How do I get an XBox 360 to update games?

Question

I have an XBox 360 that hasn't been connected to a network for about three years. I finally got around to hooking it up today. It downloaded a bunch of updates and I created an XBox Live account (just a standard one, not Gold).

However, I can't seem to get it to update any of the games. As in, there's no notification that an update is available, even after starting a game. I know they're not updated because, for example, the radios in Portal don't "receive transmissions" ;)

The network setup is a little non-standard: I configured my laptop to bridge the XBox ethernet to the household wireless. But since it downloaded the system updates and confirmed the XBox Live account, I figure that connectivity is not the problem. If it matters, the dashboard version is 2.0.14719.0

How do I prompt the XBox to update my games? How do I tell if a particular game has been updated?

Answer 1

When you log into Xbox Live and then load a game, you'll be automatically prompted to download updates to the game, if they are available. If you refuse, you'll be signed out of Xbox Live for the session.

Note that most Valve games that got special PC updates don't get those updates on the Xbox 360 - I'm pretty sure that the "potato sack" and/or "Portal 2 ARG" updates weren't released for the Xbox 360. Also, almost all the TF2 content that Valve's released to-date is unavailable on the Orange Box for Xbox 360. Just to kick you while you're down, you have to pay money for the L4D/L4D2 expansion packs on Xbox 360, where they're free on PC.

Answer 2

Game updates should be automatic when you load the game. If something in your setup has caused a game update to get lost, you could try clearing your system cache.