Back in the Gaming Habit Again

Okay I'm gaming again . . . finally.

I got the coffin for my Xbox 360 on Thursday of last week. I immediately packed it up and shipped it off that same night. I then went straight to Game Stop and bought an Xbox 360 Arcade system. I wanted to find a Core system but couldn't. Besides this was a better deal. A used refurbished console was $250 and I got a new one (with HDMI connection) for $280.

So I go home and hook everything up. Yeah I'm gaming again! Except I've got to download everything before I play anything. Same hard drive but I guess since I have a different console it thinks I need to unlock everything again. Fine. Whatever. Just let me play some games.

I did. But not for long.

I was still having connection issues and getting dumped from games. I'm about ready to pull my hair out and give up gaming all together. I cool down and plug my PS2 back in for some nice relaxing Final Fantasy VII. I took Friday off from work to just play around and have fun and I did.

I met up with my brother over the weekend and after a lot of trial and error and a trip to Fry's Electronics I found myself the proud owner of a new router and a stable connection to the internet. Bring on the games.

The only problem was when I put in Chromehounds to play it wouldn't work. The last time I played it I asked my brother to put a tray under my Xbox 360 so it wouldn't be directly on the carpet. I had just put the disk in when he moved the system. A loud grinding noise could be heard and the disk was scratched. We cleaned it up as best we could and it worked later that night but it wouldn't work Sunday night.

I traded in a couple of games for store credit and bought another copy of Chromehounds and still had store credit left over. I also had to exchange the controller that came with the new system because the headset port kept registering my headset as active even when it was on mute. Depending on the game or situation you heard either static or me talking. I found that out the hard way in a game of Texas Hold 'Em. It's kind of hard to bluff when everyone can hear you on mute.

So outside of a few hiccups and hang ups I'm finally gaming again on my Xbox 360. And after all that I'm starting to wonder if it's all worth it. I remember when I played games without achievements. The thrill of the game was the discovery and plot twists or beating a tough boss after 4 or 5 attempts. It didn't come from a little pop out message saying I just picked up a skull or I just made X amount of kills with a particular weapon. I played and I explored just for the fun of it instead of looking for that hidden room or treasure for 20 gamer points.

I'll still play video games. I'm too much of an addict to stop now . . . or ever. I just need to find that magic tingling feeling you get when you really get absorbed in a good game. Maybe I'll put in Bioshock tonight. Or maybe I'll just take this little breather until I can play Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and Mass Effect. If those games don't do it for me than nothing will.