Bioshock

With Assassins Creed a CLOSE second.

AND THERE is the reason I root for SONY!
Without them we would miss out on so much.. Microsoft doesnt believe in the esoteric games. They cancelled Psychonauts for christs sake!

IIRC, Psychonauts is a multiplatform game (PS2, Xbox, PC). And it was published by Majesco, not Microsoft. And it didn't sell well (KG, you got the numbers?)... the fact that they're trying to resell it on Live is a good thing for the game. I'm all for Sony coming up with games that will bring forth new gameplay ideas; this one doesn't move me though.

Purge,

It did not start out that way. Microsoft funded it as an XBOX exclusive and when they dropped it is when Majesco picked it up and made i MULTIPLATFORM.

Smash Brothers... Im interested. The rest... No thank you.

ShootinJBlanks

AND THERE is the reason I root for SONY!

Without them we would miss out on so much.. Microsoft doesnt believe in the esoteric games. They cancelled Psychonauts for christs sake!

I love it, although one level is NOT enough for 10 dollars.

I am all for Silver Users waiting. Sorry. I pay a premium and I shouldnt be slowed down by someone who is not paying for the service.

I have two samsung plasmas in the house, I prefer them to the LCD's I own. Happy with the picture for sure. It was a close call between the sammy and the panny. I like the panasonic as well.

I blame Microsoft.

People are pissed off and have had enough of the defective consoles... so they dont see this as theft.

YES. Oh GOD YES.

Great Stuff.

I got PGR.

DUDE. Im sorry for your loss.

Microsoft called me last night to confirm that everything is ok, and they confirmed it is a Falcon motherboard. I stated that there was no HDMI connector and he stated that they do make the FALCON motherboard sans HDMI

HEY! Go easy on transformers. Yes, it was directed by Michael Bay, but it was a GREAT movie. Ok, the ending fight scene went on a little long. But it was a brillant movie.

I think you're headed toward a 7th failure...

Dont even say this out loud, someone may hear you.

Thats what I was thinking. Odd.

Clearly, this is not for our demographic.

I think it's a rooster with two penises.

I see three penises.

I finally got my 360 back today. Not a horrible turn around. They sent it with a free month of Xbox Live. The manufacturing date was 10/26/2007, with no HDMI port. Seems brand new. Wish me luck.

I sent him an email.. Here it is.

I have had a horrible run with my 360’s I am currently up to my 6th (which I am still waiting for from Microsoft). They are now beginning to question my “environment” rather than a gross run of bad luck.  My 360’s have all been well ventilated on a dedicated circuit within my house. I had this circuit run to the area where I keep my 360/PS3 to ensure that it isn’t taking surges from other devices within my home. I have kept a meter on the line and it outputs a clean 120v, and I never watch DVD’s on the machine due to the fragility and I never leave the machine paused and running. I have even gone so far as to elevate the power supply on a homemade stilts and

First 360

This was my launch box which unbeknownst to me was an issue right out of the box. The machine operated fine, but it would not startup via the controller. I didn’t realize that this was a problem until I went to a friend’s house turned his on via his remote and I could not. No matter what I did this machine would not start via the remote. Microsoft sent me a coffin and over-nighted one back to me. It was a 5 day turnaround time and it was a wonderful experience.

Second 360

This machine was a reconditioned unit and it showed. It was prone to RANDOM lock-ups and it drove me crazy! I called Microsoft. They were nice enough, and said they will send me another unit as this is a heat issue. But it will take a little longer, all told not bad as it took about 10 days until my next one arrived.

Third 360

Third time is a charm I thought. NOT. This machine had a malfunctioning tray after about a month or so. Eventually the drive stopped opening all together. I had to stick a paper clip in there to get my game out. Wait for my coffin. This time it took longer yet, about three weeks.

Fourth 360

This was a quickie, this unit made noise out of the box.  It was like a belt sander. This MAY have been damaged in shipping….. Hmmm.

Fifth 360

Another unit all seemed well.  I bought a used copy of NEED FOR SPEED to inaugurate my new box. I noticed some graphic corruption while playing it, I thought the disc had a few minor scuffs and didn’t think to much of it. Until I played another game and it had a similar problem.  I quit the game and the XBL desktop was corrupt. Off we go. Another coffin, A FREE GAME THIS TIME for my troubles. They send me a copy of Project Gotham, I had it already, but it was a nice gesture. Turn around time was about three weeks.

Sixth 360

If you are still reading this, you may notice that I have NEVER had the dreaded RROD. Well, it finally struck my FIFTH one. I came home from a long trip and wanted to sit down and play my 360. RROD. The tension in the room was palatable, I went crazy. This is now way too much. I call Microsoft and I get “BOB” someone of Middle Eastern decent reading to me from a cue card.

“Sir, make sure you have everything plugged in” and the drivel went on and on and he would not listen to me that it’s KAPPUT NOT-FUNCTIONING, DEAD, UNLIVING  I painfully went through the motions and he proclaims in a congratulatory manor that  they will repair my unit.

At this point it turned dark.

I said ok, please understand this is the coming holiday season, and I just got Halo3 and my kids are really looking forward to it, so, what is the turnaround time?

“6-8 Weeks”

Now, this will take me to about Christmas, as you can imagine, I explained as eloquently as I could that this is NOT ACCEPTABLE TO ME. Please forward me to someone who finds it reprehensible and unacceptable that Microsoft has failed a customer 5 times. He refuses to forward me to his supervisor. After slicing though his level one tech wit with my rapier percission he ran out of answers. Among his revelations to me were:

“Sir, we have never “expedited” shipping and we never either shipped units one day or second day air”. Clearly I have more experience in this call center than he had.

“Sir, There is no reason to make you an exception in your case. There are tons of cases just like yours.” This was insane; it was an admission that most people are having a similar situation to mine. I averred so you are admitting to me at this time that it is common for people to have 5-6 failures?

“Sir, I cannot say how much you played your XBOX because, we respect your privacy and we don’t track how many hours you have it on” Incredulous, At this point he had it with me, I said.. Slow down, what you are saying is that since I PLAY my 360 it will fail? Are you implying that every 360 will eventually fail by design? He was flummoxed; at this point I got his supervisor. This is going to work out now…

His supervisor gets on the line, and unbelievably, he is a bigger ass than his direct report. He sounded all of 24 and went on and said there is nothing I can do. You should have just listened to the first call center representative 6-8 weeks. I was livid. I told him I wanted his supervisor, I am not a happy consumer, he said that he is the last line of defense.  I was beaten, I was on the phone for 30 minutes at this point. He is sending me a coffin. It will take about 2 weeks.

REDEMPTION?: I get a call from a very nice guy from Microsoft who says he is going to expedite my 360 and ensure that this will not happen again. This is a  welcomed change. He was nice, apologetic and said he will handle my problem personally and will see it through every stage. He has been nice, he sent me the coffin within 2-3 days and he is promising me a turnaround time of about 3 weeks. And he is offering me a free game for my trauma. He was nice, but he towed the company line in my whining about my experience. I’m still waiting.

Hoping and waiting , I still have no faith that this will be my last go around. The theory that it is my environment would be sound if I had similar failures on every machine. But not all of this was related to heat issues.    –Say a novena for me.

I am dying to transform my basment into a full blown home theater.




Someday.. it will happen, when I can move my gameroom to the second fllor.

GTA 4
Mercenaries 2
The Pickle Maker King (wii)

Man, what a time of year for it to die. My sympathies are with you. I just hope to have m7 unit back before the holidays as I have a ton of nephews coming over.

I have to say, after playing it this weekend.

This is an average game that I would have stopped playing already if it didnt have the awesome Simpsons attached to it.

Simpsons and Ratchet and Clank as my 360 is still at the Betty Ford Clinic.

I have taken a pass on the COD series for some time as I am kind of "DONE" with the genre for a while... I may jump in on this one.

Get the one with the new heatsinks.. Its the only thing you should worry about when buying a 360.

I have never wanted more than the 20 gig. I delete the demos after a while and its fine.

Do you plan on downloading MOVIES? if so, go for the 100 gig.

I dont watch movies on my 360 as Im too afraid to leave it on longer than a game session.

Im in so far I can taste it.

Something I don't get, people who own machines from day one, 2 years later, no problems. Some people have mulitple machines go bad. Is it a luck thing? Set up issue? (Enclosed area? leaving it on for hours at at time?) Maybe some people are harder on hardware than others? I am not saying that is the case, I don't know, it just seems strange that some people have such horrible luck while others seem to be fine.

I've wondered the same thing.  I've had mine since 2 Aprils ago and I play the crap out of it and often leave it on for 12+ hours at a time. 

Yeah my ~March/Aprilish '06 box is on pause right now at home because I couldn't get to the next save point in Eternal Sonata before I had to leave.  Treat it like crap and it will respect you for it

That might be the case.  I basically baby mine and I've had two go belly up.

gellar

TESTIFY!

Im not suprised by the lack of interest here. I picked up the Simpsons for the Ps3 the other day.

And Im enjoying it. It has to be said that I am a rabid Simpsons fan and this feels close to playing in a virtual Simpsons world. Sure, the animation is terrible, the controls are stiff... but the cut scenes are great... and its just plain fun at times.

This is clearly a 7.0 game and if you are a simpsons fan, it goes to an 8.0.

High hopes man. With my 360 in rehab, I have been playing alot of PS3.. I want some more great gaming.

I was ROOTING for MS at the beginning of this all, but I didnt want them to beat the PS3 this badly.. I want all the systems to thrive, because as gamers we all win when there are great games for all the systems.

Ratchet is an incredible game, Resistance, motostorm... High hopes for Drakes Fortune.. I would hate for the PS3 to "Fail" and lose all support and become the new dreamcast. Its a great system with AMAZING visuals and well built... sexy system.

I have a Wii for first party exclusives, I wont even pretend to like any other games on the Wii anymore.. I hated every game I bought so far short of Zelda, Paper Mario, and Warioware.

Yeah I will post a pic when I get it back... He promised me whatever unit I get back (new/repaired) will have the new heat sinks. He even admitted to me, he doesnt want me to call back as this is costing MS a fortune 7 units back and forth!

Microsoft is TRYING to do the right thing by me. I have to give them credit here. Since I made such a stink with their call center. They are now expediting my repair/replacement. But I now have a representative handling my case who has promised me a 2-3 week turnaround and a free game for my troubles. They sent me my coffin via second day air, and will send it back to me second day air. Its all I really wanted this being my 7th one and all.

KUDOS to them... but you need to raise bloody hell.

Nearby? Within 25 feet? Yes. Ill have to shut it off.

No. I dont lose signal on anything else.

Im not sure this is making me feel better.  I was hoping that it was an isolated issue.

OK, thanks guys.. so Im not alone. Ill try tonight by unplugging a device at a time then play to see which is the culpret (if any).

sounds like they could fix it by just pausing the game if it loses sync...

It doesnt happen THAT OFTEN, every fifteen minutes or so... but still.. its annoying.

More of an annoyance, and Im sure.. my house is to blame for this problem.

I moved my Ps3 to my living room from my game room. And now when i am playing Ratchet and clank, I intermittantly get controller sync issues.... or in layman terms, ratchet runs off the cliff and there is nothing I can do about it.

The controller is blue tooth, and its not SUPPOSED to conflict with Wifi, but I have a ton of wifi products running, surviellance cameras, sonos zones laptops routers, access points, wireless extenders.

I did not have the issue on the first floor its just now in the new location. It could be my blue tooth headset in the kitchen, something as simple as that.

Anyone have any input here? Its frustratin