blech

Since I'm 1 month out of warranty they'll give 
me 25% off the repair cost ($139.90-%25=$104). 
 
That sucks. I was hoping they'd just throw it in, I didn't
fight with the guy for more, just not in the mood and 
$100 for a new box isn't terrible (free shipping both 
ways). I hope I get an entirely new box but I'm guessing 
they'll just pull the board out and put a new board in, 
leaving the loud DVD drive intact. Maybe they'll suck 
the dust out of it as well. 
 
You know, I've been thinking a lot about the thing 
breaking. My DVD drive would spin down real NASTY 
sounding, like someone just slammed on the brakes. 
And I figured for as much as I use it I must have a ton 
of dust in there. 
 
 Maybe I willed it.

Posted by Philosophyzer @ 10:39 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

oooohhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuddgge

But instead of saying fudge I said it.  The word.  THE word.

Yes.  My xbox is dead.  I went to put in a video (The Breakup, I blame 
this movie b/c the xbox didn't want me to have to watch it) and the 
screen went kind of weird .. almost like it went to 16-bit color.  I turned 
it off and on thinking it was some oddity. Except when I turned it back 
on nothing came on the screen.

I thought .. ahhh whatever .. the VGA port on my TV died.  So I 
plugged the component cables and fired it up.  Hmm .. that's odd.
It doesn't work either (sound but no picture).  Must have it on the 
wrong component on the TV.  Nope.  Right one.  At this point my 
stomach is making a funny feeling.

So I troubleshoot .. finally got my VGA monitor for my computer 
and plugged it in and it doesn't work either.  Crap.

On the phone with 18004MYXBOX now.

Posted by Philosophyzer @ 10:33 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Random thoughts

One of the most funnest gaming experiences ever was the grapple hook mod in quake (back in the day).  Everyone I talk to that had tried that agrees and has lots of stories of how incredibly fun that was.

Why don't game manufacturer's put out another grapple hook game?   My god, I'd buy an XBLA arcade game that was just based on this playstyle, with 1 weapon and 1 map.

----

Why isn't matchmaking and the party system (introduced WAY BACK WHEN with Halo2) standard now?  Why aren't game manufacturers picking up that this is such a superior way of playing games that everything else just SUCKS now compared to it?

I'm currently playing RB6 and love it .. but lack of matchmaking and party system make it hard to pull my group into a game and "just play".  I know we'll wait 15 minutes to fill up a server, then launch, rinse and repeat.  I know we'll waste probably 30-45 mins just waiting for people to join in between games ...

H2 set the bar.  Everything else pales in comparison.  I was so disappointed MS did not include these 2 things (party, matchmaking) in their development kits.  Stooopid.

Posted by Philosophyzer @ 7:51 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

And the mystery number is!

Got my new wireless controller Friday.  My wireless headset that did not work with the "original" 360 controller now miraculously works.

For anyone that has this issue, if it will help, my support ticket # was 1026442145.

I told them I tried 2 different controllers, the one I purchased aftermarket (microsoft brand) works fine with the wireless headset - the one I got with the 360 in april'ish 2006 did not work.  It would never take the same position in the ring of light as the controller - it would always jump away from it (if controller was on #1, headset would jump to #2).

They did not admit it was a bug with their software, hardware, or other - but I pursued them and told them the controller was working great so it wasn't the controllers issue.  Plus I found more reports of my symptoms and in addition a youtube video detailing the EXACT same problem.

So, MS made things right in the end (after many hours on the phone, but that's the price of fighting city hall).

Hopefully anyone that is having issues has good luck as well.  Don't be afraid to buy the headset and return it if you can't get it to work and they won't replace your controller (or promise a software update and acknowledge a flaw).  The headset is awesome - the little wire and big boom for the mic are annoying as hell and once you are free of them you will be very pleased - at least I was.

Posted by Philosophyzer @ 10:48 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Fox Sports Vista MCE plugin

Here's a great blog site that details out the sports plugin that magically appeared on peoples MCE boxes in the last few weeks:

http://sockworld.net/index.php/archives/244

More pictures

If I run across any of the online links (yahoo, xm, npr, mtv, ...) I'll post a link to them as well.

Posted by Philosophyzer @ 12:25 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments