I just got another copy of Gears, so if anyone wants to play let me know. Here is the story about my first copy:

So after playing the game for hours on hours and putting it back into the case while the disc was still warm, my original copy of Gears was starting to form a crack from the center of the disc outward. Since it clearly states in the manual that it is covered for 90 days of purchase, I tried to take it back to Best Buy, but they wouldn't accept it saying it was past 30 days. So I sent it into Microsoft. The disc was still playable, I just thought about doing the right thing and using the warranty while I still could. Apparently, that's where I went wrong.

Microsoft sends it back because I didn't include a credit card number, even though I clearly stated that it was under warranty over the phone and I even included a note when I sent it in. Not only did my disc come back unrepaired, but it also came back with a bunch of scratches, the crack was bigger, and the disc was now unreadable!

This whole event happened im October of '07. I had to wait until now to be able to play one of my favorite games because Microsoft can't afford to put me on the phone with a person who speaks the same language as me! I believe that if you live in the US, you should speak with someone from the US...not in India. Same with other countries, if you live in the UK, you should be able to speak with someone from the UK, etc. So to sum it up, I believe Microsoft has some of the worst customer service available. I ended up buying a copy from a local web-paintball forum in AZ for $30 used....pretty sad huh. I refuse to buy the same game brand new for $60...it's obsurd.