My XBox is Broken!

For the second time, my XBox has decided to defy me. Around 18 months after buying it, games started getting glitchy and freezing up on me. If I rented a newer game, the chance of it working was minimal. I cleaned the drive and checked all the connections; still, I was plagued by the nuisance that was unpredictable stops in gameplay. I did some research and discovered the problem stemmed from a cheap hardware issue. To put it simply, the disc drives in some consoles have a tendency to break. I wasn't the only person experiencing this problem, or the burden of an expired warranty. What bothered me most was how quickly it broke. I hadn't even put in 1000 hours of gaming, and already my disc drive was crapping out on me.

I went through all the pains of locating an ebay seller who could provide me with a new drive. I waited the week it took to deliver the item, then I went through the hassle of installing the drive (pretty simple, but annoying). Around this time, my fiancé was kind and loving enough to gift me with a PlayStation 2. That meant I had two consoles to play, and that I could divide the workload between them, respectively.

Now, it's been about 18 months, and my XBox is petering out, once again. Same problem. Games freeze up and die in the midst of my button-mashing madness, causing me to toss my controllers and break them too.

I expect hardware issues in consoles that have to clock my manic gameplay. Nevertheless, it's frustrating and, eventually, detrimental to the entire line of XBox games. Before, when I had the option, I would buy an XBox game before a PS2 game. Faster load times, better graphics, and the ability to play my own soundtracks kept me coming back to the XBox again and again. My PS2 was like an ugly stepchild, only getting attention from me when there were rentals to be played that were only available on its console.

Now things have changed. I am handicapped in a sense, and only able to review PS2 games until I get this resolved. What this means is Sony ends up getting my money by default. I am not a Sony fan. I tend to think they are more evil than Microsoft. Still, I have never had any hardware issues with my PS2 (crossing fingers). Not that playing on the PS2 is a bad thing. With releases like Bully and Okami, I have a few months of gameplay before me. While the XBox has pretty much abandoned its old console in favor of producing XBox 360 titles, the PS2 seems to be making a final full-court press.

I'm not sure which I want to get first: an Xbox 360 or a PS3. Way back, when I got my Xbox first, I remember cursing myself for buying a console that was second to market. The games were often painfully weak in comparison to the PS2's stellar releases. I told myself that next time around I would buy the first console to make it to market. I convinced myself that the state of the games themselves would make the decision for me the next time the opportunity rose to get another console.

I had a chance to get a 360 recently, but I had second thoughts. Would I be investing in shoddy hardware by buying the console relatively early? I mean, it hasn't even been out a year yet. And there have been several reports of problems with the hardware, yet again. None of this makes me want to shell out $400 for a new system. And frankly, $400 is the only option available. I wouldn't spend $300 for the hobbled version. It wouldn't even be fun, having to deal with load times, memory cards, and all that lameness that comes with not having an onboard hard drive.

So, for the time being, it's down to PS2 and PC game reviews. Sorry.

Maybe I can dream that some Microsoft exec will read my stellar game reviews and decide to send me a shiny new Xbox 360? Not that it would sway my judgement, one way or the other. Crap media and crap hardware will always be exposed on this site; it's a personal crusade. So maybe it would be a bad idea for Microsoft to send me a 360, after all. Because I wouldn't pull any punches, and I suspect the 360 is a punching bag just waiting to happen.