23 replies to this topic

[Metal Ghost]

Hello all...did anyone else sign up to beta test the Xbox 360 update? I signed up last week, but never got any e-mails confirming my submission or ever letting me know that I was accepted as a beta tester.

So last night I boot up to play a little Shadow Complex, and there's an update pending. Hmmm, didn't remember there being an update on our bedroom 360, but whatever. So it downloads, installs, etc., and low and behold I know have an Xbox Beta category on my living room 360. Guess I must have gotten accepted(?).

Anyway, I wanted to know if anyone else was beta testing and, if so, did you get any correspondence letting you know?

[moycon]

I didn't. What sort of update are you talking about? Like a dashboard update?

[Metal Ghost]

Yes, Major Nelson talks about it on his website, but one of the big things is that it will free up 1gb of space on new Xbox 360 discs for developers to use. How, I don't know.

[cimerians]

moycon, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 9:23 AM, said:

I didn't. What sort of update are you talking about? Like a dashboard update?

News here:
http://www.vg247.com...review-program/


Blog Info here:
Here

I signed up but forgot all about it.

Edited by cimerians, Thu Apr 7, 2011 9:46 AM.

[Mendon]

I was a Beta tester for around 3 weeks on the last dashboard update and swore that I'd never do it again.

Nothing went wrong, i.e. my system didn't crash or games not run or untold glitches interfere with operation etc etc.... it was just having to sit thru 10min+ download/install updates once or twice a day, EVERY DAY, that I found annoying.

I haven't fired up the 360 in about a week so I'll have to check and see if there are any updates at all.


Mendon

[HatefulGravey]

Are we getting new features? I like new stuff!

i was a beta tester in the past, not for xbox but PC stuff, and I hated it. It was kind of cool to know what was coming or what might be coming, but the extra crap was uncool. I had to write reports and stuff, I don't think xbox needs all that, they will just monitor your use...

[keilbaca]

A few guys on Scorehero got into it - the newest update fully stops flashed xbox drives as of now.

So if you're like me, and you like keeping your games in pristine condition, and burning a copy to play, you're out of luck till the new firmware comes out.

[Itchy Koala]

keilbaca, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 9:57 AM, said:

A few guys on Scorehero got into it - the newest update fully stops flashed xbox drives as of now.

So if you're like me, and you like keeping your games in pristine condition, and burning a copy to play, you're out of luck till the new firmware comes out.

Yeah, I buy my games to sit on the shelf too. The effort of burning copies is totally worth it when my big bumpin is mint in 2015.

[HatefulGravey]

Even if you truely buy games that you mean to burn to play, you have to understand why they have to stop that kind of thing. There are many many more people that rent games and burn them, get it from a friend and burn it, or download it and burn it. We don't have to like it, but its illegal to do those things and in order to stop the illegal stuff we have to stop the legal stuff too sometimes. Gray areas suck!

[keilbaca]

Itchy Koala, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 10:44 AM, said:

keilbaca, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 9:57 AM, said:

A few guys on Scorehero got into it - the newest update fully stops flashed xbox drives as of now.

So if you're like me, and you like keeping your games in pristine condition, and burning a copy to play, you're out of luck till the new firmware comes out.

Yeah, I buy my games to sit on the shelf too. The effort of burning copies is totally worth it when my big bumpin is mint in 2015.

I travel with my xbox a lot to different places, so if things get stolen for some reason, I'm not out hundreds of dollars in games.

[Metal Ghost]

I was on the fence about joining, but I really do like to help out with things like this and, I'm not going to lie, a free copy of Halo: Reach was pretty cool. I already own it, but a buddy of mine doesn't. Once we finish off our most recent ODST co-op campaign, now we'll be able to switch over to Reach.

I'll have to see if Zeptari is up for some co-op too now that I think of it.

But I digress....all I know is that I defnitely did not get any confirmation e-mails about this. Very weird. And as of right now the Xbox Beta category doesn't do anything, but I am indeed intrigued!

[Hyper_Eye]

I also received the update without any notice but if you check the beta site you will see that your status for this particular program is active. I don't know when the beta Reach discs are supposed to go out. I will note that one of the conditions of participation in the beta is that you do not talk about it on blogs or forums. I don't think the MS beta police are going to swoop in but... just a reminder.

[Starscream]

I'm in.

[moycon]

How do you guys get in on these Beta's?

[Hyper_Eye]

http://connect.microsoft.com/

The Xbox Live update is one of the beta programs listed. You have to sign up and then apply for the program you are interested in participating in.

[Metal Ghost]

Hyper_Eye, on Thu Apr 7, 2011 10:03 PM, said:

http://connect.microsoft.com/

The Xbox Live update is one of the beta programs listed. You have to sign up and then apply for the program you are interested in participating in.

Hyper_Eve is correct....as an addendum, it was announced on Major Nelson's website.

[HammR25]

Hmmm, new DVD format, interesting. So basically this version of Halo Reach is on the new dvd.

edit: I just read the following comment on the 1up story about the new dvd format and think it sums up everything quite nicely.

ScoobyDeuce said:

Is there any way to tell how much of the current disc is actually used for a given game? Game makers aren't clamoring for more space anyways, as the new business model is to ship an incomplete game and sell you remaining content through DLC.

http://www.1up.com/n...creases-storage

[Hyper_Eye]

Reach disc showed up today.

[cimerians]

I just got mine today too. Plain green box with a generic DVD inside (Halo Reach + the XBL update) and a letter from Microsoft.

I didn't get an email confirmation or anything, it just arrived without notice.

I'll try it tonight if I have the time.

[cimerians]

My dash has an Xbox Beta tag. Upon entering it shows this:



Anyone else have that? Click on some of the options there makes my screen blink a bit strangely. Also Halo Reach seems a bit blurry in some parts of the game. Guess I should be reporting this to them on there forum....

[Hyper_Eye]

I've had the menu for a while. Did your Xbox update when you put the disc in? Some people received the update over Live and some didn't so that they would get the update when putting the disc in. They wanted to test both possibilities. When I put my Reach disc in no update was performed and it played fine. I believe that means the update that added the menus was the update that added support for the disc.

[Starscream]

Hyper_Eye, on Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

I've had the menu for a while. Did your Xbox update when you put the disc in? Some people received the update over Live and some didn't so that they would get the update when putting the disc in. They wanted to test both possibilities. When I put my Reach disc in no update was performed and it played fine. I believe that means the update that added the menus was the update that added support for the disc.

Same here, initial DL update and nothing with Reach.

[cimerians]

Hyper_Eye, on Mon Apr 11, 2011 9:20 PM, said:

I've had the menu for a while. Did your Xbox update when you put the disc in? Some people received the update over Live and some didn't so that they would get the update when putting the disc in. They wanted to test both possibilities. When I put my Reach disc in no update was performed and it played fine. I believe that means the update that added the menus was the update that added support for the disc.

Same with me. No update on the disc even though I was expecting that. I did receive a lengthy Xbox Live update last week when I signed in. That must have been it.

[onlysublime]

there were 2 distinct testing groups: 1 received the XBL update via XBL and the other group installed the new dashboard via the disc. both groups received the disc with the extended writing. they're basically testing to make sure all the various DVD drive models and 360 motherboard systems work fine with the new firmware. and that the new firmware doesn't affect reading of older game discs as well.