XBox Bricked — January Gears Of War Update

My friend just had his machine brick for the second time. He had purchased a machine on zero day and that machine just bricked after the GOW update. Luckily it’s covered by MS but its still BS that MS (Hmm those acronyms share the same second letter) is going to just repair the machine again and send it back.

It seems pretty obvious by the time when it is bricking that its a problem with the firmware. Most likely MS is just going to flush it, update it with the latest patches and send the same defective machine back again to break at some time in the future when he no longer has a warranty.

MS you know the machine is defective, you know its going to break in the future, either replace the hardware component that you know is truly defective or give him a later generation machine that is less prone to these type of repeated failures.

So now he has to go 2 weeks without playing X-Box 360…..or does he? You know the best way to hit MS for its bad practices in my opinion is to hit them in the pocket books. Right now its cheaper to have the box shipped to them, not fix the defective part or replace the box, just flush the firmware and send it back to break again. That is of course assuming that they control the customer.

But they don’t. Say my friend does not appreciate 2 weeks without an XBox 360. Perhaps the better way to go is for my friend to go to Costco. Buy a box, play it till MS returns his unit, and then he returns the ‘loaner’ unit to the store. Then MS gets to pick up the tab on the loaner unit since it will get returned to them, will have to be re-tested at their cost and then repackaged and shipped (again at their cost).

So something for you folks to think about. If my machine bricks while its under warranty, well lets just say I won’t think of it as much as an inconvenience since MS is picking up the tab for the loaner unit.

Gears of War — New Maps

After releasing a new update on 1/9/07 to fix some problems with voice in multi-player games and tweak a few other features on 1/10/07 2 new Gears of War multi-player maps were introduced.

Raven Down

(Photo as featured on http://www.xbox360fanboy.com)

This is an extremely small level, lots of cover yet no place to hide. Its shaped like a giant plus sign. In each spoke of the map start 2 players from the same team. Action can come at you extremely quick and from what I have seen the only weapon available on the level are grenades (which are far less useful now to those who wish to tag).

This level looks great but overall is average at best. It brings something a little different to the table and it’s definitely worth the price (free), did I mention it’s really small.

Old Bones

(Photo as featured on http://planetgearsofwar.gamespy.com/)

This map has tons of potential. Symmetrical in design as are most multi-player maps in the game this one seems to have it all. Like the mansion level there really seems like two distinct areas where you can do your fighting. You start off in an area where there are lots of hallways with nooks and crannies you can hole up in. Or expose yourself in the giant atrium area. That’s where all the great weapons are, but there are many ways you can get flanked.

The design of this level is really top notch and there are tons of really interesting angles for those of us who enjoy the tactics in addition to the all out carnage.

If you play Gears of War on-line you really owe it to yourself to stop reading this blog and get on-line download these free maps off XBox Live and get into the action. I apologize that this blog can’t be longer or more informative but I got some killing to do.

DS Opera in English

People itching to get their hands on Opera browser for the Nintendo DS in an English version need not wait anymore. Check out these screen shots from SlashingGames of the English version of the DS Opera browser.

OK so the good news is you can buy the English version of Opera DS right now and it will work on your handheld console. The bad news is that (as of the day this article was posted) it has not been released in the US nor has a date been announced. It came out on Oct 6th in Europe.

It’s a shame but I have been itching to get a version of this software where I didn’t need to know Kanji and I think I have found it with my overpriced Euro version I purchased on Ebay yesterday. Cost me around $65 US for browser and shipping but its worth the extra $25 or so dollars for me to have it now rather then waiting an undetermined amount of time for it.

If you have been thinking of making the plunge give it a try. I’ll be reviewing it as soon as I get my hands on it. In the mean time I’ll be watching my mail. If you want to learn more about the browser check out the press release for the European version on the Opera website.