Back in the saddle again

Despite the economic crunch, I took the plunge and got an Xbox 360. Probably not the smartest decision in these times but I was starting to go slightly bonkers with the stress.

It was a nice little holiday bundle that comes with two family games (Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indy Jones) at the same price as the regular bundle which didn't come with games. The store was selling both of them and I sometimes wonder if anyone would ever choose the regular bundle.

The Xbox 360 replaces my original Xbox, which I got free as a performance bonus at the company I was working at at that time. Unfortunately, it looks like it expects HDTV to work properly - the fonts are ultra-small on my regular TV.

I bought Mass Effect and am enjoying it throughly. It's kind of what Tabula Rasa should have been but never was. Too bad Mass Effect isn't multiplayer.

No, for multiplayer you need Halo 3, which I also bought although I had to take an advance from next month's allotment to do so. Ah...budgets.

Gaming feels quite different these days. I stopped playing games mostly because it was an inherently solitary pursuit where you played alone and didn't really have anything to show for it. Microsoft seems to have done things right with their Xbox Live multiplayer - I have to admit, I'm impressed. I do wish they'd stop charging for online access as no one else does.

Reset

Well, a new year has come. Here's to hoping that 2009 shall be significantly less of an anno horribilis than the past year has been.

Happy New Year, everyone!