Almost 2 months ago, my Wii stopped reading discs. I called Nintendo, sent it off, and so far it hasn't returned to me. Last update said a couple more weeks. I wasn't playing it a ton at that point, other than my every other day Wii Sports boxing workout, so i wasn't too worried about it. At least I had my trusty 360 to keep me warm at night....

Fast Forward to last friday night as i took a break in my preparations for the New Albany Classic 10k Walk race, I settled in with my girlfriend to play the last 10 hours or so of Bioshock. H, as I shall refer to her, is a huge fan of cinematic games, and when she isn't swearing at her Pink DS Lite trying to figure out why Phoenix Wright can't crack the case, she's planted next to me on the couch watching me rescue little sisters. 

Anyways, as I waited for my saved game to load, I was rudely greeted by the sight no Xbox 360 owner wants to see: the dreaded Red Ring of Death. But instead of the immediate and complete bricking that so many have experienced with their 360s, mine seemed to be dying a slow painful death. A call to Microsoft customer service confirmed my unit was circling the drain, though strangely the problem only occurs when the disc drive spins up. I could play anything on the hard drive almost without incident, although it did freeze just loading the profile a couple of times. So now I wait for my prepaid dropship box to whisk my console away to some far off repair facility with just days left before Halo 3. 

Of course, with my (lack of) skill at FPS, the RRoD may be saving me some embarassment at the hands of other GN staffers. My feverent hope is that it will return to me in plenty of time for the Rock Band and Mass Effect launches.