Revenge of the RROD!

Microsoft . . . you're breaking my heart. Sometimes I feel like a battered housewife that just keeps coming back for more helpings of emotional abuse. Why do I keep putting up with this? This is not the first time I've had the much feared "Red Ring of Death" (RROD) happen to me. It's not even the second time. This is the third instance of this problem for me. And I just bought the XBOX 360 Elite this past August. I've had it for less than 6 months and already this fatal flaw in the gaming console has shown up.

Thankfully, this is not the only XBOX 360 that I have sitting around the house. I still have my original, twice RROD'ed, XBOX 360. And while I know I can get the Elite one fixed at no cost because of the extended warranty that Microsoft placed on the machine because of all the RROD failures, it still bothers me. What happens if my backup fails while my main machine is out for repair?!

When is Apple coming out with a gaming console already. I bet you that shit would never fail.

The Mojave Experiment - Ground Breaking?

Oh Microsoft. Lately, everywhere I go on the internets, I'm running into banner ads for this "Mojave Experiment" that Microsoft is trying to push on us to drum up some good publicity for Windows Vista. I get it. Your much bally-hooed operating system is crap and you want to sell some more copies of it. I guess they got a bunch of people into a focus group session and made sure their only exposure to computers excluded everything except other Windows OS versions. There's a couple of videos in their video wall of people reacting to something Microsoft is calling "Instant Search". It's ground breaking apparently.

If it hadn't been around forever and a day ago in my beloved Mac OSX. And not even the latest one. I'm still rocking version 10.4. You can head on out to this website to check out Microsoft going on and on about this feature, and other features that are new to them, but have been around for quite some time for Mac users. Oh, and just for shits and giggles, I decided to do my own search for my computer's calculator application using "Spotlight". Check it out.

Haha! Suck it Microsoft! I found my calculator (not that I didn't already know where it was anyway) without using Windows Vista.

BAFW HQ Upgrades

There have been a couple of additions to the BAFW HQ as of late that I have been remiss in letting you fine readers about. I've just been too busy messing around with them. All of this is thanks to a recent influx in cash money (all legal, none from advertising . . . bums) to the ol' bank account. Let's get to the first one, that was a purchase born from necessity.

XBOX 360 Elite

My old, regular XBOX 360 got the RROD, again, and I had to send it off to Microsoft for repair. Since it's our main DVD machine in the living room, I kept arguing with my wife about purchasing an upgrade. Finally, after I told her how much I was making as bonus for the month of June, she relented, and agreed to let me purchase this dream machine. Right out of the box it's showing it's unmatched superiority. Crisp and clean 1080P via HDMI into my 42" LCD HD set is a thing of beauty. The 120 GB of hard drive space means I won't be running out of space for a long time. I was down to 2 GB's of space in my old XBOX 360. It's also a sleek black, which goes a little better with our black LCD set. The only downside . . . all of my saves for all of my games are in the old hard drive. I'm sure there's a way to transfer all of that from one machine to the other, but I'm lazy, so I'll most likely have to play through all of my games again. Achievements are still there though, so my 20,000+ points didn't disappear with my saved games.

LoveSac MovieSac

Don't call this bad boy a bean bag. There are no beans in this thing, just 65 lbs of shredded Durafoam, which molds and contorts to your body as you sit in it, creating one of the most comfortable pieces of furniture you will ever sit on. I love it. This is also one of the things I had been begging my wife for a couple of years to get. Since we got our IRS economic stimulus check in the mail last week, and being patriotic Americans that want to help out the economy, we headed out to the nearest LoveSac retailer and picked this up. Now my wife loves it, and it's hard for me to get some quality time with the MovieSac. It sits two people. I originally wanted to get the largest LoveSac available (appropriately named "The Big One" and sits 4 adults comfortably), but logistically speaking, it wouldn't have fit in the BAFW HQ anyway. This one is the third largest they offer, and it's barely fitting as is. Once we move to a larger domicile/HQ, we're definitely buying more, and possibly even getting some of the Sactionals they offer. Head on out to LoveSac.com for more of their products. I fully endorse them. BAFW-tested.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Up until recently, all of the "Call of Duty" games had been World War II based. They were pretty good, but if the 4th installment of the game series had treaded on that familiar territory, I would have checked out of the game completely. I'm really glad they went in a different direction with this one. If I remember correctly, I did some market research in late 2006 for "Call of Duty 3" for the XBOX 360. It didn't blow me away, but I did get to play an early build of the game and got a free game out of it. At that time, when they asked me what I didn't like about the game, I told them that I was totally tired of WWII first person shooters. If they could make a COD game either set in the present, or an alternate version of the present, with Nazi's if they wanted, I would totally be into it. I'm not saying I'm responsible for them making the shift in COD4, but it's at least interesting. Anyway, the video is all in-gameplay footage. As soon as I get my XBOX 360 back from Microsoft, I'm totally renting this game.

XBOX 360 Withdrawal

It's Sunday evening. I should be playing videogames. But, instead, I'm sitting here, writing about how much I miss my XBOX 360. Fuck. I dropped it off at UPS Friday morning. As it sat on their counter, I looked at it, longingly. I put my hand on one of the corners of the box that held my prized gaming possession. I patted the side, and, without actually vocalizing it, I wished it a safe trip to Texas.

Microsoft better get that fixed quick. I'm thinking about calling them up and see if they can compensate my somehow for the time I'm missing (or wasting) on my XBOX Live membership. I'm paid up through April of '08, so if they can add some time to the end of my subscription to make up for this, it would be great. Or some Microsoft points so I can use it on their Live Marketplace would suffice as well. Something, anything, to instill a new sense of confidence in Microsoft . . . but then again, it's Microsoft. They'd as easily laugh at me and just tell me to stop bitching. But if enough people make a fuss, it would be in their interest to keep the masses happy.

But if they offer me a Zune, it will be I who will laugh in their corporate faces. Zune . . . pfft.

XBOX 360 Boxed Up

Today, I send out my XBOX 360 for repair. I had the red-ring-of-death hit my most favorite gaming console at the beginning of the week, and Microsoft finally delivered the packaging needed to send it to their repair center in Texas. Why Texas? I don't know, but it seems to be a pretty popular place to get your shit repaired, specially if it has to do something with technology. I remember the last couple of times that I had to send in my Apple iBook (before I got the intel-based MacBook) for repairs for a faulty motherboard, it went to Texas as well. I don't know what they do over there. Maybe strap it on to a mechanical bull and the rest is Texas-magic. But whatever they do, I hope they can get it back to me before the 4th of November. Partly because I miss playing games, and Gamefly just delivered "Beautiful Katamari", a game both my wife and I had been dying to play since we downloaded the demo, but also because I will be going out of town for a week, and when they return the XBOX 360, they need a signature to confirm delivery. If I'm not here, I can't sign for it. And that would be pretty fucking inconvenient if they have to send it back to Texas because I wasn't around. But, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully it can be back here and hooked up within the next couple of weeks.

It might be a good idea to call up Microsoft to see if they can arrange a delivery either before or after I come back. That's something worth thinking about. But now, I must venture out into the world so I can find me one of those UPS stores, so I can send the broken bitch to get fixed.

Red Ring of Death

Yes, my XBOX 360, my favorite appliance of all (fuck you refridgerator!), has red-ringed on me today. After a year and a half of relatively trouble-free next-gen gaming, it finally showed its design flaw. I'll be out of gaming commission for the next 3 - 4 weeks while Microsoft sends me a box to send it to them via UPS so they can repair the console. I guess I will be spending the next few weeks watching more television, reading up on books I bought a couple of months ago but never got around to reading, and generally missing "Halo 3" and all the other games I currently have rented (through Gamefly) or own. This sucks, but at least this particular red-ring-of-death problem is covered under the warranty, and Microsoft is picking up the bill on the repair. I so want to go out and buy one of those black "Elite" versions with the bigger hard drives, but I'm broke, and I've grown quite attached to this console. *Sigh* C'est la vie.

Halo 3 - Bypassing the Hype

I could have waited in line this past Monday. I could have joined my geek brethren in eager anticipation of the final "Halo" game in the series. But I'm 28 fucking years old. And I had to work the next day. Granted, I don't have to be in until 12:15 PM, but I said "screw it". Today, Wednesday, I strolled into a Best Buy and picked up a copy. No lines. No fuss. Just put down my credit card and picked up the most anticipated first person shooter of 2007.

As far as my first impressions go? I've only played through the first 2 levels in the campaign mode. So far, it's looking pretty promising. I was a bit lost at the beginning, but that's just because I never finished the "Halo 2" campaign. It actually bored me. I played the shit out of the multiplayer, but "Halo 2's" story just felt stale. It seems that Bungie took note, and they have amped up the action and the enemies, which is making for a couple of great levels so far.

This weekend, I will try to join in on that whole campaign that Microsoft and Bungie have going on. That's when I'll jump into the multiplayer. Until then, I'll take my time with the game, enjoy what I can, before I devote entirely too much time to playing with other people over XBOX Live. I'm going to have to buy a case of Visine though. My reticular humidity retention is not what it used to be. I've only played the game for an hour at most and my eyes felt like I had just ended a non-stop 8 hour stretch of playing time. I used to do that back when the first "Halo" came out. Oh . . . if only I still had the eyes a 22 year old.