Two things:

1) I find it funny that everyone now says they hate GH or Rock Band. That's why it's sold so many units right? Cuz no one plays them? :) Come on guys; there's lots of players out there. Just because a few people say they don't understand why people want to spend hours banging on fake instruments for a score doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. Sure, you could just as easily learn a new instrument...if you hada year to practice. Some people just like sitting down and pretending to play a favorite song. The games are challenging...I wonder how many "haters" are actually any good at the game? Plus, how long would it take you to learn 3 songs off the game? Far easier to just play the 300 ones that are already out. If you want to learn a real instrument, then by god go do it. If not, shut up and let the rest of us play. :p)

2) I freaking hate quitters. Sure, you can say no one knows why they quit...but how many quitters quit when they are winning? hm? I've played a lot of GH, Rock Band, and the other spin offs, and I can say I've had people quit 5 seconds into the song, for prob a connection reason, and others who "mysteriously lose their connection" right before the last few notes, when they are losing. Sure, go ahead and say it doesn't annoy you; you lie. What if it was Halo 3, or COD? You like quitters there? I can't tell you how many times I've been in a COD match where our team was winning...only to have the host quit. If you're that worried about stats, and your "level", perhaps you should stick with an RPG?

All I'm saying is that quitters degrade the quality of multiplayer. They should have penalties for quitting; esp in games like GH. SOMETIMES you get the win, and sometimes you don't. Why not just gracefully lose? Are the leaderboard scores that important? Can't see how they would be, given that most of the people in the top 10 slots seem to have funny records. (Check COD Modern Warefare...the number 1 guy had 50% less stats than the number 2...kills the whole point of leaderboards when you have to cheat.

Also, last thing. You few people out there you use the "little magic box" to interrupt net connections in a game where your losing SUCK. You know who you are...and I don't think it's a lot of you, but you ruin the game for everyone.

It's a very hard level to beat on veteran diff. Here's what you do, and what worked for me.

1) Once you get to the tunnels, where you chase a guy around a corner, kill the 3 or 4 guys that are going to be around the corner. (more may or may not come out of the tunnels). You have to be careful; sometimes guys hang back in the tunnels and wait for you to get close to the entrance of one, before they come out and shoot you. Also, be aware that if the guys behind the boxes get to close to you when you're near the tunnels, they may be able to shoot you). Edge towards the tunnel on your right, as that has the most cover in the front where the boxes are.

2) I used the shotgun, and what you do is lie down, and edge slowly around until you can shoot the guy at the end. (of the tunnel on your right). Sometimes you may be able to do this withtout the guy in the tunnel on you rleft shooting you in the back. Othertimes, I would advise killing him first).

If you're having trouble, you can knnel next to the entrance of the tunel on the right, without exposing yourself, and shoot the guy in the tunnel on your left by slowly edging out. You will always see him before he sees you. Then, you can either lie down and edge out to kill guy in tunnel on right, or run around quickly with the shotgun and pump 4 or 5 shots towards him and kill him quickly.

3) very important. Keep your weapon up and kill the one or two guys who are going to come out of the next tunnel as yo ugo down tunnel on your right. If you kill them as they come out, they won't hide behind the column. Kneel and slowly move so that you can see inside the tunnel, but only to the far right wall, not the end of the tunnel, as 3 or so guys will kill you instantly if you peek around the corner. Make sure no one is near your end of the tunnel. Usually one guy will be hanging around closest to you, so plug him.

4) unsling your rfile and lie down behind the column. Slowly edge out so you can see the guys at tne end of the tunnel. Be careful, they will be shooting at you, but if you do this right, they will have a hard time hitting you. Plug them, and make sure you get the 2 at the end, and the 1 guy who will be hiding behind the column down the next tunnel. If you don't, they will kill you as you run down. Flash gernades will help. Regular gernades or the gernade launcher will also help.

5) When you're sure they are dead, run down and lie down again. Repeat and kill all at the end of the last tunnel. (You will be running down this tunnel you are shooting down, and join your guys going into the next room. The problem ususally comes in when you are trying to run down, and guys are in the tunnel on the other side of the hallway you are about to take a right in will shoot you. Make SURE they are dead).

6) When all is clear, run down and head right into the next area. Be aware that a guy hides behind some boxes just as you go right, so shoot him. Run! And hope you get a checkpoint, cause I got screwed out of that twice and died after blowing the wall. Talk about pissed.

Your xbox360 says it needs to update? But the screen goes black, so you can't?

I'd probably just send it back, as heart-breaking as that is. Sounds like it's dying to me.

And definitely be careful about un-hooking the hard-drive while it's on....you know, it could be the hard-drive by itself, but the fact that the thing is noisy and there are sound problems doesn't sound good...

Thanks for the info. I was undecided on whether or not to buy this one. As far as load times, whatever. Gives me time to have a sip of which ever tasty alchoholic beverage i happen to be drinking. (games are better half-snapped) Ha. smokeyf

Hahahahahahaha. I agree.

I will whine all I want thank you. :) If you don't like to read whining, don't read posts that complain about reviews.

I for one don't even own this game; I just think it's unfair to berate a game because of non-gameplay factors. If it's too buggy to play, fine. But a bad review turns a lot of people off to the game; and I think it's a shame that you can put so much work into something and have it bomb because someone doesn't think they should have to wait 5 extra seconds for a cut-scene.

:)

Totally with you man on Gamespot's poor review. It seems to me that they get the wrong peple to review games. I mean come on, you give a game like Lost O. a 7.5 because of LONG LOAD TIMES? Dude, seriously. If you're that impatient, you probably throw things at your T.V. when your little dude dies in COD4.

I agree as well on Mass Effect. What ever happened to reviewing games based on the gameplay, and not whether or not you had to spend an extra 5 seconds watching a static load screen? Sure it's slighly annoying, but if that means it makes the awesome CGI sequences to convey an excellent story, (and by all accounts L.O. has an excellent story), then so WHAT?

I'm amazed at the constant stream of bad reveiws on this site towards games that are otherwise more than ok, but get knocked down to the 7.0 category because they simply take longer? I seem to remember Xenosaga got better reviews than this, and it has like 45 minute long CGI movies? Anyone? Anyone?

It's also telling, to me, that a game like Halo 3 or COD4 ALWAYS gets in the 9.0 category. Sure, the games are nice, but they are almost automatic in the good score. I liked COD4 , although it was way too short, and Halo 3 was definitely good, but dude, 40 hours of awesome story, penned by award winners, with an awesome musical score, and what looks like a fighting system, that at worst, is based off ideas that have been around a while?

Why does a game get rated so badly just because it hasn't moved forward into the TOTAL REAL TIME ERA??? I happen to like this system. Sure, it's not God of War, but geez, it's not that kind of game! Why does this reviewer demote the game because it has lengthy cgi sequences? IT'S AN RPG DUDE! That's what it's for; it's not action-oriented. If it was, it would be an ACTION GAME.

Heh. Sorry if I got a little Lewis Black, but that's ridiculous.

What I want to know is who are these idiot guys who tell people, "Look, I just can't have this. I have some 30 year old woman trying to have sex with me, and geez, I just can't take it. All she wants to do is send me pictures of herself naked, and I have better things to do, like play Portal."

I suppose it depends on the woman, but I don't know any guys who would complain about that. What did he do, run to dad and say "I have this woman who likes me..."

Funny that the attitude is mostly like this regarding an older woman with a younger guy, but it's not like this with girls...I would smack the hell out of some 30 year old who was messing with MY fifteen year old daughter. (If I had one). But if my son said "some hot older woman keeps sending me naked pictures?" Hm. Then again, it could be some giant dude....

Perhaps people should, as mentioned, just stop meeting with people online that they don't know? Now THERE' an innovative idea.

I'd have to say a ton of the dialouge from armed and dangerous, on xbox.

Enemy soldiers confront the main character and companions, and are about to arrest them, when the little old guy pulls a classic scene from Star Wars. "These aren't the droids you're looking for" or something from Star Wars, there's another line like "it's not working" from one of your companions, and the guy casting the spell is like, "Okay, from now on, you're both French!" and the soldiers shout "RETREAT!" and turn and run away.

Also dig the AI from Portal. "Please lie down and assume the party position" or "Everyone has started eating your cake. I told them not to, but they went ahead and started anyway. You should hurry up before it's gone" or something like that.

Jeez man, some person records a killionaire to show it off, like so many others do with some achievement, and has 100s of people crying out how lame it is.

I'm wondering how many people who say Halo 3 takes no skill are actually any good at the game? I'm wondering that because every time I win on some live game, no matter WHAT it is, I always hear at least one person complaigning over live that:

1) The game is cheap.

2) That the game takes no skill

3) That someone cheated.

IMHO, if you don't like the game, don't play it. If you don't like watching someone else show off their skillz, then don't watch. I've played Halo 3 a lot, and I've played people who lost easily, and others who killed me every time I rounded a corner. To me, such things are a matter of opinion anyway.

I'm sure there are 100s of people who claim COD4 takes no skill. I'm sure I've seen a few on these very forums.

Lol. What games DO take skill then? :)