has the free game due to live problems been announced yet?

zod

as per http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141018-pg,1/article.html

Josey Wales

No not yet.

keen

Don't suppose it's Hexic HD is it, or was that giving away previous?

ironictoaster

Undertow Free of Charge Next Week on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Recently, Xbox.com posted a letter from Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox LIVE, thanking subscribers for their patience with the service. We’ve implemented several improvements to the service, to help ensure ongoing reliability and performance. As the popularity of Xbox LIVE expands, we’ll continue to closely monitor the service and make adjustments. As always, if you are having any problems, please contact your local support (1-800-4-MYXBOX in North America) so that we can assist you.

Marc announced that all Xbox LIVE members (Gold and Silver) around the world would have access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game to download free of charge. We’re pleased to announce that beginning next Wednesday, 2:00 a.m. PST through Sunday, 11:59 p.m. PST, Xbox LIVE members worldwide can download the full version of the recent award-winning Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow.

Developed by Chair Entertainment Group, Undertow is one of the highest-rated and best looking games available on Arcade. Undertow redefines aquatic based shooters through a mix of high-definition graphics, intuitive controls and multiple modes of game play action. The game features a full story driven-single player campaign, on and offline co-op, and multiplayer for 2-16 players over Xbox LIVE for Gold subscribers. Players battle for control of the oceans as one of three selectable races, each with four unique, upgradeable units. "Undertow" is available worldwide (normally 800 Microsoft Points) and is rated E10+.

http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2008/01/18/UndertowFreeofCharge.aspx

Branoic

Hey wow that's cool. Undertow is actually meant to be pretty good. Was thinking of getting it there last week.

jayteecork

Undertow sounds alright.

Now, Lets have some new levels for Marble Blast Ultra, please.

keen

Decent game for nothing, fair play.

yoyo

keen wrote: »

Don't suppose it's Hexic HD is it, or was that giving away previous?

That came free on my new xbox lmao!

Nick

keen

yoyo wrote: »

That came free on my new xbox lmao!

Nick

Same here, have the Xbox a while now but only noticed it a few days ago, tis a good game too addictive.

jayteecork

Don't like those Hexic games at all. I can appreciate the skill level involved, but they wreck my head!

thebman

I find them easy enough and crap as hell. Hexic is brutally boring. Played it twice since I got my Xbox.

Once to try it and once to punish myself for being too lazy to change the disc to another game. I got worms which I think is probably one of the best arcade games having tried a good few of the demos. About 90% of the arcade is trash though. Why can't they just make some decent 2D platformers and the like?

I'll take this game, don't have it. Its stupid having such a small window in which you can download it. It should be freely downloadable for the length of time Xbox Live was acting up at least. Now you have to put time aside to download it during that week which is a stupid thing to have to do to get an apology gift.

Any odds on the servers going down when everyone tries to download the game at the same time while those that have it play COD4 online?

Then you have the poor b*stards currently with 360's for repair which is caused by Ms inability to test hardware properly before release. All in all, poor show Ms, poor show.

mcgovern

brim4brim wrote: »

I find them easy enough and crap as hell. Hexic is brutally boring. Played it twice since I got my Xbox.

Once to try it and once to punish myself for being too lazy to change the disc to another game. I got worms which I think is probably one of the best arcade games having tried a good few of the demos. About 90% of the arcade is trash though. Why can't they just make some decent 2D platformers and the like?

I'll take this game, don't have it. Its stupid having such a small window in which you can download it. It should be freely downloadable for the length of time Xbox Live was acting up at least. Now you have to put time aside to download it during that week which is a stupid thing to have to do to get an apology gift.

Any odds on the servers going down when everyone tries to download the game at the same time while those that have it play COD4 online?

Then you have the poor b*stards currently with 360's for repair which is caused by Ms inability to test hardware properly before release. All in all, poor show Ms, poor show.

You are right, damn Microsoft and them giving us a free game.
There is no pleasing some people...

moggins7

wait so when is it been givin out or have i missed the date???

Fingleberries

It's due to be given out from 2am (Pacific - West coast USA) on Wednesday until 11:59pm on Sunday (27 Jan).

IF you've already bought Undertow, you're supposed to be able to call XBox Customer Support and they'll sort you out (doesn't say if you get another game, or the points back for Undertow).

jayteecork

Are you sure that date is valid for European customers and not just the Yanks?

Fingleberries

I'd say so - they always seem to give times in West Coast (since they're based in Seattle), but it generally is accurate for when they release system updates and the last time they gave Carcassone away free.

They calculate that as the time when there are the fewest people connected to live.

rliston

what time is that here?

Mountjoy Mugger

2am Pacific is 10am Irish. Add 8 hours.

SantryRed

The problem never affected me so to be getting a game for nothing is great.:D

rliston

Mountjoy Mugger wrote: »

2am Pacific is 10am Irish. Add 8 hours.

thanks

Clover

it's available now , i'v just downloaded it

Mr E

Grabbed it at lunchtime (took about 5 attempts - I'd say Marketplace is hammered, and its only going to get worse tonight!).

(They're not exactly advertising the Free Game in the dashboard... the only ones who download it will be people who know about it)

Not a bad little game...

PG4000

What game is it?

MayoForSam

PG4000 wrote: »

What game is it?

Undertow

yoyo

Fun enough game, played for a few mins with bro split screen co op, prob not a bad game for free in fairness! Also its Unreal Engine 3 powered! Decent visuals...

Nick

Basq

Just trying to download it now - christ, it's slow! :eek:

PS - cheers to SmellyIrishMan for the reminder!

TheDoc

downloaded in like 4 minutes...awful waste of a game.

my xbox live woes have not being healed by this, a very boring crappy game that wont get much play time from me.

mise

Had Undertow already, quite like it, especially in multiplayer.. Got my refund and got switchball instead.. liking it alot

thebman

mcgovern wrote: »

You are right, damn Microsoft and them giving us a free game.
There is no pleasing some people...

Don't look at me. I'm happy

I just feel sorry for all the people that have been screwed over because Ms only gave one game which some people have purchased and only allow the game to be downloadable for a short period of time so people who are getting their badly designed console repaired can't download it at for free at all.

I'm sorry but its a crappy deal for those people. I'm just glad I'm not one of them.

Sorry I'm not so selfish and oblivious to other peoples situations that I can actually feel sorry for them. I'll try to be more like you from now on :rolleyes:

mayordenis

its pretty sad that there was such uproar over gamers not being able to online over christmas

thebman

mayordenis wrote: »

its pretty sad that there was such uproar over gamers not being able to online over christmas

I didn't even have access to broadband over Xmas. Its not that sad when you consider the crap that is on tv over Xmas and the amount of time people have off, they want entertainment.

With the amount of new users on live it collapsed. There was uproar because all those people pay for the service.

I find it more incredible that so many people stick up for Ms when their service collapsed. I mean you pay for the service and you defend them letting it collapse? That's just weird. That wouldn't happen in my work place. We get non-stop calls if the Internet goes down for 2 minutes.

TheDoc

they obviously just didnt forecast the amount of users they were going to receive.

it actually does happen alot everywhere, work places not forecasting budgets properly, staff to cope with demand, products to cope with demand (wii) enough road space to deal with cars ( dublin)

you cant really slate them for it


as that class act law suit in america with xbox live, which from my hearings of the case isnt going anywhere, its not against the law to make an incorrect forecast.

and deep reading into the service conditions and contracts etc does clearly state about downtimes and service crashes

they arnt within any legal bounds to give us a game, its just good pr, like world of warcraft where the slighest of server problems gives you a free day play, good pr.

they could have offered us pong, and it wouldnt have mattered what we thought of the game, its the gesture from a pr stance.


sony arnt giving away free stuff for their piss poor attempt at online gaming, that they "promised"

think people just need to get over the fact it was down like was mentioned above, **** happens.

and like i said i wont be touching much of undertripe so for me i got nothing, but im not that pissed of about it.


i think ms does get some unfair criticsms, every tijme ive dealt with their customer support they have being nothing but 110% helpful solving problems or anwsering queries.

And for their console breakings...well they did give 3 year extended warranties, and they repair service is top notch, the damaged consoles people get on return are due to couriers...ms didnt send you back a broken console.

and they do all of this free of charge for repairs....and even in instances where warranties are out they still give most people free repairs ( have had 3 friends get it for free)

and when problems have being encountered on ms side ( losing arcade games randomly, dodgy discs gamertag deleted etc ) ms support have been very good to react, giving free live, ms points and games.

its just the typical scenario, the bad stories always come to light, cant remember seeing a post giving fair dues to MS for their efforts.


well heres mine


Every contact ive had with Ms customer support by phone and email ( roughly ten times in the past month due to setting up friends machines) have been extremely helpful, fair play

QesQnr

Undertow is awful.

Basq

QesQnr wrote: »

Undertow is awful.

Seconded!

Retr0gamer

basquille wrote: »

Seconded!

Thirded. How about giving us something decent. Puzzle Quest would be great if I hadn't bought it and become addicted already.

mcgovern

brim4brim wrote: »

Don't look at me. I'm happy

I just feel sorry for all the people that have been screwed over because Ms only gave one game which some people have purchased and only allow the game to be downloadable for a short period of time so people who are getting their badly designed console repaired can't download it at for free at all.

I'm sorry but its a crappy deal for those people. I'm just glad I'm not one of them.

Sorry I'm not so selfish and oblivious to other peoples situations that I can actually feel sorry for them. I'll try to be more like you from now on :rolleyes:

If you've already bought it you can ring Customer Support and get a different game.

thebman

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

they obviously just didnt forecast the amount of users they were going to receive.

it actually does happen alot everywhere, work places not forecasting budgets properly, staff to cope with demand, products to cope with demand (wii) enough road space to deal with cars ( dublin)

you cant really slate them for it

Nope, can expect to be notified though. How long did it take them to acknowledge the problems? They didn't get it sorted in a reasonable amount of time IMO. It was just badly managed. They could have talked to the community throughout the outage and let them know that they know and are working on the problem.

Live is supposed to be a community but it is run too much like a business service at times. If Live was a simple forum, the users would have been informed by the admin of the problems. I know its very complex but they have people who's job it is to support the community and they failed to do that properly in this instance judging from the reaction of gamers. Personally I don't care because I had no BB at the time

as that class act law suit in america with xbox live, which from my hearings of the case isnt going anywhere, its not against the law to make an incorrect forecast.

That law suit was just stupid in pretty much everyones opinion. This isn't a look at the average live user but an example of people that would run out in front of a car and break a leg if they thought they'd get a couple of million out of it.

sony arnt giving away free stuff for their piss poor attempt at online gaming, that they "promised"

This isn't a fair comparison. Sony don't charge? What would the reaction of people who advertise on Sony's service be if the number of people online dropped by a couple of thousand so the numbers they were told they'd be marketing to when they signed up were in fact much lower? They'd complain like hell. Gamers didn't loose much other than the ability to play online so they don't have a right to complain on that level but they can at least be annoyed and vent about the problem.

think people just need to get over the fact it was down like was mentioned above, **** happens.

and like i said i wont be touching much of undertripe so for me i got nothing, but im not that pissed of about it.

Agreed, played some of it last night and it is terrible. I was never affected by the problem so I'll take it

i think ms does get some unfair criticsms, every tijme ive dealt with their customer support they have being nothing but 110% helpful solving problems or anwsering queries.

And for their console breakings...well they did give 3 year extended warranties, and they repair service is top notch, the damaged consoles people get on return are due to couriers...ms didnt send you back a broken console.

and they do all of this free of charge for repairs....and even in instances where warranties are out they still give most people free repairs ( have had 3 friends get it for free)

The 3 year warranty is because of a design flaw in the console. If they didn't do this, the Eu would have made them recall millions of consoles for replacement. It isnt' fair play, its the least they could do after releasing a console with a massive design flaw and an unacceptable failure rate.

and when problems have being encountered on ms side ( losing arcade games randomly, dodgy discs gamertag deleted etc ) ms support have been very good to react, giving free live, ms points and games.

its just the typical scenario, the bad stories always come to light, cant remember seeing a post giving fair dues to MS for their efforts.


well heres mine


Every contact ive had with Ms customer support by phone and email ( roughly ten times in the past month due to setting up friends machines) have been extremely helpful, fair play

I've never had to contact Ms support and hopefully never will so I'm not going to comment on it.

TheDoc

xbox live is supposed to be a community but is run too much like a business...

thats a very nieve statement and im sure if you re-read it you would understand.

Companies do not do things out of the goodness of their hearts in this sort of matter.

Sony dont make it free because they really deep down love us, its because they want to try shift their consoles. Live is an integral core function of the xbox business.

having a community is the benefit of it, not the purpose.

if it was built for a community purpose functions would be available to let us play with only people from a certain region in publc games....and seemingly that hoped feature is in the hands on dr.phil :P

thebman

[DM]-TheDOC- wrote: »

xbox live is supposed to be a community but is run too much like a business...

thats a very nieve statement and im sure if you re-read it you would understand.

Companies do not do things out of the goodness of their hearts in this sort of matter.

:P

That's fine, they shouldn't expect their customers to take the service being down then.

If they acted like a community and better interacted and communicated with the community better, the community would be more understanding of errors/mistakes/problems.

The way its setup is way too corporate for it to ever become a proper community IMO. I know its Ms but that doesn't mean they have to treat it like every other part of their business. Their are plenty of companies that would do a better job of building a community than the way Ms have done it. I think they've limited Live with a lot of their decisions and in the end they've lost profit because of some of their decisions in the long run.

faceman

Undertow is awful, really awful.

Tbh i dont think its n acceptable response from MS. If the issue was with XBL which we have all paid for, then some credit for XBL would have been more appropriate. I didnt buy an xbox to play 8/16-bit games. **

** note that im an old man at 30 and as you see from my gamertag its ok to play retro-get-in-touch-with-my-childhood-games on XBL but not crappy 8/16-bit games without nostalgic value!!!!

chavezychavez

Undertow is fairly brutal, was hoping for something like SWOS as the free game.

They must have paid more money to the advertising firm who wrote the description of the game rather than actually programming a game.

silvine

I played it last night, it was pretty good, and free. Mind you there's no way you'd know to get it unless you've been reading up about the Xbox Live problems.

neacy69

bollox i forgot to download this free game i've heard its awful but for free i'll take it even though it wont make up for the outages over xmas...
Anyway I can still get this or have i missed the chance

Vic Vinegar

neacy69 wrote: »

Anyway I can still get this or have i missed the chance

I think it was only for 48 hours or something man. You're not missing too much imo, i played it for 5mins and got bored! it should be called underwhelmed instead.

Basq

mountain lips wrote: »

I think it was only for 48 hours or something man.

Nah, think it was from Wednesday to a Sunday.

jayteecork

Undertow is beyond awful.
Never I have ever encountered such toss. Easily known Microsoft were giving it away for nothing.
Should have rung them up and chanced my arm saying I had it already.
Anyone have any idea what they gave people who unfortunately PAID for undertow?