Running video games (and consoles) thread

I'll throw this question out there now that this thread has been revived.

I've got a 360 and recently bought a regular XBox game, knowing that I have to install the "backwards compatibility" update. Tried it five times today without success -- I downloaded the file from the Web site, burned it to a CD-R (and also to a DVD-R) and each time I put the disc in the console, it "reads" it for a minute and then tells me that it's "unplayable."

I'm not sure what I did wrong, if anything. I followed the instructions step for step (download the zip file, extract the "default.xex" file, burning that file -- and that file alone -- to the disc). Yet every time I insert the burned disc into the console, up comes that "unplayable disc" message.

Does anyone know if I am screwing something up?

 

Christ almighty.

I just ran four races against one of my college friends in Mario Kart. Two of them were on my best tracks.

That was the unholiest kind of ass-kicking that isn't mentioned out loud.

That was Ohio State in a BCS title game. That was the Democrats in 1994. That was Napoleon on the Russian front AND Waterloo, combined with the Astros against the White Sox in '05.

That was humanity against death.

I seriously feel decimated. That's how horrible that was for me.

Horrified. Destroyed. Flat-out embarrassed.



Ants put up more of a fight against microscopes in the sun. Gomer, Hoops...I sure hope at least one of you sucks at this as much as I do.

 

I'm a pretty safe bet to suck worse than you. I played a couple random online games last night and finished dead last by a mile.

 

I've never had to burn anything on a DVD & load it onto the 360 for any updates. Any time I've popped in a backwards compatible title, the update downloads from Live & I'm good to go. I didn't even realize that those updates could be downloaded off the 'net. Sorry.

 

I do have HD. But aside from that, the buildings and cars and people are all rendered beautfiully; like watching newspapers fly all over creation when you back into a box on the street. The buildings all seem to have weathering to them, which I'd think you could tell on a standard-def TV. And the car damage is much, much more realistic - visuals, sounds, the whole deal.

The game would still be spectacular on a SD set, IMO.

 

It's the little touches that are making this game for me.

You can walk behind pedestrians and eavesdrop on conversations. When you go into a slum apartment, cockroaches are on the floor. And the pool sidegame is pretty damn cool too.

 

All this talk . . . I'm trying to hold off a couple of weeks to buy GTA, but my patience probably won't last.

 

I could spend an hour just watching the TV in the apartment. Hysterical.

The details are amazing. Like the fog that rolled over "Coney Island". Wild.

 

The one that made me laugh - and I'll try not to give away too much for those who are behind or haven't gotten it yet - is that you have a chance to meet this one girl. She goes by a pseudonym, Mittens. She explains how much she loves her cats, how she draws three paw prints on every card so it looked like her cats signed them, how she dresses them up to have the 'purrfect' Thanksgiving. And lastly, "I like really violent sex."

And there's the gentleman's club, The Triangle (slogan: The Shape Of Things To Come.)

 

Now that is solid. I probably won't pick up GTA4 for a few reasons. It stopped being really fun when I got halfway through GTA San Andreas. I think I'll stick to my sports games for now. I'm past the all-star game in MLB 2K8 and can't wait to get to the postseason.

 

Gomer, what deal with the devil did you make to kick some serious ass on Mario Circuit? It's like you have five mushroom turbos. (CHEATER!!!)

I've whittled my time on that course down to 1:42 (approaching 1:41), and I still can't catch you.

 

I played some GT4 at my buddy's house earlier...suffice to say, i will be buying either an XBox 360 or PS3 ASAP.