I think the games coming up are more geared towards online play. I think online gaming is gonna become a lot more popular with later consoles. Online gaming is practically all I do these days, that or I' m trying to get something better, or get something unlocked in single player, to use for online play. Ranking systems make it even more addicting, it makes me want to get better and better. Whats the top rank anyone here has gotten? I' ve been rank number 1 in weekly bombing run in unreal championship(xbox) Do you guys think online gaming is becoming more popular and do you think games that don' t have online play are more enjoyable compared to online ones?

I enjoy online gaming, but I absolutely hate stats or rankings. After playing on Live as a Beta tester to present, it' s easy to see that rankings and stats actually take away from the game. People are so concerned about keeping their ranking high that they resort to cheap tactics, and if they lose they bitch about it. " Oh no, I just dropped 10 spots, woe is me!" , I just can' t stand that stuff.

I don' t even play Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow online in ranked games anymore because so many people drop because they want to keep their 4 or 5 ranking, its crazy. The only game I ever kept track of myself in was Return to Castle Wolfenstein, where I somehow managed to work my way down to 30th or 40th overall in Elimination. Other than that I just play to play.

I can' t stand cheaters, they ruin games, and cheap tactics as well. People should play fairly and except losses, I think xbox live should be cheat free, as well as any other online gaming community ruined by cheaters.

Well, it' s mainly cheat free but with the help of a little device called Action Replay some interesting things can happen. The last really big game with cheats was RTCW. I remember stopping in a server once and I saw someone flying through the air, and everyone in the server had an infinite amount of airstrikes. It was like a virus because if you joined the server and hosted a server without turning off your Xbox after, your server would have the exact cheats as the last.

Now everyone questions everything on Live because of Action Replay. I' ve heard that it' s possible to do some things with AR on Rainbow Six 3, but I never saw any of them outside of the ones the developers unintentionally put in the game, such as invisible walls and such. The worst game/games to have many glitches which can ruin a game would be Unreal Championship and Unreal 2. Unreal Championship had some many places to get under the maps it was even funny. Then there was the glitch with the tag rifle, and the invicibility glitch. Unreal 2 wasn' t so bad but I was messing around 3 weeks ago and I found out that you can get under almost all of the maps, which is crazy. I haven' t touched the game since and I' ll probably be selling it the first chance I get.

Yeah, I havent seen any of the RS3 glitches, but I' ve been accused of using them because I killed the same guy 3 times in a span of 4 rounds. I tried to explain that he charged the same door everytime and all I had to do was wait and shoot. I dont even own an Act. Replay, and think its lame. If you want to cheat to open levels, just wait on OXM to give a download on thier disc. Dont get an AR, as long as companies like AR are around cheating will thrive.

I havn' t seen hardly any cheaters in unreal championship. I saw one guy who would float through the level, but thats about all i remember. In rainbow six, i' ve seen people use molotov coctails, which explode and kill you instantly on contact. Darn cheaters!

I didnt know it was possible for cheating to happen thru online consoles. tis sad. Hopefully that new version of X-Live (tsunami) will do somthing about the issue.

Sometimes is isn' t like a hack or something. In UC people could get on top of the levels, underneath, become invincible, etc, etc. These things were glitches that could have been fixed had they properly play tested the game, although there will always be a few things to slip out though.

On games like Unreal 2 there shouldn' t be any sort of glitches like that, and yet they are. The glitches aren' t even as hard to accomplish as they were in UC. You walk to an overhang that goes to the ground, crouch, and then walk farther in, and uncrouch...and you are now inside of the wall. Just goes to show you that sometimes people don' t learn from their mistakes.

What did the xbox live update they did yesterday ( april 21 ) do? I havnt had time to get on, i don' t think i will have time today either

Heres the info on the lil update. Its not an immediate thing but its the start of it.

Tsunami

Added some features like the MSN invite system, voice messages, viewing the dashboard in 480 resolution, and some other things, most of which will have to be activated by game developers.

Voice messages sound sweet!

Phantasy Star Online is still my favorite Online game! Whenever I am free nowadays - you' ll find me on it!

FF:CC Has so much potential to be a PSO beater - if only it had online play it would be awsome. I sadly don' t have 3 local mates who are into games as much as me, so if they made it online it would be perfect. I would play alot more rather then only when I have enough mates to play it at home.

As for an Online system/structure, Xbox Live is the way forward. Very userfriendly and consistent whatever game you wish to play. If only they released more games for it. PSO on Xbox isn' t my cup of tea, and I dont feel as glued into the games as I did on the Dreamcast.

Anyone who had a chance to use Sega' s JP Dricas service will know how good an online portal can be. Dricas users were all using a 33kbps dreamcast modem, and the basic services provided on all game disks were web browsing, E-mail, Java style online games - and the most upto date games info you could get. When i first played Sega Rally on Dricas, it was too good to be true! Apart from PSO, Virtual On:OT was a brilliant online game on the Dreamcast. I still miss the intense battles I used to have with those from the land of the Rising Sun! Oh Sega - why did you have to take those servers down

Why did they take the dreamcast servers down anyways? Money issues? And does anybody know if xbox live servers will be closed in the far future?

I don' t play online, nor do I have any intention of doing so any time soon. Maybe I' m in the minority, but I' ve always hated online play. Furthermore, my genre of choice is RPGs, and I think they' re vastly superior single-player. But that' s just me.

I love online mostly because it can be more unpredictable in a real life kinda way. Yer playing with real ppl. It seems to be more competitive to me. But I havent played online in awhile, so im on middle ground here, cuz i love playing offline and refining my skills and stuff.

Right now I' m deep into FFXI for the PC and Steel Battalion: Line of Contact on Xbox Live.

Both excelent but expensive to buy as SB costs £130 and FFXI needs to be imported to the UK : ( and then there are the monthly fees.

Steel Battalion is really expensive! How is that game online?