townesvanfaulkner

That's right, I got a 360. On the launch date, in fact, about 20 minutes after midnite on Nov. 22. I had preordered one through Gamestop on Aug. 22 and they called to tell me that they couldn't guarantee me one until after xmas. So, I figured, 'Okay, I guess I'll have to wait in line somewhere.'

So, my plan was to go after work to the Oak Ridge Wal-mart and wait in line until they went on sale at midnite, but when I checked in at Wal-mart on my lunch break around 11:30 am I found that there were already about 10-12 crazy SOB's already in line and that they only had 26 of the premium packages and 22 of the core (sucker's) package. So, I figured that I wasn't gonna make it if I waited until 5:30 when I got off work.

I went back to work did a couple of hours of essential work and then told my boss I was sick. I got back to Wal-mart and was in line at about 2:00 pm. I was #18. By 3:00 they had run out of the premiums and the core line started filling. I think they ran out of the core at around 7:00 pm.

If you do the math, I waited in line for 10 hours.

It was actually kind of fun. I hadn't done anything like that since Episode One came out when I waited in line 6 hours for tickets.

Wal-mart (who I'm not a big fan of, btw) was pretty gracious. They gave us chairs and doughnuts and bottled water. And they sat us in the magazines and books aisle. I started reading the new Oprah selection, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey (expect a review soon).

So I waited and waited and waited. Amy brought me a sandwich and a latte for dinner and sat with me for about an hour. Thanks, babe.

Two people sold their place in line to other people for $50 each. There was almost a fight. Someone said there was a fight at a Wal-mart in Knoxville and that 6 people were arrested. Good times.

The thing cost me 10 hours and $399 and it was worth every second and penny. I got Call of Duty 2, Madden 06, Perfect Dark Zero, and Halo 2 (I never had the first xbox, but played Fern's boyfriend's).

Halo 2 is considered by most to be the best online game for consoles. It looks even better on the 360. I've finished the Call of Duty campaign and it was awesome. Online, it could rival Halo, but it has SERIOUS lag issues that keep me from playing it. Perfect Dark is awesome and probably so far the most popular of the launch day releases. I really like it for the cooperative play. It's not just the typical going through the same levels with a buddy standing beside you shooting everything up. They actually have levels that require you to be different characters at different points on the map and help each other and solve simple puzzles together. It's terrific and I wish more games would be designed for this because it's extremely fun. Madden 06 leaves a lot to be desired. I think they threw it together in a hurry and left a lot out. The player's arm muscles and the stadiums look amazing but as for actual gameplay, I like NCAA 06 on the PS2 much better. However, I have my xbox online so I've been playing football games on there which is much funner than playing the computer. As long as your opponent doesn't quit the game because they are losing. That burns me up.

Anyhoo, this is what I've been up to. It's also slowed up my reading and songwriting and rendered me pretty much useless.

If or when any of my TVF readership gets one of these things, let me know. We should do some online gaming. My gamertag is townesvanzandt. Townesvanfaulkner was too long.