Gaming
Open Tray
Feb 6th
This past Tuesday, I had to ship my Xbox 360 Elite to Microsoft again. Last time I had to send it in for the infamous RRoD back in June of 2008. This time it’s for the “Open Tray” error & since the unit is out of warranty… I paid them $99.00 which includes another year warranty. Xbox Support said they’ll most likely replace the unit for their latest Elite version which is supposedly quieter and runs cooler… we shall see.
When an Xbox 360 cannot read a CD/DVD or game disc, it may not recognize that it has a disc in its drive. Instead of “Play Game” or “Play DVD”, an “Open Tray” option appears. The issue is linked to a dirty laser in the DVD drive, a magnetic problem that prevents the drive from spinning, or insufficient lubrication of the drive motor. However, disconnecting and re-connecting the Xbox 360 sometimes works. Taking out the disc, closing the tray, then re-inserting it can go around this problem, as the opening and closing of the tray tells the Xbox to read the tray for content. Lately some cases in which the Xbox 360 can not read any more discs reporting this error all the time have appeared.
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Aug 3rd
Eidos has announced that a demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum will release this week on Friday, August 7th. The demo will be available on PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Batman: Arkham Asylum is set to hit North America and Europe on August 25 and August 28, respectively. A new wallpaper released in which I edited to work at a 1440 x 900 resolution. I also darkened the left side, so desktop icons are easier to read.

Right-click here and choose Save Link As… (Firefox) or Save Target As… (IE).
Flight Control v1.2
Jun 3rd
Firemint just released an update, v1.2, for their iPhone application called Flight Control. It includes new aircraft, two new airfields, & a fast forward option. It’s strange that they didn’t name the airfields, but here are the two new ones & the original;
I played, what I’ll call the Island airfield, & landed 97 aircraft my first try. It’s a great update & an excellent iPhone game that I recommend to anyone owning an iPhone/iPod Touch.
1 vs 100 Beta
Jun 2nd
The US-Canadian Beta of 1 vs 100 for Xbox 360 started last night at 10:30 PM. It was quite fun… Andrea, Tony, Amy & myself played for the two full live hours. The beta is good bait as we got hooked & want more. They have another live show this Saturday at 8:00 PM. So, those with an Xbox 360, please join us. The trivia was pretty random & up to date. It asked who was going to be on the inaugural show of The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, which was just last night. According to Chris Cashman, there were about 50,000 people connected for the first live show. While I didn’t get to be the one or the mob (100), I did rack up some points within the crowd.
NXE
Nov 14th
I finally got pushed the update & downloaded NXE to my Xbox 360… first impressions are great. The first thing I did was create my avatar (pictured below). If you are familiar with Mii’s (Nintendo Wii), it’s the same idea. The second thing I did was install the Netflix application and tested a few Watch Now movies. The streaming quality was good & looked great on my HDTV. I wasn’t able to find an HD movie, but the ones I viewed still looked great, so I’m sure the HD stream will look even better. NXE officially launches on November 19th to the rest of the 14 million Xbox Live subscribers.

Star Wars: TFU (DEMO)
Aug 21st
I’ve been waiting for this game & was pretty excited to see the demo available today.
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) VIOLENCE] Download the demo.
Size: 904.62 MB
[SOURCE: Major Nelson]
Xbox 360 Elite RROD
Jun 8th
UPDATE – 06/27/2008 @ 4:32PM: Received repaired console. The serial number was the same, but the manufacturing date was different. So, it was pretty obvious that they replaced the sticker on the back of this Xbox 360 Elite.
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UPDATE – 06/15/2008 @ 12:02PM: Well, what I thought was a cooling problem was not. I got the three flashing red lights again yesterday. I received the box from Microsoft to ship it to the repair center, which is what I’ll do tomorrow.
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UPDATE – 06/09/2008 @ 1:07PM: I moved the Xbox 360 from the entertainment center and is now standing upright. I played for a little bit last night & this morning without problems. So, I’m hoping it was just a cooling issue.
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Yesterday while playing GTA IV, it started to lock up on me. So, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t the game as there have been reports of GTA IV locking up on some PS3’s and Xbox 360’s. So, I started to play Guitar Hero II and that locked up on me also. This is the same thing that happened with my other Xbox 360 before it got the infamous three flashing red lights. So, I called Xbox support and it never flashed the three lights except while on the phone with the first agent. They had me perform normal troubleshooting and told me to call back in fifteen minutes. I called back and talked to someone else. They decided it was a hardware issue and that it is going to cost me $99.00 to fix since it’s out of the warranty timeframe… by a month. I explained that it was getting three flashing lights also at random times. The person said he’ll mark it as a three flashing lights issue since that issue is part of the extended warranty, but if they don’t get the three flashing lights when they receive it, they would call me. They are sending me the box within 3 – 5 days and I will ship it off to them. After I got off the phone, I tried four times to turn the Xbox 360 on and got the three flashing lights. I’m hoping they experience the same issue as it will be a bummer to fork out $99.00 for them to fix it.
GTA IV Stunt Montage
Jun 4th
I typically don’t post long videos, but anyone playing GTA IV will enjoy this.
Dragonforce 100% (Expert)
Apr 7th
Dragonforce on Guitar Hero III is one of the hardest songs to play and this kid got 100% on expert. Some people are stating that it’s fake… I’ll let you be the judge.










