Figures that just as I’m finishing up my Burnout Paradise review, my Xbox 360 takes a dump on me.

Out of all of my friends, I’m the last one to have problems with his 360. Mine was one of the first ever manufactured, and I never understood why the ol’ boy kept chugging while everyone else’s was sent back two or three times for repair. I knew mine was in trouble when it stopped recognizing discs right away, and then the disc drive wouldn’t open all the way without a little help…. and then, those glorious three red lights of doom pop up.

Those of you who don’t know, when your Xbox makes these pretty lights, it’s got the video game equivalent of Captain Tripps. It’s done… let it bleed out. It’s not coming back. There are a few tricks to keep it running for a few hours here and there, but eventually you’ll be left with a $400 paperweight. And everyone gets it.

30% failure rate my asshole.

The system’s working sporadically, and I’ve actually got it on right now (thankfully, cause there’s some great demos recently released) but it sounds like it’s about to blast off to the moon.

I’m annoyed, yet a little amused that I’m not furious about this. I knew this day was coming- it’s almost as if just by picking up a 360 these days you’re starting a countdown. Sure, I rip on my little cousin for owning a PS3 all the time, because there still isn’t a game worth owning that hunk for (that isn’t already on the 360), but at least the damn thing works consistently.

It’s good that Microsoft is replacing these for free, but you’d think that spending so much money on a system you wouldn’t have to deal with these problems. Course, people are finding out that they may have known more about these issues from the beginning…

Well, at least I’ve still got my Wii to keep me company. Looks like it’s time to pick up No More Heroes.