Finding It Hard to Say Goodbye...

I remember lying in bed half asleep to awaken to a message from a close friend. "It's Crazy Out Here!. When you getting here?". It was November 22, 2005, about 2:45 AM and it was finally here. The long anticipated day. The release of the Xbox 360. So I finally got around and made it to the front of our local Target store about 3:15 AM. I brough a couple of chairs and blankets and we waited in line, along with 17 other people. Rumor had it that Target had 20 xbox's and we were in line for one of them. I remember it being a long, long night as the temperatures were in the 20's that night and the wind was blowing. I remember sitting there trying to keep warm thinking to myself, wow, only 15 minutes passed. 4 hours to go. Time passed and we were issued tickets that morning around 7 AM for a guaranteed Xbox 360 but we had to leave and come back when the store opened at 8 AM. By this time we stoked about getting our hands on one we didn't go far and found ourselves warming up inside of our cars.

That was indeed a crazy night, just to get your hands on an xbox. Rightly so, these were a hot item to get your hands on, until later in the Spring of 2006. I remember going home that day and playing a laggy Call of Duty 2, but it was about the funnest thing i'd ever done in terms of gaming up to that point. My xbox and I have spent many many hours, days, weeks of countless gaming. Friends, LAN parties, and solo gaming made this purchase a benefit for me as I have had continued fun and enjoyment from it.

Three years have passed and I look back at all the good times that have been spent playing First Person Shooters of Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War to the countless matches of Madden. I can't explain the number of movies that I have used my Xbox 360 to watch with. Its been indeed a worthwhile expense. Yesterday was a sad day for me as I had planned some major gaming this weekend with my brother coming over, and of course the release of Gears of War 2. Friday night my brother and I played quite a bit of GOW2, Rock Band 2, and Madden, all through the night. Saturday came and we playing some more Gears and Madden. I remember playing madden and noticing some weird things in the loading screens in terms of colors flickering. I thought nothing of it. This baby was built solid, and was not like any of the others that had all the problems. Most all of my friends have at least sent 1 xbox in for repairs. But not me, I had a good one. This all changed later Saturday night when I sat down to get my Gears of War on. My Xbox turned on, heard the normal start up, but no Video. I thought to myself, okay, what did I do. Did i unplug something? Did a cable come lose? I tried this making it work for a number of hours. Nothing. It was at this time, I had to say my goodbyes.

As much as I didn't want to, I took myself over to Microsoft's Warranty site and I went through with it. I requested a Repair as my console was out of warranty. I will soon be boxing up and sending my beloved console back to some place down in South Texas. We've spent a lot of good times as well as bad ones together but in my heart I know that no other Xbox 360 could replace you and what we had together.

R.I.P. - November 8, 2008