Back in November, Sci-Fi Channel was doing a contest for the upcoming release, Mass Effect. The deal was the first 1000 or 2000 of each time zone who entered and were eligible (pretty much, did you fill the form out correctly and were you able to be reached) received Mass Effect Limited Collector’s Edition ($70 retail value). Time went by and I hadn’t heard anything. Last Thursday, a friend of mine called and said that he got a video game I sent him, as well as another game in the mail. Sure enough, he received Mass Effect. He didn’t even know about the contest. I called him about 5 minutes after the contest began (and after I had submitted my contest entry) and he quickly jumped online and entered. At that moment, I was congratulatory since he had won, but I had wanted mine. The next day, I became the proud winner of the game.

I started the game Sunday afternoon. After playing about 5 hours or so of it, I think I’m hooked. I think that I’ll be playing this game for a long time to come. It looks like there’s a lot of stuff to do, when you factor in the main storyline, as well as all the side story missions.

The last game I really did this with was BioShock, which I received for Christmas. After 5 days, I completed the game on easy mode and racked up 800/1100 achievements.

Sorry for the lack of update. It did arrive last week. It’s a brand new one, no refurb. However, it does lack the HDMI port. That’s ok, I don’t have an HDTV anyways. I’m just glad to have my Xbox back.

My coffin arrived on the 20th, a day earlier than expected.  My new 360 is on its way.  And when I say new, I mean new.  It’s not a refurb like expected.  According to the serial number, it was manufactured in 2007, actually, just a couple of weeks ago.  That’s nice to hear.  Unfortunately, the UPS tracking number on the Support website doesn’t read on the UPS site.  Translation, I have no way of tracking my new console.  That’s ok, by the time it arrives, I probably won’t have a chance to play it since my mother-in-law and sister-in-law are coming in one week.

According to this, my package has arrived in a McAllen hub. It looks like it will make it to the Repair Center today.

According to UPS tracking, on 11/18 at 11:00pm, my 360 arrived at Billings, MT.  ETA to McCallen, TX is 11/21.  We’ll see if it gets there Wednesday like it says it should.

I mailed off my coffin today. It looks like it might get there on Wednesday, 3 business days, just like it says. Let’s cross our fingers and hope.

My “coffin” arrived tonight.  I placed my original call on 11/9 and it arrived 11/15.  It’s going out UPS 3-day tomorrow.  I guess it’ll probably arrive Wednesday, hopefully.  If not, probably Friday due to Thanksgiving.  Then after that, probably another 2 weeks or so until I get a 360 back.  Hopefully, it’ll get back soon.  More updates to follow.

Today, it happened.  I came home from a long week at the church.  I turned on my Xbox 360 and started to play The Godfather.  Just a minute or so after starting the game, I had a brief red checkered pattern appear on the screen, then disappear.  Shortly after that, the game froze.  I turned off the Xbox, then turned it on again.  During the boot, it froze.  I turned it off and on again, then the Red Ring of Death appeared.  My heart sank.  I purchased this on 6/19/07.  Today is 11/9/07.  The system had not been alive 5 months yet.  The system was manufactured 2006-07-08.  It was alive for a year, but not actively used for 5 months.  I called up Microsoft/Xbox  today to begin a repair order.  They will be sending me a prepaid box in 3-5 business days to send to them for repair.  All-in-all, they say it will take 3-4 business weeks.  Let us hope that this happens quickly.