XBOX 360 Elite - Disc Unplayable - General News

I finally picked up Call of Duty 4 about a week and a half ago, after much prodding from my buddy Dave. I let Jack try it out the night I got it, and then we watched some Battlestar Galactica episodes. The very next morning, I popped in COD4, all set to find out what everyone thinks is so great about this game. 5 minutes into the training mission, my DVD drive started making this horrible grinding noise. I immediately shut down the console, to prevent any damage to the game.

After booting back up, I tried the game again, only to recieve a "Disc Unplayable" error. After trying several other games with the same result, I came to the conclusion that my drive was dead. Thankfully (i guess) my Elite is only 5 months old, and still under warranty. So after a brief chat with customer service, the rep told me that I will need to ship my machine back to good old Microsoft for repairs. While waiting for my return box to arrive, I caught up on some Live Arcade gaming. Ended up beating Puzzle Quest finally, and getting the achivement for forging a godlike item. Played some of the new demos in arcade, and downloaded the original Fable, which is grand, but still extremely buggy. (I plan on asking for a refund actually its so bad)

Ended up shipping the console back a week ago, along with Jack's PS3 which had a bad Blu-ray drive, interestingly enough. Anyway the repairs are already complete on my console, and I should be getting it back by mid week if all goes well. I'm actually pretty happy with the whole process. The rep from MS was knowledgeable and friendly, and I was only without a console for about a week and a half. Not too bad really. I mean it sucks that it broke in the first place, but at least they got it fixed quickly.

Anyway, Jack and I have been talking about the Fallout Series lately. Jack never had the pleasure of playing the best RPG series of all time, and with Fallout 3 due out late this year, I figured it was high time he got started. Jack borrowed Fallout and Fallout 2 from me, and hopefully will be playing through them soon. I have been playing a bit of Fallout Tactics, which is also a great game, but nowhere near as great as the other games in the series, and looking foreward to the release of Fallout 3. I can only hope that Bethesda does the series justice in their upcoming release. My biggest fear is that its just a port of Oblivion with a post-apocalytic feel to it. Not that Oblivion was bad.. It wasnt.. But it wasnt Fallout either. From what I have read about the release so far my fears are probably unwarranted. So I guess i'll just keep my fingers crossed.

On another note, Jack's buddy Earl, will be joining us as another contibutor soon. We are both looking forward to having some more help around here, keeping our content relevant, and timely. Earl definately shares our passion for gaming and we are sure you will enjoy reading his commentary.

On a final note.. If you are unforturnate enough to get the "Disc Unplayable" error, on a machine that is out of warranty, you may be able to fix it yourself. There are a couple of videos on You Tube which may help you.. The following link will show you how to fix the issue if its due to a defective magnet *you tube link*. I would only try this as a last resort though, and I asssume no responsibilty if you destroy your console attempting this.