Feature: Microsoft facing GTA IV Disaster

[tyrok]

i have a xbox 360... and i can see this happening..

 

which is why I'm also buying a ps3

thank god people are starting to see! I am actually typing this on my PS3 on the FREE web browser

[bonesmccoy]

It is a fanboy piece simply because he assumes the console could break while playing it. 8m halo 3's were sold and i don't recall mass rrod issues all over the net. GTA4 will be just the same as any other game in terms of hardware. If its going to break it'l break regardless of the game inside the disc tray. As i said before i've played my 360 for a long long time with loads of games, why would it suddenly break because of GTA4? So it is a fanboy statement to even think about it because the % of it breaking is exactly the same as if you were playing any game.

The author differentiates between Halo usages and expected GTA:IV usage. One of these is higher and more system intensive than the other - can you guess which one? Is it the open-ended, sandbox game set in a massive city populated by dozens of on screen npcs and cars? Or is it the one that takes place in smaller, confined one-way environments with a small number of npcs on screen at any time? The point the author is making, if you missed it, is that more people will play GTA a lot longer and more often than they played Halo 3. And since the red ring o'death has been linked to prolonged usage, the author hypothesizes that this game could cause many more 360 consoles to break down. He's not saying all 360's will break, but that the widespread appeal of the GTA franchise, along with it's minimum 30 hours of gameplay, will cause many of the 360's with the potential to breakdown to do so.

 

It's not a great article and it does rely upon speculation, but it isn't fanboyism. Now if he made some comments about the 360 being a glorified piece of plastic with a tendency to meltdown, and then said that the PS3 was by comparison a much, much better system, then he would be making a fanboy argument.

[EpicFailGuy]

 

there will be a worldwide front page news story about a game retailer critically injured by an irate Xbox 360 consumer somewhere on this planet (#cough# America),

Why is it expected everytime you see a date in the DD/MM/YYYY format you're guaranteed in the next few seconds to hear a remark on America? I mean, Jesus Christ, I'm not patriotic but it's already starting to get really god damn old.

[GutterSharkz]

That article was written by a pretty big PS3 fanboy. Looks like another one trying to justify the purchase of their inferior console.

You have nothing to contribute to any thread but some stupid fanboy post. Quit whining and actually post something logical.

[angrycupidstunt]

rrod is overated, I preffer having a console with a 3 year warranty, my PS1, PS2 and PSP all broke after the warranty from hardware issues costing me heaps of money. you only have to wait a week anyway with the 360.

[angrycupidstunt]

i have a xbox 360... and i can see this happening..

 

which is why I'm also buying a ps3

thank god people are starting to see! I am actually typing this on my PS3 on the FREE web browser

why would you waste your money on another console? they both do the same thing.

[Sossy]

I have a feeling that MS forcing off Anti-Aliasing with an XBL update helped to curb the amount of RRODing 360's as much as anything else has.

 

And it will probably stop IV killing a lot of 360's also.

[GTA3Freak-2001]

 

there will be a worldwide front page news story about a game retailer critically injured by an irate Xbox 360 consumer somewhere on this planet (#cough# America),

Why is it expected everytime you see a date in the DD/MM/YYYY format you're guaranteed in the next few seconds to hear a remark on America? I mean, Jesus Christ, I'm not patriotic but it's already starting to get really god damn old.

Oh its just a bloody joke mate!

 

Well I dunno about everyone else but I won't be playing GTA IV any more or less then recent games like Burnout Paradise so if my 360 can cope with that then I don't see there being a problem. Sure long gaming sessions do raise the risk of getting RROD but so do many other factors like console location, climate, console maintenance and care, age of console, model of console. Things that apply to not one sole game! Sure I believe there are people who are so overly obsessed with GTA IVthat they will over-use their console, I am talking more then 8-9 hours at a time as obsessive. People who will also fly off the handle if their ability to play GTA IV is hampered in any way! So there are issues ahead for some, just not all.

[fitbikesbmx]

Exactly why I have both consoles. I bought my ps3 last year with IV in mind, and I am happy I did. If that goes out, I can get it replaced at Best Buy on the 29th, and if nothing yet, I got my trusty 360 for backup.

[Clockwork Ninja]

It is a fanboy piece simply because he assumes the console could break while playing it. 8m halo 3's were sold and i don't recall mass rrod issues all over the net. GTA4 will be just the same as any other game in terms of hardware. If its going to break it'l break regardless of the game inside the disc tray. As i said before i've played my 360 for a long long time with loads of games, why would it suddenly break because of GTA4? So it is a fanboy statement to even think about it because the % of it breaking is exactly the same as if you were playing any game.

The author differentiates between Halo usages and expected GTA:IV usage. One of these is higher and more system intensive than the other - can you guess which one? Is it the open-ended, sandbox game set in a massive city populated by dozens of on screen npcs and cars? Or is it the one that takes place in smaller, confined one-way environments with a small number of npcs on screen at any time? The point the author is making, if you missed it, is that more people will play GTA a lot longer and more often than they played Halo 3. And since the red ring o'death has been linked to prolonged usage, the author hypothesizes that this game could cause many more 360 consoles to break down. He's not saying all 360's will break, but that the widespread appeal of the GTA franchise, along with it's minimum 30 hours of gameplay, will cause many of the 360's with the potential to breakdown to do so.

 

It's not a great article and it does rely upon speculation, but it isn't fanboyism. Now if he made some comments about the 360 being a glorified piece of plastic with a tendency to meltdown, and then said that the PS3 was by comparison a much, much better system, then he would be making a fanboy argument.

Thats great but it forgets one thing. Sandbox games only render the area you are in. Ever drive really fast and find the part of the city you are driving to hasen't quite loaded? Next your be saying games like Crysis which are terrain games don't use much memory. I've got a media degree, the piece is a fanboy piece. I'll re-iterate for the 3rd time, what is different about GTA4 that will make peoples 360's explode? Does it have better graphics then say games like Oblivion? Nope. Does it have better driving mechanics and sounds compared to say Forza 2? Probably not. Does it have better shooting mechanics and physics then say games like Cod4 or Bioshock? Probably not. Does it have buildings that can go as far as the eye can see and go as high as the eye can see like games like Crackdown? Probably not. Does it have multiple complicated npc's on screen in detail like Dead Rising? nope. Does it have a sophisticated dialogue system like say Mass Effect? nope. Does it have the customization of games such as Saints Row? nope. Etc.. etc...

 

So i'm sorry mate but it's just a case of inteligence and for the author to think it would push the console to it's limits even though games like Oblivion and Bioshock ran on it fine; even though they push even the high spec pc's shows that the guy not only thinks less of the 360's capability but seems to magically forget the games it already has. GTA 4 will be a great game but it's not going to push consoles anywhere near what other games have done. So that shows the author is either a fanboy or just an amateur at writing articles.

[Rambone2007]

This is a hyped-up non-story. I've had my 360 for over a year and have put it through some insane gaming marathons and it still works like a charm. Maybe I lucked out with a sturdy sytem. I'm not too worried about gTA4 breaking my console.

 

On an ironic side-note....my PS2 broke the day after I bought GTA:SA.

[[-Vice-Andreas-]]

Didn't people play Oblivion extensively for hundreds of hours? Why didn't the xbox break then...

[[-Vice-Andreas-]]

This is a hyped-up non-story. I've had my 360 for over a year and have put it through some insane gaming marathons and it still works like a charm. Maybe I lucked out with a sturdy sytem. I'm not too worried about gTA4 breaking my console.

 

On an ironic side-note....my PS2 broke the day after I bought GTA:SA.

my ps2 also broke, about 5 days after I got San Andreas. This is exactly the reason I switched to Xbox... if my Xbox fails, and there is no easy replacement plan, I might as well just trade in all my Xbox 360 games, controllers, hard drive etc, and buy a PS3.

[Rambone2007]

' date='Apr 22 2008, 01:34']

This is a hyped-up non-story.  I've had my 360 for over a year and have put it through some insane gaming marathons and it still works like a charm.  Maybe I lucked out with a sturdy sytem.  I'm not too worried about gTA4 breaking my console.

 

On an ironic side-note....my PS2 broke the day after I bought GTA:SA.

my ps2 also broke, about 5 days after I got San Andreas. This is exactly the reason I switched to Xbox... if my Xbox fails, and there is no easy replacement plan, I might as well just trade in all my Xbox 360 games, controllers, hard drive etc, and buy a PS3.

360 does have an easy replacement. They had to adopt one once they realized how widespread the RRoD problem is.

[SlappingOysters]

 

It is a fanboy piece simply because he assumes the console could break while playing it. 8m halo 3's were sold and i don't recall mass rrod issues all over the net. GTA4 will be just the same as any other game in terms of hardware. If its going to break it'l break regardless of the game inside the disc tray. As i said before i've played my 360 for a long long time with loads of games, why would it suddenly break because of GTA4? So it is a fanboy statement to even think about it because the % of it breaking is exactly the same as if you were playing any game.

The author differentiates between Halo usages and expected GTA:IV usage. One of these is higher and more system intensive than the other - can you guess which one? Is it the open-ended, sandbox game set in a massive city populated by dozens of on screen npcs and cars? Or is it the one that takes place in smaller, confined one-way environments with a small number of npcs on screen at any time? The point the author is making, if you missed it, is that more people will play GTA a lot longer and more often than they played Halo 3. And since the red ring o'death has been linked to prolonged usage, the author hypothesizes that this game could cause many more 360 consoles to break down. He's not saying all 360's will break, but that the widespread appeal of the GTA franchise, along with it's minimum 30 hours of gameplay, will cause many of the 360's with the potential to breakdown to do so.

 

It's not a great article and it does rely upon speculation, but it isn't fanboyism. Now if he made some comments about the 360 being a glorified piece of plastic with a tendency to meltdown, and then said that the PS3 was by comparison a much, much better system, then he would be making a fanboy argument.

Thats great but it forgets one thing. Sandbox games only render the area you are in. Ever drive really fast and find the part of the city you are driving to hasen't quite loaded? Next your be saying games like Crysis which are terrain games don't use much memory. I've got a media degree, the piece is a fanboy piece. I'll re-iterate for the 3rd time, what is different about GTA4 that will make peoples 360's explode? Does it have better graphics then say games like Oblivion? Nope. Does it have better driving mechanics and sounds compared to say Forza 2? Probably not. Does it have better shooting mechanics and physics then say games like Cod4 or Bioshock? Probably not. Does it have buildings that can go as far as the eye can see and go as high as the eye can see like games like Crackdown? Probably not. Does it have multiple complicated npc's on screen in detail like Dead Rising? nope. Does it have a sophisticated dialogue system like say Mass Effect? nope. Does it have the customization of games such as Saints Row? nope. Etc.. etc...

 

So i'm sorry mate but it's just a case of inteligence and for the author to think it would push the console to it's limits even though games like Oblivion and Bioshock ran on it fine; even though they push even the high spec pc's shows that the guy not only thinks less of the 360's capability but seems to magically forget the games it already has. GTA 4 will be a great game but it's not going to push consoles anywhere near what other games have done. So that shows the author is either a fanboy or just an amateur at writing articles.

Well you just showed you can't interpret words very well.

 

The article is saying that more people will be playing their console in that week than usual. The increase in usage will cause an increase in RRoD simply because of the maths. An analogy. Imagne that 10% of people entering a train have no ticket. If one day you have 100 people on the train and the next you have 200 becuase of a big event, then on that second day there is double the number of people without tickets.

 

The only counter-argument is that there will be an increase in the usage of Xbox 360s in the weeks following GTA IV. And that I doubt.

 

Way to waste a Media degree.

Edited April 22, 2008 by SlappingOysters

[Clockwork Ninja]

It is a fanboy piece simply because he assumes the console could break while playing it. 8m halo 3's were sold and i don't recall mass rrod issues all over the net. GTA4 will be just the same as any other game in terms of hardware. If its going to break it'l break regardless of the game inside the disc tray. As i said before i've played my 360 for a long long time with loads of games, why would it suddenly break because of GTA4? So it is a fanboy statement to even think about it because the % of it breaking is exactly the same as if you were playing any game.

The author differentiates between Halo usages and expected GTA:IV usage. One of these is higher and more system intensive than the other - can you guess which one? Is it the open-ended, sandbox game set in a massive city populated by dozens of on screen npcs and cars? Or is it the one that takes place in smaller, confined one-way environments with a small number of npcs on screen at any time? The point the author is making, if you missed it, is that more people will play GTA a lot longer and more often than they played Halo 3. And since the red ring o'death has been linked to prolonged usage, the author hypothesizes that this game could cause many more 360 consoles to break down. He's not saying all 360's will break, but that the widespread appeal of the GTA franchise, along with it's minimum 30 hours of gameplay, will cause many of the 360's with the potential to breakdown to do so.

 

It's not a great article and it does rely upon speculation, but it isn't fanboyism. Now if he made some comments about the 360 being a glorified piece of plastic with a tendency to meltdown, and then said that the PS3 was by comparison a much, much better system, then he would be making a fanboy argument.

Thats great but it forgets one thing. Sandbox games only render the area you are in. Ever drive really fast and find the part of the city you are driving to hasen't quite loaded? Next your be saying games like Crysis which are terrain games don't use much memory. I've got a media degree, the piece is a fanboy piece. I'll re-iterate for the 3rd time, what is different about GTA4 that will make peoples 360's explode? Does it have better graphics then say games like Oblivion? Nope. Does it have better driving mechanics and sounds compared to say Forza 2? Probably not. Does it have better shooting mechanics and physics then say games like Cod4 or Bioshock? Probably not. Does it have buildings that can go as far as the eye can see and go as high as the eye can see like games like Crackdown? Probably not. Does it have multiple complicated npc's on screen in detail like Dead Rising? nope. Does it have a sophisticated dialogue system like say Mass Effect? nope. Does it have the customization of games such as Saints Row? nope. Etc.. etc...

 

So i'm sorry mate but it's just a case of inteligence and for the author to think it would push the console to it's limits even though games like Oblivion and Bioshock ran on it fine; even though they push even the high spec pc's shows that the guy not only thinks less of the 360's capability but seems to magically forget the games it already has. GTA 4 will be a great game but it's not going to push consoles anywhere near what other games have done. So that shows the author is either a fanboy or just an amateur at writing articles.

Well you just showed you can't interpret words very well.

 

The article is saying that more people will be playing their console in that week than usual. The increase in usage will cause an increase in RRoD simply because of the maths. An analogy. Imagne that 10% of people entering a train have no ticket. If one day you have 100 people on the train and the next you have 200 becuase of a big event, then on that second day there is double the number of people without tickets.

 

The only counter-argument is that there will be an increase in the usage of Xbox 360s in the weeks following GTA IV. And that I doubt.

 

Way to waste a Media degree.

Dude are you crazy or something?! An increase in people playing their 360's?

 

Right......

 

So by your all powering logic you are saying that people who have bought a 360 don't play their console? So even though that console has sold near 20m units nobody uses it? Now that is just stupid logic. As i said now for the 4th time....You have the same % chance of having your console breaking on you as playing any game. There are 2 ways to proove you are a dumb idiot and your last post makes your inteligence seem lower then a 1day old child.

 

1. Analysts predict that GTA4 will sell 5m copies worldwide in it's first week across both formats. Halo 3 sold 4.5m in it's first week of which 1.7m were preorders. In its first 48hrs 2.7m people played it online. That was on one console, making Halo 3 the highest grossing opening entertainment product in history. Did the 360's die with that amount of people playing? Nope

 

and

 

2. So by your "superiour" logic when GTA4 comes out "everybody" who has a 360 will be playing it? So what about all those people who were playing Cod4 setting the record for the most hours played online? At that time would there not be maybe 3 or 4m+ playing other games? Seeing as the console is a games console dosen't it make sense that people might be playing all types of games at the same time?! Guess you didn't think of that? Don't worry about it neither did the writer.

 

And i don't think the company i work for would say it's a wasted degree, mainly because i can difrentiate between someone writing neutrality and someone writing with an agenda, obviously something you haven't quite figured out...

[SlappingOysters]

No I think people like me, who play their X360 for about four hours a week, will suddenly be drilling it for like four hours a day. (so effectively fitting in about two months of normal gaming into seven days).

 

I also think there will by hundreds of thousands of new consoles in the market with the potential to fail (my mates lastes two weeks so it can happen).

 

I also think that many consoles that were bought for Halo 3, will now be eight months old and starting to show thier cracks.

 

Your problem is you think everyone out there plays like you. Not so. Many people don't play thier consoles every day, or even every week. These are the people that will be back in force for GTA IV who play little to no revelance to your CoD and Halo issues.

 

Obviously you think that there will be no extra people playing the xbox 360. Good for you. The article has a differenet opinion and simply calls on Microsoft to be prepared for a rise in problems. So if by having an agenda you mean trying to lessen the hurt for some unlucky gamers then I guess your right. But somehow I think you've got an agenda of your own

Edited April 22, 2008 by SlappingOysters

[nYgizzle]

good thing i have a brand new model that doesnt have the rrod, also that ridiculous warranty that will last longer than me playing the system, thats fun too.

[Clockwork Ninja]

No I think people like me, who play their X360 for about four hours a week, will suddenly be drilling it for like four hours a day. (so effectively fitting in about two months of normal gaming into seven days).

 

I also think there will by hundreds of thousands of new consoles in the market with the potential to fail (my mates lastes two weeks so it can happen).

 

I also think that many consoles that were bought for Halo 3, will now be eight months old and starting to show thier cracks.

 

Your problem is you think everyone out there plays like you. Not so. Many people don't play thier consoles every day, or even every week. These are the people that will be back in force for GTA IV who play little to no revelance to your CoD and Halo issues.

 

Obviously you think that there will be no extra people playing the xbox 360. Good for you. The article has a differenet opinion and simply calls on Microsoft to be prepared for a rise in problems. So if by having an agenda you mean trying to lessen the hurt for some unlucky gamers then I guess your right. But somehow I think you've got an agenda of your own

Haha dude you really are digging a hole aren't you? Were you the writer of that piece?

 

Firstly you are right there will be loads of new players out there who have bought a 360 specificaly to play GTA4. But the figure is nowhere near what you are thinking. In fact the past weeks sales figures were just announced and that was a great big 140k. Hardly millions is it? The other problem with this theory is that the % of getting a rrod on a newer made 360 is probably about 1%. The old 360's were replaced so chances of those falling into the hands of the newcomers is low.

 

Again you just don't quite understand that your console will explode regardless of what game is in there or how many people are playing it. How can someone somewhere playing GTA4 make my console blow up?! Its the same chance % as if you were playing any game.

 

As i have tried to explain to you at least 4.5m people played Halo 3 in the space of 7 days. If GTA4 sells another 1m on top of that how does an extra 1m people increase the chance of your own 360 dying? It dosen't.

 

I don't have an agenda at all other then to stop people beliving useless crap like this piece which in effect is just the equivelent as saying if you drive on the motorway where there are more cars your likely to crash. Which isn't true.

[Manuel Luis Regalado]

Its a matter of luck i believe i hear about this RROD all the time, and i had my xbox for 2 years and its not happen to me and if it does i got money on the sidt for the elite. I use to love PS2 i loved sony and the only reason i went for the Xbox was because it had more games and i didnt know the ps3 was coming out anytime soon. Aye what can we say if it happens it happens.

[HeLlFiRe19]

Yup my 360 just recieved the RRoD about a week ago. Made me change my preorder to the PS3 version.

[Grand Theft Columbo]

Sure they all will....

 

Anyway this is why i bought a ps3 in the first place, i hate unstable hardware and with ps3 having free online the choice was clear for me.

 

Ditto

[NJ~]

This guy has some seriously positive commentry on Microsoft...

 

I'll be playing this game on my X360 anyway. Which has f*cked me over countless of times in the two years I own the thing. After SEVEN times, you start to learn that bitching to the wall of "We don't give a ratsass!" aka Microsoft's Customer Service - Is pretty much useless to begin with.

 

I'll be sending it in again, buy a PS3, the PS3 version of GTAIV. And be the neutral fanboy as a bonus.

[bonesmccoy]

Thats great but it forgets one thing. Sandbox games only render the area you are in. Ever drive really fast and find the part of the city you are driving to hasen't quite loaded? Next your be saying games like Crysis which are terrain games don't use much memory. I've got a media degree, the piece is a fanboy piece. I'll re-iterate for the 3rd time, what is different about GTA4 that will make peoples 360's explode? Does it have better graphics then say games like Oblivion? Nope. Does it have better driving mechanics and sounds compared to say Forza 2? Probably not. Does it have better shooting mechanics and physics then say games like Cod4 or Bioshock? Probably not. Does it have buildings that can go as far as the eye can see and go as high as the eye can see like games like Crackdown? Probably not. Does it have multiple complicated npc's on screen in detail like Dead Rising? nope. Does it have a sophisticated dialogue system like say Mass Effect? nope. Does it have the customization of games such as Saints Row? nope. Etc.. etc...

 

So i'm sorry mate but it's just a case of inteligence and for the author to think it would push the console to it's limits even though games like Oblivion and Bioshock ran on it fine; even though they push even the high spec pc's shows that the guy not only thinks less of the 360's capability but seems to magically forget the games it already has. GTA 4 will be a great game but it's not going to push consoles anywhere near what other games have done. So that shows the author is either a fanboy or just an amateur at writing articles.

I appreciate your response, although I resent being the victim of a strawman attack. Unfortunately, you got caught up on one comment and completely misread the rest of my post. How a game taxes a system, I doubt either of us will be qualified to say. So let's forget that obviously minor point and move on to argument I actually made, yes? What the author is saying is that a game with such widespread appeal could bring down more 360's simply because there are that many more people playing it. That's it! That's the point; the one that you, despite your 'media degree', failed to address.

 

Now if you're going to say that the author's claim is a crock of poop, then do so. It's an op-ed article that is designed to spark debate, ruffle feathers, and get people reading the site. Like I said before, dismissing a piece as 'fanboyism' without actually offering up an actual rebuttal is a pointless exercise.

 

::postscript:: I noticed that you have responded to other comments (with such tact and precise prose I must say) by saying that no more 360's will 'explode' than usual, because one game will not make people use their system more than they originally do. That's an interesting claim, mainly because you're simply drawing the opposite conclusion to the one the article's author made. Now we're getting somewhere. So what you are saying is that you do not think that more 360 users will be playing more hours than normal and that that reality could result in higher than normal breakdowns. Hmm, that to me looks like an argument from incredulity - ie, you don't know something, so you disagree. Now who's building the opinion piece here, friend?

 

::post-postscript:: The Halo 3 comparison is invalid. You're comparing an FPS, with a ten hour singleplayer campaign, to a GTA, with at least 30 hours of play. The difference here is in how much time a user will spend during one 'session' using their system. Do you not think that there will be exponentially more users playing longer on GTA than on Halo 3?

 

 

[SlappingOysters]

Sorry clockwork but I think we are going to have to agree to disagree. I am not sure I understand your argument properly.

 

GTA IV is merely the catalyst for more game playing, the game itself is techically irrelevant to the argument we're having.

 

Perhaps the increase in deaths will be marginal (I am thinking about 5-10% more than a usual month) but the reaction will be very vocal. As if these forums wont be filled with horror stories of people getting a crash two days in or something? And they'll be so upset because the excitement is so extreme.

 

I would be upset, If your Xbox RRoDs in the first day, how will you react?

 

That all said, these forums will no doubt also be filled with people living the DLC, when it arrives.

 

Edited April 22, 2008 by SlappingOysters

[pwnedbygary]

 

::post-postscript::  The Halo 3 comparison is invalid.  You're comparing an FPS, with a ten hour singleplayer campaign, to a GTA, with at least 30 hours of play.  The difference here is in how much time a user will spend during one 'session' using their system.  Do you not think that there will be exponentially more users playing longer on GTA than on Halo 3?

 

I agree that users MIGHT play this game during very long and somewhat overwhelming sittings, but you also fail to mention the Multiplayer aspect of such popular games as Halo 3 and COD 4. I know many people who, and I am sure they would agree as well, that have played both of these games in MP for over 12 hours straight. I also am a victim of such an act as this, as I am nearly addicted to the crack that is COD 4. That game is by far my most favorite game of all time and i find it a far cry to say that GTA IV will drastically outshine the playtime derived from a blockbuster title such as COD 4 or even a great game like Halo 3.

 

I am personally not too worried about my 360 going up in smoke during the next xxx amount of weeks or months because it is relatively new (Q4 2006 or so) and I have purchased a separate cooling device just to keep it cooler than the stock fans will allow.

 

Just my 2 cents :3

[SlappingOysters]

Don't forget that not all gamers are online at all, or are online but don't play MP. Single player is something every one does.

[KGBosh]

Well I guess he brings up some valid points regarding the amount of time people will be playing their xboxes. There will be more consoles overheating for sure...

 

But I think the article was mainly just poking fun at Microsoft and egging them on to fixing the problem as they should. Really, if the product is defective, replace the defective models with the updated ones. Not refurbish, but replace - this would do wonders for consumer confidence.

 

I got a launch 360 and I only got the RROD about four months ago. I got a "fixed" system, and while I have to assume they took care of the problem I'd feel better knowing it was a new, error free console. That said, I don't play my system for more than an hour at a time, maybe once a week. The only game I played with any kind of regularity was Mass Effect, just cause it was so long. I beat COD but rarely have time for multiplayer.

 

I will be playing the hell out of GTA though, so we'll see. I'm not too worried - if it's fixed it's fixed - if not, someone will have to answer to it.

 

I don't see how it'll be a major publicity disaster though... Microsoft doesn't release the figures of RROD do they? On a month to month basis? Granted, there'll probably be more instances, but wouldn't it just end up as more gamers pissed off individually, as opposed to a exponential increase evident to the media? How would the amounts get out?

[JustinSaneV2]

Yes, just like how there was a major disaster after Halo 3 sold millions upon millions of copies.

 

Article = Fail

[KGBosh]

It is a fanboy piece simply because he assumes the console could break while playing it. 8m halo 3's were sold and i don't recall mass rrod issues all over the net. GTA4 will be just the same as any other game in terms of hardware. If its going to break it'l break regardless of the game inside the disc tray. As i said before i've played my 360 for a long long time with loads of games, why would it suddenly break because of GTA4? So it is a fanboy statement to even think about it because the % of it breaking is exactly the same as if you were playing any game.

The author differentiates between Halo usages and expected GTA:IV usage. One of these is higher and more system intensive than the other - can you guess which one? Is it the open-ended, sandbox game set in a massive city populated by dozens of on screen npcs and cars? Or is it the one that takes place in smaller, confined one-way environments with a small number of npcs on screen at any time? The point the author is making, if you missed it, is that more people will play GTA a lot longer and more often than they played Halo 3. And since the red ring o'death has been linked to prolonged usage, the author hypothesizes that this game could cause many more 360 consoles to break down. He's not saying all 360's will break, but that the widespread appeal of the GTA franchise, along with it's minimum 30 hours of gameplay, will cause many of the 360's with the potential to breakdown to do so.

 

It's not a great article and it does rely upon speculation, but it isn't fanboyism. Now if he made some comments about the 360 being a glorified piece of plastic with a tendency to meltdown, and then said that the PS3 was by comparison a much, much better system, then he would be making a fanboy argument.

Thats great but it forgets one thing. Sandbox games only render the area you are in. Ever drive really fast and find the part of the city you are driving to hasen't quite loaded? Next your be saying games like Crysis which are terrain games don't use much memory. I've got a media degree, the piece is a fanboy piece. I'll re-iterate for the 3rd time, what is different about GTA4 that will make peoples 360's explode? Does it have better graphics then say games like Oblivion? Nope. Does it have better driving mechanics and sounds compared to say Forza 2? Probably not. Does it have better shooting mechanics and physics then say games like Cod4 or Bioshock? Probably not. Does it have buildings that can go as far as the eye can see and go as high as the eye can see like games like Crackdown? Probably not. Does it have multiple complicated npc's on screen in detail like Dead Rising? nope. Does it have a sophisticated dialogue system like say Mass Effect? nope. Does it have the customization of games such as Saints Row? nope. Etc.. etc...

 

So i'm sorry mate but it's just a case of inteligence and for the author to think it would push the console to it's limits even though games like Oblivion and Bioshock ran on it fine; even though they push even the high spec pc's shows that the guy not only thinks less of the 360's capability but seems to magically forget the games it already has. GTA 4 will be a great game but it's not going to push consoles anywhere near what other games have done. So that shows the author is either a fanboy or just an amateur at writing articles.

The writer may be a fanboy or he may just be pointing out Microsofts one flaw to date, it's dependability. I love my 360. Hated the original Xbox with a passion - it's huge console and even clunkier controller... It just screamed "Gaming Mountain Dew style FTW!" to me... I loved my Playstation and PS2.

 

But man, I fell in love with the 360. Such a sweet machine. The failures leave a bad taste in my mouth though.

 

I've got my refurbished system and I'm counting on everything being alright.

 

I'm not sure what you're sayin there though... Based on what I read the guy wasn't talking about the game's performance - just the amount of time people will play it. I used to play games all the time - but hey, I'm 26. Got a job, a mortgage, and sh*t to do. I didn't beat Halo3 (not even close... didn't have the originals so I got bored with the story). I played COD4 and then stopped. I will play GTA4 ALLLLL the f*cking time. So that's one XBOX that's gonna be put through the paces more than usual. I'm sure everyone on this forum at least will probably be playing a bit more than usual. It's the guys like me, who haven't had time to play alot and have a sick addiction to the madness that is GTA who may be the litmus test.