Xbox360outletstore.com review of COD MW2

            The next heralding experience from Infinity Ward is here, making its return to the XBOX 360, Call of Duty ModernWarfare 2 has arrived.  The first thing you will notice when you play the game is the screen effects. They look great on any HD flat screen, blood, dirt, and debris will all make an appearance as if it was covering your eyes or scope. Start out by playing the campaign to get a hold of things, as this has the obstacle course in the beginning of it. This will then set the difficulty rating for the campaign and give you an option to choose. I would go with normal. I however beat it on hardened and it was quite a bit harder. 

            The campaign offers many new ventures as compared with Call of Duty Modern Warfare.You are at the handle as you rocket down a mountain on a snowmobile, lose your life, and supply fire from rockets and helicopters. The suspense factor is there however I wish they had made vehicles a flagship like Battle Field Bad Company 2 has. I know in BF Bad Company that the vehicles were a lot of fun,Call of Duty MW2 is a pure first person shooter, and it excels at this where Bad Company failed. The review of Battle Field Bad Company 2 is coming up in a couple weeks.

            After this it will unlock spec ops, a great thing to play co-operatively or by yourself. The multiplayer online gaming environment is really the ticket however. By completing challenges online you get the option to unlock new weapons and attachments. Perks are also available to help you as you scale your way through 16 different environments. With the ability to unlock “pro”versions of perks, it’s even more exciting. The xbox live servers have the best connection that I have experienced; the PS3 servers are spotty and sometimes offer lost connections and lag. This is why you pay for an xbox live subscription however.

The wireless controllers for thePS3 are however better wirelessly, even with a high level of sensitivity inMW2, the controller still lags a little bit.

            Setting up kill streak rewards is crucial for accumulating a large number of kills in COD MW2. When you unlock a new kill streak reward you’ll want to do the care package, herrier air strike, and chopper gunner. The herrier air strike is the best of both worlds; you get a directional air strike, as well as hovering machine gun fire afterwards. Just sit back and let the kills roll in after you get the care package.

            Theconnection I have is great with the Wireless-N router I have setup in my house.With the addition of the XBOX360 Wireless-N receiver from XBOX360outletstore.com I play at blistering speeds, it rarely ever lags. I would still like the addition of an HDMI setup instead of the XBOX wires but these will have to do now.

This post is in reference to my earlier post: 

Xbox HDD's, Data Transfer, Spring 2010 Dashboard Update Issues - 5/27/2010

I've emailed Microsoft and they implied I didn't know how to setup a data transfer and sent me a copy of the instructions from their website.

I've photographed a setup to try to make my point.

Here I am transferring a 120Gb to a 250Gb using the second edition of the data-migration transfer disk.

Next, we choose the data migration disk, and selection a source drive (in this case my 120gb drive, it's blank, but shouldn't be a problem)




Next, select a destination drive (but wait! the Xbox only see's a "USB Device", not my 250Gb Xbox 360 Hdd)



Ill select it just to see what happens.



So, now I have a choice? Configure or Customize.



In either case, I'm prompted to "Format" my drive, which will inevitably cause the drive to be formatted to the maximum for a USB external device with an Xbox 360 console, 16Gb (Danger: no more 250Gb drive if you choose this option!)



So, right here is where I'm stuck? I want my data from my 120Gb to transfer to my 250Gb disk without a 3rd drive. The data migration kit instructions seem to be erraneous unless my drive is no good!

But if I connect my drive to the regular Xbox 360 port look what happens?





My 250Gb has the usual 228Gb of available space!

As you can see, it's difficult to explain how the data migration kit is still useful (if at all?) after the 9189 dashboard update.

Microsoft's Xbox 360 Spring 2010 Dashboard update (9189), has added functionality for users to attach any USB storage device to their Xbox console, and use this device for storage of Xbox 360 content up to 16GB (and you can use two devices for a maximum possible capacity of 32GB of storage gained on external USB devices).

Of course this is great if you have some extra 16GB+ USB-Flash drives laying around, but it also creates an interesting problem for those trying to transfer data from their existing Xbox 360 Hdd's to a new Xbox 360 Hdd, say for example: 20Gb -> 250Gb.
Here is the problem: 

When you connect a new USB device, the Xbox console will prompt you to "format" or "configure" this device for the Xbox 360 console because Xbox 360 only reads data in FATX format, and requires certain system files exist on the device before it can be used. 

As such, when you connect an Xbox Hdd using the transfer cable (say from the transfer kit). Your Xbox will prompt you to format this device for Xbox (even though when it is connected to the regular Hdd port (on the top of the device), the Xbox recognizes it as a 228Gb storage device! 

Now if you do choose to format your device, you will loose your devices capacity to handle 228Gb of space, and be strictly limited to 16Gb. 

I am going to check, but I believe if you reconnect your drive to the regular port, and choose to "format" using the traditional menu option, it may restore your functionality. I'm not sure, so don't hold me to this.

So, what are the options to transfer your data from a smaller device to a new one? Well, you can connect your drive to a Windows-PC (as mentioned in a previous blog post). Or you could find a spare USB storage device, format it for Xbox 360, and use it is as an intermediary for data transfer!

Good luck!

I have contacted Microsoft about this to see what their official stance on this issue is, as they probably are going to have a lot of unhappy people with 250Gb drives that suddenly will only support 16Gb of space!

Jordan

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemupdates/default.htm

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/accessories/storage/default.htm

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/kb.aspx?ID=937279&lcid=1033&category=hardware

Upgrade XBOX 360 HDD Guide from www.XBOX360Outletstore.com

This instructions are recommended attempt to the best of our ability to explain the use of an XBOX 360 HDD Transfer cable with a Windows PC computer, and a piece of software (XPlorer360) to transfer saved games, media, etc., from your XBOX 360 formatted HDD to a new XBOX 360 formatted HDD.

The text of this blog post is also located in the "readme.txt" file in this archive.

Using "Xplorer360_extreme2" to transfer saved games on your XBOX 360 HDD

1. These instructions are not intended to be a comprehensive manual.

2. This instructions as well as this software are distributed without
written warranty either implied or guaranteed.

3. We are not the original author if this software, however, it is assumed
that we can redistribute this software under the GNL license.

More information on this license can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License

Getting started:

We recommend using Xplorer360_extreme2 because the software is known
to be compatible with all versions of the XBOX 360 formatted HDD.

We also recommend using Xplorere360_extreme2 because you can access
information on your drive without directly connecting the HDD to an
internal SATA port, but instead can use a USB-ATA/ATAPI bridge cable.

Note: USB-ATA/ATAPI bridge cable is THE SAME CABLE that is disturbed
by the original manufacturer to transfer the HDD contents using the XBOX360
and associated software for the XBOX360. THIS process is involves your PC
because this software is not available for resale.

Good luck! Please try to remember this process is not guaranteed. If you don't feel
you can complete the steps consider calling Microsoft and requesting a copy of the
HDD transfer software DVD for XBOX360 (only avalible for them).

What you need:
XBOX360 Source HDD (where you want to extract your saved games, media, etc.) from
XBOX360 Destination HDD (typically of larger size)
XBOX360 USB-Transfer cable (sometimes referred to as USB-ATA/ATAPI bridge)
A Windows PC, with a local hard drive with enough free space for your data

Instructions (don't worry if it looks wordy, its only 5 steps!):

1. Connect your original (data source) XBOX360 formatted HDD to your PC by:

(a) using your USB transfer - preferred

This is preferred because you don't need to open your drive or your
computer.

(b) connecting the drive directly to an internal SATA port.

This is possible, but you must open your XBOX360 HDD casing, open your PC
and connect the drive directly to internal power adapters (typically only
available on tower-style PC casing)

2. Confirm that the drive is in fact being recognized. Were you prompted by
windows that new hardware has been detected, installed, and/or ready to use?

If you use used a USB cable does the icon for quick release appear next to the
clock in the lower right corner giving you the option to eject a USB mass storage device?

Note: The drive will not appear in Windows explorer as it is not formatted for the Windows
operating system.

3. Launch Xplorer360_extreme2.exe

If your computer reports a missing "DLL" Google the name of the "DLL" file,
download, and move to your "Windows/System" folder, and try re-launching.

3. Once Xplorer360 has launched, select:

Drive->Open->Harddrive or Memcard

At this point a directory listing should appear in the left panel.

You should see 3 partitions. Partition 1, Partition 2, Partition 3.

More information about what each partition does is available on the internet.
For now all you need to know is that Partition 3 contains your saved games, media, etc.

4. Select "Partition 3", then click:

Edit-->Extract.

Select a file folder you know you can find again on your computer's file system
(Desktop works just fine).

A folder will be created on the desktop and a "progress" bar for each file will appear.
This process can be extremely lengthy as the size of data and the speed of the drive
in your computer and hardware varies. Don't let your computer go to standby or power
off during this process.

Remember you will need space on your computer's local hard drive equal to or greater
than the amount of data you are transferring from your drive.

5. Once this process has completed, follow the same steps above to connect your
new, destination XBOX360 HDD. Locate the "Partition 3" folder on this HDD in Xplorer360.

Now locate your original data on your local computer, and drag and drop the contents
of the "Partition 3" directory (on local computer) to your "Partition 3" (directory)
in Xplorer360. Remember that you are not moving the directory folder, but all folders
and items INSIDE the folder on your local computer into the directory in Xplorer360

You will receive an "Injecting Data" progress dialog. Once again this process
can be very lengthy. Once it has completed the progress bar should disappear.
Don't let your computer go to standby or power off during this process.

6. Remove and connect your new HDD on an XBOX console to see if your data
has successfully transferred. If your games have not been transferred or
you receive an error please feel free to contact us.

Again, Good luck! Please try to remember this process is not guaranteed. If you don't feel
you can complete the steps consider calling Microsoft and requesting a copy of the
HDD transfer software DVD for XBOX 360 (only available from Microsoft).

Download "explorer360_extreme2" here. (Virus checked, located on our web server).