So, my 360 died. No red ring of happiness and funny fart cakes or anything like that… It just started locking up when I tried to play games. After calling Microsoft Tech Support and getting disconnected twice, I finally get Microsoft to honor the warranty repair. I receive their box and ship the console to the repair shop, and, hence, the loneliness begins.
So, I call about a week later after my Xbox has been received at the shop, to ask about my Xbox because the warranty website “has problems.” The lady misunderstands me and tries to get me off the phone by telling me that my warranty is in fact still valid.
Me: “No! You already have my Xbox! I’m calling to ask about it!”
Lady: “Oh! I see that now, sir. Please hold.”
*wait music and happy sunshiney thoughts…*
Lady: “Sir, your Xbox has been received.”
Me: “… Awesome… (Of course you received it… UPS told me that….) So, will I receive a phone call or an e-mail or smoke signals when my Xbox is shipped back to me?”
Lady: “No. I can’t promise you that. Sometimes, customers receive e-mails. Sometimes they don’t. I don’t think we do phone calls or smoke signals at all. I recommend you keep in touch with the Max IVR to keep an eye on your repair status.”
Me: “Okay… One more question…”
Lady: “Okay, go ahead sir.”
Me: “Is there an address I can use to send a “Get Well” card to my Xbox?”
Lady: “… What?”
Me: “Seriously, is there an address I can use to send a “Get Well” card to my Xbox? I miss it, and I want it to know that I’m at home thinking about pushing it’s buttons.”
I think the gaming world has been lit ablaze by Assassian’s Creed. Reviewers don’t seem to want to tell me if it’s any good or not. Hell, my friends can’t even agree on if it’s worth my time and hard earned money.
One thing I’ve heard multiple places is that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 versions look and perform differently. So, when I found this PS3 Vs. Xbox Comparison Video, I was more than a little curious.
I think the gaming world has been lit ablaze by Assassian’s Creed. Reviewers don’t seem to want to tell me if it’s any good or not. Hell, my friends can’t even agree on if it’s worth my time and hard earned money.
One thing I’ve heard multiple places is that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 versions look and perform differently. So, when I found this PS3 Vs. Xbox Comparison Video, I was more than a little curious.
I’m not going to bother analyzing the video, because I’m not interested in starting a console religion war on my community blog… eh, screw it… War is fun.
In this video, the 360 version clearly wins. I noticed the PS3 version seemed somewhat jerky at times, where the 360 version didn’t slow down as much. The textures were much more crisp on the 360 version. It may have just been me, but the video made the PS3 version just look washed out.
Notice how I prefixed the paragraph above with “in this video.” I don’t think the video was entirely fair to the PS3 version (lowering the contrast would have been a lovely start.) Perhaps this was a demo using settings out of the box? I don’t know, the video information doesn’t say.
My own personal opinion is that the video is a little bit biased, but there are some things that are not affected by contrast that were presented in this video (i.e. the comparison of the eyes, frame rate issues). I believe the 360 version is probably the superior version.
Man 1: “Uhhh… do medieval horses walk with their back legs sideways?”
Man 2: “‘Fraid that’s what the developers said… It looks a little strange though…”
It’s bad enough that reviewers are giving such mixed reviews of the game. When gamers are able to run across bugs like that in the game, you’ve got a problem testing. This wasn’t an intelligence error or an error with an obscure area of the map; this is an error in the engine… I’m not an expert on graphics engines, but I think that probably could have been avoided.
I’m not updating this blog nearly as much as I have been. I’ve been really busy, and it isn’t looking like the situation is getting much better. Here are a few recent highlights:
My Xbox 360 is dead. It absolutely had to happen the week before Rock Band came out. I’ve got the game preordered and such, but I don’t have a 360 to play on. Awesome… I even went so far as to ask the support people if there was an address that I could use to send my 360 a “Get Well” card. They thought I was serious… Idiots…
According to WVU Tech Student Government President John Lowe, approximately $250,000 dollars is going to be dedicated to fixing the swimming pool and renovating the Student Wellness Center. I think this is a direct result of the student survey that was executed by the SGA. I’m also told that the software I wrote to tally and present the statistics were really useful during the meeting. Quite honestly, I’m proud of my part in fiasco. I’m proud of our Student Government for pushing through and trying to be the voice of the students. Most importantly, I’m proud of the administration of WVU Tech for keeping their words and serving the students… I’m normally the most outspoken against the administration, but they have my applause this time around.
I am developing the new WVU Tech Collegian website. Editor Andrea Ard and I both have some pretty good ideas, so I’m excited to see what will come out of this (hopefully a functional website).
