MrRant

When I saw the file name, I was hoping it was going to be a Gilmore Girls tattoo. Just because of the hilarity.

G4 is about men stuff now. Not videogames.

I believe you can mute.

Well, athletes in the NBA seem to act out more than athletes in MLB or NHL... I think that it is more due to the fact the players are usually more from the inner cities rather than say football players. Hence they ran with worse crowds.

As a good alternative to pop, I like to drink Talking Rain water. It's carbonated with natural fruit flavors. No sugar, etc. But I think it may be Washington/Oregon area only but you may be able to pick it up at Costco. http://www.talkingrain.com has a store locator though, so check it out. I specifically drink this stuff - http://www.talkingrain.com/product-sparkling-essence.shtml

I've never known Cthulu to be anything than octopii like.

They go up next day I believe.

Anyone else download the Halo beta?

Well, the purchased content and achievements are tied to your gamertag so you are already covered there.

Halo is up for download.

Work right every time? There have always been a number of bugs in games that were released. Some major, some minor. Being able to download a patch helps solve those issues. Well, your version of *a lot* may be different than mine. Most updates DO NOT cause problems. And by problems I mean ones that are affecting a good number of the people who downloaded the update. Take the Rainbow 6 update. No one started getting hosed up. GOW? I don't recall anyone having an issue. COD3? There was a minor issue with a map pack that was fixed the next day and it was taken off of Live VERY quickly but only was an issue when you loaded those maps. Oblivion? Just the bug within Shattered Isles that was an expansion pack which Bethseda still hasn't fixed (that I know of). I haven't heard anything happening with the Lost Planet, GRAW 2 updates. Have you? Besides scattered reports. The Guitar Hero update did brick/affect some people but again, most people were fine. So, where is the "tend"? The Halo issue isn't really anything that is bricking people or anything of that nature, they just didn't unlock it right. Not a big deal. Everytime you download an update for your computer OS you are risking having to reinstall your OS. And if you aren't backing up your system before every update, you're up a creek. How is MS supposed to provide a step/tip for something that the game producer has supposedly QAed, they have QAed and has worked but then screws up 1 out of every 10,000 boxes for example? They do investigate it and usually remove the download and replace it with a correct one or update a patch that may have caused unwanted bugs to happen in the game. Microsoft is not the one doing the updates, the publishers are and to think that they don't get on bad updates is asinine. If they brick your system under warranty then it costs them money. You have an option to not download the update and wait a week or so to see what shakes out. No company on earth would guarantee their software will not cause something to "potentially" happen. Look at the EULAs for software that you download now. Most of them say they have no responsibility if installing their chat program decides to hose your computer. Shit happens and luckily it doesn't happen to many when you look at the amount of installed base vs. issues.

That could be debated easily. It could be something that is hardware related that isn't easy enough to fix and then ship back. I'm aware that they try to send the original back, I'm just saying what the people I know have gotten. Ok, that's one person for Crackdown and from Guitar Hero I remember it being very few (in the grand scheme of things). I never debated that the title updates can brick a system, however the most likely causes are usually system related updates. The patch for the HD DVD drive probably gave someone out there a 3R too. Again, that's 2 people out of how many that we know? I'm not arguing the issues but like we have determined together, we don't know if they are software related. Did they just stop responding? Did they download an update to a game and then it took a shit? I think you are losing the point of my assertion that while the software updates have caused issues, they have been few and usually aren't widespread like say a WOW patch borking people that you are forced to download and causes problems for various people everytime. It may not bring the computer to it's knees since you can still do other things but until an updated patch comes out, those people are unable to run the game. Unfortunately we are arguing something we have no real knowledge of because like you said, MS doesn't say what exactly causing the 3Rs but from what I generally see, the title/system updates cause very few in relation to the install base and generally enhance the gamers experience. Would you deny that?

True, but on the Mac, when an OS X update screws things up, it's Archive and Install, DiskWarrior, or Erase and Install (and hopefully you backed up anything important). On a 360, yeah you might lose those saves (although you can buy a memory card to back *just* the saves up), but you also might get Red Ringed, and have to *mail in your 360 to Microsoft*. There's no re-install/restore disc for it. Although, it seems you're saying pretty much "Stuff breaks. Get used to it." I think that something, somewhere is fundamentally flawed in MS' system that allows this to happen. Something like a power outage or hard-booting a computer off while an OS update is in progress? Or never ever using the Disk Utility? Well, no duh. However, MS refuses to publish any preventative measures to perhaps help people avoid this. They also never tell you what the title updates are for. You can either accept it or refuse it, that's it. Well, you can usually find the information via publisher websites as that is normally where it is coming from. The 3 rings of death? Most of those don't appear to come from a software update for a game and you are right, there doesn't appear to be a way to just wipe the drive to a "out of the box" state if that is what it would take to fix it. From what I've seen the 3Rs have shown up from various things such as launching an HDDVD and it just borks or after 2 years of good playing. I also personally know people who have had to get 3 coffins from MS to send back various 360s, but unfortunately we don't know if it's a software related or hardware related issue since they get refurbs back. The only software updates that will have the most potential to screw up your system is going to be something like the Spring Update but I have not heard of any 3Rs relating to that. If it's hardware, then even the most perfect software update process would not help and it does indeed suck that you have to be out your system for 2 weeks between shipping the coffin to them and receiving it back. MS does offer a good warranty program I will give them that. I bought my 360 in Nov 2006 and got the 2 year extended warranty for $50 right before they extended the original to a year so instead of it ending in Nov 2008, my 360 is covered till Nov 2009. You also have to remember that in general you will see more posts of issues with a game/console on certain message boards rather than ones stating that nothing has borked their system. How many people here have had to get a coffin from MS? I haven't heard of any. On another site I frequent with approximately 50 or so active 360 players, I know of 5. I'm sure if you go to GameFAQs or even the XBOX forums you will see more posts due to people searching out a solution to their problem. I will agree though that it is odd that you see more 360/PS3 post about having to send it back to their respective companies compared to the Wii. As a final note, I will say that the online distribution of patches, firmware upgrades, expansions and such is better for gamers overall providing that there is good QA.

But at what point Ripper do you give up on him? If he blows this year again, will you remove your support?

No, the issue will come though with authentication such as with XBOX Live Arcade titles. If you buy one, and say your XBOX needs to be repaired and you send it in, you can download the game with no charge but you are unable to play it offline. You have to be connected to Live. Supposedly MS is exploring a fix for this. I meant more because of firmwares, jury-rigged console OSes, expansion downloads and glitchy installers. But that was at the back of my mind, too. DRM--the gigantic cockblock of the digital age. Well, MS's patch updater/install works just fine. Most expansion downloads work fine as well as the Live Arcade, Marketplace and other downloads. There can always be an unforseen glitch even if you buy a PC game down and download a patch. Look what happened with the Shivering Isles expansion for both the PC and 360! If you've ever been much of a PC gamer (like myself), then you are well aware of what patches can do to boink something up. It is particularly worse with a PC because a patch can break anything from saves, to your specifc computer configuration and it is frustruating to all hell. With a console you have a limited set of components and configurations to deal so there is less room for error much like Apple has with the Mac when a patch comes through.

No, the issue will come though with authentication such as with XBOX Live Arcade titles. If you buy one, and say your XBOX needs to be repaired and you send it in, you can download the game with no charge but you are unable to play it offline. You have to be connected to Live. Supposedly MS is exploring a fix for this.

I don't watch as much since the Sonics ownership has been hell bent on driving away any fans they had over the past 6 or so years.

Witnesses can place Vick at dog fights If true, he should be suspended.

Wait till you people have kids. It's like you're 35.

That is one hell of an Engrish sign.

We can play sometime. My tag is Smarktalk. But I hear the issues may be solved with they free update.

Well at least it wasn't horribly disappointed.

Not if you fuck her corpse first.

The pic as promised.