Xbox Dashboard Update Reducing Game Install Sizes
Gamers who got to install the preview of the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard update have started reporting that most games installed to hard drive have smaller sizes than they did before, in some cases the difference is pretty dramatic. Additionally, there doesn't seem to be a minimum size anymore, so games that weren't exactly packing the DVD with content can come in at less than a GB.
The smaller sizes don't seem to be affecting the performance benefits that the installs gave to some games, with reduced load times and smoother performance still reported for games that benefitted from a hard drive install. No word on exactly why the games suddenly take 5, 10, or 20% less space before, but my guess is a wizard did it.
Most drops are probably not significant enough to matter to the majority of Xbox gamers: folks with 20 GB hard drives can maybe fit one extra (smallish) game on there, those with larger drives probably weren't hurting for space. But if you're one of the few who has packed your hard drive to the brim with installed games, you may want to check and see exactly how much space you'll save once the update officially hits later this month. There's no comprehensive list yet, but check out this thread for updates.
Xbox 360 Game Install Sizes and Loading Times [Cheap Ass Gamer]
[via: Kotaku]
Dawdle
Posted to Video Games on 2 August 2009
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: dashboard, game install, preview, update, xbox 360
I never got the whole installed games thing.
Has it really become so bad that people can't wait for a few seconds for a disc to load?
Sometimes it's recommended to play a game from the hard drive to reduce glitches and errors, Nexus. I've experienced it myself that playing Fallout 3 from the hard drive has reduced the amount of times my game spontaneously freezes up. It hasn't removed the freezes entirely, but it definitely has reduced them.
Why should you wait?
Mostly I think the reason people like the backups is that it doesn't keep the XBox disc drive spinning and reading things, since running from HDD is a lot more reliable and won't damage the discs.
For some games it's been reported that load times are very reduced, like the many in Fable II or Burnout Revenge going from one place/race to another.
And those times add up. It reminds me of the Take Back the Beep campaign, trying to get carriers to remove the obligatory carrier message telling people how to leave voicemails after a personal message... time that people are paying for.
I install games to make the system quieter. Reading the disk is what makes the majority of the noise put off by the 360.
However, for games like Fable 2. Almost a must. I played through it installed so I never had anything to compare it too, until I uninstalled. Once Knothole came out I downloaded it and started the game back up. The weather, and texture pop-ins were enough to make me install the game again, if only for the 1-2 hours the dlc would take.
I install quite a few games, so decreased size is great. I'm removing and reinstalling games right now thanks to the preview.
A couple seconds of hitch at the wrong time completely disrupts the flow. Why not just spend 5 minutes up front ripping the whole thing to HD? As long as it's optional everyone's happy. Even if it doesn't run any faster (Halo 3) at least it runs a lot quieter. This is one of the big reasons I prefer my PS2 to PS3 - I have the HD hack for PS2, and the PS3 optical drive is just so damn slow.
Since there seems to be absolutely no speed difference, I suspect the smaller X360 install sizes now are just by using sparse ISOs instead of raw ISOs, and not via more intensive compression. But run length decoding isn't too intensive, maybe they've leveraged something to do that.
I HAD to use the install option to play The Orange Box on my 360 because it was full of glitches and was unplayable otherwise. It wasn't a problem with the disk because I returned it, got a new one and still had the same problems. After installing it, everything was fine but it did bother me that I had to install the damn game in order to play it.
The woman in that drawing looks like Lily Tomlin.
@ Richie: It's from the awesome movie "The Incredible Shrinking Woman."
Thanks Dawdle, for the rest of the day I'm going to have the Galaxy Glue song stuck in my head.
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