Life without the Xbox 360

Probably a little over a month ago I remember hearing people were trying to classify video games as an addition like video poker. I also remember thinking, "You have got to be kidding me. It's a freaking video game!" Well, now that I have been without my 360, I am now reconsidering my initial thoughts on the subject.

Yes, I do own a PS2, or I should say my, husband owns it. I pretty much loath anything made by Sony. Anytime I've ever owned anything Sony, it's broken within a few months of the purchase date. The PS2 really has nothing to offer me and I couldn't be anymore uninterested in the PS3 as I already am. Now, when I do play anything PlayStation though, I go old school, like Resident Evil: Directors Cut. I have always been a gamer, since the original NES, but Resident Evil took me to a whole other level of gaming. RE: DC was a game that you really had to think about. I didn't own a PlayStation when the game first came out, because of my hate for Sony, but my best friend, Tiffany, had a PlayStation. We pretty much dedicated all of our time to beating the Resident Evil games that were out.

Anyway, that's what I've been doing while I've been without my Xbox 360. I have Resident Evil: Directors Cut and Resident Evil: Outbreak. My husband let one of his co-workers borrow Outbreak, so I've been playing Directors Cut. During the time I've been without my 360, I've probably played RE: DC three or four times and have pretty much beat the game. I remember first playing this game, between my Tiffany and I, it took like two or three weeks for us to beat it. The both of us would also scream every time we opened a new door, thinking something was going to attack us. We were pretty much played it every day, too. That game was hard back in the day, but compared to games in this day and age, it's now very easy. So, since I've pretty much beat RE: DC, I have been bored out of my mind.

I'll give you the history of my gaming life and maybe this will help explain how I reconsidered my initial "video gaming addition" opinion. I have owned an Xbox, pretty much, since the time I moved out of my parent’s house after graduating high school, but gaming has always been in my life. It started with the NES when I was really little. My brother and I had two and he broke both systems. For some reason he though taking both of them apart was a genius idea. He thought he was going to improve on them, but he would get them apart and not know how to put it back together. He did this with most of our cool toys and our record player. That record player was cool. I listen to Thriller constantly on that thing. Anyway, I've gotten off track. I then got a Sega Genesis for my 11th or 12th birthday. This was my gaming system. My brother and I actually got into a fist fight over this one. I wasn't about to let him steal it or tear it up, so I had to stand my ground.

After the Genesis the Atari Jaguar came out. I didn't own this system, but to this day it was one of the best gaming systems I have ever played. My friend Barry actually owned this one. He was my Tiffany's cousin so he would always let her borrow it. This is when I discovered Doom, another one of my all time favorite games. This is also when I fell in love with the FPS (first person shooter) style games. I remember Tiffany and I would have to take turns playing this game because of the movements of the game. They would make us so sick to our stomach that we would have to lay down while the other played.

Sometime in the middle of the Genesis and the Jaguar, I also played a lot of Quake on the PC. Quake, yet another one of my all time favorites appealed to me because it was a lot like Doom. It was actually produced by the same people, id. Another thing that sucked me into Quake was the fact that Nine Inch Nails did the sound FX for the game. When you picked up a box of nails, it had NIN on each side. Too cool.

Then, of course, was the PlayStation, then the PS2. I played a lot of games on these consoles, but never wanted one myself. I really do not like Sony at all. After that, I went off to college. My roommate Hope and I always had some sort of system at our place. I hooked the Genesis up, Hope had a PS2, and we would borrow our friends Sega Dreamcast (yet another great console). We were always gaming. Then, the original Xbox came out. I have to be honest, I was against it. I felt Microsoft was already big enough. But, one of the guys I had class with had one. They would have big Xbox parties. I was always at their house, but one day I finally broke down and played it. Wouldn't you know it; the first game I ever played on the Xbox was Halo. And so, that is how my Xbox obsession got started.

Shortly after that, my parents bought me my first Xbox for Christmas. My first game was Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, then Medal of Honor: Frontline, some racing games and on and on. It took me a little while to buy Halo. This is when Halo had just come out and I was a college kid. So, I couldn’t afford to get it. I had my Xbox a while before I was able to buy Halo. Once I bought it though, I was hooked. I played it before I went to work; I played it when I came home from work. I would play it for hours upon hours at a time.

I then moved to Myrtle Beach and met my husband. So, I got him addicted to Halo and the Xbox. We both bought Halo 2. Then when the Xbox 360 came out, I bought one on the third for fourth shipment. It has been a really good two year run with the 360, but I should have waited a little longer so they could get the bugs figured out. That is the reason I am in the situation I am in now.

So, since we have been without my Xbox 360, my husband and I have been going crazy with boredom. I work during the day and he works at night. Although me may have friends we hang out with, other hobbies, things to do and places to go, it is like our drug has been taken away and nothing can fill the gap. I got new cymbals for my drums on Wednesday. They are great cymbals, but they only satisfied me for that day. I'm still very excited about them, but I can't actually play them until the weekend. I get home from work too late to actually play them and when I do get to play them, it's not for very long. We live in a duplex, enough said. I usually just put the practice pads on my kit and that's not really any fun at all.

I have given you a history of my gaming addiction. Although, in jr. high and high school, it was not that bad. I did play a lot of games, but I also played softball, volleyball and had my first car. Once I hit college though, it was over, I was officially hooked.

The 360 will be back in my hands Tuesday, so I can get back to geeking out with some Guitar Hero III and Halo 3.


My Custom Xbox 360
It took my husband and I eight hours to customize the Xbox 360.

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