The past week has been pretty grim. With no working Xbox, GTAIV looked a long way off. Luckily, a good friend of mine was kind enough to loan me his 360 on the grounds that I allow him to borrow GTAIV when I receive my new console. I've managed to snag a copy of GTAIV on Gamefly so that now I have to copies in my possession. One of these copies will stay with me and the other will go to my friend for him to keep as long as he likes.

It was looking like GTAIV was at least two weeks away for me, but it looks like things aren't so bad after all. Huzzah!

It's official. My second 360 red ringed and the coffin is on the way. GTAIV just slipped into mid-May for me. I could blame the new update, which I was pensive about downloading for this very reason, or I could put the blame on the Iron Man demo, which was total garbage. Once the freezing started, I knew my 360 didn't have much time left. I decided to spend my final minutes playing Call of Duty 4. I scored one kill, and no more than 20 seconds into the game, the screen seized up and that's all she wrote.

I'll make this short. Playing Ace Combat. Freezes. Blue checkers on screen. Death?

I hope not, but I don't know what else it could mean. My 360 was replaced in August of '07 and this is the first problem I've had since then. I haven't had the strength to turn my console back on since the crash about an hour ago. Grand Theft Auto IV comes out in just a little more than a week. If I have to wait any longer to play that game, I'm going to lose my effing mind. Last time I sent my 360 in to be repaired, it was weeks before I saw it again. This sucks major ass.

Sometime around 7:30 last night, the yellow pad on my Rock Band drum set started giving me grief. I don't normally miss every other yellow hit on songs like Cherub Rock or Creep, but when my multiplier couldn't rise above 2x, I started to worry. I tried tapping the pad, bashing the pad, mashing, thrashing, and whispering, but nothing worked. The drums aren't unplayable, but it's a little discouraging to see such low scores and percentages on easy songs that I should be able to breeze through. The pads are already being held together with duct-tape and crew-socks, so there's not much more I can do without cracking the set open and performing surgery. I've sent for an empty box from Harmonix, but the return could take weeks for all I know.

I'm not quite sure what I'll play to pass the time, but there's a game coming out on the 29th called GTAIV and I heard it's going to be pretty good... I've got a stack of unplayed games that'll more than pay for it.

The past few weeks have been kind of... m'eh. Frontlines held me over until Army of Two, but that turned out to be a real letdown. The only reason I turn on my 360 these days is to play Rock Band or pray for a new demo (Star Wars, please! I know it'll never happen). Looks like I'm just going to have to hold out until the GTA4 bomb drops and goes Hiroshima on my 360's white, iconic, concave ass. I've been looking for ways to pass the time, but I haven't had much luck. I almost got my SNES out to play some Mario Paint, but then I remember my cat threw up on the SNES mouse peripheral a few years ago. Now I remember why I put it away.

If you watched the IAA's last night, you witnessed a veritable "who's who" of the video game industry. You also saw Jay Mohr make an ass out of himself, but mostly you saw a crowd of familiar faces responsible for bringing you the glorious bounty of video games that we enjoy and curse at everyday. There's something special about seeing these great minds all together in one room. Seeing Ken Kutaragi accept the Lifetime Achievement Award made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Getting to see the show live was a real treat, but every time Jay opened his mouth, I couldn't help but cringe a little. Really, is he always like that? I'm not too familiar with his work, but he looked high as a kite.

Enough about Jay Mohr.

I think I've been playing too much Rock Band. I'm developing blisters on the inside joints of my middle fingers. Maybe it has something to do with me not knowing how to hold a drumstick and flailing my appendages about like a spaz when I play. I think me snapping a stick in half was a sign for me to take it down a notch, but nah...

On that note, there seems to be a rat living near or in my bedroom, but I think the drumming has kept him at bay. I've seen the bastard crawling around the kitchen sink a couple times, but when I have the chance, I fire up Rock Band just to be sure.

I don't have much to say that you can't already read about here. I've tried to stick with it, but now... now I just don't know anymore.

Good show, man. Good show.

When I logged into Gamespot the other day, I was greeted with some troubling news. Writer Alex Navarro is leaving Gamespot. Or, at least that's the word on the street. If it is indeed true, there's no doubt that it's related to Jeff Gerstmann's termination late last year. This news comes at a time when most of us are just beggining to put the Jeff incident in the past. Alex, along with the entire Gamespot staff, was hit pretty hard when Jeff left, and I would most likely do the same thing if I were in his position. It makes me sad to see him go, but maybe we're getting closer to getting some closure out of this whole debacle. To my knowledge, Alex's departure has yet to be confirmed, but if it is, I wish him the best. I'm sure we'll see some sort of collaboration between him and Jeff in the near future.

I think we've all got some burning questions.

On a lighter note, I'm on my third Mass Effect playthrough and I just can't pull myself away from that game. It may even be better the second or third time around. When I buy a game, I usually make a promise to myself to play through more than once. I rarely follow through on that promise (cough, Bioshock), but the story and choices you make in Mass Effect are intriguing enough to keep me coming back for more. On top of that, the combat is surprisingly satisfying. I know, I know, the controls are sluggish, the squad AI is ghastly, and a good portion of the game plays like a sci-fi themed slideshow, but I'm a sucker for tactical combat.

It's been a few days now, and I've had some time to digest everything that has happened. As we all know, our very own Jeff Gerstmann was recently fired from the Gamespot offices. I've been surfing the site almost nonstop since the news broke, and I still feel sick to my stomach. What really irks me about this whole thing right now, is what I'm reading from some of the users here.

It sounds like many people are making Gamespot out to be the bad guys in all this. While the true details behind his terminationare still just speculation, I can tell you that it wasn't Gamespot that made the decision. More likely, Cnet pulled the plug and Gamespot had no real say in the matter.

So please, stop with all of this "OMGY DID U DO IT GAMESPOT??" and " GMAESTOP MADE A BIG MISTAKE!"

Before I put the blame on anyone, however, I'll just wait until Gamespot makes some sort of statement regarding the incident. But, even then, is Cnet just pulling the strings?

The last few days have been just tragic, and the coming days will shape this site forever. We may never know the full truth behind the matter, which is a real shame, but I just know that right now, Jeff is kicking back and enjoying the tail end of the video game orgy that was the month of November. What really breaks my heart is the mess the remaining crew has to clean up. I wish Jeff and Gamespot the best of luck.

Godspeed, Jeff. You're our Hero.

Another one bites the dust... My 360 gave me the red ring last week. I blame The Outfit demo. It froze my console twice. Not only does that game just suck ass, but it screwed my 360. After hours of CPR, I gave up and called it. It was dead. I should have a working console before the end of the week. Meanwhile, I've got a fresh, new copy of Bioshock sitting at my desk. It wants to be played. I suppose I'll go reacquaint myself with Bf 1942.