I was replaying Resident Evil 5 last week thanks to the urge to shoot zombies and (maybe) finally getting unlimited ammo for the handcannon (working retail will do that to you). While playing, however, the game kept freezing on mission I'd-like-to-look-up-the-number-but-can't (Josh is piloting your elaborate vessel and you have to open the gates). I checked the disk a few times and saw that it was scratch free. I even resorted to my old cartridge tactics and blew into the disk drive (I have a dog who sheds a whole lot, so I thought her fur might have something to do with it).

After a while I gave up and thought I'd move on to my Netflix movie du jour. I rebooted the 360 and saw the Dashboard freeze. "I think I know where this is going," I thought. For the umpteenth time I rebooted my Xbox and got the DVD in when I saw it:

Everybody's favorite three red lights. Belive it or not, this is the fourth time my 360 has died on me. If I wanted, I could have filled out the return form blindfolded.

The worst part of all this is I keep thinking, "Man, I can't wait to try out Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on XBLA. I dominated MVC1 so hard, I still* have a high score at Malibu Grand Prix."

But at this rate, I'll have to wait. Microsoft's damage checkers must have been eating a lot of pies, because I didn't get my return form until a full week after I submitted the request (to say nothing of how slow the USPS has been this week; plus, MS usually takes a couple days with these things).

Did you know they aren't sending out the coffins anymore? My guess is they can't afford all these mysterious hardware failures.

This was just a rant. Plus, I feel like I should update this thing every once in a while. If it weren't for Facebook and Twitter, you internet folks might think I've disappeared. =P

*unless that place is out of business or the machine was sold (lucky bastard, if that's the case), then I actually do. If I remember correctly, my score was somewhere in the 4 or 14 million range...