My Xbox 360 had a "General Hardware Failure" last night. In other words, I got the Red Ring of Death and now the thing is bricked. I should have expected this, really. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Sorry about the whinyness, but I'm really pissed off about it.

Which is why Playstation is so much better than X-box.
The closest thing to that that has happened to me- in my entire 10 years of PS fan-boy hood- has been one saved-game account deleted.

I have a Wii that's two years old and I've never had a problem with it. And let's not start a PS vs. Xbox discussion. I'd get a PS3, but most games I want to play (Like the Orange Box or BioShock) have better versions on the Xbox. And the thing is damn expensive (About $400 for the basic model without Wi-Fi.)

It's happened many-a-time to pals of mine.

And thankfully so in some cases. Couldn't get them out of their houses sometimes.

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The Island's Most Married Kittyjoker.

*soliloquy*

Why is it, that even though the wii is so cheap and the PS3 so expensive, I have the latter and not the former? I started off my videogaming career on the SNES, why didn't I buy the wii like I did with the N64 and the Gamecube? What compelled me to save up three times as much to buy a system I have no stake in?

Graphics. And Killzone. I love that game.

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A magpie's work is never done.

Mine was mostly used to charge my iPod. Shouldn't have left it on during the night like that.

My new favorite game of all time is definitely Half-Life 2, which is on the Orange Box, a great collection of games.

Honestly?

Not a single one of the three current-generation consoles has interested me. And I'm a big gamer.

And when I say I'm a big gamer, I mean it. From ZX Spectrum to PlayStation 2, stopping at every route along the way - Amiga, C64, PC, Atari, Sega, Nintendo, JAMMA (damn straight!), Neo Geo, Acorn, BBC, Amstrad, even fucking Binatone. I even took time out on this journey to write the world's first open-source arcade game. Honestly it surprises me that there's nothing, literally nothing that can persuade me to fork out a hundred or two hundred quid for a new games console.

The only thing that could perhaps persuade me to upgrade is the new Silent Hill game, but given that it was written by Limeys, I don't hold out much hope. If there were a decent, interesting-beyond-the-novelty-of-the-controller game released for the Wii I'd probably buy one of those, but... nah.

I probably would have bought a PS3, but I swore never to support Sony in any way since the rootkit fiasco in 2005, and I've stuck to that promise ever since. I was a die-hard PlayStation fan, but after I saw what Sony had done to the world... well, the sooner that awful company goes under, the better.

The best gaming investment I ever made came from a laptop with a video-out port (about £300 if I remember rightly, but I used it for work too so it needed buying anyway), one of these (which are much bigger than that photo makes them look - about four feet long! Ten quid secondhand BTW, and I'm in the process of making a wooden set), a pair of PlayStation > USB adaptors (twelve quid for the pair) MAME (free) and about five thousand ROMs (also free - although technically unlawful save for the few JAMMA boards / dedicated cabinets I actually own, it's highly unlikely that anyone's gonna come after me for playing twenty-year old arcade games that are long past their profitability point).

This setup will all fit in a large rucksack. I can take this to parties, hook it into the host's TV and provide every single arcade game ever made. Arcade games are great for parties - they're accessible, they're fun, anyone can play them and everyone's got a favourite.

So... no. No new-generation consoles for me, until there's a decent vertical shooter that I can't already play on my PC.

@Guiseppe - can't you take the thing apart and find out what's wrong? Surely there must be something you can do. Nothing's irreparable - as anyone who's repaired a twenty-year-old arcade machine (for which parts have not been available for fifteen years) will tell you.

I have no experience with electronics or repair of electrical components. Knowing me, I'd probably get a nasty shock. Also, I can't figure out how to get the damn thing open.

Well, look at it this way:

YOUR XBOX AS IT IS:
Fucked.

YOUR XBOX IF YOU LEAVE IT IN ITS CURRENT CONDITION:
Fucked.

YOUR XBOX AS IT WILL BE IF YOU OPEN IT UP AND DICK AROUND INSIDE AND DO SOMETHING WRONG:
Fucked.

YOUR XBOX AS IT WILL BE IF YOU OPEN IT UP AND DICK AROUND INSIDE AND DO SOMETHING RIGHT:
Possibly working. Possibly. Who can tell, really?

I have a Wii, but we mostly use it as a second computer/browser, or for all the old games you can download on it. If I hadn't lost all my Gamecube games the ability to play them on Wii would've been a plus.

Otherwise, it's all PC/PS2. Well, okay, I rarely play PS2 anymore, but I still have one.

XBox has never interested me (and the gimongous controller was a turn-off, too). There was, maybe two games on it? Not worthwhile.
PS3 has nothing I'm interested in; and I hear it can't play PS1 games, anyway, so that's a turn-off, too.

Most of my gaming time is spent here, playing Lord of the Rings Online, or playing Dungeons and Dragons (online, through chat programs and virtual tabletops).

That would void my warranty, plus it's a refurbished console, so I can't have Microsoft fix it for me. I also am very bad at putting things back together.

I'm confused. It's in warranty, but MS won't fix it?

I dunno. I don't have the receipt anymore. It was a Gamestop refurb. I'm afraid that if I try to fix it myself that I'd damage it COMPLETELY beyond repair.

Best check out what your options are via GameStop.

If they'll fix it, job's a good 'un. If not - well, if it won't play games, then it's pretty fucked. If you make it worse (IE not responding to power or user input) by attempting to fix it, then it's not like you're much worse off. Get yer screwdrivers out, have a Google for the error code, eBay open in a new tab for spare parts, UNPLUG IT (sounds like the sort of advice only a true moron would require, but you'd be surprised), get stuck in and see what you learn.

Good luck!

Thanks, I'll certainly need it.

Wait wait wait...

Don't open up yer Xbox. Call it in or email it in on Xbox.com, if you have the red ring, the warranty is extended past an expiration due to design flaws in the 360 itself. (Whatever chip it was that they put in causes the overheat issues.) If you do open it, any warranty is voided.

----This has happened to me three times. I have three boxes in my garage. Been lending them to friends who've had it and want to get the box to ship it in fast.

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"You saved Pineapple!"

I'm not even going to try to fix it myself. I'll just take it to GameStop and pay for it to be either repaired or replaced.

You shouldn't have to. Register your console on Xbox.com, and then request a repair. It'll be free as long as you state that you have the red ring. They pay for shipping and all that.

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"You saved Pineapple!"

It was a refurbished model from GameStop.