Ask X3F: Just like Mama used to play edition

Welcome once again to the latest installment of Ask X3F, our weekly feature in which we answer only the burningest of reader questions.. The questions are really piling up lately, so we've done our best to tackle as many as we can this week. We've got questions about mom-friendly games, network issues, Xbox Originals, and so very much more. We even have a question about stupid questions. Click past the break to read it all. Do it gingerly though, lest you be buried in an avalanche of knowledge.

Got a question for Ask X3F? Maybe you have a story or some information you'd like to share? Send it all to ask [att] xbox360fanboy [dawt] com.

Rather than print the whole letter, let's just say Mayank wants to know some good "mom-friendly" games. Note to Mayank: Use periods.

Scene-It is a great idea for mom-friendly fun. Xbox Live Arcade games are a good choice as well, as they tend to stick to simple, fun gameplay concepts. On the Xbox Live Arcade front, we suggest puzzle games. Chances are your mom is familiar with Tetris, so give that a try. Same goes for Pac-Man (you should definitely have her try Pac-Man CE). Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? would probably be a good choice too.

Hey guys, ive been having trouble in gears of war 2 with the whole "strict firewall" thing and cant chat with or join partys of any of my firends. My one friend told me to call my isp and they will automatically open ports or something like that. I have the ethernet cable plugged into my router. So 1. Is there any easier way to do this since im not the most technically inclined when it comes to computers? and 2. If i call them what info do i have to give them? Keep up the good work, been reading you guys for like 2 years, probably will stop when either i die, you guys die, or i do something with my life. Thanks =)

GT: CLS Headshot

We haven't heard of this firewall problem before. We're assuming you might be talking about NAT, which can cause matchmaking issues if it is "strict." Go to your Xbox 360 settings and perform a network test. If you have strict or moderate NAT, it should tell you. If that's the case, the only solution might be to pick up an Xbox Live compatible router. You can find a list of those here. If it actually is related to a firewall, you should be able to open the ports yourself. This process varies depending on your router, so you're on your own there. You can visit this page for information on which ports need to be open for Live to work properly. You can also check here to see if your ISP is on Microsoft list of Xbox Live friendly providers.

Best of luck.

Two Questions:
1. With the new Arcade SKU and it's 256MB of internal storage, is a hard drive still required for the backward compatibility?

2. Are the XBox Originals being sold using the same BC engine, or an updated one with bugfixes and/or performance enhancements? It seems like it would be a smart way to fund further, incremental fixes -- which I sincerely hope they are doing.

I bought a PS3 for real BC capabilities, and still have my original XBox. I might dive into an Arcade sooner rather than later, if I can leverage my existing library in these tough economic times.

Thanks!

1. As far as we know, you'll still need a hard drive for backwards compatibility. Remember that every original Xbox shipped with a hard drive. As a result, many games were coded to take advantage of the hard drive. Many games would cache data on the hard drive to reduce load times, for example. So, we're guessing that you'll still need a hard drive for backwards compatibility.

2. Xbox Originals use the exact same code that the backwards compatible titles use. Thus, if there are any problems with the backwards compatible game (bugs, graphical or audio issues, etc.) they will still be present in a downloaded Xbox Original as well. Keep in mind that the Xbox Originals also include any enhancements (higher resolution, etc.) that are found on the same backwards compatible title.

Hi,

I've asked before but I don't think you took me seriously.

Why can't my avatar wear a dress just because he's male?
He can have a female hair cut but no dress.

Hardly seem fair now does it?
MS need to open up their closets (literally) and allow both sex avatars access to the same wardrobe.

I personally don't really need the feature but I figured it could be good for weekends when you can call me Suzy.

Have MS ever considered this or are considering it?

Cheers

Graeme

We haven't the faintest idea why Microsoft doesn't allow Avatars to wear clothing intended for the opposite sex. If we had to guess (and we do), we'd whittle it down to a few possibilities. One, Microsoft simply didn't consider the possibility. That seems unlikely, which brings us to number two. Two, Microsoft did consider it but decided not to touch the concept with a ten foot pole. It's worth noting that neither the Wii or PS3 allow crossdressing in their respective avatar systems either (you can Quincy though).

For the moment, at least, it looks like you'll have to restrict your crossdressing to Fable II (or real life we suppose).

Is there ever a point in time when reading questions from people do you think to yourself, "Why are you bothering me?". I used to keep a list of dumb questions at a previous job of mine, and I was wondering if you guys did anything simliar to that? For example, maybe there is a repeating question that just gets on your nerves and you wish would be banished from all eternity?

Concerned,

Heimbach

Of course not! All questions are precious and we are completely invulnerable to common human emotions like "annoyance." We certainly don't collect "stupid" questions on a cork-board so that we can ridicule them with co-workers. We'd never do something like that. Ever. Honestly though, there are some questions which we simply can't answer, which is a shame.

Hey chaps, Long time reader, first time asker.
Whilst playing a game, I used to be able to whip up the Guide and browse my music to play music whilst gaming, with the advent of the NXE I've noticed this has stopped, with it wanting to lug me back to the dash instead. This has saddened me somewhat, since I liked being able to shove a bit of Megaherz on during a heavy Halo 3 session.

Cheers chaps, continue with the good work.
Matt H -- Shadowm4nX
PS: Anyone noticed the cheeky stab at UK Gamers in Rock Band 2 with the UK Hat?

Never fear Matt, you can still play your music during games. Once you pop open the guide, shift to the Media blade. On the bottom of the media blade is a box that says "Select Music." Click that sucker and you can select the device where your music is stored (flash drive, mp3 player, hard drive, etc.). From there just select the song you want to hear and you're off to the races.

And yes, we did notice the UK headband in Rock Band 2. Very cheeky indeed.

Hello xbox360fanboy, i have read you for almost 6 months, and this is my first question i send.
I live in Guatemala, Central America, and i bought 2 games, xbox originals, halo
and fable, but... when it reaches 99% of download it comes up an error, it says
that it cant be downloaded, and it wont allow me to redownload until i delete the file,
but its the same when it reaches 99%, what can i do?
i bought and downloaded a kingdom for keflings and i didnt have any error.

We're not sure, but we're guessing that the problem is your location. Because Xbox Live is not officially available in Guatemala (here is the official list of regions supported) chances are that Xbox Originals won't work at all. Microsoft region locks all Xbox Originals, which means that you can't download them unless you live in the region the game was released. For example, someone living in the United States can't download an Xbox Original from Japan (similar to what happened with the recent Resident Evil 5 demo). Again, we're not positive, but that's probably your problem. We hope that Microsoft Points weren't deducted from your account, because we're fairly certain you'll never be able to complete your download.

Hey guys,

My friend has a silver xbox live account and didnt recieve the NXE because his internet has been down for a good while. He asked me if i could take his hard drive and download the NXE. I thought that made perfect sense and did it for him. He got home and loaded his 360 but still had the old dash. why didnt it work?

thanks

FatAtHeart

We're not sure about the specifics, but we do know that the NXE is tied to the console to which its installed. When Microsoft was distributing the press builds of the NXE prior to launch, we had to provide our console ID in order to download it. If your friend still doesn't have the NXE, see if he'll let you take his entire console and connect that to Live. It should install the NXE then.


That's it for this week, folks. Keep sending your questions to: ask [att] xbox360fanboy [dawt] com.