E184 Scores - inc GotY Awards

[Matt]

Oh there are definitely some very good players out there. What some people can do with a sniper rifle using a pad - be it Halo or Gears or whatever - is freaky. No arguments there. But then I also find myself getting killed by lesser players due to Live issues. These are people I know I'm better than. It's not limited to H3, as I say it seems to be Live. Been playing a lot of cod4 lately and the killcam really shows these issues. I'm playing a game, with a maximum of 4 connection bars (what I wouldn't give for a real number there!), firing a shotgun point blank in someones head, guy turns round and kills me, killcam shows I didn't actually fire and the other guy had been shooting at me for about a second earlier.

I come with a very competitive online gaming background having played Q3 for a long time at a very high level. When I started, before getting ISDN, I could counter a 250 ping without many problems. By the time my ping was under 100, I found no need to counter unless using a Railgun, I'd pretty much hit the target by aiming at it than by leading.

And I find these problems on Live with UK friends hosting, it's not like we're going 2k miles for a game. And my friends find the same issues. Routers are all setup fine (know what I'm doing with them, I do it for a living), got a pretty good ADSL connection. Maybe they'll give us proper servers sometime and all will be right in the world again. It's just coming from a PC background, Live gives a horrible experience. Oh the Friends List, instant messaging, Inviting, all that stuff is brilliant. But the games themselves are frustrating.

Back to H3, I tried the BR having used it a lot during my time on H2, but found it not as effective as the AR except at really long range. I really wish I had gotten on with Halo. I should point out that there is another reason I don't play it anymore, and it's because I'm not willing to invest the time to get "great" at games anymore. Competitive play doesn't interest me anymore, too time consuming.

[EvilBoris]

The games themselves aren't run through live's servers though from what I gather, there is a service that runs along side the games themselves which carries the information for friends lists and detecting what you are playing etc (I imagine this is all contained within the dash itself) I don't know enough about networking to know whether that would make a difference mind

Outside of that though it is the exact same as playing a PC game where your friend is the host OR playing the Ps3 version of a game where it doesn't have the guide running along side .

[Matt]

You may be totally correct there. It just seems that Live gives me much worse connections than PC games, even using the same friends as hosts. And I know it's not just me with the problem. Shame as I really do like everything else about Live - everything other than the gaming side, lol

Maybe MS should put some of that £5 a month aside for dedicated servers.

[EvilBoris]

I sometimes wonder if part of the problem is because they have lots of services going through only 2 or 3 publically known ports across the net (in order to make router setup "easier") that incorrect router setup (which is often not even visible to the user, either in game or in the network setup) can have an adverse effect on your connection.

I can deliberately have my xbox say my connection say "open" when I know it isn't because everything isn't because the game go **** and Halo complains that it isn't open.

I'm sure there are plenty of people in the same boat who have followed all the guides on xbox.com and aren't having the experience they should be having and are making it worse for others unintentionally.

I'd love to see the option for dedicated servers as is does make for a more stable experience, just like playing system link when your skills suddenly increase X5 because there is 0 lag. I can appreciate why it isn't done, especially as online gaming is getting more popular with casual gamesplayers and is no longer the domain of PC geeks.
Dedicated servers would be a nightmare in a game like Halo where sometimes as many as 900k people can be playing games with as few as 2 people in. That would be one friggin big server room.

I'd like to see more games with options like Far Cry Instincts, where you could set your machine to a dedicated server and others could then join it. At least this would allow for 3RD party companies offer dedicated server options from high speed lines if that is what you wanted.

Even so someone would still get a bum deal for someone because it may not always be in the same country as the player wanting to connect. The you get down to the problem of having to split the games into different geological regions which then ends up with a lower population of players to play against.

[Matt]

Absolutely. Just have dedicated as an option. It must be a valid business model, there are lots of PC hosts offering dedicated clan servers. Allow the 360 a little admin control - setting passwords, that kind of stuff - and you're done.

Personally I'd like to see Regional options. Makes for a better experience. Plus UK players don't call me a Gay Arse Faggot quite as often as some foreigners have been known too.

It's all just options. I know my regular gamer mates would put each a few quid a month in to our own dedicated server.

Would be interesting for a 360 developer (must be a few around here) to let us know exactly how Live works.