingame.
Happy adventuring in Vana'diel!
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
One of our
concerns about the upcoming
RTS for Xbox 360,
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth II, was the integration of the Xbox
360 controller with traditional RTS controls. Fortunately, we haven't had to worry for long. Gamasutra have interviewed
EA's Louis Castle, a RTS veteran whose credentials date from
Dune II and
Command and Conquer, and it's
reassuring:
"I said, 'Let's go back to the beginning.' Let's look at these strategy games, as if
they were new. How would we approach it now? Let's pretend that there never was a mouse, and all we had were consoles.
How would we bring this about?"
It looks like EA have really focused on the 360's strengths,
including voice communication and high-definition graphics as well as a control system designed around the gamepad
rather than ported. Hopefully Castle's hype will live up to the implementation.
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
Those pesky little worms, intent on nothing
more than blowing up other worms, may be making their way to the Xbox Live Arcade in due course according to posts on
Team 17's forums. It would be excellent to see
Worms make it over, as its multiplayer suitability and quirky
gameplay are core ingredients for a hit.
We won't be seeing it any time soon if it does make it over;
according to the forums, it "won't be a quick port".
[via
Gaming360]
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
Despite a
five-month delay on new
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory maps, all is not well. Some Xbox 360 users are reporting
problems with the update, some going so far as to say the new maps make
Splinter Cell unplayable. Fortunately,
there's a workaround, but it involves deleting all your saved games in the process.
Splinter Cell: Chaos
Theory wasn't included in the original
backwards compatibility list,
but has since made it in--perhaps this is related to the problems some 360 owners are having with the new content.
Either way, with months of testing, it's surprising to see this sort of bugginess.
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
One interesting
snippet to come out of Microsoft's CES keynote is the addition of a third manufacturing partner--Celestica will join
Flextronics and Wiston manufacturing 360s. Hopefully this will help the shortage somewhat.
Microsoft's Peter
Moore also said that 50 games will be available for the 360 by June, giving a glimpse of the 360's plans for dominance.
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
We recently stumbled across this site which
lists upcoming Xbox and Xbox 360 titles to be released this month or next month. While it doesn't have European release
dates, it should be a useful tool in the arsenal of any Xbox 360 fan trying to justify the games to others: "But
it has more, coming soon, just look!"
On their way:
Top Spin 2,
College Hoops 2k6,
Frame City Killer,
Fight Night Round 3 and
Full Auto.by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
According to various posters on the
official Xbox forums, people taking advantage of the free one-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold will run into some
irritating problems when the service expires. Despite buying a 12-month gamecard and upgrading the account, when the
trial period was over one poster found his account reverted to Silver status; others have found
all the
gamertags on their 360 changed to Silver when just one expired.
Some were advised to try deleting their
gamertags and then re-recovering them (losing all saved data in the process) to no avail, so we're waiting for word
from Xbox on this issue. The best way to handle upgrading from a one-month trial to a full account seems to be to wait
for the trial to expire, and
then apply the 3 or 12 month subscription.
[Thanks, Stephen]
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
Noticed anything funny with the 360 Dashboard? While it has a couple of problems, it looks like Microsoft
have already taken some steps to update the Dashboard, with most people running version 2241 instead of version 1888
which the 360 shipped with. This "silent" updating is a little unnerving, especially as we don't know what
was fixed, but it's nice to know something is being done about the various bugs and problems.
[Thanks,
Scott]
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
If you've not managed to get
some Spartan lovin' in
Dead or Alive 4 yet, never fear; you can still get your fill of the lovely lady thanks
to this video, put together by a poster on halo.bungie.org. It goes nicely with the
screenshots Major Nelson recently posted.
Whether this will tide us over until
Halo
3, we're not sure, but it's spectacular viewing in the interim.
[Thanks,
Mintz]
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
Forbes reports
that Microsoft has suffered a particularly bumpy ride this last quarter, with analysts spotting a problem with
shipments that hasn't yet been addressed:
"It is clear that something
disrupted the supply of Xbox 360 shipments in the quarter, and there does not appear to be any end of year catch-up in
shipments,”The estimated number of Xbox 360s shipped so far is around 1.3 million, at
600,000 to 800,000 per month. This puts Microsoft on track for their estimated sales milestones, but why hasn't there
been a catch-up with extra shipments going out to satisfy the tremendous demand for the console? Even this long after
launch there are still huge shortages, so it's something on the supply side -- not the demand -- that's the problem.
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
There's been some mixed justifications for the Xbox 360's
poor take-off in Japan, but
often the reactions to the console's subdued success so far have degenerated into unfounded generalisations.
This article tries to explain a little more about Japanese attitudes to American products, and why xenophobia
isn't the root of the low sales--it's just a poor launch lineup with little effort spent in localisation and making
sure the product really has local appeal.
[Thanks,
bandersnatch]
by Jennie Lees { 4 years ago }
If you've been having problems connecting
to your friends on Xbox Live for games or chat, here's a tip that'll help you determine the source of the problem--and
hopefully fix it.
Go to the System blade, select Network Settings and then Test Xbox Live Connection.
You'll be able to see what sort of
NAT your system is behind,
and if it's set to Moderate or Strict then you will only be able to connect to certain other users.
To
fix this, set your NAT to Open by opening the following ports on your router: 88 (UDP), 3074 (UDP), and 3074 (TCP).
[Thanks,
silvernome]
