Im Back!

After being crippled by the Red Rings of Death this weekend I decided that I would use this time to take a break and catch my breath. That lasted for about 24 hours.

I shipped out my system on Monday and started considering my options of games I could play to pass the down time of no 360 capabilities. My options looked very promising:

1. Wii - Mario Galaxy
2. PS - Final Fantasy VII
3. PC - StarCraft (never played before)
4. PC - World of Warcraft

I used to play WoW pretty seriously for a couple of years. I was a hardcore raider in one of the top guilds on my server. WoW took alot out of me that I did not realize until I quit playing last year. In a moment of weakness on Tuesday I reactived my WoW account and logged in for the first time in many months. I played around for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday and even earned a few achievements in WoW. However, achievements in WoW are no where near as satisfying as they are on the 360. I quickly became bored and realized that WoW was no longer for me.

My Wife was able to sense my boredom and made one of the best suggestions ever in our 5 years of marriage (ok she has probably made better ones). I guess she got tired of me talking to her and told me to just go buy a new one. I know, I know all of you are thinking to yourself how lucky I am. All I can say is I picked a winner!

I walked into my favorite video game store and a few minutes later walked out in style. I went big and bought a new 360 Elite! So now Ill be rocking with my boys and knocking out those chievos with the Black on Black Elite.

RROD

Those three red lights have struck my system again for the second time. The first took place last November. I was playing some MP Gears of War 2 with my friends when my system shut down.

Xbox customer service is always a pleasurable experience.....(hope you picked up on the sarcasm there). I will be sending my system off this week and the nice little lady on the phone, who is somewhere in a distant country, told me my system would be out for three weeks.

I got to find something to fill my 360 time to keep me from going insane.

GSL AAR

What an amazing 8 weeks of gaming! The gaming event known as the Gamer Score League has come to an end. No more latenights, no more boosting games that I would never tell my friends that I played. Best of all, no My Horse and Me 2! If the GSL was one week longer it would have made its way to my door step and I would have been forced to play it...whew that was close.

The Hand of Thrawn was put together by ThrawnOmega with the intent to go out and have fun. In the weeks leading to the GSL we were called out by a few teams, L4A and Rogue Squadron. I happy to say that we crushed both those teams as we cruised to a very respectable 5th place finish (possibly 4th still awaiting word from the moderators).

My Teammates have been nothing but class acts and Id like to thank them all for all the help, games, and latenight conversation they provided.

Week 1 GSL Starting Score: 24,220
Week 8 GSL Ending Score: 42, 655

I put up 18,435 in 5 weeks of play (I rode the bench for 3 weeks). I have to give a special shoutout to Thrawn because if it wasnt for him my score would not have been possible.

Now its time to go back to regular gaming and avoiding all easy games so I have ammo for GSL VIII.

March Recap

Coming off the best month I have ever had I did my best to keep my momentum going. March was not quite as successful as February but one must take into consideration that I rode the bench for two weeks straight in the GSL.

Gamerscore on March 1st: 33,300
Gamerscore on March 31st: 40,550
Gamerscore Gained: 7,250
Retail Completed: 3
Arcade Completed: 0
GS needed for 50K: 9,450

There are two weeks to go in the GSL so my scores for April will not be anywhere near as high as they have been for the last few months. Im figuring out now how I want to spend my time on the 360 once the GSL ends.

One thing I know for sure is that I will be going back to complete Resident Evil 5!

Gamergirl6969 is seriously kicking my ass. Our race to 50k will be over by the end of this week. I just have to do my best to make it a respectable race and not a total blow out. For the record I blame ThrawnOmega for sitting me two weeks in a row =)

*Gamergirl6969 deserves all the credit. She has gamed her ass off and put up an enormous amount of points during this GSL.

AAR GSL Week 6

Week 6 GSL Starting Score: 37145
Week 6 GSL Ending Score: 40475
Week 6 GSL Points Scored: 3330
Hand of Thrawn Current Rank: 5th

What was supposed to be a big gain for me after two weeks on the bench turned out to be just an average week. 3,330 points put up for week 6. Respectable but lacking imo. Wednesday and Thursday nights continue to be a struggle as I only get in four hours of gaming on those nights after working 11 hour days.

Saturday was probably my most frustrating day in this whole GSL. It started when my copy of NBA Live 08 would not load all the way for me. I would get ready to start my game and at the loading screen right before tip off I would get the "unable to read disc" error. So I jumped in my pimp ride and went down the street to my local game store and had them buff it out. While I was waiting for my game I was happy to see that the rental place next door had a copy of Wrestlemania Legends available to rent. My Team has been telling me how there is an easy 600 pts in this game so as you can imagine I was stoked to find a copy. Im standing in line for a few minutes behind then get to the counter. I hand over the case to my prized GSL game only to find out that they had mistakenly put the case out for display and they had no copies for rent. Talk about a huge let down.

Good news though is that Im now less then 10k away for from 2009 goal of 50k. Looks like Ill have to tweak it again but not sure what to yet.

Sergeant First Class Selection

Most of my gaming friends know that I am a Soldier in the US Army. With this being my Military Gamer Blog I thought I would share the news that today I was selected for promotion by the Army to the rank of Sergeant First Class (E-7). Obviously this is a huge "Achievement" in my military career. Now what does any of this have to do with Gaming? Well more rank means more money which means more retail games!

Race Update

I am getting smashed. Gamergirl6969 had two huge weeks in the GSL and has left me in the dust. Last time I got my ass kicked like this by a chick was when I was in the second grade and some fifth grader named Shelly (aka Shelly Smelly!) pushed me down on the playground and took my lunch money.

Its not over yet though. Im back in the lineup next week in the GSL so at least Ill make the race a little more respectable.