Question about Xbox 360 4GB and saving games

That should be plenty for saving games. One nice thing about getting a hard drive is that you can install full games onto the hard drive, which makes it quieter and loads a bit faster.

Game saves are rather small, you should be good. And the issue with the old low end Xbox, no internet, is gone.

Upgrading later might cost a extra, but you'll get your Xbox sooner and possible have a better HDD is MS updates it

i have the 4GB. the hard drive is only good for installing games to it or copying media.

You'll also need the hard drive if you want to download any demos or large DLC. You might be able to fit in 1 or 2, and many more arcade titles but a 250 GB HDD is recommended, if not only for the install ability that shortens load times.

Can't you use a USB memory stick for storage? I asked a huge gaming nerd buddy on twitter who said you can do that, but I haven't tried it myself.

I've had my Xbox for almost 2 years. I don't do much with it so I've only filled around 4gb of my saves and various bits of DLC+demos. But you'd be surprised at how little space you use up if you just stick to disc games.

iceblade said:

I've heard that you can use the USB stick to save data, and I'll definitely use USB sticks if I can/need to. I have a few laying around, and they're relatively inexpensive now, anyway.

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You can. I have a 250GB Slim, but I also have an old 8GB flash drive with all my game saves backed up onto it. Can't hurt to have a backup.

iceblade said:

While installing a game to the HDD might be nice, to save $100 right now, I can do without I think. DLC would be nice... But again, I'm mostly trying to get online so I can play some of the shooters with my friends.

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You have a few options down the road. You can either buy the official 360 Slim hard drive, or you can buy one of the aftermarket Slim cases, and then put the HDD from an older 360 into it. This could be a 20GB, 60GB, 120GB. You can often times find those drives quite cheap, and the cases are only a few bucks. Like this one...

http://www.eachgame.com/goods-4420.html

iceblade said:

While I have this thread open, this occurred to me: I know with the PS3s, you have to have a certain model to play PS2 games (like 60 gig or something, not the cheaper 20 gig model). To play original xbox games, do I need a 250 gig hard drive? I'm interested in some of those. Also, does anyone know if Live still works for those original games, if I play on a 360? Its not a big deal if it isn't, just something that occurred to me.

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All 360s with a hard drive have backward compatibility, but only with a certain group of games. When you put one in, it will download the emulator patch for that game from Xbox Live, and allow you to play. The HDD is required because all of the original Xboxs had a hard drive, so most expect it to be there. I'm not sure if the built-in 4GB drive works for that or not. Here is the list and some info....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_games_compatible_with_Xbox_360

As far as Xbox Live with original Xbox games, no. The original Xbox Live service has been turned off as of April 15th of last year, so any games that have that feature will no longer be able to use it.

iceblade said:

(I hate to keep this thread going, but its better than starting a new thread, or going to the xbox forums where I probably won't get an unbiased answer.)

I appreciate the info and links, I've glanced at all of them (I have had several exams and papers recently) and they show promise. I'll have to look more closely later.

The main reason I'm interested in original xbox titles (specifically halo 1), is I am hoping to play Halo 3 (and other Halo 360 titles). I'm not sure if I will be missing much by not playing halo 1 all the way through, or halo 2 at all (I played part of Halo 1 on computer, but again, I didn't play halo 2 on computer due to it requiring Windows Vista at the time).

Also, concerning the hard drive, I've read that Halo: Reach requires the hard drive. Are there any other games (that you all know of) that require a hard drive? I can put off not playing H: Reach for a while until I get a hard drive, but if its going to become an issue with (several) other games I want to play, then I'll have to reconsider my plan of action with this hard drive issue.

Thanks everyone, I know, I am asking a lot of questions. I just try to be very thorough before purchasing anything.

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Reach doesn't require the HDD. I just checked my case for it actually. It only has about 256MB required. Personally, I'd pass on Halo 3 and ODST. 3 was pretty weak, especially multiplayer, although the campaign was ok. With Reach, you're actually set in the time before the original Halo, so you don't need the backstory. I also think it's easily the best Halo that's been made. The multiplayer is excellent, especially online, and the campaign is a load of fun, especially with co-op. Hope that helps

iceblade said:

Also, concerning the hard drive, I've read that Halo: Reach requires the hard drive.

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alust2013 said:

Reach doesn't require the HDD.

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Reach DOES require a hard drive... but only for co-op campaign and co-op Firefight. You can play solo Campaign, solo Firefight, and the competitive multiplayer just fine without the drive. But the way the game uses data in a co-op campaign situation is a little different, and requires that extra cache space. So, it just depends on what you want to do in Reach whether or not the hard drive is needed.

iceblade said:

Are there any other games (that you all know of) that require a hard drive?

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Not sure if you are a racing game fan, but if you get Forza 3, the hard drive is very helpful with that. They couldn't get all of the game content on one DVD, so some of the cars and tracks are on a second disc. In order to use those cars, or race those tracks, you need to install them to the drive. Other than that, I can't think of any games that REQUIRE the drive, though many of them benefit from it. Streaming data from the drive is much faster than off the disc.

alust2013 said:

Personally, I'd pass on Halo 3 and ODST. 3 was pretty weak, especially multiplayer, although the campaign was ok.

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I disagree on ODST, personally. As far as campaigns go, it is my favorite. The atmosphere, the music, the gameplay. It was totally amazing, in my opinion.

I suggest some rechargeable AA batteries and a charger for your controller(s). Those suckers will eat a set of batteries pretty quick. It's usually cheaper than buying the play and charge kit, plus you can use them with other stuff. If you need to buy cables (component or HDMI) don't buy the microsoft stuff. I paid about 2/3 the price for a component cable for a generic-ish one at best buy, and you can get HDMI cables for 5 or 6 bucks at monoprice.com. Otherwise, I think you're set.

iceblade said:

Oh yeah, forgot about the batteries. Yeah, I'll definitely pick up those. I'll keep in mind the cables... I've always used composite, but I would like to make full (or at least better) use of the graphic capabilities.

Okay... I feel stupid asking another question, but what about internet speeds? I used to play games on a PC with cable (Battlefield 2, stuff like that), but since then we have switched to DSL. Speedtest and speakeasy both say I've got about 6503 kbps or 812.9 KB/sec download -- great. But my upload is 431 kbps, or 53.9 KB/sec. I'm not worried about download speed, I feel like its a little slower than our cable (when the cable worked at all), but the upload speed worries me a little bit. A little lag is fine, but just sitting there lagging the whole time kinda makes playing online terrible.

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It's definitely worth buying the nicer cables if you have a TV that will use them. As far as online, I have played online with similar speeds at home with no issue, so I don't think you will see a whole lot of lag. If you do, it's often people that are far away or have very limited bandwidth.

iceblade said:

Any other suggestions (hardware, etc.)? Other game suggestions (while I am primarily a shooter/MMO fan, I play a little of everything if its good)?

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Borderlands, Fallout, Crackdown, Mass Effect 2, Geometry Wars 2 (XBLA).

Borderlands is a loot-based shooter and crazy awesome. It is fun single-player, but can also be played 4-player co-op. Lots of fun.

Fallout is real hit or miss with people. I love it, but I have friends who don't. It is an RPG Shooter. Both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are quite awesome, and very similar. If you can find Fallout 3: Game of the Year edition cheap, grab it. It has the game plus all 5 of the DLC included. Lots of hours of play in that one. Single player only. New Vegas is still quite new, so it probably isn't cheap yet, but it is a great game that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Crackdown is a 3rd person action game. Think GTA, but reversed. You are a cop with super abilities, and as you progress, these abilities get more powerful. The story is crap, but it is super fun action, and can also be played co-op through the campaign. Crackdown 1 and 2 are very similar. I personally feel that CD2 fixed a lot of the issues from CD1, with next to no downsides. So, if you can find CD2 cheap, get it. If not, CD1 is still awesome and can probably be found for next to nothing now a days.

Mass Effect is a 3rd person action/RPG. The first one was highly acclaimed, but I never played it. Mass Effect 2, though, is totally amazing. The story, the characters, the action, the sci-fi environments, etc. All of it is quite an awesome experience. Plus, you can play the game in many different ways, so multiple playthroughs can have VERY different results.

Geometry Wars 2 is one of my favorite games this generation. It is on Xbox Live Arcade. It is a twin-stick shooter. Think Asteroids, on speed, turned up to 11. Lots of different modes to play, all of which are quite different and fun. Plus, it uses XBL's leaderboards to great effect, by taunting you with your friends scores in all the modes if they play. Awesome fun.

As for internet speeds, the speed isn't really the issue, it is your ping time that matters most. You can play just fine with as little as 1mbps, as long as your ping times are low enough. The higher your ping times, the more lag you will notice in online games.

just finished ME1 on the 360. very good game. nice mix of RPG and FPS. started playing ME2 last night and will pick up ME3 for my once a year pay full price for a new game allowance

Just wanted to chime in to say that I snagged a 250gb hdd off ebay for like $52. Free shipping, but shipped from China, so there was a considerable wait. So if you decide to pick up one, definitely check out ebay...

SevenInchScrew said:

New Vegas is still quite new, so it probably isn't cheap yet, but it is a great game that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

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I'd recommend keeping a backup of your New Vegas saves. I lost interest in New Vegas after my saved game was "corrupted". Great game otherwise though.

kepner said:

I'd recommend keeping a backup of your New Vegas saves. I lost interest in New Vegas after my saved game was "corrupted". Great game otherwise though.

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I must have awesome luck, because with all the problems people have had with Fallout 3 and NV, I've never had them. Fallout 3 locked up on me once, but that was right at launch. After the first patch, I never had any issues. I've yet to have a single issue with NV. I don't doubt you, though, as the games DO have some weird issues. I just never experienced any of them.

SevenInchScrew said:

I must have awesome luck, because with all the problems people have had with Fallout 3 and NV, I've never had them. Fallout 3 locked up on me once, but that was right at launch. After the first patch, I never had any issues. I've yet to have a single issue with NV. I don't doubt you, though, as the games DO have some weird issues. I just never experienced any of them.

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I'm currently running into two glitches: Loyal spawning inside Black Mountain making his array fetching quest unable to be completed, and a random NCR MP becoming hostile after telling the NCR in the Strip that the Boomers will help out. Can't seem to find a way around that one.

If you buy the 4GB version, you will not have the ability to install games into the hard drive. Installing games into the hard drive can shorten load times, hushing down the DVD drive as well as ridding the disc of scratches if played excessively.

You would have some problems with storage if you download DLC as most DLCs that I've downloaded are well above 500MB. You'll be limited in terms of DLC. The Escalation map pack for Black Ops is nearly 980MBs.

But otherwise, the 4GB is a excellent buy but you're limited in terms of storage and if you buy Reach, you can't play certain aspects of matchmaking.

Personally, I have a 250GB Slim, if you can dish out extra $$$, buy that instead.

Oops old thread is old... never mind. Might be useful. :/

7on said:

I'm currently running into two glitches: Loyal spawning inside Black Mountain making his array fetching quest unable to be completed, and a random NCR MP becoming hostile after telling the NCR in the Strip that the Boomers will help out. Can't seem to find a way around that one.

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Totally OT for the thread, but yea I had some weird faction issues in NV as well. Different groups would go from loving me to hating, me seemingly overnight. When in doubt with the NCR, just go kill a bunch of Fiends. That gains you good karma, and raises your overall balance with the NCR.