Ping: X-Box owners

[Ajaxab]

I am on the verge of purchasing an X-Box so I can play NBA Street Vol.2 and NCAA 2003 when it comes out. Having never had a console before, I'm confused about memory cards. I understand why the PS2 needs a memory card, but I'm wondering about why an X-Box should need the same given its relatively large hard drive. I thought memory cards were used for save games and the X-Box hard drive would seem to do away with this need. So why the availability of memory cards for the X-Box? Is it just so people can take their save games from their machines to a buddy's?

[Toddiec]

I have an Xbox and have never purchased a memory card for it. As far as I know, it is only for transporting it to another Xbox, just as you described.

[cincyreds]

Same here. I have never purchased a memory card either and my XBOX has been able to hold information for the current games that I play, NCAA 2003, Madden 2003, Need for Speed and NCAA Basketball 2K3.

And I still have plenty of room to spare.

Good Luck with you purchase.

[mrsimperless]

There was a bug with NCAA 2003. (last year's game - this year's will be NCAA 2004) The bug in question could corrupt the NCAA 2003 game files making them unusable in certain circumstances. Saving them to a memory card rather than the hard drive bypassed this problem. I did not purchase a memory card and never ran into this personally. I would venture however, that hard drives are a bit more unstable than memory cards. Treat your xbox gently and you should be fine.

[albionmoonlight]

I had the HD problem with NCAA 2003 and had to get a memory card. But for that problem, I would not have a memory card.

[JeeberD]

I haven't purchased any memory cards for my X-Box and don't plan on purchasing any...

[Balldog]

I saved 10 franchises on my hard drive and it still said I have 50000+ memory blocks.

[tucker342]

I've put so many saved game files on my HD, still says over 50000+ memory blocks. I haven't purchased any memory cards for exactly that reason, you don't really need one unless you want to take it over to a friends house.

[SackAttack]

there's around 325k blocks on an Xbox hard drive, AFAIK.

The memory cards are useful mostly for transferring saved games and characters to other Xboxes, as well as transporting your Xbox Live account if you want to play online at a friend's house without having to take your entire Xbox over there with you.

Josh

[gstelmack]

Originally posted by SackAttack
there's around 325k blocks on an Xbox hard drive, AFAIK.

That's for all the downloadable content over Xbox Live! that's starting to trickle out (where's the drool smiley when you need him).

As everyone has said, you only need a memory card to transport your saved games to a friend's Xbox. The hard drive works fine for local storage.