MORDOR (warning: sheer, unadulterated video game nerd content inside)

There once was a gaming console called the XBOX 360. This system was the Playstation 2 of its generation, coming out with all the latest and coolest games, the best graphics and cutting edge on-line play. The ease of this global network of gamers made being a computer expert with all the latest overpriced digital rendering software that would be obselete in 3 months a necessity for internet gaming no more. Gone were the days of "oh my computer can't run this" or "I left AIM on so my game crashed" or "my system randomly lags because I haven't reformatted my hard-drive in the last 2 weeks." It was a simple time when people who just enjoyed casually playing games could share their joy together, without excessive hassle. There were also numerous live updates, downloadable content for renewed vigor in games you loved, even $5-10 arcade games that were cheap and fun. Sounded like a perfect system, right?

Not quite perfect.

When the light was green it was all gravy. But as time passed, load times got longer and the fan got louder, something had to give. I owned a launch-model 360, the original which has an estimated 60% chance of dying at some point in time - dem's not good odds. Of course it had to happen 2 months after I moved to Japan, making things far more inconvenient. Why, you may ask?

Well, for those who don't know, due to the huge amount of complaints (and possibly even some lawsuits) that Micrsoft received, they announced they were 2007 extending the warranties of all consoles to 3 years. I personally know several people who've been through 2 or 3, and it's not at all uncommon. MS has literally lost millions of dollars fixing their own consoles due to poor beta testing and some serious design and material faults not considered before the initial release.
If you are at all curious about the extent of 360 blunders (they have even been sued over their discs scratching too easily), I recommend this succinct Wikipedia article.

Despite all this, the 360 still remains the "next generation" system to have, in my opinion. (I'm totally leaving the Wii out of this one, because while it an awesome console in its own right and of course much more stable, it is lacking in HD and graphical abilities) Why not the PS3? Two simple reasons: game selection and friends. As for games, some of the few video game franchises I follow have exclusive 360-only titles, such as Tales of Vesperia or Beautiful Katamari. While it's true that there are many dual releases between the PS3 and 360, I'm actually not interested in the majority of the First Person Shooters that come out (save the Orange Box), but prefer RPGs and other more unique games.

And of course there's the simple fact that, in America at least, the 360 pwns the PS3 in popularity by a hefty margin. Things may be slowly moving in Sony's favor, but by the by if you want to play on-line with some of your buddies back home you to have MS's hardware. There seem to be more diehard PS3 fans in Japan, and perhaps since Blue-Ray won the format wars PS3's ability to play BR movies will eventually lead to a popularity shift, but for now this is the way things are.

Anyway that's enough about console or format wars - I've probably already lost more than half my regular readers on this post - but bear with me here. This 360 that broke is also one that I cracked open laborously and modified, the upside being that I can play games on backup discs, the downside being that I am at risk of being banned from Xbox Live if I play on-line, and my console is no longer covered under warranty. A fair trade-off in my opinion. Sadly after many fun hours with this toy it broke, and although I'm currently looking at some super top-secret underground solutions to get it fixed, that is pretty up in the air.

So I bought another console! A legitimate one that I bought the game Blue Dragon for because Akira Toriyama is a God among men when it comes to character design, and I enjoy old-school RPGs (and they're long). Long story short I had it shipped to a friend on a military base to save on shipping costs, and on the day I gleefully brought it home I plugged it in and saw, to my horror:

MORDOR!?!?

That's right folks, apparently it was damaged in shipping, because this sucker was broken on reception. The real kicker here is that I signed up for insurance, but to file a claim I'd need access to a USPS location, which I don't have since I don't live on a military base. The whole thing was turning into a ridiculous headache - all I wanted was to play a stupid game! And if it was possible to get the console fixed here I didn't want to bear teh slings and arrows of having to send it back. So, I did what any logical gamer would do: called Microsoft.

After trying to communicate over the phone with little success, I was told in Japanese to e-mail customer support if I wanted support in English. So I did, and thankfully the 3 year warranty extension on all consoles was announced in Japan too, so I'm sending out my console to get fixed today! This means soon I can play on-line with my friends, enjoy these new games and hopefully leave behind the evil eye of Mordor forever. I'm seirously considering getting a PS3 in a year or 2, when they've dropped in price a bit and have more good games on the roster.

This concludes my uber-nerd post. Until we meet again!