It's Been a Week!!

Well, a celebration is in order! I have survived 1 whole week without my xbox and have not killed anyone or sucked anything for a quick hit! I have, however, am still in the gutter.

I broke down last night and played about 2 hours of Sega Marine Fishing on my Dreamcast. I got all excited as I unpacked my LE black Sports Dreamcast but damn if the games I have forit suck bawls! 2 hours of fishing..... And the first 3 fish I caught were Marlins! I even broke down and began catching crabs! That's right, with the right lure, you can drag it along the bottom and get crabs!

I ended the night playing the most horrific game, Heavy Metal. The comics are sweet and the first movie (and I stress FIRST!!) was bad ass but the game.... eh, not so much. It's basically a knock off of Unreal Tournament except that it's one on one, on these tiny stages and involves just a bunch of button mashing and praying that you can dodge your enemy's bullets (because you chose the douche with only a sword).

I amjust hoping against hope that I get my call soon from GameStop. I'm about to call them and see how far down the list I am. I was #9 last week. I'm starting to realise just how much I really used my console. And not just for games either. I used it for Netflix, game videos, Facebook, and all that other good shit. Microsoft really did make it into an "experience" rather than just a game console.

Been a Few Days

It's been a few days since the last entry. I fear I am starting to slip. I've tried to occupy my time watching soccer but my teams are dropping like flies and I only have Germany left to root for. Top it off with the fact that the games are on only during the day so in the evenings when I normally used to play games, I'm stuck with nadda!

I have stooped to a new low in convincing my 4yr old that he needed "help" to get to the next level in his new Sponge Bob game on his GameCube. He was convinced that daddy knew the "magic trick" to beat these douche bags in giant peanut costumes (anyone who has seen the movie will know what I'm talking about).

It has gotten pretty bad to the point where I actually watched not one but two videos of other people unpacking their Xbox 360 S consoles. At the time, my reasoning was that I wanted to know exactly what I would be getting so I could be "prepared" but in reality, I was pathetically attempting to live vicariously through them, lol. I think I need an intervention!!

If you work for GameStop... and are reading this.... CALL ME!!!!

PVP/Penny Arcade Podcasts

Just to throw it out there. If your a fan of Scott Kurtz's PVP web comic and/or Jerry Holkins & Mike Krahulik's Penny Arcade web comic, and have any interest in D&D, then you should check out Wizard of the Coast's podcasts of them playing a few modules. For 2 modules, they even got Wil Wheaton to join in. I have to say, it is pretty darned funny at parts and quite enjoyable to listen to. It's worth a listen if you have the time.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/podcasts.aspx

Day Two

ok. Today really sucked. I woke up and got ready to pass a good part of the day watching soccer. While my son was eating breakfast, I snuck into the living room and watched the Uruguay/South Korea game. All in all, it was a pretty good game but ended the way I figured it would. Uruguay moves on to the round of 8.

After the game, I had a couple of hours to waste which I spent making lunch for the family and watching the Pokemon movie with Gabe. That little guy has just become infatuated with this movie!

So, 2 o'clock finally rolls around so it's time to watch the USA/Ghana game. I am psyched! 5 minutes into the game, not so much. Ghana strikes hard and early. USA plays it's typical soccer in conceding the first goal and then spends the rest of the game playing catch-up. In the second half, USA is able to score on a PK to tie it. USA pushed hard in the 2nd and had a lot of great scoring chances that they should have converted on. Sadly, they didn't so they go to extra time. Just 3 minutes into extra time, Ghana strikes and scores. Then, for the next 27 minutes, those Ghana fuckers waste all the time they can. From rolling on the ground from phantom fouls to playing a substitute for a guy way across the field, who takes his sweet ass time walking across to get off the field. To make things worse, the faggot ref wasn't doing anything to reprimand them or speed them up. Fail! SO that's 2 of my teams eliminated in as many days. That just leaves me Germany against England on Sunday. Hopefully the Germans will be able to put another sour face on Beckham's face.

I decided to call a couple of other GameStops in the area since on-line, it was saying that they too had a console in stock. I was just wondering if they were suffering from the supposed glitch as well, which (after a few calls), it appeared that they were.

I took the family out shopping afterwards in hopes that the fresh air and change of scenery would make me feel a bit better and help me rid myself of a headache I was getting. In SP, Dawn picked up these awesome cupcakes that were the best I had ever tasted. We hit up Five Below and there was a bunch of Italy and USA soccer stuff =o( After a quick visit to the Pet Co, we went on home.

Once Gabe was in bed and Dawn had cooked us some fantastic cheeseburgers, it was just about time to watch Strikeforce on Showtime. As boring as it was, it was nice to see Fedor get submitted and embarassed. After that, the abscence of my 360 started to sink in. It was still relatively early (for a weekend evening) and yet I didn't have much of anything to do. Ended up spending the rest of the evening flipping channels before just turning off the light and went to sleep.

Hopefully I'll get a call early next week.

Day One

Day One

Well, today began the first day minus my consoles. I woke up for work and immediately noticed the empty space next to my 42". Which, of course, got me looking at my game collection that stands right next to the television. *sigh*. Well, I had work to occupy me so off I went.

Not to bore one with the menial details of my work day, the day went by pretty uneventful. During a few spare moments throughout the day, I found and read a few really good articles about the new Xbox 360 S that provided pretty good insights on the pro's and con's of the system as well as some really good shots of both the console and the back where I could see all the ports available. I realised then that the current consoles are not "Kinect" compatible. The new console has a dedicated port that looks a bit odd, for the Kinect. I am going to guess that either the Kinect will come with an adapter or Microsoft will force current console owners (who don't have the new 360 S console) to purchase an adapter to use the Kinect. I wouldn't put it past MS to pull something like that.

I hit up the GameStop website again and it still read that they had one in stock. Not only that but a few other local shops had some in stock, according to the website. I am wondering if I could move my reserve to another store. That might be worth investigating.

Afterwork was no different. I came home, hoping that there would be a message on my voice mail but knowing the answer before I even walked through the door. I spent a little bit reading a few more articles and checking the usual web sites before playing with my son and putting him to bed.

That evening, I had a bunch of friends over to play some boardgames so I really didn't miss my console. We played pretty late and had a good amount of fun and so when everyone left, I pretty much just went upstairs and crawled into bed. Not bad for Day One. Hopefully tomorrow will be the same. At least I have 2 soccer games to occupy my day but it's the evening that I think will make me start to miss it since I mainly just played at night anyways.

A Tale of Two Consoles

Well, I have received a few questions as to how and why I had 2 xbox consoles so I figured I'd share the drawn out tale of my battle with Microsoft and the dreaded Red Ring of Death!

It began like any other evening. It was dark out, my wife was upstairs watcihng a movie, and I had just put my son to bed. I sat down, popped in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and began to play some multiplayer. Suddenly, the game started to get kind of grainey and would then freeze. I got up, turned the console off and re-booted it. My console loaded up just fine and I got back into a game only to have the same thing happen again about 5 minutes into the game. After having this happen to me about 5 times, my console decided that it had had enough and boom.... 3 red lights greeted me. I was calm as this was not my first RROD that I had received (first one happened about 1 1/2 years prior on my launch console). So I removed all the hardware and cables and reconnected them, ensuring a firm connection but it provided the same results. 3 red damning lights.

"No Worries", thought I. I called Microsoft's tech support, convinced that it would take mere moments to get a UPS box on it's way to me to send this busted console back for repairs. Sadly, that would not be the case. Unlike my last call for this issue, I received an outsourced customer service rep. Now, I have nothing against people from other nations so please don't take this the wrong way. But one thing that really bothers me about call centers in India is that they cannot think of the fly. Either they can't or won't. They stick to canned responses and have zero knowledge about the produst they are supposed to be providing support for. So, after about 45 minutes of "conversation", she is firm that my warranty on my console is expired and will not cover the RROD. According to the website, my console's warranty had expired 1/12 years earlier. I angrily hang up and marched upstairs to proclaim to my wife that I was going to Target to get a new console.

I drove on down to my local Target, picked up a cheap Arcade console, and brought it home with a fresh warranty. I sat down, hooked it up, got my stuff moved over, and continued to play. THe next day, I logged on to the xbox site and registered the console. When I looked at when it's warranty expired, I noticed that it was in just 1 year. After some further research on the site, I found that the 1 year warranty is the basic warranty but Microsoft was extending the warranty a further 2 years to accomodate Red Ring errors. By that policy, my old console still fit under that warranty umbrella. I started to get heated!

I promptly called Microsoft's tech support and proceeded to explain the issue. Again, I received canned responses from a lady who refused to listen. I explained that they could not apply the policy to one console and not the other and how it was bad business to tell me otherwise. It was plain as day on their records when the manufacturer warranty expires for both consoles and by adding the 2 years for RROD coverage, both consoles fell within that timeframe. After 45 minutes of literally arguing, I asked to speak to a supervisor. When she finally relinquished the phone to one, it took about 5 minutes of explaining before he was setting up a UPS box to be sent to my house for me to send the busted console back.

So, after a few short weeks, my repaired console made it's return and I had 2 consoles. I was unable to return the Arcade console I had bought because I had already opened and registered it. So that, ladies and gentlemen, is how I became the owner of 2 xbox consoles.

Day Zero

Oh, how the video game gods mock me! Today, June 24th, started out like any other. I woke up. Got ready for work. Dropped my son off at day care (who was really excited because today was "Water Day"). I went on to work in my Italy jersey and hat, ready to support my national team in it's final group game that they would *hopefully* win so they could advance to the round of 16 of the World Cup.

Work wasn't so bad. I was able to get some deliverables done that pleased my manager. Finally, around 10 am, I started to stream the Italy/Slovakia game to my laptop. As I worked and made a few phone calls to some co-workers, I was witness to one of the worst soccer games of my life. Not only was Italy losing but they were losing badly!! Here was the defending World Cup champions getting their asses handed to them by Slovakia. SLOVAKIA!!! The game ended 3-2 Slovakia and it was only 3-2 because Italy scored a miracle goal in stoppage time. I was extremely upset. Added insult was Slovakia trying to eat up time with their players faking injuries in phantom fouls and taking their sweet ass time to make substitutions.

So I continue through my day, trying to get over the loss of my team and the heartbreak that they will not continue on in the cup tournament. As I check a few Internet sites, I hit up GameStop and notice that they are having a deal where they give you $100 for your old Xbox console when it's traded in towards the new 250gb Xbox Slim. They were also giving great trade in deals on the hard drives and such. So, being that I had 1 console that was basically collecting dust, I figured I could put that with my main console and basically get the new Xbox Slim for free. That would put me back to one console (but I ever really used only the one anyways) but would give me a 250GB hard drive (100GB more then both my other's combined) and a brand spanking new warranty. So, I write up all that I have to collect when I get home and ready myself for one sweet of a trade-in deal!

I go and pick up Gabe from day care and we head on home. He's telling me about his day but I'm already half thinking about all the crap I have to download when I get the new Xbox home. We get home and the upstairs is like a fucking sauna. Thermostat was set to 73 but it's 80 fucking degrees up there. In a panic, I call our HVac guy to come over. As he is on his way, Dawn calls and tells me that it's ass hot outside and so the system probably just can't keep up with Satan's heat outside. $90 later, the HVac guy is telling me the same thing. I thank him for hooking me up with topping off my AC with a bit of freon and he goes on his way. I feel like an ass. But no matter! I'm getting a sweet brand new Xbox soon!

So I gather up both my Xbox consoles and goodies, kiss Dawn and Gabe, and head out the door to GameStop! I had a smile on my face all the way to the store. I was really stoked! I enter the store, explain why I am there, and we get the transaction under way. Apparently, a person is not allowed to trade in 2 consoles on one day. Manager told me that is mainly there to weed out the shady people who hock stolen stuff. But luckily he knows me and knows how much I've spent there and so they find a way to work around the system. It's a long, drawn out process that took about 30 minutes. I'm chatting with the guy helping me and we go off onto various conversations about Soccer and Comics and stuff. In the end, I'm able to have the new system completely paid for with $42 left over which I promptly put down to reserve Gears of War 3. I know it's a ways off but at least I don't have to worry about it now. Now comes the final poke in the balls.

The associate tells me that I should see my console by about July 16th at the latest..... July fucking 16th. I'm a little stunned and somehow find my way to my car. As I drive home, I start to come out of my initial shock and remember seeing on the GameStop website that it was not only already out but that that particular store was said to have one in stock! So I pick up dinner for the family and boot up my PC when I get home. I hit the GS site and sure enough, I was right. I call up the store and speak with the manager. He tells me that it's a glitch on the site that they've been trying to fix. Apparently, there is a ghost system in there that keeps telling their HQ that they have one in stock. He tells me that I'm #9 of 9 people who still have it reserved and that they are trickling in at about 4 at a time. He then tells me that I should see it in about 2 weeks tops and that he'll call as soon as it comes in.

So. Here I sit, stewing about how I totally screwed myself not out of 1 but both my fucking Xboxes and now have to wait weeks before I can play again. To top it off, I just got Mass Effect 2 for Father's Day and was just getting started in the game. Why have the video game gods forsaken me so?

Tonight, I have no idea what to do to occupy myself. I am tempted to dust off and boot up my Dreamcast but am trying to resist the urge. I have a crap load of models I could paint but Lord knows how much I don't like painting and just looking at my Warhammer 40k Tyranid army just pains me, lol. I have already done all the repair work on my Hordes Circle army (after 2 years) but I'll be damned if I put any more effort into that army if no one plays.

My only consolation is that I just picked up a few new D&D 4th Ed books I can flip through and tomorrow night I'm having some friends over for some board games. God help me this weekend though... Look for me in the news!!!