I've been around these parts for more than 6 years, under 2 names. I've seen my fair share of hyped games succeed and fail in the reviews catagory. I must say though, I am at a loss for whats been going on here the last year. It's making me wonder wether the only distinguishable aspect of this website now compared to then is the URL.

I'm not knocking either GTA4 or MGS4, I love GTA4 and find that it may infact have a bottomless pit of things to do. I've not yet played MGS4 though like all things MGS, it's probably pretty good. The fact is, how are these games achieiving such high scores on this site so "effortlessly?" Is it all in the payment for advertising, or maybe its the clear degradation of gamespots reviewes. Could it be that these two games are really "that" good?

All I do know is that Gamespot is not what it used to be, for better or worse. It makes me wonder what games would've been a 10 under this new approach to reviewing...

Issues back, Paul posed his "manafesto" of what needs to change in the video game world and asked readers to respond with our own issues we'd like to see addressed. Being a gamer for most of my 29 years on planet Earth, I decided to chime in with a page long manefesto of my own. Happily, today, I found out that Paul liked my idea enough to print it in this months OXM (Shawn White Snowboarding Cover) Even though he didn't actually use my manefesto it was cool to see my voice being heard and kind of cool to see my name printed in a major publication. *If you can find it, guess which one is mine and I'll tell you.

Friends... I got my 360 back. 3 weeks from the day it broke. 2 weeks from the point I sent it off. Not too bad Microsoft, though I shouldn't of had to send it away in the first place. I recieved my same console back and it doesn't seem to run quieter or anything like some have reported. I did decide to move the location to the top of my tv so it can get a little more open air, though It will most likely happen again... My paranoid meter is through the roof right now, but it is nice to have my 360 back home.

Special thanks to DarthZew, xsubtownerx and grimhope for the support durring my "down" time...

Heres the thing... My new son has a routine that my wife and I are very stern about... he eats at around midnight every night. Now since in the first year of a childs life the parents lose on average 400 hours of sleep, I figured I would do late night shifts, meaning mommy goes to bed and daddy gets to stay up and rock some 360 for a couple hours before I need to shift back into dad duty. This was working swimmingly till the dreaded crimson eclipse plagued my beloved entertainment hub.

I've watched a bunch of Family Guy, the Universe (on the history channel, wow is it good. If you like Mass Effect do it and thank me tomorrow) and I DVR the twilight zone as well as movies from time to time. I watched Aliens, Super Bad and now I have There Will Be Blood to dive in to. Bottom line, I'm feeling like my left leg was lopped off and i'm trying to compensate with a tree branch... It isn't even that I'm losing my mind more than I'm a little lost without my routine...

But I will survive... now if it happens again, which it probably will... look out for the mad musterd....

p.s. if this bored you, it was kind of supposed to and now you've walked a mile in my shoes...

Shipped my 360 yesterday, about 20 minutes after recieving the coffin... I walked in to the UPS store and the guy yells out, "ITS ALL SET!!!" I said, "huh, you don't even know what I've got here" he laughingly responds, "yeah I do its an xbox 360, we get 20 a day" ugh... thats when it dawned on me... Damn Microsoft and their killer lineup of games.... they've got us hooked on the XBOX 360 crack pipe... I should be irrate, I should be livid, but all I want is my xbox back...

The wait is on...

Oh the sadness inside... I really feel for those who have gone through this many times... I just want the coffin to show up so I can get this process on the road...

If anyone would like to share their experience please do... it may help. Did you upgrade? Did you get a refurb?

Thanks Brothers....