Gee, thanks Microsoft

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:09 pm

Apparently I was one of "a few" people whose Xbox 360 was effectively ruined by a recent update I downloaded via Xbox Live. I called their support line and was told they'd repair it for $140 since it was out of warranty. I made it very clear that there was no fucking way I was going to pay to fix an issue that their faulty software caused. Now they're sending me a box to ship it off for free. I should get it back in about two weeks. I'm going to have fun staring at the Gears Of War game I pre-ordered.

Mister Bushice · Post by **Mister Bushice** » Sat Nov 04, 2006 7:47 pm

Has Microsoft ever released anything free of bugs and problems?

I never D/L first run stuff from MS. I wait for the geeks to churn it through the test mill first.

Almost without fail, they will come up with a bug, an incompatability, or a vulnerability.

Shlomart Ben Yisrael · Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:43 pm

Are dashupdates for the 360 automatic?

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:06 am

The update worked fine for me. It appears to have been an issue with newer 360's and not those that were launch systems.

I'll be playing the shit out of Gears of War and Call of Duty 3 come Tuesday. I'm gonna be losing a lot of sleep next week.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 2:27 pm

Martyred wrote:Are dashupdates for the 360 automatic?

You get prompted to install updates when you connect to Xbox Live. I don't think you can decline to install them.

Rack Fu wrote:The update worked fine for me. It appears to have been an issue with newer 360's and not those that were launch systems.

Mine was manufactured in November of 2005. It's possible that its death had nothing to do with the update, but I think it's too much of a coincidence that it stopped working right after.

I'll be playing the shit out of Gears of War and Call of Duty 3 come Tuesday. I'm gonna be losing a lot of sleep next week.

I'm not the biggest shooter fan, and I'm completely sick of the WW2 variety, so I'm going to pass on COD3. Gears Of War looks too amazing to pass up. I've got it and the new Tony Hawk game on pre-order. I might have to rent a system so I can play while I wait for mine to get fixed.

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 3:06 pm

I would also like to get the new Tony Hawk game but I've bought four new games in the past two months (NCAA 2007, WSOP, NHL 2007 & Tiger Woods 2007) - to go with GoW and COD3 - so I just don't have enough time to play all of them without totally neglecting my family. :D

PrimeX · Post by **PrimeX** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:10 am

The new Tiger Woods friggin' pwns, although I'm still having trouble learning the new putting grids. The graphics on the hole flyovers are pretty damn badass.

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 5:17 am

I really like the new Tiger game.

Have you played any of the online tournaments? These two guys have won just about every daily tournament with scores in the 40's.

How the fuck is that possible?

PrimeX · Post by **PrimeX** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:06 am

Rack Fu wrote:Have you played any of the online tournaments?

I'm a n00b to the 360 dorkiness. Give me a few months to figure this shit out and I will achieve uber dorkiness. I might even wear the headset.

But probably not.

Plus I'd rather play these games thinking I'm pretty dope and not get online only to get punkd by 10 year olds. That's not the way I wanna go out.

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 4:13 am

Yeah, I'll be getting my ass beat like a drum by some 12 year olds at Gears of War. Nothing worse than hearing some kid (over the uber-dork headset) who sounds like he's still a few years removed from puberty telling you that you suck balls.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 2:35 pm

And now they're offering downloads of movies and TV shows in HD. They better come out with a bigger harddrive soon.

jiminphilly · Post by **jiminphilly** » Tue Nov 07, 2006 7:57 pm

Rack Fu wrote:I really like the new Tiger game.

Have you played any of the online tournaments? These two guys have won just about every daily tournament with scores in the 40's.

How the fuck is that possible?

Hackers?

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 2:46 am

Got my replacement 360 today. I immediately threw in Gears Of War and got up to the difficulty menu where it froze. So, I restarted it and made it to the opening cutscene before it froze again. I tried it again... and again... and again. Yup, kept freezing. The last time it lasted until I was out of the prison cell. This game looks amazing. I only wish I could play it.

It looks like Microsoft is going to lose out on the sale of an HD-DVD player and several games this holiday season. I don't feel like dealing with this crap anymore.

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Fri Nov 17, 2006 1:54 pm

That really sucks.

Eaglebauer · Post by **Eaglebauer** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:42 pm

Rack Fu wrote:Yeah, I'll be getting my ass beat like a drum by some 12 year olds at Gears of War. Nothing worse than hearing some kid (over the uber-dork headset) who sounds like he's still a few years removed from puberty telling you that you suck balls.

hehehehe, RACK.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Wed Nov 22, 2006 10:28 pm

Donovan wrote:Got my replacement 360 today.

Let me guess -- they made you give them a credit card number for the "warranty" deal?

Probably a little over a year ago(?), my friend's XBox took a dump. From the receipt, it was about one week out of warranty. So he gets on the phone with MS, and spends a couple of hours waiting to get his bitch on.

Much to his suprise, when he finally got to deal with a genuine English-speaker, they said "Oh, we're sorry sir. We'll send you a shipping box, and we'll fix it. You just have to pay for the box and the postage. Should run you about $7 in Oregon."

My friend(and everyone else who heard the story) was shocked. A bigazz evil corporation was actually going to do the right thing. And it only took maybe a week-and-a-half to get it back, with all of the original settings and whatnot intact(they just repaired a connection or some shit).

Then, a couple of weeks or so go by, and he gets his credit card bill. With a $70 bill from Microsoft. Dude was HOT. Got on the phone, and said "listen bitch, I've still got that box, and I'm going to stuff your piece of shit in it, bill YOU for the shipping, and go buy an Apple. How you like me NOW, asshole. I've already had my credit card company block the charges, so it's not like you're getting your money or anything."

Not exactly sure how it all worked out, but I think my friend ended up coming out about $5 ahead on the deal.

So, the moral of the story is twofold --

A) Watch your credit card bill if you gave it to MS, Don.

B) RACK my buddy for getting over on the Evil Empire, even if it was just a very minor instance of getting over.

Donovan · Post by **Donovan** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 12:38 am

They asked for my cc number the first time I called them. I refused to give it them, firstly because I didn't feel I should pay to fix their screwup, and secondly because I never give out my number over the phone. I don't even use my credit card to sign up for Live or buy those stupid points you need to download the arcade games. I buy the cards in the store.

I do a lot of online shopping, but Microsoft is one company I don't trust.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Fri Dec 08, 2006 12:59 pm

I was going to start a thread asking which was the best game system to get this year.
My friends have told me to stay clear of the X Box because of similiar problems they have all had.

They called it the Red Dots of death (like the blue screen of death), the screen displays 3 red dots and nothing else.
alll this after the 90 day warranty...

We have a PS2...

any recommendations??

Rack Fu · Post by **Rack Fu** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 4:29 am

The Xbox 360.

The percentage of problems have been below the industry norm. The issue is that in this day and age of the internet and instant communication, the small percentage of people with problems are very vocal. Buy an extended warranty for $30 or $40 and you'll be covered if something happens.

The PS3 is having its share of problems too. I even heard something about a potential recall (which is probably just BS).

The initial reviews for the PS3 have been average at best. Most reviews have actually given the graphics and performance edge to the 360, which has sort of torpedoed Sony's claims that they have the far superior system from a tech perspective. It may eventually prove out as developers are able to more tap the potential but there have been a few hardware sites that have debunked a lot of Sony's performance claims related to Sony's much hyped Cell processor. There is also the Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD format war that Sony is currently on the losing end of. I read an article today on one of the gadget sites (CNET or some shit) that said that Blu-Ray had already lost the war but that they'll march ahead anyway and just prolong the suffering while Sony loses billions of dollars. Gamespot just did a graphics comparison of the two systems using a few cross-platform games and they gave the nod to the 360: http://www.gamespot.com/features/6162742/index.html

Most analysts now believe that not only does Sony have virtually no chance of beating Microsoft, that they probably won't beat Nintendo's Wii either. They have made strategic mistake after strategic mistake and it has cost them dearly.

The PS3 is also $200 more than the 360. They also don't have the robust online community that is Xbox Live.

Regardless of all that, the biggest selling point is the games and right now the PS3 has nothing on the 360.