Unfortunately, that's not the "end of story". Turn around for repairs is purported to be longer than a month.

Which, along with the fact that MS had to extend their warranty to save face, indicates there is a real problem with the machines.

I'm not saying MS isn't taking care of things as best they can, and in fact better than other companies have under similar circumstances. But I don't for a second believe this issue is just people not taking care of their stuff.

And I figure, I've been holding out for a year and change for one, I can certainly wait 'till October/November to get a new one. The days of pining over video games are long past for me... the only thing I pine for now is enough free time to play the ones I've got... and when I get that time, I usually would rather take my GF to dinner or wrench on my car.

I just accept failure as a part of owning video game systems now days. The ps2 was the same thing. When I bought mine I knew the odds of having it go bad were high. Same goes for the 360 for me. Not to mention I'm a sucker for racing sims.

my bro has had his ps2 since it came out and its never crapped out. even after countless all-nighters.

My buddys 360 has never had problems but he never really uses it much.

Same here

Don't ask me, I don't work with the stuff anymore :lol:

But yeah, it's hands down the most accomodating warranty a console has ever been given.

I like MS overall. They have had some shitty business practices in regard to their interaction with other companies, but I've always liked their mice and keyboards (though I prefer Logitech), they make solid gaming accessories, I'm quite pleased with their gaming consoles, and I've always used Windows by choice. Oh, and I just got a Zune. :)

I'm right there with you. . .

HL2 Orange box is due out on october 10, if you preorder now you get access to the TF2 beta next monday!

Announcement: http://storefront.steampowered.com/S.../message/1189/

Some TF2 gameplay vids: http://www.totaltf2.com/general-news...ed-movies.html

Team Fortress Classic basically owned my life for 2 years straight before counter strike came out, I am sure TF2 will do the same.

But I don't wanna pay for the orange box when I already have HL2 and HL2:Ep1.... :(

I'm guessing the a la carte "black box" won't get the beta next monday.

Somehow I don't think I'm going to be that into gameplay where you can bunny-hop yourself around by shooting rockets at the ground beneath your feet.

you obviously have no idea what your talking about. TFC was one of the best games of its time.

What the motherfuck that link doesn't work! Well the link inside the link doesn't work!

AFAIK the Black Box was canned. It's Orange only. I have HL2 and Ep1 already as well, but I'd be ok with paying $50 for the PC version - we're still getting Ep2, Portal, and TF2 out of it.

I'm getting the xb360 version, though. . . I'm interested in seeing the achievements, and I have more people on my list to play MP with. . . and it'll run quite a bit better than it does on my notebook :lol:

You need to have steam installed

I don't check Steam very often, but I was just browsing the new stuff and noticed that they have all of id's games up, including Heretic and Quake for only $5 or $10 a pop. :disco:

Yeah, it was canned, but you are supposedly still able to buy only the new stuff off of steam for a lower price than $50.

GRR! I am waiting for it to come out. Probably the only game I will buy for a while.

Wait so only PC users can get the beta? Teh lame..

Yeah, Valve is one of the last companies dedicated to real gamers :p

Real gamers have it all.

Whatever blows your whistle. I prefer something a little less high-schoolish.

like what? asteroids?

Two weeks from the day I shipped out my old xbox360......

my new xbox360 is here! The letter that I got with it basically said "your old xbox was fucked so here is a new one" oh and for the trouble of being without a 360 for two weeks they included a one month free gold membership to xbox live! too bad I'm already a gold member :rolleyes:

I think he means something like CounterStrike where when you're dead, you're dead, and it only takes one bullet to kill you. None of that "I'll just blow myself up and onto the roof with a rocket launcher 'cause it only reduces my health by 3 points" stuff.

Getting killed in TFC isn't easy and isn't a big deal. More realistic games have more drastic consequences when you screw up, and are therefore more intense.

What he said.

That's weird. For me, Counter-Strike was high school. Well only for like most of my Junior year, but that was the only game I'd play and I'd play A LOT. That fucking game has devoured months of my life.

I knew what he was trying to say. conc jumping is just an aspect of that game. Its just like many car racing games, the NFS series has nitrous and you barely ever have to brake. Things like that determine a games difficulty and experience needed to play. It does not make it age specific. I mean how many people played tetris when that came out? Thats just stacking blocks so I guess it should have been in the toddler section.

You know, you can punch the code in and it will extend your existing account by one month. . .


Mmmm. . . tetris. . .

Hey, I said whatever floats your boat. If you like games where you can launch yourself 1/4 mile across the map by detonating a high explosive warhead under your feet and touch down running with a minor scratch and a grin, more power to you. I don't. I like realism, and the more realistic it is the fewer kiddies are playing, in my experience.

BTW, the only "car racing games" I play are simulations with decent physics engines, like rFactor and GTR. If I feel like flying, I fire up a sim like LOMAC where you need to read through 20 pages of the manual just to figure out how to turn on the fire-control radar. That's just how I roll.

After years of playing Falcon 4 I could never get into LOMAC. What is the current state of the game? Did the long promised dynamic campaign ever materialise?

Not as far as I know. They patched it to where it seems fairly stable after the obligatory buggy release though.

wow, whats next...

"I can't wait to try the yard work simulator" - simpsons

Is there some particular reason you can't accept that someone would prefer accurate simulations of the real world over cartoonish gameplay? Hell, I've always wanted to fly an F-15, but I don't think they're going to just hand me a flight suit & helmet if I drive out to Seymour Johnson AFB tomorrow and knock on the gate. A computer sim is the only way I can get a taste.

Or are you just being a piss-ant for the sake of being a piss-ant?

no im not being a piss-ant just to be a piss-ant.

Move along folks, there's nothing to see here.

I did some searching, it seems they are working on a helicopter addon: http://lockon.co.uk/index.php?lang=en&end_pos=950

I found a couple of vids on youtube, this is one of the best: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZjSI021j-c

It looks pretty impressive. I just hope they ditch starforce as the copy protection. I never got the first addon becasue I didn't want the starforce virus :(

Umm.. holy shite. That video was awesome.

+1 very impressive use of the TrackIR and mouse for an interactive 3D cockpit... being able to look around the HUD glass was really cool looking... then hitting the buttons w/ the mouse pointer and being able to zoom in on the displays... no more virtual cockpit overlays for stuff like radar screens, etc... pretty awesome.

...course I've been out of the flight sim stuff since Falcon 3, and even then I wasn't into quite that level of detail... I like the realistic flight, but not so much programming the fire control radar type stuff, and the getting shot by a SAM that I didn't even know was launched 'cause I don't know how to turn on the EWR. :lol:

You just need a RIO.

"Cougar he's got missile lock on us, get away from this guy!!"

"Any of you boys seen an aircraft carrier around here?"

free bmw m3 game for the computy http://www.m3-challenge.com/index.php?id=3&L=0

FACK, I pre-ordered Halo 3. =(

I played the TF2 beta for several hours last night, it is everything I remembered from TFC and more!

How does it look? From what I have seen it looks very cartoony, but in a cool way.

yeah thats what I saw. Hopefully it isn't too "Roger Rabbit" while playing.

They have definately gone for a very specific look, which you can see from all the vids floating around the intarwebs. I had to turn a lot of details down to get a smooth frame rate, so I am not really getting the full effect, but it the look works for me.

I rented bioshock its a sweet game. I played last night for 5 hours

if halo 3 wasnt coming out next week I'd buy it

let me ask you then... were you saving or harvesting the little sisters?

Both. =)

Rescuing, because I'm not a punk. Also, the Hypnotize Big Daddy plasmid and other bonuses are pretty cool. :lol:

Hey I had to see both endings somehow! I like the Cyclone Trap because you can spring one up right under Splicers and send em to high hell.

Oh, I thought you meant you were doing both over the course of a single play-through. Cool. :P

I haven't actually finished the game yet. I got caught up in finishing more Oblivion misc-quests and Forza 2 events over the last few weeks. Plus there's that whole pesky looking for a job nonsense. :lol:

I am really pining for some HL2 Orange Box action. . . only three weeks left. . .