d0rkorg

So I went out over lunch and bought a copy of Halo 3 Limited Edition. A couple coworkers went with me and bought the same editions. We came back to the office and one of them decided to open it up and start looking through the bonus stuff. His game disc was scratched all over (in the inner third of the DVD). This may have still been playable, but I expect better from a brand new $70 game. After he showed us his scratched disc, we headed out to our cars and brought in our copies to check them out. Mine was scratched just as bad and my other buddy’s was okay.

The case design is horrible. There isn’t much to keep the disc from sliding off of its spindle inside the case. Once it does slip off, it just rubs against the plastic that is supposed to keep the disc secure. The over all case quality was much worse than the limited edition version of Halo 2. The metal enclosure just feels cheap and some of the black paint actually rubbed off on my hands when I was handling it.

I took my copy back to Best Buy to see what they could do about Microsoft’s mistake. The guy told me that they’ve already had a bunch of people swap them so I decided that I didn’t even want to mess around with getting another copy with a shabby case. The customer service guy let me swap it for the normal edition of the game, so I ended up walking out of the store with a disc that wasn’t scratched, a case that I know won’t let me easily scratch the disc, and a $10 refund. I guess that is about as much as you can ask for Best Buy to do in this situation as Microsoft really screwed the pooch here.

My coworker didn’t have the same luck at Best Buy as I did. He wanted to keep the limited edition version so he had the customer service guy at Best Buy open three new copies looking for a disc that wasn’t scratched. Understandably, after the third he said that there was nothing he could do. He left with the same scratched disc he went in with.

Here’s some pictures of the case, demonstrating how easily it scratches the discs. Also, Microsoft has announced that they will be replacing the scratched discs for free. Unfortunately, you’ll have to be without your game for two weeks while you ship it in and they ship you out a new copy. I guess it is better than nothing though for those stuck with a scratched disc.

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So I’m weak and I broke down and bought Guitar Hero II, even though the 360 version is coming out in a couple months.

I’ve only played through the game and unlocked everything on medium difficulty and my first impression is that this game is quite a bit harder than the last. I’ve tried a few of the harder songs on hard and even some of the easier ones on expert and they pretty much kick my ass.

I also think the song selection isn’t quite as good on this game, even though they’ve included Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight by Spinal Tap, Freebird by Lynard Skynard, and even Trogdor by Strongbad. The song list isn’t quite as mainstream as the last game, but they are still fun to play.

The new multiplayer mode looks cool, where you can cooperatively beat songs by playing lead/rhythm parts. Also, there is a pro version of the head to head playoff, where you both play the exact same part. That should be good for setting disputes on who kicks more ass.

The game is as sweet as I was hoping it’d be, even though I expected a lot. The only disappointment is the song list but I can get past that. I may still end up buying the Xbox 360 version of it (even though that means I’ll have three guitars). If you can download new content on Xbox Live Marketplace, that would make it a much better game. We’ll see.

This is the only game I’ve got that I haven’t been playing on the Xbox 360. I’m winning my Gamerscore battle vs people on my friends list, and I’ve gotta keep it up there to not fall behind MulderMan (who was the first one on the list to be a Gamerscore whore).

The other games I’ve been playing are:

• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 2007
• Dead Rising
• Contra (Xbox Live Arcade)

This year’s version of Tiger Woods is easily the best TW game so far. They took out game breakers, which were the worst idea ever. I’ve got a video of one shot I hit with a game breaker where the ball lands 30 yards short of the green, in a bunker and then slowly rolls up out of the bunker, onto the green, and into the cup. This version of TW also has tournaments where they disable power boosting and spinning after you hit the shot, which makes your round at least 10-15 strokes more difficult. It took me about 3 days to get my character to 100% on all stats. That usually takes me a month or two but I couldn’t stop playing - a couple hours every night and then most of a Saturday.

I still have a ways to go in Dead Rising to actually level up enough to take a stab at beating the game with the original ending. That game just takes a ton of play time. A few weekends ago I had some friends over and we were just passing the controller in the zombie slashfest until about 4 in the morning. Fun game, but hard to keep an interest in when I’ve got other games that demand my attention.

Contra is, well, Contra. It is the sweet arcade version. I still have to talk people in my friends list into buying it so we can get some Xbox Live cooperative action going. Woo.

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I’m in love.

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Recently I decided that it’s time to up my Gamerscore for my Xbox 360.

I purchased a few games on eBay to help me in my endeavor. They are:

• Fight Night Round 3 (achievements)
• NBA 2k6 (achievements)
• King Kong (achievements)

I’ve won a couple belts in Fight Night so far - that game is tougher than I thought it would be after playing the demo. I like the controls though - feels pretty nice being able to throw a hook and simulating that action on your analog joystick. So far I’ve only unlocked 3 of the 8 achievements but I’m getting on a roll now, usually knocking opponents out in the second or third round. Parrying and blocking for that matter takes a while to get down.

I’m still waiting to receive the other games but looking at NBA 2k6’s achievement list, I’m hoping I can snag all of them in a single game or two and then keep the $10 game for some good local 4-player action. King Kong is one of the games I considered buying at launch, but from hearing that the game only plays 5-8 hours I couldn’t justify the $60. $20 is more reasonable. Thanks eBay.

I’m also working through GRAW and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 06 (can’t wait for the ‘07 version to ship in less than a month now). I’ve had my character maxed out in Tiger ‘06 for quite a while now, but I just haven’t played online against the kids that shoot in the low 40’s for 18 holes. Hopefully the 2007 version of the game cuts back on such ridiculous scoring.

Other games I’ve recently bought but haven’t unlocked many achievements in include Table Tennis, Dead Rising, and Dead or Alive 4. The achievements take forever to get in Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark: Zero, otherwise I may actually be tempted to play those games offline.

Table Tennis is way harder than it feels like it should be. It is a great 1v1 game but playing against computer opponents makes me look like an ass. Dead Rising is a great game that is going to take a ton of time to work through. I’m not sure I’ll ever get many more achievements in DoA4 because of the time required - who wants to work their way through a fighter multiple times with the same character just to unlock a new costume anyways?

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