Man, I'm beginning to lose track here. But anyone who has read my previous blog posts in regards to the hardware issues with the 360 will know that I will not be getting another one at this point.

I'm not even going to rant & rave, I've done that before & I'm pretty much completely over it at this point. My PS3, Wii & HP Blackbird PC pretty much guarantee that my gaming needs will be more than satisfied without having to worry about subpar hardware & horrible customer service with the 360. Good riddance to bad rubbish...

Jheesh. As if having a half dozen 360's crap out on me wasn't bad enough, my 80GB PS3 decided to follow suit. I had a bunch of friends over & we were watching Spiderman 3 on BluRay & halfway through the flick, the PS3 couldn't read the disc anymore & subsequently stopped reading any disc I put in it.

Man, I guess I just have some crap luck with these consoles this generation. I figured the PS3 was the more reliable system but I guess it's prone to failures as well. I'm shipping it off to Sony & should have it back within 3 weeks or so & still have my 360 to keep me company until it gets back, but I'm sure getting sick of all these damned pricey consoles breaking down on me. I understand that systems with lots of hardware in them can be defective, but it's getting a bit ridiculous at this point.

A good buddy of mine is moving out of the country & kicked me his Elite for free, (I've helped him out of a few financial jams in the past), so it looks like I'm back in business with the 360. I was just gonna wait & buy a new one when MS released the new 65nm chipset, but who can say no to free??

Now I'm rolling with the PS3 & 360 again, so nice to have choices & if this 360 craps out on me too, then what do I care? I didn't pay for it & I can just send it in for free repairs. Nice!!!

Glad I won't have to miss out on Halo3 & Mass Effect after all. Although I'm not completely rabid over Halo, I would like to see how the story ends & I was really looking forward to Mass Effect as much as anything else coming out this year.

I'm still not happy about the fact that 360's break down like crazy, but maybe this one will break my streak of bad luck with the system. We'll see...

Well, if you read my post below about the reliability of the 360 then you'll know that I picked up an Elite on April 29th & swore that if it died like my 3 Premiums did before it, then I would be done with the 360 for good.

I guess it was inevitable that it would die eventually, (if I knew in April what I know now about the design flaws with the system, I never would have gotten the Elite), but I sure didn't expect it to happen this soon. My Elite died last night from hardware failure, so it didn't even last 3 months. And as I mentioned in my previous blog post, the Elite was the last chance for MS as far as I was concerned.

So I took my Elite back to the store today & got my $516 back & traded in my 360 games & accessories to the tune of around $600 & sunk all the money into PS3 titles & upcoming PS3 titles, (and a few select PC titles as well). It's a shame too, because I really did want to play Halo3 & Mass Effect, (I'll play Bioshock on my PC), but it isn't going to happen now.

You might think I'm crazy, especially considering that MS just recently extended the warranty to 3 years to cover hardware failures, but I simply couldn't continue to play this game. 4 systems dying in less than 2 years due to a design flaw is a kick in the teeth & the only acceptable resolution would be for MS to do a recall on the system & not release another 360 into retail without a complete redesign. But since they have chosen to try & take the easy way out, (yeah, it's costing them a lot to extend the warranties, but nowhere near what it would cost them to do a recall & redesign), then they simply will not get another gaming dollar from me.

I'm totally happy with my PS3, I'm totally happy with the upcoming lineup of games & I have a buff PC to play on as well, so in the end, I feel much better about myself knowing that I'm not throwing any more money at a company who has screwed so many over. Not only did MS prematurely stop supporting the original XBOX, they then, (in their haste to be first to market with a "next-gen" console), make a faulty product & refuse to take the appropriate measures to rectify it.

I'm happy for anyone who hasn't had issues with their 360, I hope it continues to run like a champ for you. But knowing what we all know now about the design flaws that are present in every 360 out there, chances are it's really only a matter of time before you feel the sting as well. I'm sure most wouldn't go as far as I am & walk away from the console altogether, but it's the only thing that I can personally do to show how dissatisfied & fed up I am with MS. They lost one hell of a customer today, (I spent over $7000 on videogames/videogame related items last year).

Now, back to my PS3. It might not have the library that the 360 has right now, (but the next few months leading up to holiday are looking awesome),but at least I know it will work when I turn it on. What good are all those great games on the 360 when you don't have a system to play it on?