[360] XBox Live Gold Free for 72 Hours: 1~4 May

[sideshowbob]

XBox Live XTival (http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xtival09)

Xbox LIVE Gold available at no additional cost from midday (GMT) 1 May to midday (GMT) 4 May.

Requires Xbox 360 console, broadband access and a Silver Xbox LIVE account.

Worth it if you don't have a sub, or perhaps you have a Gold sub and you know someone who's too tight to pay for one ... :)

[ColinP]

Do those of who have paid for this period get our subs extended by four days?

[sideshowbob]

I never thought you were so mercenary, Colin ... :D

[S_K_N]

Makes a change from this sort of thing being US/Canada only.

[AKPiggott]

Do those of who have paid for this period get our subs extended by four days?

Or a refund, I want my 60p back. :mad:

[Little_Dragon]

Well most of us only pay £30 for the subs, so its more like 32p we're being ripped off. Im disgusted, advise you all to write a letter to Microsoft and demand your 32p back. Second class stamp is only 30p, so its well worth it.

[Harsin]

Do those of who have paid for this period get our subs extended by four days?

You get to teabag cheapskates instead.

[LouBarlow]

I just redeemed a code 10 minutes ago! :doh:
Mine ran out 1st may :doh: :doh:

[Chaucer]

Hopefully this is the beginning of free xbox live. They'll slowly do this deal more and more often, until the announcement of free online gaming. Fingers crossed

[LouBarlow]

Not a chance.

[sideshowbob]

I'm sure I read somewhere that there was a mooted extra level platinum (maybe) which would add even more premium functionality to xbox live. I can't remember for the life of me where I read it or what the supposed knock-on effects for XBL silver / Gold would be.

EDIT - I've tracked it back to hiphopgamershow - so it's most likely a load of piffle. :D

[LouBarlow]

I'm sure I read somewhere that there was a mooted extra level platinum (maybe) which would add even more premium functionality to xbox live. I can't remember for the life of me where I read it or what the supposed knock-on effects for XBL silver / Gold would be.

EDIT - I've tracked it back to hiphopgamershow - so it's most likely a load of piffle. :D

I posted it in the xbox 360 thread in the gaming forum, but was quickly pointed at and laughed at as the source was unreliable, so I ran away.

[splobber]

I've got a free 48 hour gold code if anyone wants it. First to drop me an email gets it.

[camaj]

Is that from a game? I had two but both expired last year so it might be worth looking at the small print at the bottom.

Good news for a friend of mine, he just bought a 360 (god knows why, really) but he hasn't signed up to live so hopefully he'll at least bother to give it a go.

[rav2k]

Is that from a game? I had two but both expired last year so it might be worth looking at the small print at the bottom.

Good news for a friend of mine, he just bought a 360 (god knows why, really) but he hasn't signed up to live so hopefully he'll at least bother to give it a go.

what's the point of xbox without live?

[marcburrage82]

what's the point of xbox without live?

If you have real friends who come round your house? :D

[Paul.B]

Hopefully this is the beginning of free xbox live. They'll slowly do this deal more and more often, until the announcement of free online gaming. Fingers crossed
God, i really hope not! More annoying kids and idiots who just try to spoil games. :(

[Paul.B]

If you have real friends who come round your house? :D
:gag: split screen gaming :gag: or all the mess & hassle of :gag: setting up a lan :gag:

[camaj]

what's the point of xbox without live?

Beats me, it's the only good thing about the Xbox (IMHO of course). Still he barely wanted it in the first place although he did play Guitar Hero and legends of wrestling with his cousin once

[sideshowbob]

I think Live is excellent generally - the integration with the website for transactions which the console picks up on when its online is a great improvement over the Live of old. I've not played very much online, but figure that £32 or whatever it was I paid for 13 months is very cheap even if I only use it occasionally - I could spend that money on something much less useful in a heartbeat.

[gandalf1]

I've logged onto XBOX LIVE today but my membership is still showing as Silver? Do you have to actually sign yourself up onto the Gold for the few days?

I haven't looked into the whole online gaming on the 360 yet but can you only play online with other friends who are online? Or are there public servers where you can hook up to?

[larrymarr]

I've logged onto XBOX LIVE today but my membership is still showing as Silver? Do you have to actually sign yourself up onto the Gold for the few days?

I haven't looked into the whole online gaming on the 360 yet but can you only play online with other friends who are online? Or are there public servers where you can hook up to?

I think they've just unlocked the Live features for everyone for this weekend, you don't need to modify your account

[gandalf1]

It's more of a teaser though really it seems - even though you've got access to view the Marketplace channels, you can't download anything like free demos because you need to be a gold member? Baffling...

[S_K_N]

You've always been able to download demos as a Silver member, I think what they do now is allow only Gold members exclusive access to new demos for the first week thereafter everyone can download them. :)

[gandalf1]

Ahhhh :) obviously still new at this...it was the Bionic Commando demo I was after so guess it must be fairly new. I'll have to wait in turn then...

Any idea about the public servers question? I'm still used to the old Gamespy method in my Quake days

[S_K_N]

Its different with the 360 and PS3 as far as im aware the vast majority of games are hosted by you or the person your connecting to theres no messing around with Gamespy or similiar programs. Although some games are "powered by" Gamespy.

Typical process to get a multiplayer game started would be click online from the game menu, select either social (unranked) or ranked match (against players generally of your skill level with stats tracking) and start the game.

You do get filters with most games to allow you to filter on certain maps/players/maps etc in your game selection.

Generally its pretty straightforward although the lobbies/way you start multiplayer really varies, as an example im playing Everybodies Golf at the moment and to start an online game in that you join a lobby which looks like a miniture golf club/house full of players and from there you can walk around/chat/boot a ball/generally mess around and view/join scheduled tournaments.

With Killzone 2/Team Fortress 2 as an example you actually view servers on a list and select your choice more typical of a PC game.

With Tony Hawks 8 you join a bunch of players in the lobby which is the actual selected map/skate course and from there the host can make changes to the gametype/map/cut players etc whilst the other players freeskate.

Pretty varied really, some of the lobbies are ingenious/clever and some of them are a pain in the arse and over complicate things.

Hope that helps, as I say though there nothing difficult about it if you've played games online with a PC it'll be easy to get started in fact if you haven't played games on a PC it'll be easy to get started. ;)

[gandalf1]

Cheers for all that info...very much appreciated! :) seems pretty straightforward - must admit that I've never even tried out any of the options but thought it would be pointless without having any friends set up on the machine. Will give it a bash of some games I've got like GTA4, Gears of War, and Burnout Paradise.

The ranking system sounds pretty good if it works like it should...nothing worse than starting online play only to get hammered by people who've played it since the word go...