Oddball Update

Our travel date nears, and so, as you might expect, preparations for said trip have just about reached fever pitch around here.

Thanks to my mom, a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV for the Xbox 360 was already waiting for me on my desk chair when Apple and I returned from Thailand.

In a startling display of quickness, apparently my Xbox 360 has been repaired. I missed the first attempted delivery by UPS earlier, but will be on the lookout for it tomorrow.

We’re back from Orlando, and I’m back to work. It was a great few days off, everything went swimmingly (with a minor exception or two) and I’m feeling envigorated and ready to tackle some new tasks at work.

Well, the packing box for my Xbox 360 was delivered yesterday (which I discovered merely by chance, as the UPS driver didn’t so much as knock at my door), and I dropped it off at the nearest UPS Store this morning.

Well, it finally happened.
Knowing that my Xbox 360 was purchased about five or six months after Chief Oddball’s, I’ve been counting the days since his 360 died last year, awaiting my own console’s failure.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone — albeit slightly belated, particularly if you’re in the eastern hemisphere. Ironically, 2008 is the year of the rat.

Thoughts, observations, etc. on playing The Orange Box for the Xbox 360:

Every time Dr. Eli Vance talked, I shouted out “Benson!” and began singing the Benson theme to myself.

Next week, on or around December 4th, Microsoft will be pushing out the December 2007 dashboard update to Xbox 360 owners. The Xbox Team today has posted the official changelog for the update, so you can see exactly what we’ll be getting.

I’m completely enthralled by Mass Effect, the new sci-fi adventure game for the Xbox 360. It’s simply one of the most engaging single-player experiences to hit the Xbox this year, along with BioShock.