Curse You, Red-Ring Baron!!

As I settled into my video rocker for a session of BioShock last night, my Xbox 360 froze during my attempt to log into Xbox Live. I turned off the system and, after a minute or two, I fearfully punched the power button again. Lo and behold, I have suffered the same fate as millions of other Xbox 360 owners. I had a Star Wars-esque bad feeling about the situation, since my console froze while I was playing the night before last. Moreover, the system has been making unusual noises of late whenever a disc stops spinning, the power is switched off, or a butterfly flaps its wings over the Beijing Olympic venues.

This will be my second experience with Microsoft's repair service, and I can only hope this journey will be better than the first. Curiously, the first send-off was not due to the Red Ring of Death; rather, the system kept etching discs. I received a refurbished console quite rapidly after I shipped out my first machine. However, I spent five months without my downloaded Xbox Live Arcade titles due to the ridiculous DRM system Microsoft has put in place. Once the licensing issues were finally corrected, I was 'assured' by the person on the phone that a new, more transparent system had been installed. I will believe this when I see it, which will hopefully be in a couple of weeks.

The pause in my current-generation gaming has given me the chance to revisit the rest of my console library. In particular, motivated by my recent mention of Shadow of the Colossus, I popped that title back into my PlayStation 2. I now remember why I did not finish that game before: what I was doing made me feel queasy. Not that this is news to anyone, but Shadow of the Colossus has you killing creatures that do not seem to be harming anyone. Despite some control issues (namely a curious decision to anchor your equestrian controls regardless of camera position), I have to agree with the statements of artistry that the game received upon its release. I had to show my wife the first colossus just to watch her face when the thing first crosses the screen. Once I have seen the quest to its end, I may take Eternal Darkness for another spin.

Game well this weekend, and may you avoid my predicament with flying colors.