UPDATE: Xbox Live is now up and running as usual. Without Avatars, as we said.
Original story: Microsoft's scheduled '24 hours' downtime for Xbox Live maintenance has erm, exceed 24 hours, meaning that Xbox Live and certain sections of Xbox.com are still inaccessible this morning. Who didn't see this coming?
"This just in: the LIVE maintenance is taking longer than expected," posted Microsoft's exceedingly efficient blogger Major Nelson on his Twitter. "I'll have an update at 0200 PT. The post has been updated." That's 10:00am BST, by the way. Around now!
In case you're wondering the update seems to be a standard spring clean, and will not add the New Xbox Experience, says Major Nelson.
The importance of these maintenance sessions was proven last Christmas, when a flux of new users on Xbox Live made online play impossible for certain users for as much as a week.
We got Undertow for free, but we doubt that's an incident Microsoft wants to repeat. We'll let you know when it's back up.
Another few hours of no Xbox Live is fine with me as long as we don't have to go through the nightmare of last Christmas. I ended up running around my house like a demented network engineer,pulling rj45 cables out of routers and resetting them, and then checking wireless network config's only to find out it was the number of new users logging in that broke Xbox Live.....
As long as it works over the Christmas period this year I don't care how long the downtime is.....Just make it work...
The dumbest thing is that I was actually inconvenienced by Live being down for the night.
That's despite having lots of prior warning and knowing full well that it wouldn't be available.
Typical that it'd be that one particular evening that I find myself stuck on a race in Forza and needing to see the leaderboards (and maybe download a setup )....once I realised that my paltry driving skills were not enough to defeat simple AI, I decided to play some Rock Band. Now, you'd think that I'd be more than happy with all the tracks that are on the disc - nope, not last night....last night I had a real need to play some Who and was really wanting to go on and download some of the tracks from Live At Leeds.
Typical that it'd be that one particular evening that I find myself stuck on a race in Forza and needing to see the leaderboards (and maybe download a setup )....once I realised that my paltry driving skills were not enough to defeat simple AI, I decided to play some Rock Band. Now, you'd think that I'd be more than happy with all the tracks that are on the disc - nope, not last night....last night I had a real need to play some Who and was really wanting to go on and download some of the tracks from Live At Leeds.
FYI, this weeks downloads are the RHCP album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Tracks: The Power of Equality If You Have to Ask Breaking the Girl Funky Monks Suck My Kiss I Could Have Lied Mellowship Slinky in B Major The Righteous & The Wicked Blood Sugar Sex Magik Under the Bridge Naked in the Rain Apache Rose Peac**k The Greeting Song My Lovely Man Sir Psycho Sexy They're Red Hot
You said no one told you about last weeks
I've been playing Force Unleashed recently, picked it up cheap, but the disc is skipping/jumping through the cut scenes. I've taken it back once and got it replaces, but it's still doing it, and I've tried the game on a mates and it's fine on his. This means it's my box. Do I get a DVD lense cleaner and give that a shot, or do I contact Microsoft and get them to look at it? Only had it since Xmas so it's well within warrantee still.
It's cool that they at least learn from the dodgyness that was last Christmas. I didn't find it overly bad back then though I suppose. Just the odd night here and there where Call of Duty 4 (the only game I really play online) had a hissy fit and didn't co-operate.
But yeah, I've been glad for the day or two off. Past couple of weeks I've been playing CoD4 quite intensely, and my eyes were starting to die.
Typical that it'd be that one particular evening that I find myself stuck on a race in Forza and needing to see the leaderboards (and maybe download a setup )....once I realised that my paltry driving skills were not enough to defeat simple AI, I decided to play some Rock Band. Now, you'd think that I'd be more than happy with all the tracks that are on the disc - nope, not last night....last night I had a real need to play some Who and was really wanting to go on and download some of the tracks from Live At Leeds.
FYI, this weeks downloads are the RHCP album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Tracks: The Power of Equality If You Have to Ask Breaking the Girl Funky Monks Suck My Kiss I Could Have Lied Mellowship Slinky in B Major The Righteous & The Wicked Blood Sugar Sex Magik Under the Bridge Naked in the Rain Apache Rose Peac**k The Greeting Song My Lovely Man Sir Psycho Sexy They're Red Hot
You said no one told you about last weeks
I've been playing Force Unleashed recently, picked it up cheap, but the disc is skipping/jumping through the cut scenes. I've taken it back once and got it replaces, but it's still doing it, and I've tried the game on a mates and it's fine on his. This means it's my box. Do I get a DVD lense cleaner and give that a shot, or do I contact Microsoft and get them to look at it? Only had it since Xmas so it's well within warrantee still.
Well, you could definitely consider using your retailers warranty - it'll expire in a couple of months anyway....one thing though - do you have a Premium?
If so - what happens if the retailer doesn't have any left in stock?...I had to exchange my Elite twice at HMV - first time was fine, but the second took a week as they had none in stock.
Thanks for the RB update - I read about Blood Sugar Sex Magic yesterday.....not really my cup of tea though, I don't mind RHCP; but I've never particularly liked that album - seems to all sound the same (something I like to refer to as the 'Jamiroquai Effect').
The dumbest thing is that I was actually inconvenienced by Live being down for the night.
That's despite having lots of prior warning and knowing full well that it wouldn't be available.
Typical that it'd be that one particular evening that I find myself stuck on a race in Forza and needing to see the leaderboards (and maybe download a setup )....once I realised that my paltry driving skills were not enough to defeat simple AI, I decided to play some Rock Band. Now, you'd think that I'd be more than happy with all the tracks that are on the disc - nope, not last night....last night I had a real need to play some Who and was really wanting to go on and download some of the tracks from Live At Leeds.
Bloody MS.
That is the BIG down fall of the xbox! The games revolve around LIVE! they dont allow other companys to host the servers! So thats the main advantage about PC and PS3! Although i was p**sed off lastnight because Gears Of war on the PC run's via Live! And i didnt wanna mod the game to play on illegal server's so i have to wait till tonight
Well, you could definitely consider using your retailers warranty - it'll expire in a couple of months anyway....one thing though - do you have a Premium?
If so - what happens if the retailer doesn't have any left in stock?...I had to exchange my Elite twice at HMV - first time was fine, but the second took a week as they had none in stock.
Can I take it back to the retailer then? It was bought from Game - if I could exchange it, that would be awesome. I got the 20 gig version, can't remember if that's core, or premium, or what. All I know is, it has the HDMI port, which is what I want again.
One thing that does concern me though, I've noticed that, when I take Rock Band and my HDD round to my mates, many of the downloaded tracks don't appear. Makes me wonder if they are linked to a specific console - would I have to re-download all those tracks again (as they stay 'bought' with the profile)?
What a PITA.
Thanks for the RB update - I read about Blood Sugar Sex Magic yesterday.....not really my cup of tea though, I don't mind RHCP; but I've never particularly liked that album - seems to all sound the same (something I like to refer to as the 'Jamiroquai Effect').
Agreed. Suck my Kiss is ok, but really, Dani California scratches my RHCP desire anyway, and that comes as standard.
One thing that does concern me though, I've noticed that, when I take Rock Band and my HDD round to my mates, many of the downloaded tracks don't appear. Makes me wonder if they are linked to a specific console - would I have to re-download all those tracks again (as they stay 'bought' with the profile)?
Your mates console needs to be hooked up to LIVE in order for it to validate any downloaded songs. That's what I had to do to get my downloaded tracks to work at my mates gaff on his machine anyway (with my HDD on his machine).
Well, you could definitely consider using your retailers warranty - it'll expire in a couple of months anyway....one thing though - do you have a Premium?
If so - what happens if the retailer doesn't have any left in stock?...I had to exchange my Elite twice at HMV - first time was fine, but the second took a week as they had none in stock.
Can I take it back to the retailer then? It was bought from Game - if I could exchange it, that would be awesome. I got the 20 gig version, can't remember if that's core, or premium, or what. All I know is, it has the HDMI port, which is what I want again.
One thing that does concern me though, I've noticed that, when I take Rock Band and my HDD round to my mates, many of the downloaded tracks don't appear. Makes me wonder if they are linked to a specific console - would I have to re-download all those tracks again (as they stay 'bought' with the profile)?
What a PITA.
Thanks for the RB update - I read about Blood Sugar Sex Magic yesterday.....not really my cup of tea though, I don't mind RHCP; but I've never particularly liked that album - seems to all sound the same (something I like to refer to as the 'Jamiroquai Effect').
Agreed. Suck my Kiss is ok, but really, Dani California scratches my RHCP desire anyway, and that comes as standard.
I love blood,sugar,sex,magic i saw them live way back in 95 playing alot of tunes from it so i'm quite looking forward to playing under the bridge, give it away,i could have lied, sod it the whole album
This, Xbox users, is what you pay for. I would be miffed if I owned a 360. I think the real reason the network was "undergoing maintenance" is because Nintendo got wind of Microsofts Avatar "Idea" and decided to crash the damn thing.
For those of you who cant see the sarcasm, I am simply saying that a) Microsoft obviously charge Xbox users too much for online use when it doesnt work and b) Its a good idea the avatars have gone because its a blaitant rip off of Nintendos "Mii" Idea and quite farcical.
This, Xbox users, is what you pay for. I would be miffed if I owned a 360. I think the real reason the network was "undergoing maintenance" is because Nintendo got wind of Microsofts Avatar "Idea" and decided to crash the damn thing.
For those of you who cant see the sarcasm, I am simply saying that a) Microsoft obviously charge Xbox users too much for online use when it doesnt work and b) Its a good idea the avatars have gone because its a blaitant rip off of Nintendos "Mii" Idea and quite farcical.
Sort it out Microsoft.
The Avatars haven't 'gone' - they're simply saying the Fall dashboard update hasn't arrived, which Microsoft and Major Nelson have been making perfectly clear since the announcement of the maintenance.
Well, you could definitely consider using your retailers warranty - it'll expire in a couple of months anyway....one thing though - do you have a Premium?
If so - what happens if the retailer doesn't have any left in stock?...I had to exchange my Elite twice at HMV - first time was fine, but the second took a week as they had none in stock.
Can I take it back to the retailer then? It was bought from Game - if I could exchange it, that would be awesome. I got the 20 gig version, can't remember if that's core, or premium, or what. All I know is, it has the HDMI port, which is what I want again.
One thing that does concern me though, I've noticed that, when I take Rock Band and my HDD round to my mates, many of the downloaded tracks don't appear. Makes me wonder if they are linked to a specific console - would I have to re-download all those tracks again (as they stay 'bought' with the profile)?
What a PITA.
Thanks for the RB update - I read about Blood Sugar Sex Magic yesterday.....not really my cup of tea though, I don't mind RHCP; but I've never particularly liked that album - seems to all sound the same (something I like to refer to as the 'Jamiroquai Effect').
Agreed. Suck my Kiss is ok, but really, Dani California scratches my RHCP desire anyway, and that comes as standard.
I love blood,sugar,sex,magic i saw them live way back in 95 playing alot of tunes from it so i'm quite looking forward to playing under the bridge, give it away,i could have lied, sod it the whole album
Marty, Parma - I like you guys, well as much as you can like an anonymous person on a forum, but you speak sense!
Now take back the comments on BSSM please!! I know RHCP are god awful now (Stadium Arcadium was the first album I didn't buy since Mothers Milk) but BSSM is soo good. Surely made for Rock Band as it has some of the most inventive guitar and bass of the last 20 years or so without being a guitar wank fest!
Perhaps I am being too nostaligic though...
I saw em in 96, backstage passes and was all abit too much for a nervous 17 year old as my brother (who has a shaved head complete with tattoo) went up to Natalie Imbruglia and shouted at her "f**k me that was f**king GREAT!!!" to which the diminutive, talentless (albeit gorgeous) singer replied "ummm yeah...".
I can't believe people get so upset about an online service going down for a few hours. My god people go outside, watch Celtic get beaten tonight, go to the pub, see your woman, don't play online for a change. It's not gone forever so use your time to do something else!
This, Xbox users, is what you pay for. I would be miffed if I owned a 360. I think the real reason the network was "undergoing maintenance" is because Nintendo got wind of Microsofts Avatar "Idea" and decided to crash the damn thing.
For those of you who cant see the sarcasm, I am simply saying that a) Microsoft obviously charge Xbox users too much for online use when it doesnt work and b) Its a good idea the avatars have gone because its a blaitant rip off of Nintendos "Mii" Idea and quite farcical.
Sort it out Microsoft.
The Avatars haven't 'gone' - they're simply saying the Fall dashboard update hasn't arrived, which Microsoft and Major Nelson have been making perfectly clear since the announcement of the maintenance.
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"Xbox LIVE has failed"!? That's a wee bit much don't you think CVG?
)....once I realised that my paltry driving skills were not enough to defeat simple AI, I decided to play some Rock Band. Now, you'd think that I'd be more than happy with all the tracks that are on the disc - nope, not last night....last night I had a real need to play some Who and was really wanting to go on and download some of the tracks from Live At Leeds.
