My broken Xbox 360 history

It’s not that I don’t have games to play, it’s just that I’m having a hard time playing them. Maybe someone can tell me if the original Saint’s Row on the Xbox 360 was a particularly buggy game? I’ve been trying to get caught up on ‘games I should’ve played” lately, and picked up the Saint’s Row Double Pack. Since then, I’ve grabbed some other games from years past, like last year’s Batman: Arkham City, another game from the era of the original PlayStation, and an NES game… I’ve got lots of things to catch up on – but for some reason the original Saint’s Row keeps locking up my Xbox. The background audio keeps playing, the video freezes, the whole thing just locks.

I’m starting to fear the worst, because this isn’t the first game this has happened on, it’s just the most recent, and most frequent. I thought these “slim” Xbox 360’s were supposed to alleviate the pain? My original 20GB Xbox 360 had to be sent in for a Red Ring failure. My replacement unit is still trucking along, although it has a lot of disc read errors – it went to a friend when I picked up a 120GB black Elite unit. The Elite was having lots of disc read errors when I sold it (with full disclosures to the buyer of potential repair being needed down the road) and picked up an Xbox 360 “S” unit last year. And I’m beginning to think this unit is going to have to go in for a little servicing.

Now, one of the biggest reasons I’m not totally losing my mind over this latest problem is that it has been hot lately. Even with my AC unit about 5 feet from my 360 (not blowing directly on it, but they’re in the same room!), I have a hard time keeping it in the 70’s. Perhaps the 360 is just getting a bit too warm. It should have lots of room to breathe, but it’s just keeps locking up on me. If the problems continue once I’m playing a different game and we’re back in to some reasonable temperatures, then I’ll be a bit more worried. But for now, I’m just hoping I’m not a 5th time victim of some kind of problem in the long relationship I’ve had with my Xbox 360. I still love the thing, but keeping it has become a labor of love.

I’m sure some PS3 lover out there wants to rub this in my face, but remember that my Fat PS3 bit the dust by freezing up (not a “YLOD” or anything else, it just froze), and my second one mostly collects dust while I watch the occasional BluRay on it (serioysly, I own about 10 BluRay movies and 2 PS3 games – I have more PS1 games to play on the thing!). Call me a “fanboy” if you want, but the Xbox brand will always have a spot in my home. I just genuinely love the Xbox Live service… and the controller.

Now, if you want to put Xbox Live and a few Halo games on a PlayStation, we’ll talk!

Hesitant to get Kinect-ed…

I heard about how the “Kinect for Windows” device was better than the first Kinect that launched on Xbox. More precise, faster, etc… all of the benefits that I really expected would make their way to the Kinect sensor in a new and updated package. But they haven’t – at least, not publically. Perhaps buying one these days gets the few extra features, but I keep waiting for something more. I feel like there is something else coming, just around the corner – that “revision 2” that is better than the original. And so I wait… but am I waiting for nothing?

I would love voice and motion control on my Xbox 360. I would enjoy some of the silly motion games. I can’t wait to try the integration of certain voice and gesture commands in to certain “core” games like Halo Anniversary and Mass Effect 3. If there is no upgraded unit coming, when is the price drop going to happen? I need something to encourage me to take that last leap, and so far, my friends haven’t helped.

I took to Twitter the other day and asked if I should pick up a Kinect, but the responses were lackluster and those I got were a resounding eh, something like Kinect will be integrated in to the next Xbox, just wait for that – there aren’t enough games to make it worth your while. And that’s hard to argue with. Kinectimals was about the closest thing to ‘revolutionary’ I’ve seen out of the Kinect yet. And the version of Android and iPad looks just as fun.

I’m still torn, but I’m certain I’ll cave sooner or later – I just plan on holding out until “Black Friday.” By then we’ll know if they plan on releasing a revised version for the holiday shopping season, and if not, there’s bound to be sales!

Ooo-yah, I'm excited for Ouya

Yup. I did it. I bit the bullet on Kickstarter and pre-ordered an Ouya. And I’m glad I did. If you haven’t heard of it, you will, soon. I’ll describe what I’m talking about soon, but first, just know that I’m in the company of, oh, I dunno… tens of thousands of others. Listen, I’m writing this post early, because my mind is blown – so to tell you this: this post will appear July 13th 2012 at 0600 Eastern time. I’m writing at 2000 July 11th. At the time I’m writing, the Ouya has 27,615 “backers.” 3.5+ Million dollars. When I ordered it was over $1.5 Million. Their goal was only $900,000, which they raised in about a day. I’m glad I got in when I did, because the company is still trying to figure out what they’re going to do with all of their money, and just how many Ouya units they can produce!

So, what the heck is Ouya? I didn’t even watch the whole video or read the whole description when I jumped on it. If nothing else, it’s going to have some VERY nice features, but at its core, the Ouya is a new form of gaming console. It sound like it should be quite powerful, it will run Android, so there is a good possibility you should have direct access to a lot of pre-existing apps, and, one more small thing: the games? They’ll be free. It makes no sense to me, either – it’s the kind of thing that is going to turn the industry upside down… I don’t have any more details than anyone else, right now, but it sounds like they are planning a freemium model which will lead to in-app purchases and unlockables. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this – I certainly hope it isn’t an entire console of Zynga and Facebook games… but I noticed in the video a few key phrases, such as “free to try.” This sounds very similar to the Xbox Live or Windows Phone model, where everything is required to have a trial version, but I think that is one of the things that made the Xbox Live Arcade and Xbox Marketplace such a huge success. I know I certainly wouldn’t have purchased even half of the games I have in my Xbox Live Arcade collection were it not for the demo versions available to me.

The Kickstarter questions at the bottom of the page confirm my theory, when it states that: “For gamers, every game will be free to play: what this means is that there will at least be a free demo, or you’ll be able to play the entirety of the game for free but may have access to additional items, upgrades, or other features that come at a cost.” Which is fine by me, although I’m sure some people will pipe up down the road and wonder why games aren’t 100% free. By the time you read this, they’ll probably be sold out of all of the reasonably priced (sub $200) Kickstarter options (I got in at $99), but you can check Ouya’s Kickstarter page and see if you’re interested in the first new “gaming console” since the OnLive console appeared to polite applause a few years ago.

Gaming takes me back…

I have been on a strange and fairly pointless kick lately. I have barely turned on my Xbox 360, or even my PS3. I’ve been watching more movies, and playing other games. Games that I’ve missed. Missed in both terms of “never played” – like the games that occasionally show up in my “Backorder catalog, and also missed in terms of “just haven’t played in a while.” I went on Goozex and got a a few games like NES Play Action Football, and Silent Hill for the PlayStation. Two games that I’ve never played, but always heard good things about. I can’t wait to hook up my original NES for a play session.

I recently went on GoG.com and purchased Sim City 2000 when it was on sale. I even went on Steam and loaded up some game expansions that I never completed like Half-Life’s Opposing Forces. I added my original Star Craft CD Key to my Blizzard / Battle.net account. I found a rare game in my parents’ attic called Gunman Chronicles (which you can’t activate on Steam, by the way!). Another victory for Steam, I bought a special sale priced collection of games from id Software, and found myself playing a lot of DooM 3 and Quake III Arena.

I can’t explain why, so suddenly, I have been compelled to play so many classics. But I ran through a few levels of Donkey Kong Country, and even picked up the Virtual Boy I had left in the childhood bedroom where I grew up. Something is calling for me, and I can’t yet tell if it’s something genuinely retro, like my Gameboy, or if it’s something slightly newer. All I know is that right now I long for the days when controllers had wires, and you sat on the carpet about 4 feet from the TV, and you bleeped and blipped your way around a world that looked the way it sounded. I haven’t found the right thing to itch the scratch, but it’s a good gaming Friday, and I think it’s time to start the quest to find what I’m missing.