Have to thank Xtramalt who sent me this Splinter Cell: Double Agent face plate all the way from New Zealand.  Here's a pic of the plate.

I feel I've now played this game enough to write up a little bit on it.

• Gameplay: Thankfully, the full version allows you to change the horizontal axis control.  This is a huge plus because when I played the demo of this back in May, it was awful to control your ninja.  The gameplay is similar in style to the original Splinter Cell.  You have your standard stealth meter, which also shows noise, smell, sight, etc.  It's a welcome challenge.  If you kill enough people and get their blood splattered all over you, you will stink and you will be noticeable by smell to your enemies.  It's a nice dynamic and you can remedy this by getting into some water or via an item (if you have one on you).  You can also stink up the joint by landing in trash.  As for the missions, you can play this strictly stealth and only go after your objectives (usually one a mission).  However, you have very little information to go on and the opening cut scene to your mission is usually your only clue.  Your map only shows the layout, it does not show your target.  This can result in some frustrating moments as you try and find your target.  The stealth kills are where it's at.  You have a variety of moves available including stabbing through the thin paper walls.  The tutorial teaches some of these techniques but doesn't let you know that you can move the bodies.  I guess it's useful to read the manual afterall.  The missions start out easy and then more wrinkles are added to your missions (more guards, dogs, traps, etc.).  You unlock a lot of achievements via stealth kills, so you want to kill just about everyone you meet.  However, one frustrating thing is that there is no in-mission save.  If you die, you start all over.  Thankfully, the maps aren't huge so you won't be set too far back.  It's more of a die and learn gameplay.  You get points (gold) for stealth kills and general ninja-goodness (don't get detected, don't use items, don't kill innocents).
  
• Graphics: it's really good in the area where you can choose missions or equipment.  In the mission, the graphics are muted and dark...as can be expected in a stealth game.  This is not a top of the line 360 game in terms of graphics, they are just passable.
• Replayability: if you want the achievements, you are going to be playing this game a long time.  Fortunately, if you like stealth games, then there is lots of things to do in terms of stealth kills. 
  
• Overall: if you like stealth games, this is a challenge.  This isn't a run-and-gun game, take the time to watch and then plan out your kills or just avoid the enemies and concentrate on your target.  Thus, if you like stealth games (and ninjas) this is a decent game.  I don't know if it is worth the $60 you'll have to pay to get the game, but it would be worthy of a rental.  I'd give this a decent 7.0 overall.
  

I just finished this game the other day (okay, it was on "normal") and thought I'd write up a little review for the game.

What you can expect:

• About 8 hours of gameplay, perhaps more...depending on the difficultly and this is just for beating the game and not doing everything else
• There are plenty of extras to find.  There are 100 collectibles to find throughout the game.  They consists of phone numbers that you can call in game and get some weird and funny messages.  The other part are letters found in the hell part of the game and you have to drop these off in the mailbox.  Other unlockables you get from completing side missions.  And there are 6 outfits for darklings you can find throughout the game.
  
• The controls are intuitive, like any FPS, but you also get some nice demon powers that are easy to use.  There are countless ways of killing your foes, each of them gets special achievements in the game.  So if you want to unlock all of these, you will probably have to play the game over again.
• The good thing on achievements: the stats are cumulative, so you can replay parts of the game and add to your stats, except for the cannibal achievement.
• The storyline is one of vengeance and you will find yourself fighting just about everyone in the city.
• The graphics are really good, with a lot of detail to the textures and structures.  You can tell someone spent a lot of time creating this dark and run down New York City.
• What about replayability?  If you want to unlock these single player achievements, you will have to play the game again.  So you can expect another 8-10 hours of gameplay after your first play through.
• Details: expect chalk outlines in some places where you murdered people.  And expect bodies of people (not all) to be in the places you left them when you killed them.
  
• Overall recommendation: buy it.  You won't regret it.
  

Here's the link to the warranty FAQ on xbox.com

So, is this good news?  For consumers, yes.  For MS, hmmm...The repairs/warranty will cost the company upwards of $1 billion.  That of course, ignores the bad will generated from the 3 red lights of the people that already experienced this.  I'll reiterate my point from a previous post.  It doesn't matter what the failure rate is.  You won't ever know and I'll never know.  Anything you see on the internet suffers many statistical problems.  Anecdotal evidence is not proof of the population's failure rate.  Without a random sample, you cannot draw conclusions on the actual rate.  Its unfortunate that many do not understand this point. 

The key here is MS is trying to address the problems by helping consumers deal with an issue that they may experience.  It's how you deal with the customer and solve his or her problem to their satisfaction. 

Okay, it wasn't MY Xbox 360.  Seems I got a refurb that was manufactured in August of 2006.  It seems quieter, but I haven't played an intensive game like COD2.  As I said, they really need to lay down the cash to get faster shipments to and from the repair center.  They gave me a month of Xbox Live for free (it was taped to the 360 console package). 

Now my 360 can get back to not hating me.  I don't understand how it could blog when it was dead.