Thraxen

I clearly said there were exceptions. In fact, half the games you listed fall under the categories I mentioned. But in virtually ANY case (including the categories I mentioned) a good story makes a game better. Period. No debate possible. Absolutely dead wrong. From that view technically no movie needs a story either. You could just open up with a bunch of people running around, shooting stuff, etc... with no story at all. But, like games, a story makes it better. Some games, like RPGs, virtually require a good story to make them enjoyable. And, as stated before, virtually any game can be made better with a good story. How the hell can you even argue against the immersive experience a good story can add?

Fighters, sports games, and puzzle games all don't need stories. But I agree that pretty much all other games need one. I can't believe some of you people actually said that stories aren't important. That's absolutely ludicrous. A good story can add a lot to a game. Sure, a game can get by with a weak story and good gameplay, but I think it adds a lot to the experience if you have reasons and a goal as to why you are doing things in a game. It adds depth to the characters and allows for a more immersive experience if you can get into the plight or struggle of your character. A game without a good story is like a summer "popcorn" flick. It may be enjoyable due to all the action and dazzling special effects... but movies that have that plus a great story are oh so much better. Everyone knows that, and this is a very similar situation. I agree. The Silent Hill games have stories, they can just be a bit confusing and as you said, vague, at times.

Look here: NeoCDsdlx And you can play either CDs or use images on the HDD in ISO/MP3/CUE format.

Meh... lots of bad advice in here. First, don't skip any meals. You should always eat breakfast. It gets your metabolism going in morning. The ideal meal plan is to eat like 5-6 times per day, but in small quantities. The idea is that it keeps your metabolism going all day at a steady rate and it helps control your cravings for large meals. But this is not workable for most people due to work, school, etc... So, at any rate, don't skip lunch either! In fact, your lunch should be bigger than your dinner. Most people get this backwards. Eating a lot late in the day is bad. Ditch all normal sodas. You can keep the diets around want, but don't drink normal sodas. All they do is add 200 more calories that you don't need. But keep the diet sodas to a minimum. They aren't that bad as far as weight goes, but they still rot your teeth and are not a substitute for water. Ditch fast food. Once you have lost the weight you want you can go back to eating it on occassion, but it's bad for you and will only slow your weight loss down. Excercise. Even if it's only 3 times per week, but just get more exercise than you are now. Sure, it would be fantastic if you could work out every day, but what's the point of doing that if you are burned out on it 3 weeks later? That happens to so many people. Aerobic exercise will burn more calories faster, but adding muscle mass will have a longer lasting calorie burning effect. The ideal is to do both... but it will be hard to add muscle while dieting. But do some weights to keep the muscle toned. I lost over 50 pounds last year doing exactly as I described above. I stopped eating fast food and starting cooking simple meals on my George Forman grill at home. Now that I'm down to a healthy weight I will have the occassional trip to the fast food joint and I will only drink normal sodas when I'm at a party or at some sort of gathering with friends. But since I'm still exercising I have no trouble at all hold my weight where it is. Look, dieting is real simple. No matter what "plan" is out there, in the end it comes down to burning more calories than you consume. So watch your calorie intake and get some excercise.

Well, first, XBMC is likely your best bet. How old is the version you are using and what skin? I'm using the the default PMIII skin and there is no blue bar when zoomed in. Also, what do you mean scroll speed? Are you talking about moving the viewing area around a single picture? If so, it seems pretty damn fast to me. I just used the left stick and could scroll around the picture very quickly. But if you are talking about the scroll speed for a slide show, then that is adjustable in the settings menu.

I think you misunderstood what I said... I have a V4 PS2, which is a pretty old model. I don't have one of the slimeline PSTwo's.

No, SF2 just seems to run slow. It does the same thing in MAMEdOX too. But here is what you can do if you want to play an SF2 game fast. Get SF2 Turbo start the game, then bring up the emulator options window and choose the "Adjust CPU Speed" option, then crank it up to 180-200%. Now it will run fast. I tried the same thing on SF2 but it still ran slow, but it worked great on SF2 Turbo.

No, it should work just fine. Is it a standard XBox controller? Also, are the emulators still running... can you hear music or see anything moving? I ask because are you sure it's your controller that isn't working or are the emulators freezing?

Well, did you back up your eeprom and/or HDD password to your PC? If you did not and your XBox is now dead, then there is no way to use your HDD anymore because it is still locked with no way to unlock it. The HDD is locked with a key generated from your eeprom (on the mobo) and from the HDD itself. So the mobo and HDD are tied together and the HDD can only be used with that mobo while it is locked. But there is an exception... did you lock your HDD using ConfigMagic? If so, the HDD can be unlocked using the master password "TEAMASSEMBLY". Now, if you did back up your eeprom or password then you should be able to unlock it using some utilities that you can run on your PC (like hddunlock) that will unlock your HDD using the back-up of your eeprom. But you won't be able to use the HDD on your new XBox if you wind up with a 1.6 Xbox. If you do you will get banned. This is according to what is known as the "marriage theory". To summarize the theory, when you sign up for Live your HDD and eeprom are tied together. If either one changes but the other remains the same, you get banned. But if you can unlock the HDD you should be able to put the old drive in the new XBox, back-up your saves from the E: drive to your PC, put in a new HDD, and then load your saves onto the new HDD. You will likely have to go through the Live Account Recovery process to get your accounts back on your new XBox. If you did back-up your eeprom and your new XBox is a v1.0-1.5 then you can load your old eeprom on the new XBox (using ConfigMagic) along with your original HDD and you won't be banned and you will still have all your saves and Live accounts. The moral of the story: Always back-up your eeprom! Not sure. If you go to a store and buy a new one you are very likely to get a 1.6. Your best bet to get a non-1.6 would be to get a used one somewhere. There is no sure method for determining the version without opening the XBox up, but you may be able get a good guess using this guide: Link As for the DVD drive... again, your best bet is to go to a place that sells used systems. Tell them you want them to plug it in and show you it works. Then open the drive and look at the DVD tray. You can tell what drive it is by looking at the tray. There are 4 drive types... see here: Link Yes, you can put modchips in the slimline PS2 (PSTwo). Here is an example: Link I have a modded PS2, but it's an older V4 so I don't really know much about which chips can and can't be used in the slimline PS2s. As for the advantages... well, it comes with an ethernet port and modem built-in and it's nice and small The one disadvantage it has it that you can't use an HDD with it. I'm not sure about your brother's system. What sort of DVDs is he trying to play in it? If he is buying all his DVDs in local stores then it's not likely to be a region problem since they should all be the same region (unless he is buying from some sort of import store). Again, I'm not sure about the PS2, but I think you are right about the modchip. The XBox works that way. Without a mod chip you can only play DVDs that are the same region as the XBox. With a modchip you can play DVDs from any region.

If you get to the point where you don't have time for your games because of your job, your life is over anyway. Work to live, don't live to work. I'm out of school and working full time and I still play games. I intend to be playing games against my own kids and then against my grandkids.

Good news! I hope you enjoyed your break from the XBox.

Yeah, I use XBMC as my dash and love it, but updating it can be a pain in the ass if you have configured it to suit your tastes.

It is apparently using phone records. I know this because a search for my name turned up nothing. But then I thought about the fact that my phone company has my name spelled wrong in their records. So I searched for my misspelled name (as my phone company has it) and it turned up my correct address.

I would bet those are holes for ventilation, but I'm not sure where air would be coming in. Maybe Cinder is right and there are some slots along that bottom section.

Guys, you can clearly see holes in this image: PS3 Look at the right side of the image at the bottom edge of the console. That is also the side that would be on top if standing upright. How could you guys miss those? I mean... there is a whole bunch of holes there spanning nearly the entire side

MS has previously said they were still exploring the option of backwards compatibility. They have yet to say "Yes" or "No". But the lack of any mention of backwards compatibility in the past couple of days is suspicious. Makes me think they may have ditched the idea. But they could also still be working on it. As IJTF_Cinder mentioned they would have to do it through emulation anyway. So it's possible they are still working on the emulator software and don't want to announce anything until they are sure they have it working like they want. Or maybe they are just saving it so they have something big to announce at E3? Bottom line... there is no definite "Yes" or "No" from MS yet. As for the controllers, the word is that there will be some sort of adapter available that will allow you to plug current XBox controllers into the USB ports. The XBox 360 also supports USB hubs, so don't be surprised to see a USB hub with several XBox 1 controller ports sold as a peripheral.

No taller than 3 DVD cases

Nice! I didn't know that. [edit] And you are getting some terribly slow download speeds for that PSO installer? I'm getting 11.9 KB/sec

I wish they would just make a good single player PS game again. None of the previous PSO games were all the impressive compared to other MMORPGs. But I'll give this one a shot anyway.

I would agree with that except for the fact that Conker: Live and Reloded is due out soon on the XBox and it looks really good.

Yeah, WTF is up with PDZ? Rare has always been known for making some of the best looking games on a console, why does PDZ appear to be so far behind games like Gears of War?

Yeah, I got that too.

No, I mean the guy who posted the information didn't translate the information himself. He found it somewhere else. He didn't post a link to where he got the translation. [edit] Oh, I see what you are talking about. The translation is in the same thread as the pics in the second link.

More XBox 360 news: http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=3695 Alternate faster loading link: http://darkzero.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4150 Here is some of the information from the article that someone translated. This was posted on the XBox-Scene forums in this thread: Link The guy didn't link to where he got the translation:

Well, I'm impressed mostly with the backgrounds. They are astounding. The character models are clearly better, but not a huge leap. But as the article points out DoA3 is one of the best looking games on the XBox while these are early screens from a system that is still months from release. Also, notice the lack of jaggies. With the detailed backgrounds I bet this game looks fantastic in motion.