My adventures with Action Replay and Xbox in general

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 12:41 pm

When i switched to the Xbox, I knew that one of the things I absolutely had to get was Action Replay. It is worth the cost of a game to me to have named rosters in NCAA Football and other sports games. I had used the SharkPort with my PS2 and never had the problems that a lot of people seemed to have with it. But things did not go quite as smoothly with the Action Replay.
 
 I couldn´t get the damn thing to work. Every roster/franchise was corrupt and would not load. I read the FAQ over at Operation Sports and discovered that the culprit was the AR memory card and that -as the FAQ points out- ´there are an alarming number of bad memory cards with AR.´ True enough. I exchanged the AR at another EB and had the same problem. I finally just picked up an official MS Xbox memory and loaded it up and finally had some success.
 
 I ended up deciding to just go with 1 console. As long as EA and Sega continue to support the Xbox I will be fine. Once NCAA Football went Xbox, I knew it would be only a matter of time. I have not been overwhelmed by the graphics, but they are better than the PS2 and the load times are shorter. What I really like is the hard drive. I also like the Controller S. I went ahead and got one of the PS2/Xbox converters to use the Dual Shock, but I am not sure if I will end up needing it. It was pretty easy to switch to the Controller S, and there are some things I really like about it. While the black and white buttons are somewhat of a pain, I found the double triggers on the Dual Shock a pain as well.
 
 I have tried a few different games. All Star Baseball still leaves me cold. I don´t know what it is - the game has everything. But I just can´t get into it. MVP Baseball was surprisingly fun. If they just change the AI to swing at some bad pitches and add some more High Heat type features, it could be good enough to play through a season. I did not think I would like it, but I did.
 
 NHL Hitz Pro is a fun game. I probably won´t keep it forever, but I will play it until I pick up one of the other hockey games. I am much more of a purist with baseball/football and so i don´t mind a game that is more arcade-like with hockey.
 
 I was tempted to take advantage of the Microsoft games on sale at EB and other places (Buy 2 get one free) But I am not sure whether to do it or not. Inside Drive comes highly recommended, but there is some controversy over the hockey game and people seemed to quickly tire of Topspin. But Links got great reviews here and I have always wanted to try Fever. But I did not pull the trigger - yet. Maybe once I sell all my PS2 gear.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 1:51 pm

As for the EB 2 for 1 on MS games...my advice:
 
 Inside Drive 2004, Amped 2, and Links 2004 (haven´t played it because of TW PC, but I hear it´s almost as good).

cocoman · Post by **cocoman** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 3:15 pm

I picked up another AR at Compusa for $19.99. I have to return it because the memorycard is defective too. Remember to remove the tag line on the saves you can´t load. Rent Fever 2004 and give it a few good days of play even if your first thought is the game is s***...you owe to yourself to give it a fair shake. IMO it´s the best online game of football for xbox.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 5:36 pm

With AR, are you supposed to take your saves from the memory card and save them directly to the HD of the Xbox (as I´ve heard some people do on another site), or go into the game and load them from the memory card and then save them? I am so confused!!
 
 I just picked up AR the other day and today is the first chance I´ve had to download some rosters. When I get home I want to try it out. Can someone help me out with what I should try (see above)? Thanks.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:30 pm

Steve,
 
 I always copy the save file to the hard drive and load it in the game from there. Seems to work better that way.

JOZ · Post by **JOZ** » Mon Dec 29, 2003 11:14 pm

Thankfully I have had no trouble with my AR and believe it was well worth the money. I have had very few saves that were "not valid". They mostly came from the xbox-saves.com website. I did read that some of the saves there were not compatible with the AR.
 
 I got my brother one for Christmas so hopefully his memory card is fine.

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 11:20 am

I read that you need to check the file to see if it has datelineinfo.xbx in it. If so, then you are supposed to delete it or it will not work. Has anyone else done this? I tried my AR last night and only one of my saves worked. <IMG SRC="images/forum/icons/icon27.gif">

kevinpars · Post by **kevinpars** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 1:49 pm

Was the save that worked for you a large or a small file? The Action Replay memory card works for small files (for example, a save of ESPN Hoops slider adjustments in a profile) but would not work for a larger file like a roster.
 
 That is why I ended up using the real Xbox memory card made my MS. It worked for all my saves.
 
 There is a FAQ on the Operation SPorts downloads board that has some good information: <a href="http://forums.operationsports.com/ubbth ... &Board=RAD" target="_blank" target="_new">http://forums.operationsports.com/ubbth ... ard=RAD</a>

grtwhtsk · Post by **grtwhtsk** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 2:01 pm

Kevin, the file that worked was a large file...but it was one directly from AR.