Shangri-La: The only place to buy an Xbox 360 that works

*sigh* I tried. Really, I did. After being burnt 6 times (why I let it go that far is another story and yes, I feel dumb) by a combination of RROD and a PAL unit being sent to me as a replacement (unable to play my games or DVDs as I’m in NA), I washed my hands of it. I bought a PS3 and moved on with life. A life with few really good exclusive games, a life with little functionality when compared to the 360 and a life with a free online that is quite, quite good. So, after my “last” console RROD’d on me before the Halo 3 launch, I washed my hands and threw a beefy middle finger to the Xbox division at Microsoft.

At one time, I loved the 360. I can remember playing COD2 matches with friends over Live and thinking this was “There is no way the PS3 stands a chance”. I can remember mocking Sony for their $599.99 launch price and thoroughly enjoying their 2005 E3. From “Riiiiiiddddgggee Racer!!!” to the hilarious Genji and Warhawk demos, in my eyes, they’d lost it. When a rumble-less SixAxis was announced it was yet more fuel to the fire. So with Sony being a supreme joke and the 360 being the only one out, I took every fanboy rant, implausible “what if” and overcritical observation against Sony and happily took my spot amongst the other delusional gamers thinking the 360 was/is the next PS2 or that Microsoft cared about gamers or what they wanted. I justified paying for the Internet twice because I had to. I wanted to play with friends and I wanted to play multiplayer. If you want those and have a 360, you have to pay, period.

In May 2007, I traded in a Wii (which I re-bought for my 9yr old daughter Christmas the same year) for a 60GB PS3. When I got it home on my network, I was sick to see I couldn’t stream a damn thing. My busted ass 360 could do it, why not this “future-proof” piece of kit?undefinedI played kinda fun/kinda boring games like Calling All Cars, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection and Flow. Then the games slowly started showing up…as did the firmware updates.  I’ve upgraded my PS3’s HDD, formatted it, installed Linux on it, restored the PS3 OS and have yet to have a single problem. I can stream my music and vids to my PS3 now and check out Hulu or Fancast or GrooveShark from my PS3 because they’ve updated the browser. Sony, for me, started changing their perception of themselves and worrying about us later, which I applaud. My appreciation for the PlayStation group and all the killer 1^st party stuff I’ve seen thus far has over-grown my once fanboy love of the Xbox 360. I still consider myself a gamer and what do gamers do? Play games.

With the release of Left 4 Dead, I decided I’d give the 360 another shot. Fable 2 had peak my interests, as did Gears of War 2. So I traded in my beloved PSP that was never used and put the money towards a 360 Arcade unit (manufacture date 2008-10-07). I gobbled up Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and L4D. All but Fable 2 disappointed, with Fable’s only real disappointment being it was a freezing, buggy mess.  I went back I played games I heard were “awesome” or “epic” (Mass Effect anyone?) and I found myself bored with the missions/story and hating the Mako. I passed on Viva Piñata because I’m 31 and Piñatas scare me. Also, Rare sucks. Maybe it’s karma biting me in the proverbial ass but I really tried to enjoy my latest 360. Sure I hardly ever played it, but it’s not like I mistreated it nor had it in a cramped space or anything.

With the release of Street Fighter 4 (of which the PS3 version was purchased) one of my good friends (360 only owner) wanted to get his ass kicked online. So I go and rent SFIV with the intent of unlocking people and dropping a capital L (L = loss) on him. I put the disc in, boot up and start the game. After playing one round, I receive a “disc read error”. I take the disc out and just peak at the underbelly…round circular scratches. You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Seeing how I rented it and all, I figured it had to have been like that before I rented it. I take it back to the fine people at Blockbuster where they hand me a spanking new copy of the disc, scratch free. I return home and try again, only to have the same results. I phone Xbox support and should have my shipping box here around Thursday of next week (3/4) and the turnaround time is between 2-3 weeks, per Xbox Customer Support.  

Once I receive my “new” Xbox 360 time-bomb back from Microsoft, it will be traded in towards a 2^nd PS3. Microsoft and all their nickel and diming, can kiss my as with their tongue out. If your 360 hasn’t broken yet, in some capacity, good for you! Every one I’ve ever owned has been a broken POS, so good for me too!Icing on the cake: Almost forgot, Microsoft won’t replace the discs their defective hardware scratched. I was told if it were a MS published game, they had a program for that. Otherwise I would have to contact Capcom. Out of curiosity, I called Capcom and was told I needed to call Microsoft. Hahaha. I’m so glad I rented the game or I would be postal right now.