I know most of the time saves on xBox come from the much faster loading; however, I do want to know how much more time (if any) that the 'small' EXP change has on the xBox. Also how much going into the menu is going to waste do to the small amount of time it takes to open the menu and close it... (I am going to say roughly 50 pauses in the run)

Wow, good job me not seeing this.

Honestly, the small EXP change I don't think affects the time more than a few seconds at most, if that. However, that EXP change does affect Boss Rush runs since it's impossible to optimize your ID stats on XBox. Oddly enough, Boss Rush doesn't factor load times into the IGT, even though the rest of the game does. So PS2 should have the fastest Boss Rush for Hector.

There's also a Memorial Ticket after Skeleton Diver that isn't there on PS2. Again, I don't think this saves more than a couple seconds at most. If it weren't for the load times, I wouldn't bother separating the consoles.

Going into the menu looked more or less identical to me on both versions. If there is any difference, it's under a second per pause.

As a side note, when I timed out how much faster XBox is (I used your 2:10 run vs. Joester's 2:22), I had it at 12:51 faster just from loads. This was timed by hand, so there's some margin for error, and I didn't time any loads that only one of you did. Also, your run had some loads that were fast enough that I couldn't hit LiveSplit fast enough. I was just marking those down as 0.2 seconds.

Unfortunately, that time gain isn't absolute - PS2 load times vary by a fair amount. The initial load for the first room can take anywhere from 5 to 13 seconds, and most loads have this same issue. I wish it was as simple as XBox is X amount faster due to loads so we could compare all runs without separating by console.

I went and separated out Trevor and Crazy modes. Not gonna worry about adding 100% stuff until we actually have a run for it. Not sure if I should separate categories for Boss Rush or not. For now I'm gonna leave them as is.

Here is a small correction: the Memorial Ticket after Skel Diver Does exist on the PS2 version, but the requirement for it being there is that you don't have one... If you plan to use 2 you can never get it because you need them earlier because you can't very quickly get a second one after that.

I know the loads can vary, I have had runs on xbox where the loads were absolute trash, and every load constantly added time...

I do think I can optimize my IDs on Boss Rush, but it would require pausing the game in the billions of times, since I don't need a fairy I can give all EXP to it, then change out the ID to collect the evo crystals (this would have to be repeated for every ID, for every Generation)

Does it make that significant difference on Trevor Mode? as I realize due to skipping 2 2/3 areas reduces the number of loads significantly

Crazy Mode is very complicated... as even though my run on xbox pushed 8 hrs, I don't think PS2 would be significantly slower

I plan to do Trevor Boss rush in the near future

Also I forgot 1 other thing: If an ID dies on the PS2 version you lose the bonus, but if it dies on the xbox version you retain the bonus that it adds to your stats, so The boss rush IDs I use on xbox would be significantly harder to maintain on PS2, since 1 of my IDs almost always dies when I use a pumpkin against Isaac 1.

Huh, I never knew about that Memorial Ticket being there. Thanks for the heads up =)

That's also a nice trick to getting the IDs maxed out even without 0 EXP enemies. That puts both consoles on even footing then, just with more work for XBox players.

I'll have to time Trevor mode, but I'm pretty sure it would be at least half of what Hector mode gives, which is significant enough. I'll look into doing that after I get back from RPG Limit Break.

Crazy mode may not need separating. I'll delete the extra category for now, since it's not like it's active. Can revisit later.

If you know of any other differences between the 2 versions, let me know. I did buy a copy of the XBox version so I could play around with it, but any extra info would be helpful.

(It would be nice if Curse of Darkness worked like Lament of Innocence where the IGT pauses during any loading sequences...then we wouldn't have to separate the consoles...¤grumbles¤)

I have 2 questions:

1. without any modding does the game work on a 360, as all information I read says no. (I play on the original xbox)
2. does the RNG change, as when I play I seem to get better RNG on the xbox version; however, that might just be dumb luck

As for other changes I know/believe:

1. Golden bones was changed to 100 EXP instead of 0 EXP
2. I believe it takes slightly more time to register a memorial ticket on the xbox version as it doesn't go to a memory card select screen and instead loads the files, but I haven't had a chance to time that thoroughly.
3. The obvious fact that you shouldn't be able to get the moai on xbox (I don't know if it would exist if you looked into the code though)
4. I am unsure why this happened but when I started doing Crazy Mode runs, the game randomly crashed on the xbox version in the mountains, and I have no idea why (that actually happened twice ¤sad¤ )

Huh, I honestly thought you WERE playing on a 360 with the game installed. The quick load times I figured could only come from that (though I can't say I know much about original XBoxes. I have one that was given to me, but I've never used it personally). Are you able to install games on an original XBox or did that only start with 360?

As for the RNG, they could have changed drop rates and such. Without looking at the code itself for both games I doubt we'll ever know. I think we'd need more people playing around with XBox version to get any idea at all if they did mess with things.

What I found on installing games on xbox original says that you can, sort of, But you still need the game disk to play... (it might deal with saving installing the game, I don't know) As I don't own a 360, and have played very few games on them (partly because I ABSOLUTELY HATE the 360 controller) I have about no knowledge on them. And as I only currently own a total of 3 games for my xbox, that means I don't have tons of information in general on that.

What I do know, as I bought both the game and console used, is that there are several game data slots that are taken by games, but without the disks I have no way to access that information, except to delete it or just look at what games were on it.

To mention more version differences that I forgot about (I am so used to it I don't think about it generally, lol):

• The Menu was changed to use B as back (what would be Circle){maybe also Back but I never use that button really), and Y to sort (What would be Triangle), [This is my main problem trying to switch back and forth, and a different controller layout, but I can generally handle the grievance even though with some trouble]
• I can plug my controller to any of the 4 controller ports and play the game, (I don't know what would happen with multiple controllers), slot 1 must be used for a PS2
• If my controller happens to come unplugged it displays a message and tells me to plug it back in (this doesn't happen on PS2 that I know of, and I believe it stops the IGT)
• Cutscenes that can be skipped can be skipped with the A/B/or Start buttons (maybe more, I generally use B ) and Start must be used on PS2
• The map must be both opened and closed with the Back button on xbox, but on PS2 select opens the map, but there is another button that can be used to close it (I think Triangle or Circle, I don't remember)

It probably does a partial install then. Maybe a most install. I'd wager that most of the playable game is installed, but cutscenes would still need to be read from the disc. In theory it should reduce load times even farther if you install it. Kinda weird that the XBox itself can read discs that much faster than a PS2.

I found a list of XBox games that will run on 360, and Curse of Darkness was not on there. I'll still give it a shot when I get home, but I'm expecting much.

Also, I removed the blurb about installing on 360 from all the category rules, since that's clearly not an issue here.

and that there reminds me of this:

On PS2 you can eject the disk from the console and continue playing the game; although, you will be limited to whatever area you are in because the game will try and load a new area but will not actually load it until you re-insert the disk.

On xbox, if you eject the disk the console acts as if you reset it.

I had found some footage of gameplay on the Japanese version of the game, and I can say with certainty that it also has Skeletons that give 1 instead of 0 EXP...

I will try to find some for the European version and see if it is different, and I will also see if I can find anything else for Japanese.

Just with that though were does the Japanese version fall now?

after having seen some more people run the game on the PS2 version I can say with certainty that at least for the initial time the Tower fires in the Aqueduct (where we do a damage boost) that it happens sooner and that means that the PS2 version can technically do the damage boost faster than the xBox version.

My guess is it has to due with the longer PS2 loading time.

A thing I need to check is if something similar happens in the mountains, but I won't be able to get to it for a long time.

Currently I've been unable to do the OoB with the ID summon in the Trevor fight on the Xbox version. It could just be different, but there is a chance that it is not possible.