Yeah, installing on a 20 GB harddrive will not work in the long term. You need 60 gigs at least. *hugs his 90GB of free space on his Elite*

If it's an optional install, you can still work it with a 20GB drive. If you have the space clear, all you have to do is wait until a good opportunity to do the install (for example, now I must poop) and then start the install and walk away. When you come back, it's done.

If it was mandatory, you couldn't do that because you'd have to install before playing rather than installing whenever you want to improve performance. In that way, you can do an install of the game you're already playing a lot to speed things up when you are at the console. Sure, it would be nice to have more space (laptop drives are what, 320GB+?) but because the installs are not mandatory you can work around them.

Anyway, hell, 10 minutes is like the amount of time it takes to install between MGS 4 scenes, right? But MGS 4 fans are so used to waiting that it's not a big deal.

honestly...if this is available for all games it would be THE tipping point in me rebuying a 360....mostly because of the reduced noise and throw in faster loads.....SOLD.

its only about 2mins between scenes actually. and well worth it as the scenes themselfs are full of brilliance

Unlike some other console users, most 360 owners are satisfied and enjoying the stream of awesome games thus we have no problem saying things as they are instead of retorting to mindless "all my console does is awesome" just to save face for oneself.

Yes, the drive is loud as fuck and this will finally mean cuasi-silent operation (the cuasi depending on which motherboard your unit has, newer models are quieter). And yes, while the RROD got the fame many 360's died due to disc drive issues - they used to integrate three different brands of which only one was reliable (benq). Nowadays most 360's are made with benq drives so the reliability has gone up. Finally, the loading times are fine - it's just that everything can always be better. Some people with failing drives will experience longer loading times / streaming issues occasionally so using this workaround they can probably get a lot more life out of their disc drive.

Finally I wonder why you act so surprised. Everywhere where's 360 talk, everyone talks about how loud the damn thing is. But that's the price you pay for high-speed data transfer and the reason 360 games do not require installs - unlike the blue-ray drive integrated in the ps3, the 12x (or is it 16x?) dvd-rom drive on the 360 is fast enough to stream everything off it.

bluray is also fast enough to stream of it.

it depends on the developer and how they want the game to be, i suppose it makes it easier for them to install. and on many games the install makes a huge difference as in dmc4, gta4 and most certainly oblivion

on oblivion the load times frame rates and texture pop in is absolutly drastically reduced, so imo installs for the correct games to enhance the game, i am 100% behind it.

and you have to look at other games like burnout, cod4, battlefield, uncharted they all look awsome and stream straight from the bluray no need for installs.

ps. i really do not like the sound of the highlighted red text in your post.

The moment a game has something as intrusive as a mandatory install is because the disc drive can't cope. Of course you do get the side-benefit of shorter loading times but the skinny is if it wasn't necessary it wouldn't be forced. Given how games like DMC4 sport the same (or to be more precise, equivalent) graphical fidelity for both versions if one has a mandatory install is because for that particular version the disc drive isn't enough. There's no other way to spin around it unless you can't come to terms with the fact that sony integrated a drive that wasn't fast enough for some/many/most (someone clarify, I do not own a ps3) modern games. Luckily every ps3 is sold with a HDD drive so the ps3 versions of games aren't gimped by this issue using the install workaround.

About the highlighted text, what's the issue. X360's with a disc drive that's started to malfunction will experience disc-drive related issues, tipycally longer loading times and for games that require heavy streaming (for example, made with UE3) will also experience pop-in issues. Since installed games do not access the disc drive, a barely-functioning disc drive will be enough as long as you have room in the hard drive. This isn't trivial as MS's extended 3 year warranty does not cover the disc drive.

Everytime I see DMJ post something like this I have to laugh. I mean here is a guy that's always bashing the 360 and praising the PS3 yet he doesn't even own a PS3. The console he owns however is the one he is always dissing. It just baffles me....

Forgive me but Im too lazy to read trough this whole thread and see if someone already answered this...but...

Does anyone know the release date for this feature? Will it be in the fall along with the new dashboard update?

Thank you kindly...