XBOX360 DS so glichy as to be unplayable, and customer service has no alert on game

[Baldanders]

I am having all the problems described in threads below, and they seem to have gotten worse over the last month.

The really bad thing is I wasted 2 hours with tech support for no gain--any chance Hidden Path can get Microsoft to send out a message to tech support that no fix exists for DG at this time?

I am sure it would help with frayed nerves! Being stuck without DG has me climbing the walls as it is.

[jeffpobst]

Ok, there are two issues that are separate. One has a workaround and solves many problems that can be all over the place if you don't recognize what is happening, and the other around achievements is something Microsoft tells us they are working on.

Issue 1. After the dash update, for some reason we don't understand, and only for a subset of people, you can now enter the main menu of the game before the game has finished loading all the content it needs. Obviously you don't want to do this. First, to identify that this is the case, look at the map names of any of the expansion campaigns. If they look like normal names, all is good as they are the last thing to load. If they instead look like they have variable names that have yet to be replaced with the right data such as $cam_youmonster, then stop what you are doing and go back to the press start screen by backing out. Wait about 10 seconds on the press start screen to allow the game to finish loading (it only preloads data when you are on or before the press start screen), and then go back into the game and see if all the text is now correct.

Should you try to play the game when the text looks incorrect, you will run into all sorts of problems with bad textures, and aliens, and eventually the game will crash - it doesn't have all the things in memory it should have.

Why did the dash update change this? We have no idea, nor does Microsoft, nor can it be replicated in our test or certification environments, but at least this can be worked around simply by waiting a little longer on the press start screen than it would seem like you have to. If we were allowed to do another update, we would simply have you wait longer before press start came up and not use the detection that loading is finished that we were using successfully before the dash update (and which still works fine for many people confusingly).

Issue 2 is less understood than this. In some cases for some people, they keep getting "achievement not able to be awarded" messages when they shouldn't be getting these error messages. Sometimes these error messages come up at times in the game that can cause it to freeze. We have learned that if you press B TWICE when you see that error message that the odds of it freezing diminish, but still it shoudln't be coming up, and we're waiting on our colleagues at Microsoft to help us diagnose why this is happening (again, it never happened in our test or certification environments and we don't have any information on why it is happening in the production environment).

To say that these issues are frustrating us when we do everything in our power to give you the highest quality game experience possible is a huge understatement and we want to fix this if this is something we can fix, and we want Microsoft to fix this if this is something they have to fix. We continue to talk with the folks at Microsoft about these issues.

In the meantime, the same exact version of the game that we make for Steam has none of these problems, and if you are an Xbox 360 user who is affected by this problem and would like a copy of the game on Steam I have a set of keys that I can give out to give to you so that you can download the game for free on Steam. Simply send an email to info <at> hiddenpath <dot> com saying you are an Xbox 360 user who is affected and give us your gamertag and we'll send you a Steam key.

This bothers us to no end, and we're very sorry that your gaming experience isn't as perfect as we would like it to be.

Jeff

[Chiaggi]

I really don't have words for the frustration I feel on this. For me, the problems started jointly with You Monster and the dashboard update. Is there any way I can get the game without the You Monster update? Heck, I would even forgo the asking for a refund on it, I just want to continue to play.

This....really....stinks......

[jeffpobst]

Microsoft's system doesn't allow us to remove updates, and there is no way to go back no. I agree with you, and if we had the power to change it (or when Microsoft gives us that power) we will change it instantly.

[Baldanders]

Thank you for the the prompt reply, Jeff!


Unfortunately, my DG crashes unpredictably (and sometimes predictably--it now crashes in all grinder/super grinder modes before the end of the 99 waves and in the 50 wave mode as well) regardless if the text is corrupted or not. Often, DG will crash and freeze before the title screen even loads. This is especially true if I have used any app/program/game before trying to play DG.

I seem to find new glitches every time I play. Last night, DG would not display any of the names of towers on the selection list---the towers were still selectable, but no names for any of them, either on the list, or next to the picture of the tower in the box above.

Trust me, for some of us, THERE IS NO CURRENT FIX WHICH MAKES THE GAME RELIABLE ENOUGH TO PLAY. Sad for me, as it's the only game I play, for the most part.

I will be taking you up on the free PC version, which is some great customer service, I must say.

[maxvon_d]

Just signed on to add my voice to the many suffering glitches, freezes, etc.

Seems I am in the unfortunate position of suffering from all the mentioned issues, and more.

I've been getting the achievement error for ages (probably since dash update, but not sure). I've been able to mostly ignore that one as a freeze afterward is pretty rare.

I get the texture / filename pre-loading issue also - so sometimes it'll have the $cam_youmonster naming conventions, etc. And I've had the game load with pink textures.

Most annoyingly though is the fact that it often locks the Xbox before the welcome screen even loads. This has only happened since the You Monster DLC I believe. Only way to get out of this one is a hard reboot.

Fingers crossed the Dev team and MS can get to the bottom of it sooner rather than later. The offer of a Steam key is cool, though I decided to leave my PC a few years back and use the console exclusively as my gaming platform - ironically because I got fed up of PC gaming tech issues! Happy to report that this is the only such problem I've encountered on the Xbox in my years of gaming with it. Unhappy to report that it has happened with one of my favourite games.

[jeffpobst]

The texture / filename pre-loading issue, should be completely solvable by waiting 5-10 seconds more at the press start screen. As I just said in another post. Microsoft keeps telling us that recovering the profile is the solution, but we know that users who have done this lose all save games for any game associated with that profile, and also that those users who have been willing to do this, report that it doesn't fix the problem. So far Microsoft doesn't respond to us when we explain that. As we get into late February I'm starting to suspect that Microsoft is not going to be helping us any further and my frustration is excruciating. We at Hidden Path don't have much ability to solve this without them, but for now the one thing we can do (and it only helps out those who have a PC) is provide you a free copy of the game on Steam. I wish we could do much more.

Jeff

[maxvon_d]

Unfortunately the last three times I've tried to launch the game it hasn't even made it to the "press start" screen. It might get as far as the Xbox Live Arcade screen, and sometimes the music will start for a second or so but then the Xbox just freezes.

[Baldanders]

Now I can't play at all either, I don't even get a start screen anymore, my machine just freezes.

[maxvon_d]

Had an incident the other day where Xbox Live appeared to be down and I thought I'd try Defense Grid. To my (sort of) surprise, it worked and I was able to play through the first level of You Monster.

I've just tested it again by unplugging my LAN cable and Defense Grid loaded up fine offline. Seems like I have found a workaround that will allow me to play, at least