Let me preface this rant by stating that I have been inspired by Barack Obama.  Not just because, as a Black man, I understand the adversity and subtle (and not so subtle) racism that he faces every single day.  Not just because, as an intellectual, it's nice to see someone with a little more cognitive ability in the White House.  In this particular forum, what inspired me is the fact that an underdog with little to no chance of success beat the odds and became what many call the "leader of the free world."  And how did he do it?  With a grass roots organization that toppled the political machine and appealed to the disenchanted individuals within the mass of America.  And, with this as a preface, I would like to say, unequivocally, that Microsoft as an organization is the absolute WORST company to do business with, and the Microsoft Xbox 360 is a complete piece of TRASH!

Am I preaching to the choir here?  Probably not.  Because, as we all know, an individual's capacity to delude themselves is amazing.  And I deluded myself for a while as well.  Let me explain:

I received an Xbox 360 as a present last year, and I was fucking ecstatic!  The price (at the time) was enough to keep me playing my PS2, and I was fine with that, but when Kim came home with those boxes, I know my expression was "priceless."  I plugged it in and tuned out for several fun (yet remarkably unmemorable) months, before I received the dreaded "3 Red Rings of Death."  Now, if you don't know what that is and what it means, let me enlighten you.  The "3 Red Rings of Death" translate to a massive hardware failure.  As in, your $400 machine is now a paper-weight.  Microsoft, in an effort to dominate the Next-gen console market, introduced an inferior product en masse.  Then, when they started falling like rain, Microsoft offered to repair/replace these inferior consoles for free.  Good job, Microsoft!  BUT...  Had they simply corrected the issues with the 360 (I don't know for sure, but I'm inclined to believe that a product release THAT significant would mandate a thorough understanding of the products' features, benefits and, ultimately, short-comings), I probably wouldn't be ranting now.  But they didn't.  Like the Mac commercial points out, they spent a ton on marketing, and didn't correct a fucking thing.

Anyway, after about 6 months of gaming, I got the 3 rings, and sent my 360 off to Microsoft.  I was expecting a 5 week wait, but was pleasantly surprised when I received what was described as a "new" 360 in the mail.  Hell, I even got a letter stating that they (Microsoft) had registered the 360 for me, AND they included like 3 months of free Xbox Live.  I plugged it in, and it came on and played fine that first try.  I shut it off, and when I came back to play it later, the damn thing couldn't recognize my game.  I returned to the dashboard, ejected the game, then closed the eject drive WITHOUT EVER TOUCHING THE GAME, and the damn thing came on.  Obviously, something was still wrong with my 360, but when the game played, I thought, "That's weird..." and just kept playing.  For about another half a year.

Sunday, my 360 was working fine.  I shut it down, and watched some football for a while.  A few hours later, I turned it back on, but the damn thing would not recognize any games.  Let me repeat - the damn thing wouldn't recognize ANY game.  None, and I have a bunch of ‘em.  So, I log into Xbox support, type out my issues, and am given a support request #.  That isn't good enough for me, so I call Microsoft and try to get some help.  The support lady was very courteous, up until the point where she stated that I'd have to send Microsoft another $100 to get them to fix the 360 that I hadn't even played for a whole year.  I explained what happened before, and that my new 360 had a manufacture date of December 21, 2007.  Because of this, it should still be under warranty because it is less than a year old.  The support lady then told me that my "new" Xbox 360 was, in fact, refurbished, and that my warranty on it expired 90 days after I received it...  Or 3 months ago.

So, to summarize up to this point, I got a brand new 360, it worked for about 6 months, I had to send it to Microsoft and they sent me another 360.  The "new" 360 worked for about 6 months, then it broke as well.  I called for support and found out that Microsoft lied about the console being new, and that it was, in fact, out of warranty.  Furthermore, I was told that Microsoft would charge me $100 to get the "new" console fixed.  Now, $100 is not a lot of money.  I've spent more than that at the bar on more than one occasion.  But the idea that I should have to pay because your product is shitty is absolutely ludicrous!  Fucking ridiculous!

At this point, I've started looking into replacement options.  I definitely want a Wii, but those things are hard to come by.  Also, they don't really have the catalog of games I'd prefer.  I think I'll be the happiest with the PS3, for several reasons.  First, the PS3 now costs about as much as I paid for my 360.  It has an 80GB hard drive, full HD capability, a Blue-ray player.  It has a serious catalog of titles, and a number of system exclusives (God of War 3, anyone?!) that whet the palate.   And, most importantly, the PS3 has NONE of the technical issues that have plagued the Xbox 360!