XBOX 360 Region Locking: I don't know how the fuck to explain this to my brother.

RoyceSraphim

Okay, my brother came home with a 360 and played Modern Warfare 2 a great deal. Now he got a game from our cousin and is surprised that its region locked. He got it from Dubai and since a lot of their crap is european, I'm sure its PAL like the Modern Warfare 2 game he got (found PAL on the title).

So right now, as he and the youngest brother thrown tantrums in my ear, I need to know the following:
Are the Madden Games region locked?
Is "Call of Duty" region locked....uh huh..... okay, he means modern warfare 3
How do I verify if this console is a PAL console?
Will he be banned from live (he doesn't have an account now) or be punished if he tries to play online with a modded console?

To clarify this in the future, what is the most RELIABLE way to find out if a certain game will play on a PAL console?

Hewn

Here's a list. No idea how complete it is, but it should be helpful.

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Region_Free_Xbox_360_Games

And if he is detected with a modded console on Xbox Live, it will be banned. Not just the account, but the console will be banned for all time.

Essee

Yep, your actual physical 360 will be banned from XBox Live if they catch you modding your console or cheating or anything like that. I don't know if there are any mods that could avoid detection, but I really wouldn't chance it unless that's your only option, since it's over the instant they catch it. In terms of finding out whether the console is PAL, uhhh, usually they'll say PAL somewhere on the outside, I think... Same with games: if the game is from the PAL region, the disc (and box) should have "PAL" on it, but I can't guarantee that means PAL-only. I don't remember whether NTSC consoles have the option to switch to 50 Hz refresh rate in the options or not, but I'd suspect PAL consoles must. Also, the part with the box on the power cable is unique between PAL and NTSC (I'm fairly certain about this, since I remember we looked it up and needed to use a converter box to get around this when we brought my fiance's new 360 back to Europe), so if the power cable indicates it likes 50 Hz, that should probably indicate that it's PAL.

corky842

Another (larger) list:
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en.html

Madden is region-free, looks like COD will be too.

Assuming it's already modded, you shouldn't be banned as long as you don't play any pirated games on it. Modding it doesn't remove region protection.

RoyceSraphim

Okay, so he already spent time and money on the converter, what is this you say about the refresh rate? When I set it to 1080i to match his TV, it kept fading to black every once in a while and when I tried 1080p, the XBOX declared that resolution as unsupported (by xbox or TV, I cannot remember).

Librarian

For newer TVs(and with that I mean made in the last 15 years or so) the difference between PAL and NTSC will no longer matter, I played a lot of import games on my PS2 and the tv did just fine with non-PAL versions. In the PS1 era you needed to buy a special cable to plug between the console and tv or NTSC games would only be black and white, but that was a long time ago.
I have been playing imports on my European Xbox360 for the longest time and there are really not that many games with region lock, just check the lists that have been posted.

Essee

By refresh rate, I mean that monitors or TVs support 60 Hz (NTSC, used everywhere but Europe and other countries who based their stuff on Europe basically) or 50 Hz (Europe/similar countries only). This used to be an issue, and I presume (without actually looking it up) that this standard arose because in the US and many other countries, our power also comes into our appliances at 60 Hz, whereas in Europe it comes in at, you guessed it, 50 Hz. Nowadays basically every modern HDTV sold in the areas that used to use only PAL/50 Hz will support 60 Hz, so this isn't an issue, but I suspect (I can't check right now) that an NTSC console wouldn't have the ability to choose to display at 50 Hz in the first place because it's not needed in the countries where NTSC stuff is sold. A PAL console would usually still have the option to switch between the two because... Well, 60 Hz looks slightly smoother to the human eye, so people with the option to use it would certainly like to, but it's still conceivable that someone's using composite cables to hook to an old TV, so they probably have the option to use 50 Hz instead. Well, this is presuming it doesn't auto-detect it somehow (I don't have a PAL 360 at all, but the option is there on a PAL Wii for sure).

But as I said, if you looked at the power cable and it's talking about 50 Hz power (you say you bought a converter-- if you mean you bought a whole box to convert the power, and not a plug converter, this really must be the case), I'm pretty sure you have a PAL 360. The 360 power supplies (unlike the display modes) only support either 60 Hz or 50 Hz power, not both, from what we found out. I don't know much about individual games' region locks, though.

RoyceSraphim

Naw, this is my brother's 360, the thing that will keep him sane when he gets Live and plays madden to keep him and his wife sane due to the insanity from the 15 month old and newborn in the house.

poshniallo

Could you be more specific about what console he has (North American? Dubai?) and what kind of games he's trying to play (there should be a region-code on the back of the box) and what kind of 'converter' he has?

Is he trying to play US games on an XBOX from Dubai? Is that it?

RoyceSraphim

poshniallo wrote:

Could you be more specific about what console he has (North American? Dubai?) and what kind of games he's trying to play (there should be a region-code on the back of the box) and what kind of 'converter' he has?

Is he trying to play US games on an XBOX from Dubai? Is that it?

Bingo, and as PC gamer, I am not sure what his options are. Someone posted reasonable links and I thank you for that.

What I really need at this point is a reliable website that can tell me if he's shit out of luck when it comes to a particular game.

Librarian

In most cases he should be fine, at least 90% of games do not have a region lock. Just rent a game first if you want to be 100% sure.

Bendery It Like Beckham

Use hdmi cable to an HD TV and you shouldn't have to worry about refresh rate, only the region lock.

RoyceSraphim

Bendery It Like Beckham wrote:

Use hdmi cable to an HD TV and you shouldn't have to worry about refresh rate, only the region lock.

The blinking happened with the HDMI cable.

Voro

RoyceSraphim wrote:

Okay, so he already spent time and money on the converter, what is this you say about the refresh rate? When I set it to 1080i to match his TV, it kept fading to black every once in a while and when I tried 1080p, the XBOX declared that resolution as unsupported (by xbox or TV, I cannot remember).

That may be an entirely different issue, but I'm led to believe you can't change the refresh rate while using either HDMI or VGA. You'll need to use component or composite flipped to the TV setting, after which there will be PAL-50 / PAL-60 options under:

System Settings > Console Settings > Display > PAL Settings

It is an issue for some games, like Hitman: Blood Money, which won't run under PAL-50.

Source and visual guide (ignore the painful to read text at the start): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-IEsnhwC5A

RoyceSraphim

1 final question
Is there are region lock on hard drives? Can I use a hard drive bought here in the states on this PAL 360S?

RoyceSraphim

1 final question
Is there are region lock on hard drives? Can I use a hard drive bought here in the states on this PAL 360S?