gregjd

Always being one for a billy bargain, I took advantage of an opening day offer at the new GAME trade in store in Bristol last week.. Luckily, I had some old PS2 games on me I was hoping to trade in for something. They were giving half the list price back on trade ins so I ended up getting £75 for a bunch of hokey old games and put it towards a 2nd hand XBOX (inc 2 pads and the DVD remote) for £99! It's the lairy green ltd edition one but it's going in the playroom anyway so I'm not fussed.

Managed to pick up PGR2 for £24, Halo for £8, Sega GT2002 for £6 and DOA Beach Volley Ball for £14 since.

Only got round to playing PGR2 so far, which I'm enjoying in single player..

Anyways, here's the questions..

I've got BT Openworld (upstairs) at the moment. What's the cheapest way of getting the XBox (downstairs) online? Do I need a router or can I hang it off the network card on the laptop with some CAT5 of whatever? If I need a router, what's the cheapest BT Openworld compatible one?

A wireless setup would be nice, for the laptop too, so I could "work" from the garden ..I'm guessing this is pricey though?

Must admit I'm wary of messing up the current BT connection/settings which logs me onto my work network via VPN.

What other games do you guys recommend? I was tempted by the original PGR (2nd hand for £8!) the other day as it has London / NY.. Is it worth it if you have PGR2 already?

What's better, Links 2004 or Tiger Woods 2004 (bearing in mind I'm not online yet)?

Is Amped2 worth buying?

fastfrank

Hi Gregjd,


I to own an Xbox (new since xmas) which came bundled with PGR2 and I have to says its the best driving game I've played yet!

To enhance the experience I took advantage of the 'Free Xbox 3 month subscription' to see how it was.
It was so good I decided to splash out on another 12 months subscription and a headset to allow communication with others online. You can buy them as a special bundled package from a certain online retailer. Its called the Xbox Start pack or something like that. (cheaper than buying the two seperately).

I have a broadband dlink router with about 5 ports on the back. Since my Xbox is upstairs in my house I have routed one CAT5 cable from the router to my room into the back of the Xbox.

Whats your budget?
You'd be looking in the realms of £35+ for a suitable cable router.

You could use your laptop as a router for your Xbox but it would get way to fiddly. I'd recommend a physical router and cabling to do it professional... if you've got the time that is.



I've seen Wireless routers for sale but I decided to stick with the physical cables for now because I heard some wireless systems can become un reliable. However I'm sure some else will tell you different. Not sure how you'd interface the wireless router with the Xbox. I guess you'd need some special RJ45 > Wireless adapter? ??

PS. I've just bought PGR to but its a bit more arcady than PGR2... still good though. Pick it up for about a tenner.

Hope this helps.

Frank

fastfrank

Just found this link on the broadbandbuyer website. A guide to which routers are good for XBL.


http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/defa...ShopGroupID=29

martin850

iTrader: (51)

Go and get Need for speed underground it totally wips the floor with PGR. Better cars and runs alot quicker.

Dream Weaver

You could also use a stand alone ehternet modem, this is what i will be doing.

ADSLNation do one for £60.

RB5-Black

Need for speed underground it totally wips the floor with PGR

are you having a laugh

PGR2 is by far the best Driving game on the Xbox...... I did own both games but NFSU was returned inside the Game 10 day return Policy because is was SO bad. If you say NFSU is better you can't have played PGR2.

NFSU is only good if you get your cheap thrills bolting Spoilers to shopping carts.

BuRR

Have to agree with RB5-Black. NFSU is a bit pants, with crap driving physics, especially compared to a game such as PGR2.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

PGR2 is still the best IMO. But Toca2 is pretty close behind.

gregjd

Thanks Folks

Think there's a demo of TOCA 2 with one of the mags so I'll give it a try. I'm still not sure of what to go for, Online-wise. I may well just plump for a cheap router and try and hang my existing modem off it.

Ref the XBox online connection, am I right in thinking there are other ways of going online other than XBox Live? Seem to remember people on here playing PGR2 online by a different route.

Played a demo of Top Spin Tennis last night, VERY impressive.

RB5-Black

Dunk ?

How does Toca handle compared with PGR2 ? I've got it on order ...... can't wait

Xbox live is the Best of the online connection for Xbox. There are other ones but all they do is fake a system link over the net. I think some now offer voice comms but they don't open up the things in the games that xbox live does so well.

When you play PGR2 on live the integration between live and single player is seamless. Every laptime, position, best cone challenge result is instantly converted onto the worldwide scoreboard and you can see where you are

I'm sure the online racing is almost the same but I like what Xbox live gives my for my money.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

gregjd - Yes, you can use XLink & XBConnect to go online for free. It just tunnels via your PC.

RB5-Black - Handles really well, much better than I thought it would, not quite as arcadey as PGR2. The Formula Ford cars take a bit it getting used to Its a very different game, due to the amount of totally different car types in the game. Haven't played with the Super Trucks yet, should be interesting !

InvisibleMan

they are two very different games i think. ive got PGR & Midtown madness3 which has been slated for having no driving physics whatsoever but because of that i prefer it to PGR as its much more of a laugh than a 'serious drive'

gregjd

Think I'm getting there now with this. I may well go down the wireless route as I don't running cat 5 around the house. I could also try and claim the costs of the wireless stuff back from work.

Hardware-wise, do you have any recommendations? To recap, I have a laptop, BT Openworld ADSL point upstairs, and an XBox downstairs. I guess I'll need a wireless ADSL modem/router, a PCMCIA wireless access point and an ethernet one to plug into the XBOX?

RB5-Black

I use a Dlink 810 + Wireless ethernet bridge for my Xbox.

you could run it from Internetconection share via an Access point or Buy an all in 1 Modem/AP/Router and conect straight to the net from that without the PC.

gregjd

Thanks. That's the X-Box end sorted. I guess I need a wireless ADSL router and a PCMCIA access point too..

Unrelated question, is it possible to browse the web from the XBOX when the PC is not around.. ?

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

Yes, but you need to be chipped/modded to run Linux or an alternative dashboard.

Tim-Grove

get it chiped, just installed Avalaunch tonight its wicked, got to get me a 120Gb drive next. Need a Samsung DVD drive too damn philips crap wont read feek all



Still using X-box live too