Now that I have a few more minutes, there's a little bit more to the tale of the XBox. I rolled in to Target, cash burning a hole in my pocket. I was determined to take the plunge on the 360.
I bought it, went to visit with my family, then head home later in the evening to fire it up. Opening the apparently factory fresh package, I immediately noticed something was awry with the bottom of the console. It looked like the case had been opened then closed improperly; the side didn't fit flush with the end of the unit.
Taking it out of its bag, I found surprise number two. There was a gaping hole where the 60 GB hard drive was supposed to be.
Surprise three was that the bezel cover on the CD tray was missing. Not only that, the original sticker that belongs on the bezel cover was carefully placed over the exposed DVD tray.
Of course, by the time I'd realized all this, I was 30 miles from the store I bought it from, and it was an hour to closing.
Mercifully, I was able to exchange it uneventfully with one from my local store that actually came with all the parts it was supposed to have, and the rest is history.
