Offline woes

[rockman05]

I think they were very clear in these boards that they were doing it, and why they were doing it - well, maybe I'm just an apologist for Harmonix, but the explanation made a lot of sense to me.

Care to explain it to us who didn't read that post?

Also, I find it very annoying that Harmonix doesn't mention these limitations where it should be listed instead of randomly on these forums. Do they honestly expect us to visit the forums and hunt down this info? This isn't the first time that I had to complain about their lack of information for some of their DLC. Yet they don't care

[Magnet]

Turns on RB 3 to play the songs and only has 3 of them.

I didn't know if you bought the game and didn't download the song pack that it would still unlock those three Blitz songs for use in RB3. That sounds interesting. Is that really the case?

[Jack5mikemotown]

I didn't know if you bought the game and didn't download the song pack that it would still unlock those three Blitz songs for use in RB3. That sounds interesting. Is that really the case?

The three songs that are unlocked are part of the demo. The game download is actually only the demo, which includes three songs. The rest of the features become unlocked when you purchase the game, which is when you're prompted to download the songs.

Also, the only possible reason I can see for offline mode to be the way it is, is to combat piracy. When you've modded your xbox, Microsoft will ban you for xbox live if they become aware, so either that happens or you have to stay off live. This means that anyone who pirates the game for xbox, because they have to mod their xbox to play it, won't be able to use live and, as a result, won't be able to play a fully functional version of blitz. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong about how microsoft reacts to a modded xbox)

[johnnyboyblade]

^ I think you have to specifically get caught out before being completely banned from playing online.

But assuming you have a modded xbox and don't go online, what exactly is stopping modders from modding the game to be offline enabled and still use powerups?

[Jack5mikemotown]

But assuming you have a modded xbox and don't go online, what exactly is stopping modders from modding the game to be offline enabled and still use powerups?

I don't believe it's possible...

[ThornDavis]

Even living in a city, with an unlimited broadband package, with a wireless router that's always on and an Xbox 360 Slim with the built in wireless it's still pretty frequent for me to find that XBox live won't connect or drops out for some inexplicable reason, so the gimped offline is a major frustration for me, especially because every time I've played I'll start a song 'connected' and then end it with the "Oh sorry, can't connect to servers so none of that counted" message.

The drops in connection (some of which seemed to be solely down to Rock Central, not XBL or my own internet connection) wouldn't be so aggravating if it wasn't for the broken offline version.

HMX's comment about "Oh anyone who downloads the game must have an always-on internet connection" is ill-thought out really. The game has been out for two days and already they've had problems keeping their end of the connection going, so they must be aware of the fact that XBL drops out occasionally, telephony infrastructure has flaky moments, and local networks can drop connection briefly so it seems ludicrous to have created a game where any flicker of an interruption in service renders playing the game pointless.

tl;dr - an expansion of the earlier point that developers should know not to rely on an always-on internet connection, because in practice a perfect, uninterrupted service is quite rare.

[Bulzeeb]

I found out after I finished a song and my connection had been cut in the middle. I spent coins on the powerups, but didn't gain any at the end. "Sorry about that". it said.

I think that if you can't connect on startup, it DOES tell you that you can't use powerups or anything, though.

This has happened to me three times already, one time during 2112. -___-

Such a shame it won't even refund your coins.

[atalkingfish]

I didn't know if you bought the game and didn't download the song pack that it would still unlock those three Blitz songs for use in RB3. That sounds interesting. Is that really the case?

If that is the case, wouldn't that mean that if you delete the game file, but keep the soundtrack file, you'll be out those three songs for RB3?

[Jack5mikemotown]

I thought it was worth mentioning that if you start a score war and lose connection, you still get credit from the song you played...

[DavyinaToga]

Just voicing my concerns about the gimped offline as well. I'm in a similar situation as atalkingfish, where I stretch an ethernet cable across the room to play online. I like to keep the chance of people tripping over it to a minimum, so knowing that I have to be online to fully enjoy this game puts a real damper on any urge to play it. I suppose that dedicated cloud storage would be useful to the few people who would play this game on multiple consoles (assuming that it does save it) but it's still a small plus to those select few that is a decent minus for a good number of customers.

(On a side note - I'm bummed that my suggestion of round track cycling wasn't implemented as well. If I want to go from drums to vox/keys, it's better to hit left and jump around to the other side than to dash right across a few tracks, particularly when they're sitting a section out.)