Red Ring of Death!
 

I've had my 360 since early 2006, and hadn't had any problems with her until this morning.

The other night, after getting off of work, I checked out a copy of MoH: Airborne, which turned out to be very enjoyable, IMO. Normally, FPS games aren't my thing, but I recently made the mistake of watching Hard Boiled, The Killer, and Hot Fuzz all in the same day and since then I need gunfights.

So I did a long session which involved beating the first three-and-a-half missions. Each one took me like an hour and a half -- I'm no good at FPS games, and I died over and over trying to parachute directly into a heavily manned Nazi machine-gun nest just so I could kick a dude in the face before I touched down. Turns out there's an achievement for that, if you're out there with Airborne and you're playing it too seriously to yell "DEATH FROM ABOVE!" while you're trying to swing your parachute into the perfect glide for Nazi-bashing.

It's awesome when you've been yelling "Death from above" for about an hour and suddenly you see "Achievement Unlocked: Death from Above!"

This morning, I turned on my 360 to see if I couldn't get a little more play before work.


So yeah. That's the first time I've ever had any problems with my 360. Wondering if Airborne was at fault for the debacle, I tried out a few different games. They worked fine.

I spent a little time with my lady after I got done at Gamestop today. Celebrating, because I was invited to interview for a promotion at work. After we were done, I came home and decided I'd pop in a movie for background noise and do some writing.

I hit the button on my wireless 360 controller, expecting the 360 to power up. Red Ring of Death! Fuck! I hear a lot about the Red Ring from the chatter around Gamestop, but I'd always figured it wouldn't happen to me -- I'm extremely careful with my consoles, and this is the first one I've had poop out on me since my launch-PS2, which I managed to make last for about four-and-a-half years of heavy use.

So now, here I am, about to copy down my 360's serial number so I can ship it off to Microsoft. Reminds me of my initial assertion, that the 360 was the PS2 of this generation. If hardware faliures are any indicator, I was right.

Anybody else out there have the Red Ring blues?

Guh. Girlfriend's 360 just shit out on her too. I'm just glad it happened before Guitar Hero III or I'd be dating the Ice Queen for four to six weeks of shipping date.

I hear you, Mirai. I'm just glad the damned thing will be replaced in time for Assassin's Creed. GHIII, I plan on buying for the PS2. I've already got I and II, I figure, why spread out the collection over two consoles needlessly?

My cousin had one for a little while, got a red ring, sent it back, got another, sent it back again, and then, as soon as he turned it on after getting another replacement, red ring. He was pissed.

I'm pretty sure mine's waiting until I have to play Mass Effect or something. Then it'll be like Stealth kick in the balls, bitch. That's how we roll down at X to the bawks to the double one eighty. Word motherfucker. Word.

I guess my 360 thinks it's black or something.

Your Xbox is awesome.

Achievements, online versus, a better controller, faster loading times, and downloadable content.

Just saying.

I don't care about Achievements, and I don't play anything online, much less the no-doubt extremely tough-to-manage GH when lag is involved.

Also: "better controller?" I disagree!

Aren't the guitars for every version of Guitar Hero the same?

MGS 4? Just saying.