Thursday, November 29, 2007

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ... oh wait...


SR just cringed

That's what happened to the Xbox 360 last night when I fired up my "hardened" difficulty campaign on Call of Duty 4. It was truly a dark day. I pushed the button twice to restart it, and when the screen stayed blank instead of showing the Xbox 360 startup, I just got that sinking feeling. Then the red circle of death showed up.

My girlfriend looked at it and said, "I think I'm going to cry."
At the time, I thought she was kidding, but when I thought of the $400 piece of hardware that bricked itself for the most heinous act of attempting to use the console for its intended purpose, I could understand if she wasn't kidding. EDIT: the Xbox was a gift from her brother

So we sat there and stared at the circle.

I looked at Freedom Fighters (regular xbox game), and guitar hero (ps2), and wario ware (wii)...
and Call of duty 4 (360)
and Gears of War (360)
and FEAR (360)...

I didn't want to play anything. I was disgusted with the whole situation. I couldn't believe someone would release a product that might simply irreversably break during the course of normal function. Adding insult to injury was the fact that this was not a hardware problem (AFAIK). It's not like hitting a baseball too much and having the seams bust, it's like your toaster refusing to work because you bought a lot of bread. It's software, and it shouldn't work like that.

My girlfriend ventured, "Maybe now?"
What could it hurt?
I push the button and prepare for that sick, angry feeling when the screen flickers and it starts up normally!

I cautiously attempt to play again, and have it freeze again right after the same part of the game. I turn it off for a bit and restart it, but this time I play another level, freezes again. Toss in another game, and play uninterrupted for a bit, then switch back to COD4, and start a new profile and play with no problems. Hmmm...

Hopefully it was just a problem with that game profile. I seems pretty stable, and I don't want to have to put up with a randomly bricked and unbricked system that so many others have had to put up with.

Hope springs eternal.

Hardware, however, does not.

3 comments:

No Names Necessary said...

You should still send the system in. It only gets worse. You'll haave to tell me the level and area so that I can see if mine slips as well.

Fletch said...

I'll look into sending it in.

The level is War Pig, right after you fight throught the first area (after the helicopters come), right after the tank crushes the car when it passes under the arch into the second area. Count to three after the smash, and it's gone. I've yet to play that same portion on hardened on the new campaign I started. I'll let you know if it freezes there again.

No Names Necessary said...

I did cringe BTW.