DLC Without XBOX Live?

Actinguy1

Hi all! I'm obsessed with the Mass effect series. I am not, however, obsessed with XBOX Live...in fact, I think it's awful. I own a PS3, and it plays nearly any game I could buy on the XBOX, so why would I pay to play a game online when I can do so for free?

Of course, Mass Effect is the exception to the rule, as it isn't available on PS3. It's not multi-player, thankfully...but this means I can't download the newest DLC, Lair of the Shadow Broker. After reading the reviews, I've come to find my lack of "Lair" to be completely untenable.

So, my question: How do I download Lair of the Shadow Broker without paying for XBOX Live?

Understand: I am NOT asking how to steal the game. I will pay full market price...I'm just trying to figure out a way to do so without getting sucked into the evils of paying for XBOX Live. ;c)

So...can I somehow pay on my computer and then install on the Xbox? Buy it in a store? Some other option I'm not considering? Totally screwed? Let me know what you think!

Thanks!

EDIT: I realize I can also play it on my computer, but my saved character is on the XBOX. Any way to transfer it over somehow?

Deebaser

You don't need a pay account (Gold Membership) to buy DLC. Hook your xbox up to the intertubes, buy your MS money and download.

OnTheLastCastle

What Deebaser said. Otherwise DLC is periodically put on discs, usually bundled, and sold. Or there will be a Game of the Year edition someday with the DLC *maybe*.

Otherwise, you're out of luck. But a quick hookup, buying and downloading will solve your problem. You do not need gold. You will probably have to sign up for silver. It's free.

ashridah

You only need an Xbox live Silver account to buy XBLA, DLC, themes, whatever from xbox marketplace.

Silver accounts are free.

Where have you been getting your information from about this, because you've never needed a gold account to buy DLC, only need gold to use the online gaming, netflix, party, matchmaking, etc services.

noir_blood

Sounds like you already played it, but ME is coming out to the PS3 with DLC in the box.

Serpent

Third times the charm:

Xbox live does not cost money. A gold subscription, which lets you play multiplayer (and a few other things), does.

Hook up your box to the internet, pay microsoft money for dlc, download.

strebalicious

Serpent wrote: »

Hook up your box to the internet, pay microsoft money for dlc, download.

Make sure you do this, instead of just pulling your hard drive out and sticking it on someone else's console to download. You will be a sad panda if you don't hook your own box with your own hard drive in it to the interweb to download.

Esh

noir_blood wrote: »

Sounds like you already played it, but ME is coming out to the PS3 with DLC in the box.

What? When? Where?

RUNN1NGMAN

Esh wrote: »

noir_blood wrote: »

Sounds like you already played it, but ME is coming out to the PS3 with DLC in the box.

What? When? Where?

Only ME2, not ME.

Actinguy1

Thanks for all the replies! Glad to see it'll be easier than I thought!

Follow up question: I am equally morally opposed to paying 50 dollars (or 20 dollars or 1 dollar) for the priviledge of paying 10 dollars for DLC, so I'd rather not buy a wifi adapter for the 360 just to use it this once. I realize I'm making all of this harder than it is, but when I'm opposed to a business model, I try not to support it with my ill-gotten gains.

My apartment building includes (legal) free wifi, which means I don't have access to the physical router, just the wifi signal. Is there a way to route the wifi from my laptop to the xbox using a cord of some sort?

I apologize for my noobishness, I just have zero experience with XBL. Thanks!

Arrath

Use a cable to connect your Xbox to your laptop (crossover type Cat5) Then go to your network connections screen on your laptop and select both the wired and wireless lans, right click and choose 'bridge connections'.

acidlacedpenguin

or you could simply download the DLC on your computer and then put it on a USB drive and put that in your xbox. You know how to operate a USB device, right?

put the rectangular peg into the rectangular hole.

not to pick at nits or anything, but how can you be morally opposed to a system which you don't even understand?

OnTheLastCastle

acidlacedpenguin wrote: »

or you could simply download the DLC on your computer and then put it on a USB drive and put that in your xbox. You know how to operate a USB device, right?

put the rectangular peg into the rectangular hole.

not to pick at nits or anything, but how can you be morally opposed to a system which you don't even understand?

Can you verify this? Have you downloaded DLC on your PC and played it on the xbox? Microsoft requires a lengthy testing process for all XBOX certification. I have NEVER heard of being able to do what you just describe and I pay a lot of attention to 360 news.

There is a very big difference between DLC for the PC and for the 360. Nothing you download on the PC for the PC version will be compatible with the xbox.

Also your attitude, wooooo doggy. Don't need to be snarky.

Daenris

OnTheLastCastle wrote: »

acidlacedpenguin wrote: »

or you could simply download the DLC on your computer and then put it on a USB drive and put that in your xbox. You know how to operate a USB device, right?

put the rectangular peg into the rectangular hole.

not to pick at nits or anything, but how can you be morally opposed to a system which you don't even understand?

Can you verify this? Have you downloaded DLC on your PC and played it on the xbox? Microsoft requires a lengthy testing process for all XBOX certification. I have NEVER heard of being able to do what you just describe and I pay a lot of attention to 360 news.

There is a very big difference between DLC for the PC and for the 360. Nothing you download on the PC for the PC version will be compatible with the xbox.

Also your attitude, wooooo doggy. Don't need to be snarky.

Pretty sure he just meant download the xbox DLC on a PC and transfer it with a USB stick formatted from your xbox to act as a storage device. Still don't know if it's possible as I haven't tried it, but I don't think he was suggesting using PC game DLC on the xbox.

Edit: yeah, taking a quick look don't think this is possible. You can purchase stuff on your PC, but you can only tell it to add to the download queue on your xbox so it downloads the next time. Doesn't look like you can download it to PC.

Figgy

Aside from the Cat5 suggestion, you could take your console to a friend's house who isn't living in the stone age and can lend you their Internet connection.:P

ashridah

Daenris wrote: »

OnTheLastCastle wrote: »

acidlacedpenguin wrote: »

or you could simply download the DLC on your computer and then put it on a USB drive and put that in your xbox. You know how to operate a USB device, right?

put the rectangular peg into the rectangular hole.

not to pick at nits or anything, but how can you be morally opposed to a system which you don't even understand?

Can you verify this? Have you downloaded DLC on your PC and played it on the xbox? Microsoft requires a lengthy testing process for all XBOX certification. I have NEVER heard of being able to do what you just describe and I pay a lot of attention to 360 news.

There is a very big difference between DLC for the PC and for the 360. Nothing you download on the PC for the PC version will be compatible with the xbox.

Also your attitude, wooooo doggy. Don't need to be snarky.

Pretty sure he just meant download the xbox DLC on a PC and transfer it with a USB stick formatted from your xbox to act as a storage device. Still don't know if it's possible as I haven't tried it, but I don't think he was suggesting using PC game DLC on the xbox.

Edit: yeah, taking a quick look don't think this is possible. You can purchase stuff on your PC, but you can only tell it to add to the download queue on your xbox so it downloads the next time. Doesn't look like you can download it to PC.

This isn't possible. The content has to be downloaded by an XBox, because the license is tied to the account and the console.

acidlacedpenguin

I seem to recall there being the ability to download updates and stuff to burn them on a disc to update the xbox 360s that aren't connected to the internet, and I assumed it applied to DLC too, but I guess not.

ashridah

acidlacedpenguin wrote: »

I seem to recall there being the ability to download updates and stuff to burn them on a disc to update the xbox 360s that aren't connected to the internet, and I assumed it applied to DLC too, but I guess not.

I remember hearing about that for the PS3, and it's possible to do it for leaked firmware updates for the xbox as well, but that doesn't cover DLC or game saves, etc.

ceres

Hey acidlacedpenguin. Don't be condescending.

OnTheLastCastle

It's funny because his advice was terrible!

Summary of options: bridge your laptop connection, go to a friends house with your xbox or wait a long time for the DLC to be released in disc form.

Nothing else will work; I thoroughly vetted the downloading DLC on your computer and using a flash drive and that would only be possible with illegal software. Which is bad. edit: But yes, you can do it with firmware stuff, I think. The latest XBL firmware update that enabled USB drives was sold on xbox certified USB drives that would load it.

AtomBomb

I think the USB confusion comes from this. You can put the DLC on a usb stick, but only from an xbox, which would be useful if you were swapping out your hard drive or something. The original download has to be done through the console.

Arrath

A USB stick formatted to be used by an Xbox 360 can't be used on a PC (without reformatting), either.

ashridah

Arrath wrote: »

A USB stick formatted to be used by an Xbox 360 can't be used on a PC (without reformatting), either.

Um. Yes it can. You'll just lose (up to) 16GB of space on the usb key, because the xbox will have made a bunch of 1GB files in an 'xbox360' directory on the usb device.

The rest of the space is free to use, however, the xbox won't care if you use it.

Lux

I was in the same boat as you. Just bridge your laptop. It's really easy as he explained (if you have any trouble just google it, there are a ton of guides specifically for that) and if you're just getting DLC, there's really no reason to get their ridiculously priced Wi-Fi adapter that never, ever seems to drop.

y2jake215

i managed to get my 360 to hook up to my wireless internet just by connecting it to a wireless thingy (not a router.. i cannot for the life of me think of the terminology). the only problem with this was i can't password protect my internet or else it can't connect (xbox thinks its wired, so it won't let a password be entered). probably isn't the most helpful but i managed to get it to work so i wouldn't have to drop loot on their ridiculous wifi adaptor. if your buildings wifi isnt password protected, you could try doing this.

Arrath

ashridah wrote: »

Arrath wrote: »

A USB stick formatted to be used by an Xbox 360 can't be used on a PC (without reformatting), either.

Um. Yes it can. You'll just lose (up to) 16GB of space on the usb key, because the xbox will have made a bunch of 1GB files in an 'xbox360' directory on the usb device.

The rest of the space is free to use, however, the xbox won't care if you use it.

I primarily meant in the way that you won't be able to copy data onto it from a PC and expect to use it on the Xbox. I didn't know the remaining capacity was usable on a PC though, good to know.

Mmmm... Cocks...

Arrath wrote: »

I primarily meant in the way that you won't be able to copy data onto it from a PC and expect to use it on the Xbox. I didn't know the remaining capacity was usable on a PC though, good to know.

What? So you're saying if I format a drive to install a game on or something, I can't use it to watch videos anymore?

Arrath

I don't believe so. My understanding is that it is treated as a memory unit, and will only read Xbox originated stuff.

DeathTheKid

I've been in the same boat as the USB guys
But to the user called "Mmmm.... Cocks....." you can still use the USB stick for whatever videos you may want but you have to:

Have your USB stick plugged into the console
Go to storage under system settings
Then find the USB stick press the Y button to bring up the device options (I think it's the Y button)
Click on Customize this option allows you to part off a section of data for xbox use and still have data for your video and other files

The Ender

EDIT: Fuck me. Did not see thread was a necro before posting.

HATE