@.endejas.: He's not saying people are making things up he's saying he hasn't had problems since christmas. Neither have i by the way.

Cchrist

@AstrayPenguin: hmm so what about the Chinatown map did people (and I'm assuming, you) not like? I haven't played the original inspiration from COD2 so I wouldn't really know what to expect.

The other levels seem interesting, but I'm still not sure if it warrants 10 bucks from my PSN wallet.

DragonSphere

This is NOTHING if you're used to MMOs and shitty server startups. Took only about 30minutes of pounding retry to get things going.

muu

@dead_red_eyes: Honestly? Did you think everyone was making up that shit around Christmas? Even Microsoft admitted the problems, and gave XBL a free game for it.

Just because you and your friends didn't experience any problems doesn't make the rest of the internet a bunch of liars. The rest of the internet are liars for a different reason.

.endejas.

Glad I was boozing rather than gaming tonight. I tried to get it earlier but it crapped out so I put it down to the "millions of other fools getting the lastest crack-pack" oddly I was right. Go me. Stupid service, just get more servers so you can cope with peaks and troughs you pillocks!

NunianVonFuch

i had problems yesterday with my 360 freezing at the start up screen, or being a stubborn person and not moving from the start up screen, but besides that, i haven't experienced anything

zombieman3421

Last rant, they need to start pre-ordering online I guess, I'd imagine most everything was 99% final a few weeks ago, do some pre downloading like blizzard does with World of Warcraft or Steam at least attempted to with Half Life 2, then their servers won't drop to their knees so much.

Pornosaur

@dead_red_eyes: I think you can safely say over 500,000

Cchrist

@dead_red_eyes: Dude, the only "console" i own is an xbox 360 so I'm no hater or a fanboy, shit and excuses anytime something cool is on xbox live gets old after awhile.

Pornosaur

@VonDante: I agree, they keep talking a good game about digital download being the future but any time a big release comes around they Epic fail. So since HD-DVD failed I should just rent the movie for $10 and if it's something more than a 1000 people want to watch I should wait a couple days to actually download it and do it? Aren't they the ones reporting the stats that CoD 4 gets 1.2 million players a day online? I think the xbox 360 might be the only console to totally shit the bed in it's own life cycle, the lag and bugs in some of the most recent releases shouldn't be happening with a machine heading into it's 3rd year. Not to mention the early hardware faliure rate. Who is in charge over there anyway? I mean what gives, no improvment on infrastuctre?

Pornosaur

@sooiee115: Well when you have a million people all trying to download something at the same time any online service will fall to its knees no matter how much bandwidth you throw at it.

As for the issue, yea there is one but if you keep trying you can get what you want...of course thats whats causing the issue. Its like a DDOS attack.

parad0x360

@dead_red_eyes:
A) Kotaku has a sense of humor.
B) When xbox live works 100% for everyone then they won't have a kernel of truth to the joke.

Demonbird

And Michael, you know I don't mean cast hate with the above comment ... I'm just trying to state that it's a bit of a reach to say that Live is still having issues 105 days later. It's ALWAYS going to have issues ... especially when you have over (guessing) 100,000 people trying to download a big map pack all at once.

dead_red_eyes

And Kotaku, what's with this "Day 105" crap? Live has been completely fine for me and all my friends after the Christmas madness. All you're doing is making these haters/fanboys foam at the mouth.

dead_red_eyes

Great, and I just had to decide to renew my Xbox LIVE subscription yesterday. (I ran out of time in February, didn't have much cash 'til now.) Hopefully these problems don't last 13 months. ;)

NobleArc, The Lazy Canadian

this shit has dragged on longer than an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

TinyLightning

@AstrayPenguin:

I agree. 500 points is the best. 800 points is way too much, considering that the TV station level is from the single player game ... which takes about zero work to turn into a multiplayer map.

dead_red_eyes

We still can't hear the party leader in cod4 lobbies and they can't hear us. It has been that way since the outages early this year. I really wish they would just fix this shit.

Demonbird

Day 105? Are you guys shitting me? Have we been watching it for this long? I haven't had any problems with it since January. When I host games on TF2, there is no noticeable lag, except sometimes when firing grenades.

TheEngineer

I'm pretty pissed over this. I just wanted a night messing around on Live playing the new maps. Not only can't I buy the points to buy the maps. I can't play COD online because the little update won't load to let me play the game online..

On the upside I got 2 good hours in on Half Life 2.. so it was far from a total loss.. but dammit I want to shoot people in the face!

Tarpo

I'm getting seriously pissed off at this service. We are paying a 50 dollar price tag for whats supposed to be a premium service and every god damn time something big comes out, be it a demo or DLC, it crashes harder than a hooker jonesin for her heroin needs.

I pay the fifty.. have for four or five years now but when shit like this happens I really question why I keep giving to a service that has issues giving back. Even with general fucking tasks. It's getting old MS, it's getting really god damn old.

VonDante

@AstrayPenguin: The last map (Killhouse) isn't included in those playlists because of the size difference. The other maps are designed for larger amounts of players, so having a game on Killhouse with that amount of people whould be absolute chaos.

If you want to play Killhouse, it's circulating on the Team Tactical playlist.

QualityJeverage

I was getting worried. Since I just bought another Year of Live and the Card didn't work. Maybe it will work later :)

Microbe!

...is this also a precursor to what I have to look forward to when it's released on the PS3? I hope sony learns from microsoft's issues and intellectually releases the expansion in such away to avoid this calamity... eh.. .who am I kidding, this is sony we are talking about...that's not happening...

pandorasbox

I gave the new maps a try.

Everyone hates Chinatown, not seen 1 happy person wanting to play it.

Creek is awesome but I'm still learning it so snipers rape me.

TV station has poor dynamics, doesn't suit anything but BIG games, the entry hall and outside is awesome though.

and I'm not had a game on the last one, it appears Chinatown mugs it every time it should come up and takes it's place.

While creek -is- excellent, I feel that the map pack was probably too expensive, at 500 points I would of felt it worth it, but at 800 not really. Plus I had to buy 1000 to get enough for it, when I only need 600 points, which ticked me off a little but will make Halo maps a better price to me.

AstrayPenguin

I haven't had any issues thus far today. But I'm takin' a break right now to watch the Lakers game.

Hopefully it's fixed soon.

J-Fro

Seems like they underestimated the demand for these maps. Hopefully they can get some bandwidth up to help alleviate the pressure.

jihadjoe343

UHH!!!
This sucks so much. Xbox Live doesn't seem as reliable and user-friendly as it used to be.

sooiee115

I was just playing Condemned 2 multi and i didn't experience any problems.

Cchrist

Yep, it's the maps. Confirmed by FourZeroTwo.

[iamfourzerotwo.com]

Took me a good two hours of trying before I was able to download them. They're great...you just have to work for 'em.

QualityJeverage

Sure seems to buckle a lot. Xbox Live, you fattie, you!

Drake Lake

I've also been experiencing problems joining actual games in COD4. It gets hung up at the lobby and just cycles through "finding avail. games" and whatever the step after that is. At least it's not as bad as it was over the Christmas holidays.

Clamchop

I wanted to play some Forza 2 with a buddy and I couldn't even download the update. Microsoft needs to get some fucking servers that actually work. What the hell are they doing with all the ad revenue and subscription funds they get?

Priestfact

@DragonSphere: The lay out is just not very good in general. It feels like the Krill level in Gears of War but with sniper spots all over the place. The action flows rather poorly and a couple of snipers in windows can jam the whole level up to the point of just 2 teams sitting in opposite sides of the map trying to get to each other.

The in door areas are very confusing and extremely tight, so claymores will protect snipers with absolutely no problem. The buildings have very few exits and lots of stairwells to pin people down in.

In short, the map has horrible dynamics, it's far too easy to make the game feel like it's jammed up. All the fun is sucked out of it because Random J sniper with a SAW in a window just raped your entire team because there were 12 windows he could be in and you only checked 11, while he can e in perfect cover by stepping back 2 inches and if you attempt to rush him he'll have the stairs booby trapped and the door covered while hiding behind the 12 randomly place objects laying around the room.

AstrayPenguin

Button mashing did the trick for me. It eventually worked after about 5-10 minutes.

Bryan

Hey i hope we get another free game! *Praying for free game of choice.*

Cchrist

micro-suck...WHY...WHY so you suck soooo bad? why can't you make ANYTHING work? buy more servers! allocate more bandwidth....geez i'm sick and tired of paying for sht that (almost) NEVER works. gah, maybe linus torvalds should make a console....i bet HE would do it right.

angry_poster

@CONFUSEDgam3r:
Microsoft company policy happened.

Demonbird

What happened to solving this issue last time around?

CONFUSEDgam3r

At least it isn't as bad as Brawl's online problems.

I still have yet to actually PLAY online with it o_0

trelantana

Just think DLC is the future if you listen to MS.
How will they cope when its not thousands but millions that want to DL at the same time?

Weasal

@sooiee115: AAAAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAHAAAA thas a good'n. Can't say I've experienced chugging multiplayer...as a new live update popped up today, which I can't download from any connection near me. Probably an isp screw up, but a pain all the same.

rdj

@angry_poster: Please tell me you're only making fun of the people who are exaggerating about the XBL problems. Really, I've only experienced problems during the holidays and even then, they were pretty minor problems (for me, at least). I haven't tried playing any online multiplayer games since a few days ago, but I've been able to sign in on XBL just fine.

josh924

@Br00klyn-Grenade:
Are the point cards cheaper than just buying the points online?

TheEngineer

And it's killing me because I bought a 1600 points card just to get the map pack and a couple of Rock Band song packs. I got Brawl today too so at least that'll hold me down.

Br00klyn-Grenade

I got my maps downloaded, and tried them out. Aside from in private matches my connection was all sketchball. It went from great to awful and back. And usually hovered around the point where I ask "anyone else lagging?".

WEGGLES90

My console does get back until next week so I haven't noticed.

Heyyou27

never had a problem getting in a match on brawl,
although the lag renders the online useless.
still, just the fact that online works for wii, plus psn works on ps3
add to that issues like the one in this article, and it's obvious to any observer.

xbox live gold is not worth the subscription fees.
there is no reason to charge for online pay.

snowlock

I'm really mad at microsoft too. For some reaon I don't by the prepay, so I end up paying around $100 a year for live. I managed to add 2000 points to my account tonight, but I can't do anything else. Seems like every game I want to play needs an update, which it can't download.

superhalo

As for Live service, this is getting ridiculous. I know the service breaks down to pennies a day, but I don't play 24 hours a day. I want to be able to use the service when new maps come out, on the weekend, over the holidays.

Microsoft needs to get Live working consistently. It is obvious that the problems haven't been fixed rather the Holiday rush has just died down. As soon as there are a lot of people online again the service buckles.

Lou3000

I actually haven't had any problems, and I've been playing the new maps all day.

The maps are great, but way overpriced. 800 points for 4 maps, and one of those maps really isn't widely available for play.

Unfortunately, with the Live servers crashing under the weight of people trying to buy them, looks like 800 points will be standard.

Lou3000

@snowlock: I like your kind of post the most... tell it like it is!! YAH!

okenny :)

WAAAAAH

ManjiKengo

You guys think you got it rough? I'm just hooking up my brand-new 360 today, and can't even start an account. So by my accounts, Nintendo has the more satisfying online experience than Microsoft.

Devo-Chu

look... don't 1.3 billion people play every day? and how many of those people don't play everyday. And how many of those people were flooding servers to download the new maps? Computers are good. You should be amazed that the game is still semi playable. Amazed I say!

XWonka

@Drake Lake:
I tried downloading a song for Rock Band when I made this comment, and had no success up until ten minutes ago.

Drake Lake

I played several Halo 3 Griffball matches and had no problems. Sounds like a COD4 issue, not Xbox Live.

bfvaughn

Man, I sure picked a bad day to purchase a 360. I kept wondering if my overpriced wireless network thingie was bogus (I bought a used one)

I'm glad to know it's an actual problem though, and not something I'm doing/not doing over here. For some reason, "Live is broken" never entered my mind.

On the plus side though, Lost Odyssey is awesome.

PTTSeven

o wtf, ppl buying rehash maps? i love cod4, but not 10$ worth of maps love.

maybe the halo one, that's got the bestest map of all time: lockout

hint, infinity ward: make that map

genebeef

@Drake Lake: So finally it was a triumph? Huge success?

(if you were dling Poral Theme :)

Adam In Texas

@AstrayPenguin: Are you playing team deathmatch? No snipers on creek playing team tactical and the china map is crazy but cool.

Adam In Texas

@AstrayPenguin: Are you playing team deathmatch? No sniper

Adam In Texas

@Devo-Chu: Agreed. Never had a serious problem on the Wii's online-ness, which is probably why I kept thinking the problem was on my end when I set up the 360 this morning - I'm used to things working more or less flawlessly :/

PTTSeven

@.endejas.:

Did I say that I didn't experience problems over Christmas? NO I DIDN'T. Don't put fucking words in my mouth that I didn't say. You got all bent out of shape at my comment and didn't even bother to read into it. I said that after the Christmas madness none of my friends had problems with XBL ... and I didn't have issues either. I'm not here to make shit up, I'm not here to earn "cred" and spew bullshit. Ease up hater.

dead_red_eyes

An easy way i got around the trouble with trying to redeem points through the 360 is by going to the actual xbox website. After signing in there i went to my account management and just redeemed my point card there. Went back to my xbox and my points were there. As for downloading the map pack for COD4 i had to keeping selecting "Confirm Download" it took a few times but finally its downloading while i type this.

cloudvert

I just don't get why this keeps happening, there seems to be two possible explanations:

Either Microsoft just doesn't have the infrastructure to support the extent Live has expanded to or they lack the forethought to realise that there's going to be a significant increase in demand at Christmas and at the release of new DLC.

We're talking about one of the biggest technology companies in the world so the former sounds unlikely but surely they can't be retarded enough to not realise that when the number one multiplayer game gets a new map pack people might actually want to play it.

Kiltman67

@PTTSeven: You better believe Lost Odyssey is awesome. Finally someone with a brain in their head.

unhappymatt1

@snowlock: Go watch a Blu-Ray movie then.

unhappymatt1

@VonDante: GO watch a Blu-Ray movie.

unhappymatt1

@josh924: So have I. People today like to complain about the smallest of things. Nothing is wrong with the service. If they cant get what they want they act like the angry German kid and get on the hate bandwagon. I've never had these problems. They should just go watch a Blu-Ray movie.

unhappymatt1

@TheEngineer: they are simply hating our live service. they are jealous PS3 fanboys

unhappymatt1

@sooiee115:so stop buying it

unhappymatt1

Been playing Halo all night, no issues. Guess it's not affecting matchmaking services.

freakout

I tried to add some MS Points last night after work. It wouldn't let me. Playing online seemed fine it was just screwing up the marketplace.

Just woke up and tried again, everything seems back to normal now.

Grave of the Fireflies

I haven't been able to stay connected to live. I sure hope the biggest tech company in the goddamn world can figure this out. Hint: it has to do with buying more servers.

futonhead

Just to let y'all know- My Xbox Live is now fixed. It wasn't this morning but I started up all my downloads no problem an hour ago, it just took longer to load up the pages than usual. I fired an email off to MS last night, but it looks like they've managed to get it back up and running again. Anyone else's working again?

gdf

Well, my internet at home went to shit, and I can't connect with any more than 300kbps, so my download would have been sucky anyway. Just as well, as I have to work this weekend, so it's not like I will be playing it much.

jello44

@unhappymatt1: What are you doing commenting on Kotaku for? Go play Halo like a good boy.

Scipher

yet another miscalculation by the xbl team, reminiscent of the previous massive holiday outage. they once again under estimated the popularity of COD4. you would think they learned from previous issues.

but on a good side, maps were all worth it. my jaw dropped upon seeing the details of CREEK: from the cobwebs to the flashlight inside the cave.

yay to infinity wards. boo to XBL.

al_morenas

Hopefully they've learned their lesson for when the Halo 3 maps come out.

Tomahawk214

I just played Condemned2:Bloodshot all night instead and gave the DL map pack a try this morning, smooth sailing.

sh0tgunn0strils

I played ALL through last night without a hitch.

I do know that many people were having problems getting the maps to download.

SAKY

What really chafes my grits is that this is the same company spinning and spinning since the death of HD-DVD that DLC is the 'wave of the future, today!'

Well, if you can't get a 450 MB download to work smoothly without crashing the entire network, I'd say we've got a few years to go before that, Microsoft.

You might want to try harder to get that Blu-Ray add-on. ;)

doubtful

@dead_red_eyes: Just admit thos things you couldn't that you know about yourself and you won't be so angry, you know what I mean.

Pornosaur

@TheEngineer: nah you have to pay taxes in the store. Buy online.

SAKY

@Tomahawk214: not oging to be as popular so no worries there my friend.

SAKY

get a ps3

JoseLuis

I thought this was over like back in Feb.

Sailorcancer

I was on most of last night and did not have any problems. I got booted this morning, but was able to sign right back in with no delay.

coalhalo

I thought Blu-Ray was owned by sony so why would sony want to give microsoft a add-on for thire xbox?

Capt_Birdseye

Aren't all you suckers...I mean, good people...paying for this service? If I were you, I'd be lighting a fire under Microsoft's ass right about now. As for me, I'll be waiting for the PC version :))

darthnader

My year of prepaid gold service just ended and I think this was the last straw...I doubt I will be renewing the service.

Why should I pay for a service that is ridiculously unreliable? If this was some tiny no name company, yes I understand. But this is Microsoft! They can run a Windows Update program that I am sure deals with alot more people than just the number of Xbox Live community and it works a hell of a lot better during crunch times.

They really just want to drive customers to the Wii and PS3 dont they?

bigcheda

Hard to believe MS didn't learn its lesson from the great Live crash of xmas '07, *sigh*. Three out of the four maps are decent but the small one, Killhouse seems like it was designed by Infinity Ward interns. Would i recommend dropping $10 on 'em? Not not really.

Johnny_Wadd