Follow-up

I told you all about my 2nd incident with the Red Ring of Death about a month ago. I have to give Microsoft credit for being faster than I expected them to be, because I received the replacement machine before Xmas (a little over 1.5 weeks turnaround time). Just two weeks after receiving the refurbished machine, can you guess what happened? Yup..RROD!!!

I screamed at the customer rep and emphasized that this was the 3rd time I was going through this. He mentioned that he doesn’t believe it will happen to me again and asked that I return the power supply along with the console this time around. I'm expecting my replacement machine to come in sometime next week. *fingers crossed for a brand new console with HDMI*

What pushed me over the edge to whine about this again is that I just got a call from my little brother. His Xbox 360 just died.

I've nearly died from the shin-splinting pain that the 'Rock Band' drum set has caused my legs. I even got a real drum throne to help with this... it helps, but not completely. I've been sore for days after a few hours of playing.

Wired magazine has some fantastic hints, directly from developer Harmonix, on how to alleviate the pain and ultimately make you a better 'Rock Band' drummer.

Thank you Wired!

Check out the hints here!

... it's an empty box.

Really, I got an empty box that contains a packing slip stating: "Rock Band Guitar, Quantity: 1."

'Rock Band' is now on the top of my "Most Hated Games of 2007" list.

Yes, I said "hate." My nieces would be so ashamed of me.

Oh, and the drum pedal gave me plantar fasciitis. Seriously.

VICTOR COMMENT: Dude, I, well, I don't know, that blows. And speaking of the drums, I'm beginning to suspect that the drums might be the least used peripheral of all time. Seriously, they're impossible to play, a pain in the... foot, and all you can hear while playing is the thwap sound of the sticks hitting the plastic case.

I received my first replacement guitar for 'Rock Band' and after just a few minutes of "rocking," the tilt feature stopped working. I went through the whole process of connecting, re-connecting, turning on, turning off and re-praying. Nothing will fix it.

I ordered my second replacement, but the sad thing is... I had just put a $10 cool skull-covered skin on the newly broken guitar. Ta-da... I'm out 10 bucks.

I was a little shocked that the replacement controller comes in a thin cardboard box with the impact resistance of a piece of toilet paper. Does EA really think that holiday shippers are going to be gentle with these things?

I called EA... and, after a lot of whining, they gave me a $20 gift card to the EA store to accommodate my frustration (and whining).

What is up with these controllers? Even punchbutton's other non-blogger, Melcolm, had a faulty guitar.

I think it would have been cheaper to make a higher quality axe from the get-go.

Anyone else having problems?

Here's the oft-mentioned "controversial" review that may, or may not, have had something to do with Jeff Gerstmann's firing from GameSpot.com.

Doesn't seem so bad to me.

No. Not really.

Kind of getting worse, actually.

I usually have awful luck. Stupidly awful luck.

BUT, I made it through a year with my first 360 never getting the red-ring-o-death. I never had problems with my 'Guitar Hero III' wireless guitar. My 'Halo 3' disc wasn't scratched. Obviously, because it's me, my short streak of good luck ran out.

I played 'Rock Band' for two days and on day three, IT happened.

Last night, I turned on my 360 and started 'Rock Band.' Navigation through the menus was kind of sluggish, but it was working. I had four songs left to finish Career-mode on Medium... I started the first of the four. I couldn't hit a note to save my life. Maybe one in six down-strums would register.

I unplugged the guitar's USB connector then re-connected it to the system... the problem continued. Then, I tried every other USB port... same results. I restarted the Xbox, removed the disc, blew in the air vents, shuffled voodoo cards, prayed a little bit, turned on the air conditioning, complemented the guitar, jumped up and down, crossed my fingers and tried it again. The guitar still wouldn't consistently register a down-strum.

I was able to hold on to the strum bar and tilt it up and down to finally register a strum. This was an extremely irritating gameplay method, but when I tilted the guitar up to unleash my "rock energy" (or whatever it's called) the guitar started working again. That was, until I tilted it up about 30 seconds later. This is clearly a hardware problem... something is shifting around in the guitar. I don't think a patch would ever clear this up.

So, needless to say, my new $125 guitar replacement it on it's way. I'm planning on getting hit by a bus later today.

One day after the announcement that the game is in development and, NOW, we've got 'Ghostbusters' gameplay footage!

I like how they chose in-game scenes that were in-movie scenes...

I am still patiently waiting for our review unit of Rock Band to show up (I'm told it should have been here yesterday) I wanted to share the release of the downloadbale tracks that will be available over the next couple of months...some good stuff on there!

by the way...haven't forgotten about GH III...it's a long story, but a review is on the way, but I will tell you right now, the wireless guitar sucks and it now sits in a closet, useless and I am playing the otherwise awesome title with my dependable explorer.

Rock Band DLC Release Schedule – November / December 2007

Week of November 20, 2007:

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Metallica Pack
“Ride the Lightning” – Metallica
“Blackened” - Metallica
“And Justice for All” - Metallica

The Police Pack
“Can’t Stand Losing You” – The Police
“Synchronicity II” – The Police
“Roxanne” – The Police

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
“3’s and 7’s” – Queens of the Stone Age
“Little Sister” – Queens of the Stone Age
“Sick Sick Sick” – Queens of the Stone Age

Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360)

“Fortunate Son” as made famous by Creedence Clearwater Revival *
“Juke Box Hero” as made famous by Foreigner *
“Bang a Gong (Get It On)” as made famous by T-Rex *
“My Sharona” as made famous by The Knack *
“Cherry Bomb” as made famous by The Runaways *
“Joker & The Thief”- Wolfmother

Week of November 27, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

David Bowie Pack
“Moonage Daydream” – David Bowie
“Heroes” as made famous by David Bowie *
“Queen Bitch” as made famous by David Bowie *

Week of December 4, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Black Sabbath Pack
“N.I.B.” as made famous by Black Sabbath *
“Sweet Leaf” as made famous by Black Sabbath *
“War Pigs” as made famous by Black Sabbath *

Week of December 11, 2007

3-Pack for $5.49 or Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points per track and 440 per pack for Xbox 360)

Punk Pack:
“Rockaway Beach” - Ramones
“I Fought the Law” - The Clash
“Ever Fallen In Love” as made famous by Buzzcocks *

Week of December 18, 2007

Individual Tracks for $1.99 Each
(160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360)
“My Iron Lung” - Radiohead
“Buddy Holly” - Weezer
“Brass in Pocket” as made famous by Pretenders *

* This is a cover version of a song made famous by the artist indicated. All others are original master recordings.

Last week I ran down my pre-orders for this week. Now, after perusing message boards, reviews, blogs and video clips, here's my decisions of what I'm buying and what I'm sending to the bargain bin...

• Mario Galaxy: YES, picking it up today.
• Need for Speed: Pro Street: YES. I don't care how bad some say it is; 1up gave it an 8.5.
• Blacksite: Area 51: NO. Haven't found one good review or impression. I'm very sad about this one.
• Assassin's Creed: NOPE. Enough luke-warm reception to save me some dough.
• Mass Effect: NO time for this.
• Kane & Lynch: Dead Men: NOPE.
• Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles: NOT NOW, maybe after the holidays.

That's a savings of almost $300!

The new UPC code that was showing up for Nintendo's Wii was just the package with the Wii-mote rubber cushions.

Read here

I am loving this game and it's only in it's Beta testing state. Enjoy.

Yesterday, I noted a seeming scarcity of Xbox 360 Elite consoles at retailers.

I followed up with Microsoft to ask what the situation was on availability of the Elite and whether there was any kind of manufacturing pause.

Here's the response from John Rodman, Senior Product Manager, Xbox Global Platform:

"As anticipated, Xbox 360 Elite has been met with high demand since it launched. Our manufacturing facilities are running at full speed, and we are working very hard to satisfy the desire of every consumer who wants Xbox 360 Elite. There is a limit to the amount of consoles that can be made at any one time, and we know that consumers will snatch these up as quickly as they are made. Eventually, and as soon as possible, we will catch up with the demand."

That sounds plausible, and I'd be willing to leave the matter at that, but the Red Ring of Death issue hangs over every hardware discussion around the 360 now.

In other words, I wonder if Microsoft has throttled back shipments of the Elite until it gets all the hardware problems squared away.

What's the point of pumping a ton of consoles onto retail shelves if you know you're going to get 20-30 percent of those consoles back for repair?

That's especially true if, as mentioned yesterday, a good chunk of those returns are unrepairable.

When that unrepairable unit is a high-priced Elite, Microsoft probably ends up taking a huge loss (the cost of giving a new console to the owner, plus all the logistical costs of shipping the broken and new consoles around the country, and the autopsies and repairs that have to be done by technical staff).

I replied to my Xbox contact, asking him if the Elite was released before or after the 360 hardware problems were found and fixed.

I'm sure Microsoft can't wait to put this whole issue to bed, and the company will likely be forced to announce when it has made the switch to smaller (and presumably cooler and more reliable) 65-nanometer chips.

Those internal upgrades are not normally publicly announced -- console makers don't want early adopters to feel they've purchased inferior equipment -- but in this case the early adopters did get inferior equipment, and I think a lot of potential 360 buyers are waiting for the Falcon systems to hit before they take the plunge.

Especially if those buyers are thinking of buying the most expensive Elite systems.