As you may have guessed - my 360 died last week. Not under normal circumstances. The AV output just stopped. And after being way out of warranty and not being covered by the RROD warranty I decided that the best decision, instead of paying $100 to send it in and most likely get a refurbished model, was to just go out and buy another one. So I did! But this time I down-graded...kinda. Bought an Arcade model but just took my old hard drive and stuck it on. I have to say, I like the new models. HDMI output is a must. I do miss my old model though. She still works...just blind. which kind of ruins the whole point of a 360. Oh well, time goes on and more money is poured out of my wallet like a never had it in the first place. See you online!

Xbox 360: May 2006 - July 2008

Hey, guess what! I just got Xbox Live hooked up!...again...but a little slower.

Alright so here's the scoop: If you've been reading my blog (which I know you haven't) I haven't had Xbox Live since I moved up to Vermont. The reason being that I have one of those Verizon Wireless laptop modems and it won't configure to my 360. Well thanks to the internet, my many years of computer networking (which I have to say didn't really help), and the greatness of hands I was able to hook up Xbox Live.

It's actually a little more difficult than it sound but basically I had to hook up my 360 to my computer, tell my computer that it had to play nice and share it's connection, and then...well there isn't really much more to that. Except for the fact that my computer is a mess and had Group Policy laws and what not basically blocking every move I wanted to make, all I really had to do was click one button. Kind of sad - but WHATEVER.

I guess I should say that even though my connection IS up and running, it's not really the best connection to be playing games on. I know, I know, you want to play with me so badly but basically I'm running on a 300kbps connection and I would most likely be more of a bother in a game than anything else. So for right now it's mostly just for updating my gamerscore and patching my games (YAY I can play Forza 2 again!).

UPDATE: Ok so I just tested my connection on one of those speed-check websites and it actually doesn't look too bad. Maybe I'll think about getting Gold again. We'll see.

Hey I'm finally gonna write another blog post after...wow, forever. So a lot has happened since I've moved to Vermont -- Both on Gamespot and in my life. Lots of people have seemed to have disappeared from Gamespot. Some that were the coolest people ever aaaaand some not so much (I'm not gonna mention names). But time moves on.

Sooo let's see...what has gone on in my life that would be interesting to share...Oh! Well I got that tv I was talking about. The Vizio 32" LCD. preeeeeetty tv (picture in a moment) and cheap too. I also am planning a trip to Ireland for a whole month with my lady. Basically sleeping in hostels and touring the country. It'll be grand. Yeeaaah that's happening in like...31 days.

My car has gone through **** and back lately. First my transmission completely **** the bed with my radiator and then it got in a slight fender bender which caused it to lose it's little grill and make the hood a nice angle. Whatever. I'm just gonna drive that thing until it's done.

Lots of games out that I haven't tried. Oh! if you haven't noticed (you know you haven't) my gamerscore has been at the same score for around 2 months. Well that's because it was cheaper where I'm living to get that Verizon Wireless laptop modem than to get a cord run up to the house. So, because I haven't found any solution, I can't hook my 360 up to the internet. If anyone knows of anyway please private message me because I would really like some help. But until then, my gamerscore will be the same until I go down to my mom's house for Easter (she has really good internet).

Alright well now that we have caught up: I will show you my awesome new setup. (Or not so awesome, depending on your situation)

So I put my Xbox 360 away today so I could get ready for my move to Vermont. I don't think I could pack anything more into it's box. One sad thing about this move for my Xbox 360 is that my tv will not be coming along with it. But I will soon be buying an HDTV LCD flat panel soooo it's not that bad :D And if anyone has been actually reading my posts before they will have seen that I won't have internet up at the new house for awhile. So not only will I not be able to play online, but I won't be able to go on Gamespot for some time also. Tomorrow I should pack away the old computer and other things.

Ugh I hate being sick. I sound like Darth Vader. And in this heat it just adds on to it. Anyways, after I get my first couple of pay checks from my new job I'll go and get an HDTV LCD and maybe a good couple of games. And hopefully I'll be getting internet at some point. I'll have a lot of catching up to do on Gamespot. I'm gonna miss you guys. This isn't good bye, this is a talk to you later. See you in Vermont!

Oh and I guess...

POINTS REPORT: 5636 (now it's just starting to slow down really fast)

So this weekend my girlfriend gave me an awesome gift. An American Flag faceplate for my 360. Can't say I like the faceplates for the 360, but this one was sweet. Put it on right away and have been admiring it. It's kind of cool how something so simple can go a long way.

Here are some pics of it:

So I bought Forza Motorsport 2 the first day it hit the EB Games shelves. I got the last copy. I have to say it has me addicted. I've been designing some cars and selling them on the Auction House and racing against some pretty nice looking cars. But now that my Xbox Live subscription ran out I guess I'll be playing by myself for awhile. Moving up to my new house in Vermont in a couple of weeks. Maybe I'll try to get internet up there but it is a little out of the way from any type of internet service. Oh well. I'll just get my girl friend to play with me :P Now I'm gonna go to Subway and chow down!

POINTS REPORT: 5625 (hasn't increased much but whatever)

So lately I've been trying to raise my achievements. I made a friend while playing Crackdown and we've kind of had an achievement points race going on. He is about 1,000 points behind me and I hope to keep it that way.:P I'm 3 agility orbs away from getting that Crackdown achievement and only need 1 more stunt marker. Went back and played some Dead Rising because I noticed that some of those achievements really aren't that hard to unlock. And so right now I'm gonna go watch LOST and then maybe play more Dead Rising.

 POINTS REPORT: 5295 Achievement Points

 

So today let's talk about Moderation. I was surfing the Xbox 360 forum today when there was a thread about Gamertags. Someone had replied to the post saying how they needed to change their Gamertag because Americans kept making fun of them for being British. Now, I don't hate people from other nations; but I have an American flag for my icon because, guess what, I'm American. So I laughed when he said that. And I replied with the laugh. No harm done right? Well soon after I got moderated AND got a nice little message from the British kid with a title of "Nobed" (guess it was suppose to be n00bed?) and a message of "Racist Basterd". WHAT? I got moderated for laughing? What ever happened to "Sticks and Stones"? I saw a post earlier today from someone talking about how they like the Nazis and how Communism will prevail. Of course no one Moderates him. Moderate the laugher. I think GameSpot needs to fix this little Moderation thing. Like allowing me to reply to them.

One thing I never really understood about online multiplayer is: Why do people get so hyped in the games that they have to explode their feelings over everyone else? I'm saying this because I decided to try to go back to playing Gears of War online today. Got all set up and joined a game. Now remember, I haven't played Gears of War in like 2-3 months. So I get in and join that new game type, Annex, that everyone has been talking about. And I get paired up with this kid who seems ok. And I accidentally shoot him. Didn't kill him, but shot him. So I grabbed my headset and apologized but he just kept swearing and yelling and throughout the entire match he would just keep on saying how bad I was. Now, I get angry in video games sometimes too. But not enough to spew it out on to my other teammates. Eventually more people join our team and he continues to say how everyone sucks on his team. The two people who joined in were very nice people who explained that they had only played the game for a little bit. I understood. Obviously the other guy didn't. So he just kept flapping his lips. Eventually we just stopped listening to him and started doing our own things to try and win. He finally left after losing so many times. After he left we had a great time playing, even though we lost every round. It makes me sick to think that people are out there like that to ruin everyone else's game. So whatever. I gave him a bad player review so that I hopefully will never see him again.

 On a better note: The HotSpot is on tonight and I can't wait!

So today I was going around the forums and kept running into threads where people were talking about Component cables and RCA cables. Now I have both connections on my tv but I never really took the time to look at the Component hook-up since I know RCA works. So I've been using RCA ever since I got my 360. But today I read people saying Component is better so I decided to do a little test with my tv and hooked up the Component cables. Now I'm not sure if the color is suppose to be a lot...stronger? but reds and blues practically shoot my head off they are so bright. But I toned down the contrast a little and I do see a somewhat change in the picture. I can DEFINATLY read text now in certain games. So I guess I'll keep it like this for now. Not like I can't change it back if I hate it. So we'll see.

POINTS REPORT:

Currently have 4830 points. Getting closer to getting most of the Crackdown points. Not sure when I'll get the Co-op points seeing as how only 1 of my friends has Crackdown and he doesn't have internet. Oh well.