Bugger, Bugger, BUGGER!!!
Alright, maybe I should just swear off 2k basketball games. That or it’s time to call Microsoft for a replacement 360 (much more likely). Last night I got started on my College Hoops legacy with Sacred Heart. Before the end of the top 5 presentation for the season preview the game locks up with a dirty disc error. When I opened and closed the drive tray (twice) I got errors that the disc should be put into a 360. Only after I powered off the box and restarted it did it load the game again. All appeared okay, but in the one game I played last night I no longer get full-motion replays at halftime and to end the game and the players totally disappeared from the in-game replays. You see a shot of the court, the ball floating around, but no players. I know this (the replay SNAFU) was a problem for some users with NBA2k6 360, but I forget if anyone identified the cause as being the game or the console.
I also know I’ve read about the “not a 360” problem before, so I’m leaning towards this being an issue with my console. It’s odd, however, that of the games I’ve tried it’s only happening with NBA 2k6 and College Hoops 2k6. To add to my wild speculation my brother-in-law said this weekend that Microsoft was having problems with getting bad memory from one of their suppliers so I suppose it’s possible that the 2k games just happen to access a memory address or some such thing that many other games don’t (I’ve had zero troubles with Fight Night, Kong, DOA4, etc.). Not sure how plausible that theory is but it would explain a lot.
If anyone knows anything authoritative about this problem and can confirm that it’s my 360 please do let me know. In the meantime the one game I played last night (Sacred Heart vs. the University of Rhode Island) was another enjoyable loss. I’m a touch concerned that bad players are just not allowed to make certain shots, however (a recurring issue in this series). I can’t count the number of blow shots my 57-rated point guard made from within 5-feet of the rim (including a number of very lightly contested shots). I think at one point half-way through the 3rd quarter my team FG% was around 22. Yowch. My hope/guess is that if it is a problem it can be tweaked with sliders.
On a sidenote: NCIS was fantastic last night.
March 15th, 2006 at 11:21 am
Sounds a lot like typical 2K QA as of late… Expect the same from MLB2K6 on the 360.
I hate to say it as I feel 2K has done some revolutionary things in the past, but they’re getting sloppy. Lately it’s been bugs galore and a lot of delays from this company. I guess they either don’t have the manpower or are getting lazy. Probably lack of manpower.
I doubt it has to do with 2K games accessing a memory address that other games don’t. To the best of my knowledge, they aren’t programming games to only access specific memory addresses. Plus I find it hard to believe that no other game (other than 2K games) has ever tried to access that same memory address.
March 15th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Over at OS, people have cleaned things up by backing up their files on their hard drive to a memory card first, then reformatting.
I had serious problems with CHoops for Xbox in the 2K3 and 2K4 versions that were cleaned up just by deleting the entire game from the hard drive, recopying backed up files and starting from scratch.
The effect of just deleting that game from the hard drive instead of reformatting should be the trick to make it run error free.
I know we shouldn’t have to do these things - these are consoles - but sometimes, we have to do what it takes.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Well, the memory address thing is idle speculation on my part, and keep in mind I’ve only played a handful of games for more than an hour or two.
That said, there has to be a reason only a few people are having this specific problem. That’s why I’m not ready to absolve the console itself, which has clearly not been immune from manufacturing issues. It would explain why some 2k players have no troubles and others do. Anyway, if I find out more I’ll certainly post back.
March 15th, 2006 at 12:11 pm
It’s your 360 Todd, I had 2 360’s with the same problem before I finally got one from repair that didn’t have that problem.
You may only be seeing it in 2K games, but that is just sheer luck, and probably has more to do with the fact that your playing those games more.
for me it would occur after the 360 was on in a speicifc game for a while and then I switched.
It will only get worse, send in the 360. Once you get one without those issues you will be fine.
March 15th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
Cool (in a sucky way). Thanks for the info, Dan! And I agree that it’s the 2k games for me because they get more of my playtime. Granted, I’ve had no troubles at all with Fight Night, but there could be a million reasons for that.
I’ll probably wait until Monday to call MS, though, since I’ve got friend coming into town this weekend and we may get some 360 time in.
March 15th, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Don’t wait until Monday. Call them tomorrow the latest early in the day. It takes anight to get the repair box sent to you. So you’ll have the box by the weekend.
Send it back to them on Monday, chances our you will have a new 360 by Friday. If you don’t get your back on the way back to them by Monday, there is no chance.
Trust me, unfortunately i have a lot of experience with their shipping and repair methods.
March 15th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Yes. NCIS is one of my top five shows this season while I wait for Rescue Me. Gotta love Abby. Well, I do anyways.
March 15th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Yes. NCIS is one of my top five shows this season while I wait for Rescue Me. Gotta love Abby. Well, I do anyways.
Opps. sign in didn’t work the first time.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
I think it is College Hoops and not your 360. Otherwise, explain why the only lockups I ever have got were in college hoops and in NBA 2k6?
Plus, there were plenty of posts on OS about people having this problem also. I can play a game of Madden with no lockups, and I can plan COD2 with no lockups. If you get a lockup in something else, it might be your 360, but otherwise I would blame 2K for the problem.
March 15th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
Kevin, as Dan pointed out almost all of what I play on the 360 are 2k games. The only other title I play a ton of is Fight Night. Granted there were no problems with that, but I did have a DDE with Project Gotham as well.
I honestly have zero idea if it’s 2k or the 360. I see your logic, but your point works in reverse to. What’s different about the 2k games on my console as compared to the majority of players who have no such issues whatsoever with those two games?
That said, given Dan’s experience with this and the fact that getting the console replaced did fix his problem I’m inclined to go the safe route since the last thing I want to do is have my 360 go kaput after the warranty expired, which is exactly how I got burned with DDEs on my original Xbox (ignored ‘em until it was too late to replace the box under warranty).
Bah. If only all this crap worked the way it’s supposed to!!!
March 15th, 2006 at 6:47 pm
Just a quick update for those who are interested. I did talk to MS this evening for a few minutes. I gave the guy the exact details with each title, no exaggerations, and his response was, “it does sound like there’s something wrong with the console.” I’m told I should have a return box by Friday, so I’ll probably go with Dan’s thought which is to ship it back on Monday and hope that by next weekend I’ll have a new and working console back in my posession. (fingers crossed)
I do have to say that the support tech I spoke to was extremely friendly. Didn’t try to lead me down any false paths or blame it on the games.
March 16th, 2006 at 12:12 am
Unfortunately 2k basketball and hockey games have been prone to these errors for years now. There are clearly major bugs in the way their code uses the memory and streams things off the disc. Every one of these games I have had on the original Xbox or 360 has had lockups, unable to read disc errors, sound bugs and other weird errors. Check out NHL2K6 on the 360, play a few games in a row and you will start to notice that the player photos no longer match the names. The photos (or maybe a pointer) are being cached in memory somewhere, and after you play long enough it gets corrupted.
The replay bug you mentioned is already acknowledged by the development team and is caused by a difference between the way the hard drive is implemented in the dev kits and the retail 360. Hopefully it can be patched, but its a bad sign when a developer basically admits that they never tested their code on a retail machine.
March 16th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
The game freezing is one thing — but the replay glitch and the halftime “highlights” seem to be a widespread issue with this particular 2K title.
I haven’t had one dirty disc error on any game I’ve played (and I’ve been renting games from Gamefly since launch), but this game does have all kinds of problems — the replay issue and the halftime still-photos being constant ones in every game I’ve played.
I wouldn’t use those two issues as yardsticks for having a “bad console” since the majority of people at OS playing this game are having those. (the dirty disc error, however, is another matter entirely, and indeed may be a sign of trouble).
Between that and the online component being broken for a lot of gamers, I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel on this title.
March 18th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
I had a freeze in Madden last night. I a getting Oblivion next week, and if I see any problems, I am going to call MS. No sense living with freezes if it is not the software.