Random thoughts: 'GTA IV' irritations, 'Speed Racer' (the movie) and why Microsoft is making a huge mistake
Posted by Doug 5:13 PM, May 9, 2008
'GTA IV' irritations
I'm irritated a few little things in 'GTA IV' and I wanted to know if anyone else felt the same way.
• I'm frustrated with the pre-missions in some of the main mission segments. These are the simple busy-work parts where you have to drive to a location, follow someone, steal something or chase someone before the meat of the mission begins. It's usually right after these early, easy-parts, that I'm instantly killed because I'm so worn out by what precedes the action... and I'm not paying attention. The real beating comes when you have to start the entire mission over... including the boring easy part. I wish the game would start right where you died.
• I'm tired of the music that plays when the game auto-saves: "Do - do - dum - do." It haunts my dreams.
• What's up with invisible props? I drove across what I thought was an empty patch of grass... then BAM, my car comes to a complete stop with a crashing sound of metal. Slowly, phantom playground equipment appears in front of my car. Where did that come from?
• The Russian clothing store.
• Toll booths
• Jumping a car up to a balcony or other small location where the vehicle becomes permanently stuck.
• Motorcycles seem vanish from Liberty City only when I want/need them.
Quick review: 'Speed Racer' the movie. Too much talking, awesome racing scenes and colors that will burn your eyes. Lop off the first hour and it's great!
Microsoft is making a huge mistake.
This is all anecdotal, but I swear Microsoft is killing themselves by not offering a Blu-Ray player in the Xbox 360.
After the release of 'GTA IV' I have had several friends tell me they were planning on buying a PS3 within the next few days. When I asked them if they had considered an Xbox 360, all of them said they really wanted the Blu-Ray player to watch movies. Every single person said the same thing. And these are non-gamers who are dying to try 'GTA IV' and watch high-def movies.
Even after I explained the virtues of Achievement Points, downloadable content and Xbox Live, the number one selling point for my friends was the Blu-Ray compatibility.
I guess you can point out that the Wii is surviving without a High-Def video player, but it has a broader appeal than both Sony's and Microsoft's systems.
Besides the non-shop complaints about the in-game freezes, now the 'GTA IV' glitches are appearing on YouTube. I know there are problems with every game, but weren't similar problems the reason everyone bagged on 'Vice City?'
Here are some awesome glitches (there may be some language, so be warned before you click):
mine keeps freezing right after opening credits i can't play the game at all. I'll keep trying although i don't think its going to work. anybody having the same problem
Mine freezes. It froze on the opening credits and also randomly during game play. I thought it was the disc so I traded it in for a new copy, but it still freezes. I think the problem is my Xbox.
Yes this is happening with my xbox 360. Whats happening is Microsoft is putting 4-5 different dvd Roms in there 360's and not all are capable of reading this disk. Im furious about this being i Just got mine back from repair and the gave me an old referbishd one.Rockstar support told me to call and demand a brand new one. All of us being consumers. We have the right to have a working system capable of playing the products we pay for. Complaints and lawsuits are await.
i got GTA4 FOR THE PS3 and mine freezes at the opening cinima, tried pushing buttons to skip but it lets me drive for a sec then freezes like eric said this is BS, this is what i get for my $65? i hope MGS4 doesn't have the same prob! maybe this is Rockstars version of the red ring of death
Mine was freezing up a little bit the first day I played but has been fine since. I played yesterday for a good 4 hours, with not problems whatsoever. i think my ps3 just had to get used to it lol
I'm on my third rental from blockbuster and all three freeze after the first 5 min of play. I've tried every solution short of smashing my 360 against the wall. Just happy I didn't pay $60 to buy.
I too am one of the unlucky xbox 360 owners. No problems with any games before, went out and exchanged the disk, deleted the save data, cleared the hard drive cache with the x x LB RB x x thing, new gamer profile. No dice. I got through for about 3 hours initially, but once it froze once there was no going back. Freeze either at the start screen with the boxes or about 2 min after gameplay starts when it actually gets that far. Bummer. This is my last free weekend for quite a long time too.
I just bought it for PS3 (60GB) and it when thru the opening movie/credits, and locked up when you were able to drive. Now it locks up at the very beginning and just has "starting a new game" at the bottom right. I deleted the game file and tried again. It never even tried to load a new game file this time. WTF???? I know it isn't my console, I just played CoD4.
I just unpacked and loaded the game, after installing some 3 gb of data. The game went on to "Starting a new game" and its stuck on the same screen.....my friday nite ruineddddd......
I purchased GTA IV on the day it came out at Gamestop. I have a 360 btw. I popped it in and played for say 5 mins and it froze...hmm...i thought. Reset the system. In 30 mins it froze a good 4 or 5 times at different points during game play...never during a cutscene. Took it back...got another copy. used a lens cleaner on the 360...tried multiple different games no freezing. Played new disk. Played for 10 mins or so froze again while walking down the street. Once while driving, again walking down the street. Hmm...not sure what to do...called Gamestop to ask what i should do. They gave me ANOTHER copy...cont. to freeze at intermittent places in the game...makes it super frustrating to play. Bought one from Best Buy today...hasn't frozen so far. We'll see....can't wait to see what Rockstar does.
Hi, I own the 40 GB PS3 and I recently bought Grand theft Auto IV from walmart, and the first two days I played this game without error. Day 3 I start up my game, Keep in mind the disc only got to see 2 seconds of daylight before i placed it inside the ps3, I play for about 5 minutes, and my game freezes. I reset it, tried again, then it froze on the loading screen. I gave it the benefit of the doubt tried it again and played no longer than to get into a multiplayer game and get killed and it froze right up. This is typical, all my other grand theft auto games have had problems, I put no codes in or anything the game is fucked. I will never buy another Rockstar game again if someone doesnt patch this soon.
Mine's starting to freeze and lockup now. First three days were fine, last couple of days I've had numerous ingame freezes (game would just crash, music still playing, needed a reboot) and a few times the game wouldn't start at all.
I deleted the game data cache twice, it wasn't a real fix.
I've got a 60Gb PS3. It's getting worse and worse, bizarre.
Same problem here for my 360. I played for a bout 4 hours with no problems. All of a sudden it froze, I restarted it, it froze again in another 10 minutes, now whenever I turn on the game it freezes within a minute or so.
I am having the same problem for Xbox 360. I took my disc back today and exchanged it for a new one, no good. I put the new disc in and it froze again. I have restarted about 20 times and nothing helps. I usually get through the loading screens but once i actually try and play the game it automatically freezes.
I bought a Xbox 360 half a year ago for one thing the new GTA thats the only reason I played the games that came in the box a little but for the most part my Xbox is brand new as I said I only have a log of like 10 or so hours on it just got GTA and it freezes so bad I mean when I first stuck it in there was no problem I played for 2 hours then a crash/freeze up I try restart Xbox launch game and as soon as I get to loading screen freeze the I try restart again and I get about a minute of game play then bam freeze up...
oh one thing of intrest one of my freeze times the xbox told me Disk is dirty or unreadable take out wipe with cloth or whatever I looked at the back of disk and guess what it looks perfect duh its brand new why is my xbox telling me it cant read it..?
Xbox 360 version, i got threw about 8 hours of play. then mine froze. after that i havent been able to retart the game without a freeze right after the start. i have also tryied deleting all gta memory and getting a new copy but nothing worked.
I have GTA4 for 360 and it is giving me the same problems. I exchanged my disc thinking that was the problem but it didn't work. Still freezing. This is the only game my 360 does it for.
this crap is freezing on my xbox,it will do it for a couple hours then it will play for 4 hours.when the game freezes and i have to restart,instead of saying play game it sais play dvd.i hope someone gets their f'n teeth knocked down their f'n throat
I had the same problem with my 60GB ps3. until there is a solution with an update or so, go to networks and disable the internet connection. then the game will work. I tried it. it works.
i was having a freeze like a minute into the game everytime, on my xbox. today i went into the game option and turned off auto save and the game hasnt froze since. i dont know if thats what fixed it but it working now so im knocking on wood that it doesnt freeze anymore.
Hey, I have a 360 and have been playing the game for a few days. The first time I loaded up, it was fine. then as soon as i was close to the first mission, the game would give an unreadable disc error. It would do that every time. So i deleted the save file and started again. Then I got all the way to the second island before the Francis missions, but then it would give me the same unreadable disc freeze as soon as I get there. I did trade my game in once before and it still did the same thing. From what I gathered, the unreadable disc freezes are caused from corrupted GTA IV data saves on the hard drive. How these files got corrupted is beyond me, since I haven't put in a cheat or anything. Hopefully there's a patch that can fix all this. Fortunately I haven't had these other freezes I've been hearing about, but I feel for you guys. I'd hate to start over from scratch... again.
After nearly seven years of doing punchbutton, I'm still not worthy enough to receive a review copy of most games (except from D3... they ROCK)! That being said, I stayed up late last night to snag my collectors' edition 'GTA IV' at midnight from the local GameStop.
I played for 2 hours.
First thoughts: I love this game. It's everything I hoped it would be and more. The graphics look better than I thought they would, the city is staggering in size and the story line has been engrossing.
Here's what else I think in a bullet list:
• The opening title sequence is awesome. It's part cut-scene, part Hollywood movie opening. The graphic designer in me was doing backflips.
• Concerned parents are going to have a heart attack over this game. This is one of the most "M" rated games I can remember. The first couple of hours offer many adults-only surprises including a flash of a fairly risque scene, countless curse words, overt sexual harassment and ability for the player to drive drunk. I was giggling at most of these, but I DO NOT condone them. Giggle.
• The music is fantastic. There are 18 radio stations to listen to while driving through Liberty City. Techno, Funk, Jazz, Rock, whatever... it's all there with some great new songs and great classic tunes, too. Nitzer Ebb is there! I can't believe Nitzer Ebb is in this game!
• The bowling mini game is OK. I'm dying to know why the mini-golf and go-kart track fences are wide open... are those mini games for later?
• I found a glitch! In the first car chase mission, the warehouse below your target has some weird alternate universe of disappearing boxes and a pitch-black void where Niko can vanish and reappear. Weirdness.
• On my first date with Michelle, she just left me her car. I wrecked it.
• Also on my date with Michelle, I accidentally fell into the pond at the mini-golf course. I climbed out and turned around, Michelle was standing neck-deep in the pond staring back at me. Hilarious.
• I want the amusement park to be open (it's closed for the winter)!
• Someone on the beach, next to the boardwalk, said something quite shocking to me. I won't repeat it.
• The car physics are awesome. All the vehicles feel heavier and more realistic than before. You can't just use gas and steering, you have to use the brakes a LOT. Also, gently bumping a pedestrian can produce some extremely realistic results... you don't knock them down, but you can knock things out of their hands or knock the hats of their heads.
• I hate my cousin (in the game).
• Liberty City is crazy gigantic. Seriously, it's almost daunting to think where the next 38-plus hours will take me in the game.
• Niko walks down stairs with a sideways twitch... just like a real person. A real person with a leg problem.
• My in-game stats show that I've already racked-up a 56-foot free fall. This occurred when I fell from a warehouse into the river. Oh, and then I swam for 50 seconds (also in my stats).
• I predict that 'GTA IV's' in-game stats will be as addictive as achievement points.
So there you have it. If I had more sleep I would have had more to discuss. But that's all I can remember.
I will remember to take the day off next time a 'GTA' game is released.
Warranty company claims 16.4% Xbox 360 failure rate
Posted by Victor Godinez 3:41 PM, February 12, 2008
Online warranty company SquareTrade.com sent me an e-mail today claiming that, based on a survey of more than 1,000 Xbox 360 warranties sold through the site, Microsoft's console has a 16.4 percent failure rate.
I'm actually a little surprised that it was only 16.4 percent, but SquareTrade doesn't say how long it's been selling warranties.
Because I suspect the failure rate for the first batch of consoles sold in late 2005/early 2006 was pretty close to 100 percent.
Also, I highly recommend this article from an anonymous source claiming to be a Microsoft insider. Again, it's anonymous, but it has the ring of truth.
There's plenty of rumor-mongering, if you're so inclined (which I am).
My favorite theory is that Gates was all set to announce at CES a new Elite model with a built-in HD-DVD player. But the last-minute Warner defection to Blu-ray effectively neutered HD-DVD and Gates quickly pulled the plug on the HD-DVD Elite.
So now retailers have been clearing their shelves of the old Elite, but the new model with HD-DVD player never came along to fill the hole.
Microsoft quarterly earnings shed some light on Xbox 360 sales
Posted by Victor Godinez 3:59 PM, January 24, 2008
Microsoft just announced its second quarter financial results, and there are lots of interesting tidbits to comb over in the report from what's still probably the most influential technology company in the world.
But let's focus on the Xbox stuff.
For example:
Exiting the calendar year, the life to date sales of Xbox 360 consoles reached 17.7 million units, representing a 70% increase from the prior year.
As near as I can figure, the original Xbox sold about 24 million units over a four-year lifespan. Since that 17.7 million Xbox 360 sales figure is essentially over two years (end of 2005 to the end of 2007), you double that number and get 35 million or so over a four-year period.
So the 360 is definitely selling better than the original Xbox, and Microsoft has to be happy about that (even if the Wii is eating the 360's lunch).
Also, Microsoft reports that its Entertainment and Devices division (which is mostly the 360, but also includes the Zune and other assorted misfit gadgets) had sales of nearly $3.1 billion in the second quarter, up from $2.97 billion a year ago.
But the unit also reported operating income of $357 million, compared to a $302 million loss in the same quarter last year.
What happened in the second quarter (actually, the last three calendar months of 2007) to boost revenue and income? Halo 3, of course.
In fact, the quarter after a Halo release has generally been the only time the Xbox division could count on a profit since the original box's release in 2001.
Microsoft obviously wants to see more consistency out of the Entertainment and Devices division. But the company can afford to shovel money into the segment for as long as it wishes.
After all, Microsoft's overall quarterly profit was $4.71 billion.
Random thoughts: 'GTA IV' irritations, 'Speed Racer' (the movie) and why Microsoft is making a huge mistake
