Is it "safe" to buy a 360 yet?

I know this guy who bought a 360 last week, and it was full of razor blades. Swear to God.

Yeah, but if you're STOOPID enough to accept candy from your 360, you deserve to have your intestines turned into hamburger meat.

Wow, he's lucky, my cousin bought one that shoots AIDS infected blood all over the room when it's powered on. He tried to return it, but the Best Buy guys gave him the runaround, something about the warranty not covering "acts of god".

The latest will-they-or-won't-they has an MS worker blogging that they will not be dropping the price. While that may seem silly (who wouldn't want a 360 at half the price of a PS3?), I've heard it said that they'll keep the price steady because of the add-on HD-DVD drive. It sounds like it'll be a more-for-your-money type of scenario.

Here's the blog post: http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archi...23/535883.aspx

As for the new 360's quality, I've no idea.

(Edited for grammer and to include link)

You think that's bad? The PS3 is full of killer bees and nitroglycerine. And it rapes your mother when you turn it on.

But seriously, it does.

I've had a 360 since launch, and (knock on wood) its still working like a champ. Most of the defective ones I've seen were due to customer stupidity- not being ventilated enough, moving the system while on, jamming peanut butter sammiches into the drive- you get the picture.

As for a price drop, find me one company stupid enough to announce they'll be dropping the price on their product in a few months.

Safest bet is to wait until the holidays - they'll drop the price around the time the PS3 is released (which most of the holiday shoppers will be snapping up, regardless of the price), and any technical issues will be resolved by then.
Apparently if you buy one now, rabid wolverines will rip off your face the moment you plug it in. Happened to my best friend's sister's boyfriend's cousin.
The screams were incredible.

I read the 360s will begin to have HDMI ports. That's a reason to wait.

My brothers 360 made him sit through a screening of "AVP" and ALL of its DVD special features.

HA! I guess I got one of the good ones. My 360 gives me a blowjob everyday when I get home from work...

I also got a launch 360 and havent had any probs.
Its a great console with some cracking titles.
Performance is improved hugely when u play it on a HDTV.
Its a vast difference.
my fave games so far have been Call of Duty 2 and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter.
The one i'm looking forward to most is Pro Evolution Soccer 6. Hands down the best sports game series ever. No argument!!!!!!!

Fixed.

QFT. There is much ire on the Xbox boards I frequent over MS's reluctance to announce a price date, which is foolish because it's nothing they're ever going to announce in advance.

Anyway, my launch 360 has had, uh, "issues." I've gotten the red ring o' death a few times, but I've unplugged everything, and plugged it all back in, and it starts up fine. One time it crashed while booting -- I got that "window shade" with the multi-lingual error codes -- but I shut it off and re-booted and it came up fine.

I've never had to send it in. I bought a product replacement plan at Gamestop that expires in November, so I'm almost hoping ... well ... I don't wanna jinx it.

I also only play it maybe six hours a week (job, wife, kid, life) so I'm worried that it's death rattle only occurs after a certain number of hours, a number I've yet to log.

On the tiny 360 message board I run, I would say at least 90% of the launch day 360's have been sent in for repairs. Oh and MS has ended the extension of the 360's warranty -- repairs will now cost ya $130.

Thanks, I needed a good chuckle tonight!

This thread makes me happy.

When I heard this, I did some checking up on this, and yeah, this is a damn good reason to hold off. I was pretty close to buying one till I heard of this.

Can you really consider your penis having a disc tray closed around it before being ground up by little plastic gears a blowjob?

I know I wouldn't. Sounds more like HEAVEN than a blowjob.

That's because you live in the UK. Here in the states, we have EXPLODING razor blades. It's not a defect. It's that vibration controllers are for pussies.

If only all of this were true...I'd love to see Lieberman give his game-hating legislation another try.

To see a committee on C-SPAN talking about "exploding razor blades" would totally make my day.

That's not a blog, it's PR flak-gasm.

I'd wait for Bioshock to come out. Nothing else on the system looks remotely interesting.

That Gears Of War looks so uninteresting I could splooge.

I know. I'm just tired of seeing publicity pictures of those fat-headed soldiers.

Uh... Dead Rising?

Pretty sure my second 360 just died on me. I had it on for, I don't know, about eight hours. I was playing some really great GRAW matches, and it just shut itself off and I can't turn it back on again.

Anybody have that happen?

Good thing I got the warranty, I'll try and get another one first thing tomorrow. I don't want to miss out on any SFII over Live.

I was being sarcastic. The 360 has a fantastic lineup of games coming out.

so did this rumored PGR3 pack in (with a fully loaded 360) with 15 bucks of marketplace points thing ever happen?

I got a fully loaded 360, extra wireless controller, charger, pgr3 today just for $475.

Huzza

Turns out I just fried my power brick, because it was sitting on the carpet next to my dresser for too long. I got it switched out for a new one no problem. What a relief.

Now the brick is sitting up on the corner of the dresser all by itself.

The new 360s are fine.

My launch one started crapping out on me. Switched at EB and the new one had a manufactured date of March something.

Runs MUCH quieter and the plug you stick into the power brick is a bit different as well.

I love my baby.

I've got a launch console. It's wigged out on me a couple of times, but nothing fatal.

I purchased the replacement plan at Gamestop, so if it craps out any time soon, I'll swap it for one of the sweet newer ones.

A buddy of mine just purchased the MS warranty -- six months after he purchased the console. YMMV, but it might be worth a shot to send them a check and see if they cash it, because MS is starting to charge for repairs (~$130 US).

because sony set a low standard.

I don't think he needs to buy a new one. If you call 1-800-4MY-XBOX they should fix it for like $130.

Any word on the HDMI port changes? I just got a $200 Best Buy gift card, and it's burning a hole in my pocket. So I'm torn on getting one now, or waiting till XMAS time to see if the price drops.

You forgot to mention the LASER! That's why optical drives will always give better head than cartridge-based systems. Then again I do have a soft spot in my heart for my old NES, which was responsible for my sexual awakening. After years of blowing into those games to get them to play, it was time for the system to reciprocate.

I haven't heard anything. The HD-DVD add-on was announced to not have an HDMI, so it doesn't seem to be a big priority for them.

I don't see why they couldn't just release an HDMI cable eventually.

Alright...I am finally making the jump to the 360.

Questions before purchase.

Does the "HD cables" that come with the premium system include optical audio output? (it would be really stupid if it didn't, seeing as how microsoft makes such abig deal about HD gaming)

Which wireless controller battery pack solution should i get? The charging cable while I play deal, or the separate charging stand that charges 2 packs on the side

Even though I have been very tough on Madden, I think I will end up buying madden 07 if only for the fact that I am very much on my NFL opening high right now and am just eating up anything football right now. I have a couple of BB gift cards lying around, what other game would you suggest I PURCHASE. Mind you, my history of actual PURCHASES usually involves a game with heavy replay value often involving strong xbox live gameplay.

Finally, should I buy a warranty for this thing. I have never in my life bought a service pack for a console, but you hear all these horror stories about the first gen 360's that just die 6-8 months into their lifespan.

Thanks for the help. Hopefully by tomorrow night, Booty Baron will make his triumphant return to xbox live.

I've never done the warranty thing. And I've never had a console break on me until i bought a 360. I treated it like gold, and it still died after 8 months. Now I have to pay microsoft $129 to fix the piece of shit.

So you should probably consider getting the warranty.

Yeah theres a optical out.

i probably also should have included that I was actually wondering if there was a optical CABLE included in the package.

Of course not.

I'd go with the charging stand. The wireless controller, if you opt for the cheapie core system, that you'd buy seperately doesn't come with rechargable batteries. The stand charger does...gaming with wires attached feels 'dirty'.

Game wise - Call of Duty 2 is probably the most solid x-box live game you can get excluding halo 2 backwards compatibility.

edited to add...Circuit City, today only (labor day), is selling COD2 game of the year for $35. That and 99 Nights.

No HDMI and no Wi-FI?

Hello all. Can you help me with a quick 360 question? I was reviewing the specs and it looked like the system does not come with HDMI connectors, nor does it offer Wi-Fi out of the box. Is that true? I could live without the HDMI and use component and the optical audio, but the Wi-Fi lack is annoying the shit out of me. I really don't want to buy an external wireless adapter.

Thanks in advance.

JS

I don't think MS will risk alienating over 5 million 360 owners by adding an HDMI port. At least not for another couple of years.
The official wi-fi adapter clips on the back of the console so it's aesthetically pleasing. But you have to pay extra.

thanks for all the advice guys.

I am now a proud owner of a xbox 360. I am enjoying the hell out of it.

Xbox live marketplace has a surprisingly large amount of crap on there that can waste my time...in 720p!

Download Geometry Wars immediately.

You'll thank me later.

If you have Windows Media Center you'll be in heaven. It's the only way to stream (non AVI)video from your computer to the 360. Since my computer can hardly handle HD videos I just stream it to the 360 and it's great.

Porn too....you can stream porn....I've heard.

Fucking cock. I just got the Three Rings of Death. Goddammit. 3-5 percent my ass. Everyone I know who has one has had it get fucked up. So, anyone know how much I'm gonna get raped to get it repaired?

Zero dollars if you grabbed a warranty. $160 if you didn't.

WTF? Crazy 360 Video

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/clips/w...deo-199750.php

And if you pay a little extra, these people will come to your house an re-enact your favorite game instead.