I know in my Sam's Video Game Awards '07 I gave the 360 props for a solid year in 2007. While I'm not about to recant that, I am about to revise that...

See, the 360's solid year in 2007 apparently got Microsoft a lot of success. So much in fact that they apparently sold more 360s and Live accounts this last holiday season than their Live service can handle. The end result is that connection issues have plagued Live for the last two weeks or so, and it's become nigh impossible to actually enjoy an online game on the 360.

Marc Whitten, Xbox Live general manager, acknowledged the issue here, saying:

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance.

"Some" of us are experiencing problems? Not as near as I can tell. Of the twenty or so people on my friend list and the thirty or so people I know who aren't every last one has experienced major problems in the last two weeks. From the complaints I've seen online, I'd wager that there hasn't been a single Live user in the last two weeks who hasn't had problems. Long story short, Marc, me thinks you're downplaying how big of a problem this is....

Well, I just officially ended ClanAM FFXI over at... erm... ClanAM FFXI.

This has been a long time coming, it's been something that I've been thinking about for a while now. Basically, around 6(ish) months ago I stopped being interested in leading up events over there. Couple this with the fact that ClanAM's success was kind of hampering my enjoyment of the game (every time I'd log in, I'd get a billion people sending me /tells or otherwise making a big deal out of me being there... it's flattering to be sure, but it also gets tiresome really quick) and you can see why I've needed a good break.

Well, my break came in the form of my 360 breaking down... again. If you recall, last year I had a RRoD that cost me my 360 for around a month while it was in for repairs. Well, I've got another problem with it. This time, it's not any RRoD issues, but what I am getting are glitches and crashes whenever any XMA audio-file is played. Basically, whenever I play games like Bioshock or Burnout Revenge my system starts glitching out and will eventually crash.

Anyway, being without my 360 and unable to play FFXI has made me realize it was a good time to make a break... So I did.

So in my recent move I've bought a new HDTV. I had some very specific needs; I play a lot of games and can't have *any* lag, burn-in, etc. regardless of which system I'm playing; I want to be able to watch normal TV and VHS inputs lag-free as well; and I needed something not very expensive.

After a lot of research, I finally settled on one. Specifically, I purchased the "Sony KDF-E50A10Grand WEGA 50" LCD Projection TV", which was reported as lag-free at numerous sources. I managed to get it very inexpensively, and thus far I've been absolutely thrilled with it. I can plug in my old Atari 2600 and the games are lag-free. It's awesome.

However, there's one problem, and that problem is with the one game I play the most: Final Fantasy XI.

Okay, so my wife is out of town this weekend. This means I'll be 'bach-ing' it, all alone. Well, some guys might have a porn night with the guys, or invite strippers over or something. Me, I do something much more sinister....

I play FFXI all weekend long.

Or at least, I would... if I could only get online in the game.

Just posted a new entry on my FFXI character diary page which included the following cool picture. The picture was neat enough that it warranted me posting it here. Enjoy!