Little Gaming Consoles

How about a PS3 for $2.99, or a Wii, or an Xbox360, maybe even a PS2? Now you can thanks to the jolly chaps at Gamestop.com.

They are supposed to be gift card boxes. You can put gift cards inside, and they are transported in a safe black felt enclosure, surrounded by globs of geeky gaming nerdiness.


You can see how tiny they are with the real PSP at the back.


Sorry to break the magic, but they are just boxes to put gift cards in.


The rear even shows details like network, and power sockets.


These dudes really did the business with the PS2, and included the little logos on the edge. And yes, I forgot to clean the crud from the edges.


They cost just $2.99 a piece, made of thin metal, and really have a lot more detail that you are seeing here. Any real gamer would love to get one of these, and you could confirm their gamingness by learning that perhaps in six months time they still didn't know there was anything inside them, but they would be in pristine condition still.

Xbox360 red ring of death

Back in August I succumbed to the Red Ring of Death on the Xbox360. Three red lights showing around the power button. The ones that usually turn green, indicating which controllers are active. So I got online, filled in a form, received a box, put the Xbox360 in it (after removing the hard drive), waited, got it back again.

They send you a small box. That box contains a plastic bag, two pieces of foam, a strip of sticking tape, and a UPS label. You remove the hard drive from your Xbox360 just by pressing the button and lifting it off, put the unit in the bag, then in the foam padding shapes, seal the box with the tape, slap the UPS label on the outside (over the one that got it shipped to you), and then just leave it at any UPS place. You can monitor it online, where I could follow every step, from them processing my request, to letting me know the unit had been shipped back to me.

They swapped mine out for a new one it seems. I assume it's new because one of the little mysterious receiver windows on the front of the unit still had that clear plastic you are supposed to peel off if you are not anal about scratching things. And the fact they said it was a different unit. I put the hard drive back on, and powered up. All groovy, although since I sent it off, I purchased an Xbox360 Elite, so I had migrated my live account to that one a while back. So when I tried to access that account on this unit, it said the account was invalid. I don't think I will bother going back to that unit anyway.

They put a months free Xbox Live service in the form of a scratch off card, in the box. Also included was a notice telling me how to reconnect the wireless controllers by holding the connect buttons. I always wondered how to do that anyway. Sometimes I press the button in the center of the controller to power the unit up, but it just continues to flash and not do anything else. So if you hold the connect button on the unit, and then press the one on the controller they can see eachother again.

So for me, the whole process from reporting the fault, to getting a new unit back in the mail was approx six weeks. I say approx because I was on vacation when it came back. But now I DO know that you can get an Xbox360 through the x-ray machines at the airport, and they survive. No I didn't put it in a suitcase, I had it in a bag with a ton of wires and crap which I was sure they were going to make me pull out and account for every single strand. They didn't, and it still worked, smiley.

Halo 3

I managed to snag a copy of Halo 3 a short while ago during a vacation. It seems the reviewers are right for the most part (at least the ones I've read anyway) that the game is ok, but nothing significant over the others. The graphics look great on the Xbox360 but it's just not as involving as Half Life 2 for instance. Gears of War, and Half Life 2, both had easy get-in-able plots, which for the most part let you get on with enjoying the action.

Halo 3 on the other hand had a lot of chatter between levels, but were they talking about a name of a star ship, a place, a race, or a process, and were they talking about the bad guys or the good guys? It didn't detract from the action but you sometimes found yourself wondering why you were storming a tower, or shooting something.

I haven't done much multi-player up to now but with the new weapons it should be fun. As long as I can keep it together during the ritual burning of my useless carcass by hordes of unsupervised kids online, with nothing in their lives but to roast anything that moves on Xbox Live. I was given quite a show by someone who had obviously mastered multi player, and how to show past battles by replaying them. You don't see a recording of the match, but a replay of the data. This means you can see it from any angle, or player viewpoint. All this lays to rest any outrageous claims of manliness by anyone, as you can now ask them to prove it instantly.

All in all, its a nice game, not enough WOW moments, and certainly not something that should have taken this long to get out. Plenty of value in the multi player though, now if I can only find someone who is worse than me? If you either are not that bothered by these types of games, or are a little strapped for cash right now, I have the feeling that there will be a few more traded in Halo 3's laying in game stores than you might imagine, soon enough.