angshuman

I had the exact same problem. I wasn't able to load any of my saved games, all would freeze around 3/4 of the way. I have a fairly new XBOX (< 6months) with a *Samsung* drive, so I doubt this is a hardware issue. Try to load once from an AutoSave. That seemed to do it for me. After that, I didn't ever overwrite a saved game, and I haven't had any more problems... yet. Don't ask me for the logic behind this, I don't know. And I'm a Computer Engineer

Ha! Ha! Brilliant! :D

Well, Mucha Shacka Packa was also all over the place. Not only Sasha, but every (male?) Twilek would come around to using it sometime or the other... all you had to do was keep talking to him for a sufficient amount of time for the tape to wind up to the correct position... and there! ... although the accent and tone is slightly different than that of Sasha, and the phrase sounds more like "Mucha Shacka Packaha". I felt like smacking the idiots in tha face... and yet, I couldn't resist myself from letting them go on and on until they came to that phrase...

Has anyone noticed how poor Gamespot's coverage of this game has been compared to IGN? The previews etc. also don't seem too enthusiastic -- most of them are on the lines of "shaping up nicely". Somehow I don't feel these sites are entirely professional with their reviews. Although in general I'd wager my money on Gamespot's reviews, this game seems to be sort of an "IGN exclusive", and I wouldn't be surprised to see a 7.5-ish score on Gamespot. Not that it matters

Genghiz Khan (as LS) (w00t)

Huh?!?? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought all XBOX games use DVDs as media??

Exactly. The reason I bought my XBOX to begin with is so I wouldn't have to upgrade my PC every 6 months in order to play the latest games. That's the beauty of consoles: the game developers have to make do with the available hardware and tweak and optimize the game for the platform. It seems 3D engine developers take a free ride on the achievements of nVidia and ATI's superb research divisions. I don't know anything about the process, but I'm sure it's much easier to create a great-looking engine with the luxury that an FX6800 provides you compared to the austerity of, say, an XBOX's GF3. Very few games (e.g., Doom 3) have engines that actually are able to squeeze every single ounce of performance from a modern 3D card. Most games just get a free ride with all that compute power, so even a mediocre engine would look good as long as it uses all the bells and whistles the hardware provides it. And it's not like it's impossible to create a great-looking game on modest hardware. All it boils down to is how much time and effort the developers are willing to put in to optimize the engine for the specific requirements of the game, and the specific capabilities of the platform. Halo, BGDA and Ninja Garden are proof that this can be done.

My first XBOX game was Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and quite frankly, I was blown away -- among other things -- by the graphics engine. Beautiful textures, superb lighting, anti-aliased-looking edges, detailed spell effects; and all this at a *perfectly* smooth framerate throughout the game. Not once did I feel that the framerate fell below 60fps. All this added up to an overall fantastic gameplay experience, inspite of the good but not-so-great storyline. My second game on the XBOX was KOTOR. Nothing prepared me for the shock I received when the cinematics were over and the game screen came on. The framerate was horrible! The graphics were choppy, and every single edge was jagged and ugly! I had read the reviews, and they had all mentioned framerate issues, but I thought those reviewers were perhaps perfectionists who couldn't tolerate even a minute fps drop. I was wrong -- the drop is visible even to the most un-hardcore of gamers, especially during combat. Don't get me wrong, I love the game. I've loved every minute of playing it, it's truly an epic. But the horrible graphics stand out like an irritating thorn in an otherwise near-perfect game. There are several spectacular effects in places, but those effects look like cheap stunts to take your mind off the ugly edges and choppy frames. I sincerely hope that the Obsidian people (many of whom I believe were behind BGDA) work their usual magic and create a KOTOR II with smooth, fluid graphics and amazing framerates. That, combined with a KOTOR-style gameplay, storyline and voice-acting, is what would make one hell of a perfect game.