Xbox 360 Annoyance #016: Moving originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 29 Nov 2006 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The Xbox 360 headset has some issues. Some of these issues are clearly related to the software used to send voice back and forth on the Xbox 360. We figure that Microsoft is using some wonderful new compression technology that allocates less bandwidth to voice so that they can squeeze video data from the upcoming camera through the same pipes.

Some of the problems with the headset are clearly hardware related, however. That's why Xbox 360 user (PS3 fanboy? We can't verify) George Ogan has created the petition we link to here. The points made are solid, so that's why George's petition is getting the linklove.

Matter of fact, this thoughtful petition could very well be one of our Xbox 360 annoyances. Actually, it just became one. Nice work, George.

Other Xbox 360 annoyances: 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 013, 014

Xbox 360 delights: 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 011

Xbox 360 headset: "cheap," "painful," "horrible" sounding. Oh yeah, it eats babies too (Xbox 360 annoyance #015) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 08 Mar 2006 01:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Still downloading... downloading... downloading... (Xbox 360 annoyance #003.1) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 07 Mar 2006 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Nontransferable save game data (Xbox 360 annoyance #013)

Nontransferable save game data (Xbox 360 annoyance #013) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 06 Feb 2006 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Red lights, no explanation (Xbox 360 annoyance #012)

Red lights, no explanation (Xbox 360 annoyance #012) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 30 Jan 2006 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Failing the boyfriend test (Xbox 360 annoyance #011)

Failing the boyfriend test (Xbox 360 annoyance #011) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 25 Jan 2006 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Can I have my email address back? (Xbox 360 annoyance #010) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 02 Jan 2006 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

For most gamers setting up their Xbox 360s over the last several weeks, the biggest difficulty wasn't fighting off rabid dust bunnies in order to perform a cabling reach-around. The biggest annoyance was entering information into the Xbox 360 via the primitive text interface. It should be at least as easy as entering text on the Sony PSP. Here are the issues with entering text into the 360:

• When entering addresses, it should accept zipcode first and allow me to select my city from a drop-down

• There's no predictive text input. Not a big deal when entering address information, but it would definitely simplify text-messages sent to other players.

• It's so much slower than web-commerce with a keyboard, mouse and browser that it's simply aggravating. It's just primitive. If you've ever tried to conduct e-commerce over a cell phone, you know what it feels like.

• It's insecure. In setting up a password or entering it, for instance, users must select each letter of the password with the controller. Anybody that watches this process can easily steal your password, and they're not just getting your Xbox Live password, they're getting your Hotmail password too. If Xbox Live and Passport weren't integrated, however, a more natural and more secure password comprised of controller buttons could be used (e.g., x, b, a, a, RT, LT, x, b).

• Joystiq reader Douggy writes, "Where this gets really annoying is ripping burnt CDs onto the hard drive. If you want to name your albums, genre, etc. the controller really sucks!"

Where's that rumored qwerty keyboard, already? And please, can we have biometric identification in the next-next generation of consoles? It's already standard on Lenovo laptops.

PS: Yes, we know that a USB keyboard can be plugged in to the Xbox 360. But this is our living room. Keyboards and other PC clutter do not belong here. That was our big beef with the so-called wireless controllers (see annoyance #002, below). We do not want USB hubs, wires, keyboards, and other crap cluttering the living room.

Other Xbox 360 annoyances: 001, 002, 003, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008 (more to come)

Xbox 360 delights: 001 (more to come)

Painful Xbox 360 texting needs work (Xbox 360 annoyance #009) originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 11 Dec 2005 02:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Since our first experience with the Xbox 360 disc-scratching issue, numerous anecdotal reports from around the game-o-sphere have given us a better feel for the conditions under which the issue occurs. This is a wrap-up of those issues and of the annoyance:

• vertical orientation alone does not scratch DVDs

• horizontal orientation alone does not scratch DVDs

• movement of the Xbox 360 during play scratches DVDs

• • movement could be someone running through the house and sending shocks to the system through your floorboards

  • movement is often done on purpose when friends try to show friends the cool way in which the ring of light reorients itself with its fancy mercury switch

  • movement is often accidental, as when annoying controller cables are tripped over in the dark, jarring the Xbox 360

  • sometimes, people just get sick of poorly designed boss fights, and kick their Xbox 360s in frustration

  • and sometimes, customers are committing fraud by purposefully destroying games that have been played to completion so that they can be exchanged for store credit that is used to purchase new games

This annoyance falls into the "so annoying we want to kick the family pet" category. I have moved various home electronics devices while they were spinning DVDs and audio CDs and not once have I hosed a media disc so thoroughly. I regularly move my laptop while its hard disk and DVD drives are spinning, and no damage has occurred yet. Sure, a console is meant to be stationary, but if fault tolerance is the norm amongst home consumer electronics devices, it should be the norm for the Xbox 360 as well because customers have come to expect that base level of fault tolerance.

Continue reading Ring of disc death (Xbox 360 annoyance #008)

Ring of disc death (Xbox 360 annoyance #008) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Dec 2005 02:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This annoyance comes to us via reader ChicagoOne, who sent us the following tip: "Come on Microsoft, you design the "standard" media format, but now the only way we can watch our WMV-HD flicks is to use a media center pc? My guess is the software is in the box, but we will have to pay for the right to pop in a disc later..."

ChicagoOne has pinpointed a very annoying aspect of the Xbox 360. We know that Microsoft needs to encourage people to buy Windows Media Center PCs. Someone, somewhere inside Microsoft is rewarded based on sales of this flavor of the Windows XP operating system and that certain someone successfully convinced or forced the Xbox 360 product team to cripple the functionality of the Xbox 360 to limit the threat to his product. We hate it when companies let internal politics compromise product design. That's precisely the problem with Sony's insistence with using UMD and Memory Sticks in the PSP when a standard technology would be far more customer-friendly (but simultaneously more threatening to Sony's non-gaming business units).

In essence, the Xbox 360 is a crippled digital media receiver (DMR) and as such, it's hardly the magical hub of the so-called "digital home" (a term that The Economist has called "marketing claptrap"). Instead of accepting a variety of streams from the full array of Windows-based devices, the Xbox 360 is only allowed to receive streams of music and photos from the laptop used to write this post because Windows XP Pro falls to the wrong manager's profit and loss statement.

Continue reading Digital lifestyle from a dumb terminal? Not likely. (Xbox 360 annoyance #007)

Digital lifestyle from a dumb terminal? Not likely. (Xbox 360 annoyance #007) originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 07 Dec 2005 01:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Tonight we conducted an experiment. Inspired by the picture of an Xbox 360 power brick displayed next to a GameCube, we submersed both an Xbox 360 power brick and a GameCube in water to conduct a volume test. Don't worry. Each was safely wrapped in plastic.

Method:

1. Fill a small trash bin with water

2. Take note of the water level (indicated by a millimeter rule taped to the inside of the bin)

3. Put electronic object into waterproof plastic bag, submerge in water

4. Take new reading of water level

5. Remove object from water, replenish water to pre-submersion level

6. Measure how much water is required to bring water to post-submersion level

7. Convert liters to cubic meters (using this tool)

Results:

Continue reading Xbox 360 power supply dunked in water to prove it's damned big (Xbox 360 annoyance #006)

Xbox 360 power supply dunked in water to prove it's damned big (Xbox 360 annoyance #006) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Dec 2005 21:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The clock chimes once, snapping you out of your gamer's haze as your fingers continue to instinctively manipulate the controller. It's 1:00 AM on a Sunday, and you're at the turn of a nonstop 48-hour gaming marathon. Your stomach growls-you haven't eaten since Thursday. The fridge has been empty since your wife left you, and your kids have all since run away to join the Peace Corps.

Eating them is out of the question.

You wince as the pangs of hunger rack your intestines, but you can't stop now. You're pwning n00bs on Xbox Live like never before-one wrong move and your unheralded winning streak will come screeching to a halt. If only there were something nearby to satisfy your craving, something succulent and delicious, something right below the television and just a little to the left... the Xbox, of course! Eyes glued to your 50" high-def display, you drop to your knees and shuffle over to the console, fans humming peaceably, blissfully unaware of its fate. You lean over the console, jaws spread wide, and...

WHOA! Just hold on there a second, Sonny Jim. Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom, neglected to plan for such a contigency as yours. This here Xbox 360 is constructed of plastic; a strong, durable, lightweight material which nonetheless tastes like crap. Depending on whom you ask, this here games machine might not even be edible. Good going, Microsoft, now Sonny Jim is lying dead on the floor, his fingers continuing to manipulate his controller, pwning posthumously.

If only he'd bought a Dreamcast.

Plastic doesn't taste nearly as good as chocolate (Xbox 360 annoyance #005) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This first image shows the media controls when playing a trailer downloaded from the Xbox 360 marketplace. Note the extremely simple controls. The widget is lacking fast forward and rewind, not to mention step forward, and other functions that are included on even $50 DVD players.

This second image shows the controls available when playing a DVD on the Xbox 360. Why are the controls so much more limited for downloaded content? Why is this feature crippled for downloaded content?

This is annoying.

Previous Xbox 360 annoyances: 001, 002, 003.

Xbox 360 can't fast forward trailers (Xbox 360 annoyance #004) originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

File this one under bad UI design. When downloading content in the Xbox 360 Marketplace, a small dialog box shows your download progress. While this dialog box is in place, you can access no other content on the Xbox 360 if you want your download to finish.

Surely the system can multitask, but perhaps the designers of the system wanted to make sure that the hard drive and Internet connection on the Xbox 360 wasn't busy with any other task when gamers were playing a game. In this way, the system would appear to be speedy and there would be no risk of the sluggishness that tends to plague any computer that is tasked with too many jobs.

And yet, we still think it dumb. The download feature should allow users to select content, add it to a download queue (see the playlist feature of the music player-this functionality should be extended to downloads), and then do other stuff on the system.

Previous Xbox 360 annoyances: 001, 002.

Stupid download screen limbo (Xbox 360 annoyance #003) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Dec 2005 23:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Before we get all nitpicky it should be noted out of fairness that the Xbox 360's designers had no easy task. They wanted to give gamers the beauty and convenience of a wireless controller, but they also needed to make sure that help is near when batteries run low in the middle of a critical Xbox Live competitive experience. Hot-swapping of batteries isn't an option in high-stakes scenarios (those of you who are in league 1 of Project Gotham Racing 3 know what we mean).

The only solution to these conflicting concerns is to create a controller that accepts a power cord for charging at any time.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's designers underestimated gamer laziness. Rather than use the play-and-charge kit only when the controllers need to be charged, we find ourselves just leaving them plugged in all the time because it's too much trouble to neatly wrap up then put away the play-and-charge kit. Once we started leaving it in the system, we were able to recharge the controllers more conveniently, but now our living room looks messy! The core wireless design aesthetic has been ruined.

Like us, most gamers are going to leave their play-and-charge cables plugged in to the Xbox 360 so that when their controller runs out of juice they can charge it up conveniently. At that point, it doesn't matter if you disengage from the play-and-charge for wireless gaming because you've still got a spaghetti monster's worth of wires spilling out from your Xbox 360.

Essentially, we're now back to wired controllers. Even if Microsoft were to release the mysteriously absent battery charger, we'd be subject to the fundamental risk of play interruption. But at this point, anything's better than these damned wires. The solution? See photo.

In sum: a beautiful controller is marred by a jumble of wires. It's still the best controller to ever grace a game system, but that doesn't mean it's perfect.

Previous Xbox 360 annoyances: 001.

Xbox 360 wireless controllers aren't (Xbox 360 annoyance #002) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Dec 2005 22:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Justin Nolan over at 360insider blogs about one of our key annoyances with Project Gotham Racing 3 and Call of Duty 2. When in a multiplayer match, smack talk is expected. But some people who play on Xbox Live are sometimes very foul, probably in part because they feel immune from punishment.

The issue is that PGR3 and other games lack an on-screen indicator showing who is talking. If you want to leave negative feedback for the jerk who thinks that black people should not be allowed to play video games, you can't, because you don't know which of the people you're playing with spouted the hate in the first place.

It needs to be fixed. This is not an optional feature in an online game with voice.

Project Gotham Racism (Xbox 360 annoyance #001) originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 05 Dec 2005 21:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.