Am I going to be damned for not having a decent xbox live connection

February 17, 2009 8:46 AM

Am I completely screwed when it comes to Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned ?

I don't have a open router so my Xbox live is really funky. I still want to get Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned but I cant download it at my home so I was wondering if I could just take my hard drive and go to a friends house and download it. Will this work in the sense that I'll be able to just go home and play it sans Xbox live or am I just screwed ?

posted by carefulmonkey to Technology (4 answers total)

Best answer: You should be able to download it at your friend's and be able to use whatever offline parts of it that it includes (I'm not familiar iwth that piece of DLC, but I imagine whatever extra missions it adds, sans multiplayer modes etc.).

You mention having a connection that's funky, rather than simply being offline all the time. If that's the case, this page might be helpful, as a guide to wrangling port-forwarding if your router isn't open enough for Live's tastes.
posted by Drastic at 9:17 AM on February 17, 2009

Best answer: If you just download it to your hard disk from another console, you might have to transfer the license once you plug the disk back into your 360. Why not take the whole console and plug it into your friend's network? Since there's already a 360 there, you can skip the power brick and controller, making the package a bit less bulky.

Supposedly, though, you will be able to play the DLC without an active Live connection, so once you do get it on your console, you should be good to go.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:18 AM on February 17, 2009

Best answer: The way that premium DLC works (and I assume that Lost and Damned would work this way as well) is that the console that you download the DLC on is the "home" console (even if you swap the hard drive - it is the actual console that counts). Any gamertag account on that home console can use the DLC, whether or not connected to xbox live (although there are some exceptions that still require the users to be connected to xbox live, but these are rare)

When you swap the hard drive back to your console, then you will only be able to use the DLC (in single player and in multiplayer) while you are signed in to live, which sounds like you can't guarantee.

The solutions are as set out by Drastic and uncleozzy above:

1. Take your console and harddrive to your friend and download it at his or her house.

2. Take your harddrive to your friend's house and download it there. Then use the content licence transfer tool to transfer the licence to your console, thus resetting it as the "home" console. The problems with this are:

i. you can only use the transfer tool once a year, otherwise you have to call MS and explain why you need to use it.
ii. in some cases, you need to re-download the item (for free) before the licence transfer takes effect, which obviously would defeat the purpose of the exercise by you.

To be safe, I'd go with taking your console round.
posted by Mattat at 10:28 AM on February 17, 2009

Re: uncleozzy's comment: Don't skip the powerbrick! Not all 360s have the same power interface. Newer ones have lower power bricks and won't work (or fit) in older consoles.
posted by chairface at 1:34 PM on February 17, 2009