Dark Side of the Carton

With an Xbox 360 that dated back to 6 months after launch, I figured it was only a matter of time before I got the Red Rings of Death that so many others have. Today was that time. Just before lunch, my wife called and asked what it meant when the rings around the power button on the 360 were red instead of green. I just let out a big *sigh* and told her that it finally happened. Our console had freezing issues for a long time and had just started to show some graphical artifacting on some games. I figured we were close to the end and I was right. The only saving grace is that maybe, just maybe, I’ll end up with one of the new HDMI enabled Falcon consoles. I’m not going to hold my breathe as almost everyone is getting back refurb units, and in some cases those aren’t working either. I’m not going to enjoy the next few weeks of waiting and fighting, but I’m not going to take anything laying down.

I’ve already done what anyone with some sort of connections would do and starting dropping emails all over about how I can get my console fixed as quickly as possible, but so far I haven’t made any progress. It seems that us journalists are just as down and out as the rest of the consumers out there. Hold on tight, things are going to get bumpy I think.

Most nights I stay up way later than I should working on freelance coding projects. Last night I opted to take a break from that and spend a little time relaxing with The Orange Box. The Orange Box is Valve’s newest release and comes packed with essentially 5 total games. 3 of those games are in the form of Half-Life 2 content, but that’s not important. What is important is the fact that the other 2 games happen to be Portal and Team Fortress 2.

I started Portal about a week ago and just hadn’t set aside some time to finish the game as I knew it was relatively short. I finished it last night and I am still having sweet dreams about the endeavor. I can’t remember the last time a game left me with such a splendid taste in my mouth. Even at $60 for the whole package, it could be argued that the price tag was worth Portal alone and that the rest of the content is just gravy. I decided to find out by jumping online and playing a little TF2. Let’s just say that I wasn’t very good and I racked up a whopping 2 kills. I played a few more rounds, each as unsuccessful as the one before it.

I’ll have to make it a point to keep playing TF2 as it was quite enjoyable, but I’ll need to do a little research on what exactly I am supposed to be doing as I kind of just wandered around until someone snuck up behind me and killed me.

At any rate, picking a Game of The Year for 2007 is going to be no small feat. With BioShock and Halo 3 preceeding it, things could get ugly. I think it’ll end up coming down to perceptions. There was no way that Halo 3 would ever live up to the expectations that had been set for it, so unfortunately it’s viewed as a disappointment. BioShock on the other hand had people describing it as interactive art so it’s easy to see how your expectations change how a game is viewed post release.

I think with The Orange Box everyone expected it to be awesome and then Portal was just so much better than anyone could have imagined that it really made the whole experience almost euphoric. For what it’s worth, I am calling the shot now. There will be a huge number of sites giving The Orange Box the Best Overall Game Award. I’m not saying I won’t do the same thing or that it won’t be warranted, but I am still calling it.

There are rumors flooding gaming sites across the net that something big is going down concerning Microsoft and Bungie. Bungie has historically been very open with members of the press, but this week it’s been tight lips and lots of pointing towards the direction of Edelman, Microsoft’s PR Firm. Rumors range from an amicable split between the two to some sort of self buyout. All I know is that there is a lot of talk going down and everyone seems to know someone in the “know” that has some sort of special information on the topic although not a peep of it has been confirmed.

Should something go down with Bungie, I guess this is as good a time as any for it to happen. I honestly can’t think of a single situation that would be altogether bad for the industry aside from Bungie closing up shop to become a large team of shoe salesman, but I think the odds of that happening are pretty slim.

At any rate, I guess all we can do is continue to wait and see what unfolds as we wade through a waist high river of rumors that is quickly rising. If you so feel inclined to read everything that the PA forumers think might go down, you can read all 8 pages of that thread here.

Nintendo sent over the new Zelda game, Phantom Hourglass, and it had a nifty bit of swag to accompany it. This beautiful hourglass emblazoned with the game’s logo on top and bottom. The premise behind it is that it only takes 10 minutes to see why the game is so amazing. I’ll be the judge of that, but I think someone goofed as mine only timed out at less than 5 minutes of sand. Below are pics of the swag, but if you want to check out my first impressions of the game, head on over to SBG.

Despite running what I would consider a fairly successful gaming website, I was kind overlooked by the powers that be for a copy of Halo 3 before launch. That said, my wife picked up a copy of Halo 3 for us today at Costco for $49.99, not a bad price by the way. After putting the kids to bed, we jumped on the 360 to get a little co-op campaign going. After ignoring many invites, sorry guys, we got underway.

So far, I am digging just about everything about Halo 3. Getting started was a little confusing as launching co-op campaign uses the multiplayer lounge concept and it threw me for a loop until I realized what I was doing. In game, the gameplay mechanics are fundamentally the same as previous games. New weapons, new vehicles, and better graphics are what make this a new Halo.

I haven’t gone online for any MP action since the beta so I can’t comment on that aspect of the game yet, but I hope to do that sometime this week. Maybe you’ll see me online… and maybe you won’t.