So I finally got my copy late on Wed April 20th - it was a TE. First thing I noticed - I have a short in the USB cable towards the mini-USB side. It randomly would ask me to reconnect my controller. When it worked, it worked great. I love everything except the buttons - I miss my Sanwas. Love the bat stick way more than the Mad Catz one. The stick is a monster.
I started up a support ticket on the PDP site and they called me at home shortly thereafter. I spoke with a guy called Mark and apparently they had not anticipated an issue as they did a limited run with some company in China. I told him normally I wouldn't care because you can buy mini USB to USB cables anywhere but I wanted the breakaway cable feature that all Xbox controllers use, on top of it being so new.
Well, he isn't quite sure he believes me regarding the short - he understands the mini-usb end isn't real secure on the stick side and I kept repeating that it is definitely not the connection but in fact a short. It was doing some weird things too, like the Xbox jewel on the stick would blink in two quadrants and get stuck that way, or if the Xbox itself was off and I moved the cable around it would blink for a split second, etc.
He basically sent FedEx to pick up the stick and ship it back (not just the cable?) and for proof, here is the tracking number: 997353750087751.
Well.... this affected my one fight with Pig of the Hut who then started talking to me on XBL after the match. I went to get my wireless mic and he exited before I got back and haven't been able to get a word out of him since, even after leaving multiple messages, sending multiple match invites, and a pm here.
Last night I started trying to play with a pad (I didn't feel like programming a Mad Catz TE S I have) and I am now having another issue. The game froze three times on me while trying to beat the regular ladder (arcade) mode right after I beat Shao Kahn, and randomly it would stop taking controller inputs period. This is using the black wireless pad that comes with a 360 S. I can only think it could be two things: either the game still has too many bugs, or the PDP stick messed something up in my 360.
One other thought - the first night I had it my wife wanted to see the story mode which I had already started. I couldn't figure out how to start over from the beginning because unless I missed something NRS never thought of adding the option. I went into the memory options on the 360 and got a list of several MK files, as you get a bunch of stuff with the TE option, plus the online code, plus settings savings, plus the installed ISO, plus your game save. I deleted the game save and was able to start over in story mode. I wonder if NRS ever thought of that, and if that could be causing an issue (I wouldn't think so, but the game does have some bugs as we already know.)
So here I sit waiting for my stick to return (next week I hope) but I felt like sharing my experience.
