The "Xbox Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
Apparently if you change your regional settings (ie download area) you can get free downloads that aren't available in your region.
So wouldn't this work with Live Arcade titles too?
I've heard there's a rather cool Kung Fu game on Live Arcade that's 'Japan only', think I could change my settings and download it?
Edit: of course it'll probably be chinese/japanese characters I have to enter. :S Found a chinese load of points...
Apparently if you change your regional settings (ie download area) you can get free downloads that aren't available in your region.
So wouldn't this work with Live Arcade titles too?
I've heard there's a rather cool Kung Fu game on Live Arcade that's 'Japan only', think I could change my settings and download it?
Edit: of course it'll probably be chinese/japanese characters I have to enter. :S Found a chinese load of points...
Curse you regional thingys!
...
So, if I import a Japanese points card AND switch my regional settings that'll do it?
All for the sake of an old 80's game (I'm guessing you're wanting Yie Ar Kung Fu)
Think I'll float the idea on IGN and Gamespot in a bit and findout if it really is do-able. :)
Different items are available on US, UK and Japanese Marketplaces. For example, US 360 owners can currently download a bunch of Family Guy gamerpics for free and also some sort of Battlestar Galactica summary episode. And also the video-on-demand service the 360 will be doing will be available in the US first, and possibly reach here later. The way to view content that is US only is to create a new profile based in the US or whatever, for which you'll need a new email and possibly a made-up address. Switch to this profile and you should be able to get this content.
There are no free Live Arcade titles other than the one you get with the 360 hard disk. All the arcade titles have to be purchased though you can of course trial them for free. If there was a Kung-Fu arcade game you could only buy it by using a credit card as UK point cards don't work on US or Jap Live. But looking at Wikipedia, there's no such Live Arcade game. There might be a demo or something, but that's all.
The X-Box 360 is not region coded. However, a lot of the games are, meaning they will only run in a certain region. Games such as Morrowind or Dead Rising for example. However, there are some games that are not locked such as Hitman, JustCause and so forth. The benefit to this is that you can buy these games very cheaply from a site like Play-Asia and get them delivered to this country for about twenty-two quid. There's a full list of these region-free games on my site.