Using downloaded 360 games without the internet...

[Dreakon139]

I used to have an Xbox 360. When I sold it on eBay, I had several months left on my Xbox Live Gold account, so I decided I would let my girlfriends brother use the account for the duration. There's really no personal information on any of my console-oriented accounts, so no harm to be done. He couldn't get the internet to work though since he has a old Xbox without the built-in wireless.

Anyways, I decided to rig up their Xbox 360 to the internet working through my laptop and get my account up again, so I could download a game I bought back when I had a Xbox (Alien Hominid) and play with my girlfriend. I got it working, downloaded some updates and the game.

I loaded the game with my internet still working. Great! I played a little, it seemed fine.... so I disconnected my laptop thinking we could just sit back and play now. It signed me out of Live. I went to play the game, and it was calling it the trial. Alright... so I loaded the game and when I went to try and play it complained about corrupt data. I think the Xbox thought it was the trial. It's a single player game.

Great... so I reconnected the laptop, signed into Xbox Live again. The game worked again. Full version. Was hoping to pack up the laptop but looks like it isn't happening.

tl;dr can you play Xbox Live downloaded games without the internet? It certainly didn't seem like it. Granted it wasn't the same Xbox I originally downloaded it on, but you wouldn't think that would matter. It let me download it and play it while connected to Xbox Live.

Any ideas? Stuff like this is kind of making me glad I went PS3 in the end.

[Parker]

I've don't own the game you're talking about, but I know I've played many Xbox Live Arcade games without internet access before, although they've all been on the Xbox the game was originally downloaded on. Is there anything in the description that indicates you need internet access to play the full game? Perhaps this is Microsoft's way of preventing gamesharing?

Parker

[Dreakon139]

Well, this is the game...

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Alien-Hominid-HD/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258410846

I don't see anything in particular about it not being playable offline. The game is primarily offline anyways. It's an older game, so it's probably not anything new that Microsoft implemented (unless it applies to all games).

Maybe I just stumbled into a random problem because I mixed things up too much.

[Parker]

After looking up some gameplay it seems like some good fun. I'll download the game and see if I can play it with no internet access. I'll report back in a few days.

Parker

[Dreakon139]

Haha, well, you don't have to do that unless you want to. It's a fun game, actually pretty challenging too... unless I just suck at it. I personally didn't buy it for the main game though. It has a mini-game called 'PDA Games'... that must've been pretty popular by itself because if you go to that link I posted it has tons of level packs available for it. It's a pretty simplistic, platforming mini-game but it's a hoot to play with friends (up to 4 players). Pretty much the only game/mini-game I want to come to PSN, it'd give me another reason other than LittleBigPlanet and Castle Crashers to use my other controllers.

As for the problem, like I said, I probably just tripped up the software some by mixing consoles and accounts. I'd be kind of shocked and disappointed if this is Microsoft's doing. I'd be curious to hear your findings, if you do it.

[Nagflar]

Since I can play downloaded games without live (Double Dragon, Heavy Tank and others), I assume the problem lies in the hardware, or in the 360's settings.

[Elliot]

1) Alien Hominid is extemely awesome. Play it if you have not. It is on PS2 and Gamecube and possibly Xbox 1 also.

2) Always-on DRM, I have come across it on the 360 before. But I can't remember where. My point is that it's not just you.