Update: The below does not work! Do not attempt to follow these steps! Go to this page where I discuss how these steps do not work.

I had totally given up hope on Chill Penguin when I wrote yesterday’s post. I checked the Xbox LIVE forums one last time and found someone who was willing to help me. We spoke on the forums, AIM and through the 360’s private chat. After about 20 minutes of work, Chill Penguin was alive and kicking on my 360!

Edit: The above does not work! I know this is extremely late in posting, but the above didn’t do anything. I was forced to create a new Windows Live account and attach that to my Gamertag. This update comes because of a reader who tried it and found that it doesn’t do anything. I’m sorry for giving your hopes up.

The Xbox LIVE identity that I have used for 3 years, Chill Penguin, is no more. Due to Microsoft Xbox’s complete inability to recover my name, I have been forced to start a new account. Keeping with the penguin theme, my new name is Gentoo, named after the fastest underwater swimming penguin. Hopefully, I’ll be just as fast in dodging bullets and racing to the finish line on LIVE.

I’ll start by saying that I got one, so I am not one of those poor souls who camped out in front of Walmart and got nothing, nor was I one of those who preordered but got screwed out of one.

That said, today’s launch was horrible. It started yesterday when Nad and I arrived home. A voice mail was waiting for us stating that we had until 5PM that day to confirm that we would be picking up our console at midnight. It was 6:45 when we got home. Why didn’t they call the day before? Why didn’t they remember that we had already confirmed that last week?

Instead, I was told to come by tomorrow morning at 8AM. I couldn’t be happy that I had one guaranteed. I was too busy being angry that my launch night expectations were destroyed. Call me spoiled if you wish.

We walked in Gamestop, got the 360 and left. We hooked it up to the TV, and the troubles continued.

Without going into too much detail, the much-touted Media Connect feature (streaming music from a Windows XP machine) does not work, period. Also, my Gamer Tag (the thing that lets you go online with LIVE) will not migrate over to the system. Nad’s worked fine, but I cannot log on. Our first two titles, Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3, are playable online; I wanted to spend Day One playing online. Instead, I spent the day on two different game boards, on Microsoft’s live chat support (which is a broken POS), and on the phone with their tech support. Twelve hours later, I am writing this entry, having accomplished absolutely nothing.

I’m really bent out of shape. So much so that I cannot come to grips with the fact that this is just a game, and that I actually got a 360 when so many others were not so lucky. The world isn’t going to end, and everything will work out somehow. Right now, I am just not rational enough to accept that.