NXE impressions?

[miffy495]

I doubt it, given that it's always been Microsoft's policy that games don't require a hard drive at all. The thing about offering an SKU without any storage solution at all is that all your games will have to be able to run without one. This is also what gives us the massive loading times in things like Mass Effect. If they were able to assume that every 360 owner had a drive, they'd be able to have the drive at least store some temporary files to speed up the process. As it is, everything has to go into the system's memory.

So yeah, the Arcade 360's existence is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, no required installs. On the other, games that can't take advantage of a hard drive. Hopefully now that the option is available though, developers will be able to implement some code magic so that it can tell if you've opted to install it and will be able to load faster from here out. In the mean time, it's worth noting that some games, like Halo 3, have been optimized to run faster off the disc, and load times will actually increase if you install them.

EDIT: sorry for the redundancy, Wrestlevania posted while I was writing...

[ThunderPeel2001]

If they were able to assume that every 360 owner had a drive, they'd be able to have the drive at least store some temporary files to speed up the process.

They already do that. Some of the 12gb used for "system usage" is for caching files for commonly played games. That's why some Bioshock people were complaining that their game was slower after the patch... they needed to clear their hd cache of old files.

[miffy495]

Hmmm. I did have that problem with Bioshock, so I'm surprised I didn't remember that. Right you are. Any idea how that works with people who only have the 256MB Memory card/thing? Or do they just get much longer load times...?

[ThunderPeel2001]

I don't know, I guess they must do, but I've never heard any claims of the HD speeding up games. Hmmm Maybe they didn't mention the HD caching as a bonus because it's only for games you play a lot (I think).

[Wrestlevania]

I can't wait to get back to Mass Effect with reduced noise and loading time

I've just noticed that Eurogamer have some 'DVD vs. HDD installation' stats for Mass Effect, which you might be interested in.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Excellent, thank you very much!

Edit: Hmph Oh well, it can't hurt.

[MrChaz]

I don't know, I guess they must do, but I've never heard any claims of the HD speeding up games. Hmmm Maybe they didn't mention the HD caching as a bonus because it's only for games you play a lot (I think).

For what it's worth they did the same thing with the original xbox. Oddly Halo3 actually loads slower when installed to the hdd because it still copies stuff from the disc image to the internal cache.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Well I didn't time it, but I can say: GTAIV now finishes loading *just* after the "lollypop girl" loading screen. That's one whole loading screen faster!

[Wrestlevania]

Well I didn't time it, but I can say: GTAIV now finishes loading *just* after the "lollypop girl" loading screen. That's one whole loading screen faster!

But what about texture pop-in? That was always the worst thing for me.

Haven't tried GTA IV on my new 360 to verify if it was my dying drive or not, but it sounds like plenty of other people suffered from texture pop-in as well.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I still see texture pops from time to time. I still have to turn around and wait for the hotdog salesmen to load sometimes, too... but, dammit, it's a whole loading screen faster! *grumble* *grumble*

At least it's quieter

[Nachimir]

I have to give up on the HDD for now

Got all of the hardware and software I need, but trying with two desktop systems tonight I didn't even get close to being able to talk to one of the portable drives. Mainly due to bloody fucking windows (The best of which was an absolute stunner of a chicken-egg problem involving a missing DLL file coupled with Windows being unable to register new DLLs), but also flaky USB on one system (i.e. the BIOS can see all the wired and wireless keyboards I've got, but Windows setup/boot menu can't) and a non-standard (i.e. idiotic) SATA implementation on the other and it's been a clusterfuck of an evening. One system can't see SATA drives except by fooling the BIOS into thinking they're IDE ones, and the other can't get to a command prompt.

:spiraldy:

After nearly two years of mainly using OS X and Ubuntu, I'd pretty much forgotten what this was like. Windows cannot be history soon enough for me. Likewise for desktop PCs, I'm getting rid of mine ASAP and replacing it with a Macbook Pro or something next summer.

How can Windows be sustained as 80% or so of the market? That's not so much an invisible hand as a retarded invisible hand.

It seems like everyone in this house is switching to laptops, and desktops are rotting away. They already look like ridiculous piles of modern stuff piled together with quaint legacy hardware.

========

That said, I think the NXE is absolutely great. Everything is laid out nicely, it looks and works much better than the blades system, the avatars aren't as annoying as I thought they would be

Only gripe is that the friends list is less straightforward now, but it's not catastrophic.

Edited December 5, 2008 by Nachimir

[ThunderPeel2001]

coupled with Windows being unable to register new DLLs

Vista? Try running the CMD as an admin(?)

[Nachimir]

No, XP with full admin rights :(

[ThunderPeel2001]

Bah. What error message are you getting?

[Nachimir]

I troubleshot about 10 different problems last night, and after each one a new and unexpected problem unrelated to the last popped up. Seriously, thanks for trying to help but I'm just going to try it with a different system; it's not worth the aggravation with either of these. Both of them have cruddy chipsets that seem to have had features hacked in before they were properly standardised. One BIOS can't see SATA drives without some fooling around elsewhere in the chipset, and one can't see IDE drives to boot from when a SATA one is plugged in.

The XP installation was done on an IDE disc last night solely for copying files from one drive to the other; no point troubleshooting it any further now I've found out neither motherboard is intelligent enough to handle the hard disks properly. I think I'd be pretty much asking for it if I let either system get closer to my XBox drives.

Also, I'm going to break my desktop and sell the bits within a few months, but the motherboard itself is getting burned. A good friend sold it to me as one of the best he's had, which is true... if you only use IDE drives. Noone is going to suffer this p.o.s. after me.