5th December 2007, 4:16 PM
New update for the 360 OS apparently. Aside from letting me invade other's friends lists for dark purposes, it also adds the new store option to buy downloadable versions of old XBox games (nice option, though I think I'll more likely just find a used copy, likely a little cheaper and can also be used on the original XBox, and save space on the hard disk... and isn't tied to one system/account... well this does help those who can't find certain old games). Further, it adds the whole parental control the Wii has for how long people can play the system. There's also a lot more online controls such as if they can chat, who they can play against, if they can even see a lot of info, and it's all tied specifically to each user on the system.
Now here's the main problem with that last thing. XBox Live accounts are permanently tied to system accounts. This is troublesome because for this parental control option to work it means the parent has to buy a Live account for each of their kids. Rather, like in the games themselves, the Live access should be something that can be "shared" to other accounts. Namely, if a friend or relative wants to, they should be able to sign into their own system account and then have the option to select another account to actually go online with. Controls can be put on whether it can be shared or not, and of course this can't cheat the system or anything. It's the same account it's just that the user on the system is recognized as being someone else. The name will show up with the actual account name and (Guest) right after it when they play online games. It's really the same thing that a lot of online games already do, just built into the actual OS. So, only one person needs to actually have an online account and the parental controls can be assigned as the parent wants them to be.
I'll go ahead and list a few other things I've noticed they could work on. They should fix the small issue with games autostarting when you insert the disk. They did add the option to disable this for when the system is turned on, but not for when a disk is just inserted. Minor fix but they are closing in on perfection so it's something they can deal with.
They could also stand to finally allow original XBox saved data to be moved to memory cards. If they are really concerned, just disable it for the downloaded content like it is on the original XBox. There's a special flag for those types of files anyway so the system already knows what's what.
Speaking of memory cards, they only allow one to "move" profiles to and from them, not "copy". They could stand to allow a copy so that I can always just drag my card with my Live account data with me for playing online on my own dang self when I'm at a friend's house. I'd just copy the Live file to my friend's system one time and not really have to drag that card around as much. They couldn't just "bum" free Live access anyway because it's still just ONE of us online at a time. The original XBox allowed this anyway, up to 7 live accounts could be copied to an XBox and it worked fine.
Speaking of things the original box could do that the new one can't, how about the ability to chat to multiple people at once in the 360 main OS chat rooms? Sometimes you want to chat with a bunch of online friends at once between games, and the original let me do that. The new one only allows 1 on 1 conversations. Up to 4 at once, but still just 1 on 1 in each of them. That's a step down if you ask me.
Heck while we're at it, a main OS based voice filter would be nice for some people. They don't need to code it into every game if the voice channels are handled the way I think they are. It would be a guide option accessible at any time and saved to the profile. Just, no "robot voice", the one in Halo 2 is an example of a good one.
About those original XBox games, well this has all been said already but I'll restate it because I'm also using this as a list because I won't be able to remember all this. :D Again, a feature needs to be added to allow transferring of XBox saves to the 360 from the original. Again, if they are so concerned they can simply not allow it for downloaded content and piracy problems are solved (I don't mind redownloading that stuff). The only issue is this requires an update of the original XBox OS too, but I'm sure they still have the source code for that. This isn't the 1980's where all the source code is burned in celebration of a game's release (or at least I get the impression that's the case, well more likely it's just that current employees aren't trained in the old clunky programming languages). Aside from that, add support for saving directly to the 360's memory card slots by emulating them as the slots in the original XBox's controllers. Few games supported it, but it would probably be easy and quick to pretend such support, so that as many old features are maintained as possible. Well okay that's not much of a thing but you know, it is one small step to that perfection. More important than that is, should they ever add support, to work in support for modern special controllers mapped to old game equivalents. The controller is already done, but like say in Dance Dance or Karenanokini (bad spelling) the new system won't support the old special device, but there are 360 compatible versions of those special controllers they could just remap it to in the emulator. Only one game I can think of lacks that modern version of the special controller, and that's Steel Battallion. I can't think of any way short of an adapter cable to make that game work on modern machines, which is a shame to those who ponied up the cash for that thing. I suppose it would be best all around if Capcom just did a remake of that game for modern machines with a USB version of that controller. Other than that, keep expanding that list and continue updating the support to fix the glitches in older title's emulation. Do all that and I can finally clear up some shelf space.
I do keep wondering which company will be the first to add support to their system for the Wii controller. Nothing is legally stopping them and they have every financial reason, and further the gamers would all appreciate it. Heck Nintendo would semi-profit from increased sales of their own controllers, though for somewhat less that desired use. The Nintendo fanboys would cry bloody murder and consider the act "evil beyond measure", but I'd enjoy the laughs there too.
Now here's the main problem with that last thing. XBox Live accounts are permanently tied to system accounts. This is troublesome because for this parental control option to work it means the parent has to buy a Live account for each of their kids. Rather, like in the games themselves, the Live access should be something that can be "shared" to other accounts. Namely, if a friend or relative wants to, they should be able to sign into their own system account and then have the option to select another account to actually go online with. Controls can be put on whether it can be shared or not, and of course this can't cheat the system or anything. It's the same account it's just that the user on the system is recognized as being someone else. The name will show up with the actual account name and (Guest) right after it when they play online games. It's really the same thing that a lot of online games already do, just built into the actual OS. So, only one person needs to actually have an online account and the parental controls can be assigned as the parent wants them to be.
I'll go ahead and list a few other things I've noticed they could work on. They should fix the small issue with games autostarting when you insert the disk. They did add the option to disable this for when the system is turned on, but not for when a disk is just inserted. Minor fix but they are closing in on perfection so it's something they can deal with.
They could also stand to finally allow original XBox saved data to be moved to memory cards. If they are really concerned, just disable it for the downloaded content like it is on the original XBox. There's a special flag for those types of files anyway so the system already knows what's what.
Speaking of memory cards, they only allow one to "move" profiles to and from them, not "copy". They could stand to allow a copy so that I can always just drag my card with my Live account data with me for playing online on my own dang self when I'm at a friend's house. I'd just copy the Live file to my friend's system one time and not really have to drag that card around as much. They couldn't just "bum" free Live access anyway because it's still just ONE of us online at a time. The original XBox allowed this anyway, up to 7 live accounts could be copied to an XBox and it worked fine.
Speaking of things the original box could do that the new one can't, how about the ability to chat to multiple people at once in the 360 main OS chat rooms? Sometimes you want to chat with a bunch of online friends at once between games, and the original let me do that. The new one only allows 1 on 1 conversations. Up to 4 at once, but still just 1 on 1 in each of them. That's a step down if you ask me.
Heck while we're at it, a main OS based voice filter would be nice for some people. They don't need to code it into every game if the voice channels are handled the way I think they are. It would be a guide option accessible at any time and saved to the profile. Just, no "robot voice", the one in Halo 2 is an example of a good one.
About those original XBox games, well this has all been said already but I'll restate it because I'm also using this as a list because I won't be able to remember all this. :D Again, a feature needs to be added to allow transferring of XBox saves to the 360 from the original. Again, if they are so concerned they can simply not allow it for downloaded content and piracy problems are solved (I don't mind redownloading that stuff). The only issue is this requires an update of the original XBox OS too, but I'm sure they still have the source code for that. This isn't the 1980's where all the source code is burned in celebration of a game's release (or at least I get the impression that's the case, well more likely it's just that current employees aren't trained in the old clunky programming languages). Aside from that, add support for saving directly to the 360's memory card slots by emulating them as the slots in the original XBox's controllers. Few games supported it, but it would probably be easy and quick to pretend such support, so that as many old features are maintained as possible. Well okay that's not much of a thing but you know, it is one small step to that perfection. More important than that is, should they ever add support, to work in support for modern special controllers mapped to old game equivalents. The controller is already done, but like say in Dance Dance or Karenanokini (bad spelling) the new system won't support the old special device, but there are 360 compatible versions of those special controllers they could just remap it to in the emulator. Only one game I can think of lacks that modern version of the special controller, and that's Steel Battallion. I can't think of any way short of an adapter cable to make that game work on modern machines, which is a shame to those who ponied up the cash for that thing. I suppose it would be best all around if Capcom just did a remake of that game for modern machines with a USB version of that controller. Other than that, keep expanding that list and continue updating the support to fix the glitches in older title's emulation. Do all that and I can finally clear up some shelf space.
I do keep wondering which company will be the first to add support to their system for the Wii controller. Nothing is legally stopping them and they have every financial reason, and further the gamers would all appreciate it. Heck Nintendo would semi-profit from increased sales of their own controllers, though for somewhat less that desired use. The Nintendo fanboys would cry bloody murder and consider the act "evil beyond measure", but I'd enjoy the laughs there too.